Could be a thread on its own, but here is some background. My wife has had two concussions as an adult, both from unfortunate accidents. The latest one was two years ago and she still has persistent post-concussive symptoms that flare up. Just two weeks ago she tried to use an elliptical for 10 min and it brought back a bunch of symptoms, including vertigo. Up to this point the doctors have just told her basically give it time and don't re-injure.

We found a clinic for neurological rehab, including post-concussive symptoms. Seems legit, lots of good reviews. Doctor seemed confident he could help. We are kicking ourselves for not finding this sooner, but here we are.

As part of his initial screening he had her do the Visual Contrast Sensitivity Test at VCSTest.com. This tests your ability to see contrast, which is supposed to be screening to see if you have been exposed to toxins. Basically he wants to rule out that the symptoms aren't environmental, like being exposed to toxic mold. She did not pass the VCSTest, it said she had likely toxin exposure. Her friend also took the test and failed as well (not as bad though), as sort of a control test.

After the failed test, he is having her send a urine sample to vibrant-america.com to test for potential environmental toxins. He said that he often sees people living with some sort of toxin exposure, but they are able to manage it before their concussion, but after a concussion it gets worse, they think the concussion is the problem, but really it is just worsening the symptoms of the root cause.

Reading online it seems the VCSTest and doing a urine sample is pretty standard for toxicity screening (like if you suspect your house has toxic mold).

We plan to give him a fair shot and see it through, therapy to begin in a few days. But this toxin stuff seems out of left field to me.

Anyone have thoughts on the VCSTest? Toxin screening? Any helpful words for concussions are welcome too.

This is interesting to me. As I begin to see a functional doctor, toxic screening is definitely on their radar and they want checked. I'm not opposed to it, but it isn't conventional, so it feels weird. I get that.

As for concussion, our 3rd grade daughter had a horrible skiing accident 5 years ago and had a bad concussion. She went thru vestibular and vision therapy to get her back to 100%. Took her over 6 months of intensive therapy. I would have done anything to help her back then, and happily would have done simple toxic screening. Surely won't hurt anything. I bet most of us would fail a toxic screen test.

Best of luck to your wife and please update here…. Since my daughter's concussion, I've been interested in concussion therapy. It literally ruled my life for 6+ months.

Glad your daughter made a full recovery, nothing worse than when it is your kids.

A few interesting developments. She went through their screening and the doc said he thinks she is mostly healed from her concussion. He thinks the main issue is an inflamed brainstem messing with the vestibular system. Still waiting on toxin testing, but now thinking very likely Covid induced POTS (Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome).

After having Covid in Nov '22 she has had heart rate issues, including a trip to the ER on late Dec '22. Testing at the ER and follow up with cardiologist all said heart was fine, not sure why the tachycardia was happening. This did seem to gradually get better. Doc's at the time didn't have much to say then other than don't drink alcohol and reduce stress and anxiety.

Current functional neurologist saying they are seeing a big increase in the Covid induced POTS cases. Results are slower since that is part metabolic.