Brain Injury

Self-selection, a personal story by Lucy

Driving down to Bristol for the level 1 practical at HorseWorld in February 2012, I was wondering how I was going to cope. I have a traumatic brain injury which, for me means my brain has to work extra hard to appear to function normally. Today I was driving a 120 mile round trip and would be concentrating all day. It was going to be a real test. I mentioned to Caroline that I may glaze over in the afternoon and not to be concerned.

In the classroom that morning Caroline passed round a tub of liquorice root powder. The purpose was to demonstrate the innate knowledge of the body. If your system needed it then the liquorice would taste nice until you have a sufficient dose. If you didn’t need it then the liquorice would smell / taste horrible, in fact if it smelled horrid you’d be very unlikely to want to put it in your mouth in the first place!

I wasn’t altogether surprised that I liked the taste of the liquorice root – I’d had a liquorice craving for several months. What did surprise me was that I instantly felt more alert and able to concentrate, Caroline then told us that Liquorice nourishes the brain. By the end of the day Caroline noticed that  I had remained alert.

Day 2 arrived and I was surprised to wake up without the usual headache and actually felt OK. We spent the morning in the stable yard before returning to the classroom for the afternoon session. In the afternoon I felt the beginning of a headache and the various sensations that accompany it, so was relieved when Caroline turned her attention to helping my problem. I was offered Carrot Seed oil that I also responded to and armed with a 5ml bottle and a quantity of liquorice root powder, I settled into a spot of self-medication!

As before, the liquorice was divine, that is until about the seventh finger full when it suddenly tasted very bitter. The carrot seed was like eating very carroty carrots and I had 5 drops undiluted before it tasted disgusting. I was already feeling and looking a lot better and the headache cleared.

Most amazing for me was to wake the next day without excessive fatigue or the migraine that usually accompanies it. I wanted less liquorice root than the two days previous.  I tried the carrot seed again but it was absolutely vile. I waited for my body to tell me when I needed a liquorice ‘fix’ and soon it became every other day or even longer. After about a week I had no interest in it at all.

The experience reinforced to me the importance of self-selection and re-offering plant extracts because the body may not need them every day.