On Fish Oil and Comas

     How unfortunate that some news reports are focusing on the idea that fish oil can "cure" severe brain injury, did in fact "cure" a teen's severe brain injury. I do indeed criticize the news media for the sensational titles given to many of the articles and reports about Grant Virgin and his awakening from a coma. 

In perusing the results, we learn [from the titles alone] that:
     Fish Oil Helps Son Recover from Brain Injury
     Fish Oil Heals Injured Brain of Teen
     Fish oil cures severe brain damage
     Teen recovers from coma thanks to fish oil
To report that fish oil helps, heals, cures is yellow journalism at the very least. To showcase the family's belief that the fish oil helped is sort of okay. To admit that we do not know is true journalism. 
[Sampling came from Google search:  https://news.google.com/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=brain+injury&ncl=dw6-BhSPB-z6aVMhTN0NNCRwrLjpM&cf=all&scoring=d]

     Sanjay Gupta is a well-qualified physician. He is in fact a neurosurgeon and is associated with Emory University. Here is the link to the video he did for C.N.N.:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/health/2014/01/17/exp-sgmd-omega-3-grant-virgin.cnn.html
A second link [first video on the right side entitled fish oil saves boy's brain?] to the same video:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/18/health/fish-oil-recovery/index.html
In reviewing his video, I cannot fault his presentation as one other blogger did. [http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/01/is-fish-oil-a-miracle-brain-healer-cnn-does-irresponsible-story/]. The story of a teen who was severely injured and whose parents did not give up on him is a human interest story. Sanjay Gupta did an excellent job in that respect.

     The need for medical research is dire in order to be able to gauge best practices in the treatment of people who are comatose due to serious head trauma. The research of course must be published in respectable peer-review journals, evaluated, and replicated by other research teams in evaluate the anecdotal evidence for the promotion of fish oil or some component in fish oil as a worthy addition to the arsenal for treatment of brain injuries. The research is being done. Until a later time, the Grant Virgin story remains anecdotal only in nature. 

sapphoq reviews says: It is not my intention to cast aspersions on the loving family of Grant Virgin. Families naturally want to do something to help their severely injured family members. It is certainly not easy for a parent to be told that nothing can be done at the present time for their child until a coma runs its course. [N.B.: I also would have challenged the doctor from the emergency room.] I was glad to know that Grant Virgin received competent and specific therapies for his traumatic brain injury after his release from the hospital. I wish him and his parents the very best.