Feed a Brain Media
One Page Description/Book Marketing
Do you have a podcast, show, or upcoming summit or webinar?
Book Cavin for an interview by sending an email to [email protected] or call or text me: 512-710-4840
My Skype handle is cavinb9
Want to book Cavin for a speaking engagement?
Email me at [email protected] and let’s schedule a chat.
Cavin Balaster Speaker Bio
Cavin Balaster is an author, speaker, and neurotrauma medical advocate. His work is informed by his experience, his knowledge, and a powerful network of practitioners and experts. Cavin is a severe traumatic brain injury survivor who was given less than a 10% chance of recovery beyond a persistent vegetative state. While he beat the odds and woke from a coma, he was unable to eat, walk or talk for months and his left hand was effectively unusable. Cavin employed various methods to restore his brain and he is now fully functional. He has dedicated his life to improving neurorehabilitation, hospital nutrition, and the general practice of medicine. Cavin works privately with clients, empowering patients, practitioners, and caregivers to go beyond the standard of care and to remove dependence on medicine. He is the creator of AdventuresinBrainInjury.com, FeedaBrain.com, host of the Adventures in Brain Injury Podcast, and author of How to Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair.
Free Gifts:
- VIP access to a few select videos: feedabrain.com/vip
- 5 favorite supplements for supplying the brain with nutrients that are tricky to get in our food supply: feedabrain.com/supplementguide
- Guide to Fats and Oils: feedabrain.com/fatguide
- Four Essential Guides to Feed a Brain https://feedabrain.com/essentialguides
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Headshot
Before and After
Potential Podcast Topics/Titles:
– Lights, Coma, Action!: When The Brain Reinvents Itself
– How Survival Can Force Optimal Performance: Rising from The Fall
– Concussion Repair: Food as Medicine
– How to Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair
– From Coma to Back Flips: Optimal Recovery After Brain Injury
– Hospital Nutrition: A Patient-led Revolution
– The Power of The Mind: Thriving After Being Given a 10% Chance of Recovery
– Beyond Ketogenic: How to Feed a Brain
– Fixing a Broken Brain One Bite at a Time
Topics & Questions
– General
You have quite a story. Could you tell me what happened and how it motivated you to write the book?
– Resiliency
What was it like to have lost all of your abilities?
You have made a miraculous recovery. Can you talk about some of the differences you have seen in yourself as you recovered?
You close every email with this line “Strength and Serenity… Love and Light… Rock and Roll!” What does this mean to you?
– Hospital Nutrition
So your brain injury fueled your interest in the brain. Is this book just for people with brain injuries?
You said you were unable to eat for months. How were you receiving nutrition?
Why do you think nutrition made such a big difference in your recovery?
What if I have a loved one in the hospital and I don’t want them being fed corn syrup?
– Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair
How did you learn so much about nutrition and the brain?
So you learned everything you could to optimize your recovery. Can I use what you learned to improve my uninjured brain?
How does a Paleo or Keto Diet fit into the framework of How to Feed a Brain?
What is the number one nutritional thing I can do daily to help my brain function better?
Your book mentions that “the healthiest thing we can do for our brains, bodies, and souls is to enjoy our lives and to do so sustainably.” Could you explain what you mean by that and why is it important?
– Keto Talk
Ketosis is a hot topic lately, and you have a section devoted to this topic in the book, and I understand that Feed a Brain is very “fat forward” or “pro-fat.”
How is this regiment good for brain health?
Can you talk about the benefits and potential pitfalls of ketosis?
Do you measure your ketones regularly? If so, what do you use?
– Brain Based Therapies
I saw some pictures/videos of you doing flips. How often do you do that and why?
I know you attribute much of your rehabilitation to Neuro-Optometry as well as Functional Neurology. Where can we learn more about those practices?
Tell me why you chose to incorporate sauna therapy into your healing protocol.
-Wrap Questions
So where can people get the book?
We feed a brain in many ways (i.e. nutritionally, emotionally, spiritually)… What’s one or two things people can start doing right now to optimize their brain function and to upgrade their lives?
Clearly, you are very mission-driven. How would you state your current mission, where can people find you, and how can they support what you are doing?
Short Videos
Book Images
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Flat Cover (678×1030) |
1 Minute Book Description
In 2011, Cavin sustained a severe traumatic brain injury that left him comatose with less than a 10% chance of regaining consciousness beyond a vegetative state. He didn’t eat, walk, or talk for months as he worked through his brain fog to regain his abilities. It was after beginning a nutritional protocol that he began to regain clarity, which he used to research and connect with doctors, neuroscientists, professors, researchers, nutritionists, and other health practitioners who could help him to understand what he could do to optimize his brain function and to optimize his recovery.
How to Feed a Brain is the culmination of the nutritional tools that he has learned through this journey, presented as a user-friendly guide with charts and web resources created to help anyone improve their brain function.
Book Description
After sustaining a severe traumatic brain injury that left him comatose, Cavin was given less than a 10% chance of ever regaining consciousness beyond a persistent vegetative state. Surviving the initial injury, Cavin endured serious infections, breathing problems, and the need to induce a second coma. He eventually regained consciousness with significant memory loss, severe brain fog, incoordination of the left side of his body (his left hand was completely flexed inward), and he was unable to eat, walk, or talk for months.
Months passed, and at one point he was steered towards a nutritional protocol. As he implemented what he was shown, he began to regain clarity. He used this regained clarity to study everything he could to optimize his recovery. Taking numerous online courses from excellent universities, he began to study digestion, metabolism, neurometabolism, mechanisms of neuroplasticity, neuroscience, physiology, and nutrition. While doing so, he also reached out to doctors, neuroscientists, professors, researchers, nutritionists, and other health practitioners who could help him to understand what he could do to optimize his brain function and to maximize his recovery. He was studying like his life depended on it… because it did.
Today, you would never know that Cavin ever sustained the injury that he did. He drives, rides motorcycles, camps, plays guitar, sings, practices martial arts, and even does backflips off of diving boards! He has been a keynote speaker for several nationally recognized organizations and he is a brain health coach who helps people to optimize their brain function and to bring about the best possible outcome for survivors of brain injury, brain disease, and neurodegeneration.
With How to Feed a Brain, Cavin has put together a user-friendly guide with charts and web resources created to help anyone improve their brain function. This book is the culmination of the nutritional tools that he has learned through this journey, but this is not your standard diet book. How to Feed a Brain is about learning how nutrition affects our unique physiology, how those reactions affect the brain, and what we can eat to support our brain function. The book includes downloads to ready to print charts, lists, and user-friendly handouts to take to the grocery store or put on the fridge so that readers can easily apply what they learn to optimally feed their brains. As Cavin says, “the healthiest thing we can do for our brains, bodies, and souls is to enjoy our lives and to do so sustainably.” How to Feed a Brain provides the nutritional tools to do so.
Feed a Brain Landing Page
Feed a Brain Social Media: @feedabrain
The Adventures in Brain Injury Podcast (Hosted by Cavin Balaster)
adventuresinbraininjury.com/podcasts
Presentation Titles and Descriptions and Speaker Bio
Speaker Bio
Since his severe traumatic brain injury in 2011, Cavin has been studying neuro-rehabilitation like his life depended on it… because it did. After waking from his second coma over several weeks, Cavin found himself unable to eat, walk, or talk for months. Some of the doctors began to tell his family to “get used to their ‘new normal.” He has never been interested in that disempowering narrative.
In learning and implementing principles of neurology, physiology, nutrition, and medical law, he has had a very successful recovery. He has since created a podcast, two websites, and published his first book, How To Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair.
Cavin is now partnering with survivors and loved ones so that they have the best opportunity to recover. Using his experience, knowledge, and connections to support others with neurological injuries, he is influencing the standard model of neurorehabilitation, like he has set out to do since his very first blog entry.
You can learn more about Cavin at
AdventuresinBrainInjury.com,
the Adventures in Brain Injury Podcast and…
FeedaBrain.com
How To Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair
Our nutrition is so important for the function of our brains… our cognition, memory, balance, vision, immunity and everything else. Did you know that over a quarter of the calories in the food we eat is consumed by our brain?
Cavin has put together a powerful presentation with plenty of resources to help anyone improve their brain function. In this presentation, you will learn how nutrition affects your unique physiology, how those reactions affect the brain, and how you can eat to support brain function. You will also get downloads to ready to print charts, lists, and user-friendly nutritional guides to take to the grocery store or put on the fridge so that you can easily apply what you learn to optimally feed your’s and your loved one’s brains, bodies, and souls.
Empowered Patients and Empowered Loved Ones
Curriculum Vitae
Cavin Balaster
2407 S Congress Ave, Ste E #775
Austin, TX 7804
Phone: 512-710-9832 | email: [email protected]
- Creator of FeedaBrain.com,
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Creator and host of The Feed a Brain Interview Series
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Creator of AdventuresInBrainInjury.com
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Creator and host of the Adventures in Brain Injury Podcast
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June 2016 – Present – FEED A BRAIN.COM, Austin, TX
CEO, Founder, Author, Speaker
In 2016, I began putting together the writing of my first book, How to Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair. From the support that I began to get from practitioners and influencers, I decided to launch the Feed a Brain Interview Series with some top-notch brain and nutrition experts including Dr. David Perlmutter, Dr. Datis Kharrazian, Dr. Terry Wahls, and many more. FeedaBrain.com is a website for anyone looking to improve their brain function. We aim to optimize brain function and repair by providing information, services, community, and products to people so that they can feed their brains nutritionally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically in order to live a fuller and richer life.
- Actively speak on brain plasticity and relevant issues, including vision, neurology, mindset, nutrition, and exercise.
May 2012 – Present: ADVENTURES IN BRAIN INJURY.COM, Austin, TX
Creator, Producer, Podcaster, Coach, Writer, Speaker
After my TBI, I began a blog about my experience. My website has since grown to become a resource for rehabilitation. While working full time, I have been working to expand this resource on my own time.
- Film and produce videos about brain health for the Adventures in Brain Injury YouTube channel.
- Actively write blog posts, appear on podcasts and video and conduct interviews brain and nutrition experts
- Conduct interviews with practitioners, neurologists, physical, occupational, and vision therapists, optometrists, authors, experts in brain plasticity, and survivors and caretakers.
- Actively speak on brain plasticity and relevant issues, including vision, neurology, nutrition, and exercise.
Feb 2015 – April 2017: The Functional Nutrition Alliance, Portland, OR
Communications Specialist, Content Editor, Audio and Video Editor
Replenish PDX is a startup with global reach that is effectively contributing to a paradigm shift in healthcare. As a graduate of their curriculum and presenter for their neuro intensive as a “Guest Health and Medical Expert,” I prepared course materials and created promotional audio and videos for marketing.
- Edit audio and video course work for class and for marketing
- Create quizzes and glossaries for classes
- Prepare transcripts, glossaries, quizzes, and class packet documents for class
- Research technology solutions to improve company efficiency
Presentations, Lectures, and Events:
Nov 2018 – Featured CICx Speaker (Creative intersection Collective) – Austin, TX
Nov 2018 – North East Ohio Brain Injury Foundation – Akron General Health – Akron, OH
Aug 2018 – Keynote Speech: Health & Human Services Office of Acquired Brain Injury Conference – San Antonio, Texas
Jul 2018 – Presentation for Dr. Dan Engle’s BOLD Program (Brain Optimization and Lifestyle Design) – Online
Jun 2018 – Panelist at BRITE annual in person meeting (Brain Injury Rehabilitation Improving the Transition Experience initiative funded by PCORI – Washington, DC
Jun 2018 – The Neuroplasticity of Visual Processing (Mind-Eye Connection) – Chicago, IL
Jun 2018 – Revive Treatment Centers of America: Two back-to-back presentations for students from Parker University – Denver, CO
Apr 2018 – Bastyr University in San Diego (presented to 1st-year students and then to 3rd-year students) – San Diego, CA
Apr 2018 – World Congress on Brain Mapping & Therapeutics – Los Angeles, CA
Jan 2018 – Keto f(x) – Online
Dec 2017 – The Feed a Brain Interview Series: Creator and Host of The Feed a Brain Interview Series which included interviews from top-notch brain and nutrition experts like Dr. David Perlmutter, Dr. Datis Kharrazian, Dr. Terry Wahls, and more. – Online
Sep 2017 – Ketocon: Speaker and 2x Panelist, the world’s first conference dedicated solely to the Science and Stories of the Ketogenic Diet and Lifestyle. – Austin, TX
Mar 2016 – Mental Health and Neurology Course Interview: Interviewed for Mental Health and Neurology Course Interview with Josh Gitalis: Evidence-based clinical nutrition and integrative health care.
Jan 2016 – Keynote Speech: Neuro Optometric-Rehabilitation Association (NORA): Clinical Skills I, II, and Advanced Curriculum – Austin, TX
May 2015 – Keynote Speech: Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey (BIANJ): Keynote Speaker for the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey (BIANJ) 33rd Annual Seminar: Navigating The Future – West Long Branch, NJ
Nov 2014 – Neurological Intensive of Holistic Nutrition Lab: Presented as a Guest Health and Medical Expert for the Neurological Intensive of Holistic Nutrition Lab’s Full Body Systems Curriculum – Online
Oct 2014 – New Jersey Society of Optometric Physicians (NJSOP): “Therapy by the Sea” – Lectured with Dr. Leonard J Press for the New Jersey Society of Optometric Physicians
Apr 2014 – Keynote Speech: Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA): Keynote Speaker for the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA) 23rd Annual Conference – Raleigh, NC
Sep 2013 – International Conference on Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine (ISCN): Impromptu presentation about neurorehabilitation and the intersection between digestion and the brain – Portland, OR
Professional Training, Acknowledgements and Seminars/Workshops Attended:
Federal Interagency Conference on TBI – Jun 2018
AutismOne – May 2018
International Symposium on Clinical Neuroscience – 2015, 2017
International Conference on Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine – Sep 2013
Writers′ League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference – Jun 2013
Presented as a case study in “Why Isn’t My Brain Working?” by Dr. Datis Kharaazian – May 2013
Texas Brain Injury Alliance 4 Day Conference – 2012, 2013
Paleo f(x) Conference – 2013 – 2018
Awards and Certificates:
FBS Certificate of Completion Holistic Nutrition Lab – Dec 2014
The Brain and Space-Duke University (With Distinction) – Jul 2014
Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life -University of Chicago (With Distinction) – Aug 2014
Caries Management by Risk Assessment (CAMBRA)-University of California – Aug 2013
Cardiac Arrest, Hypothermia, and Resuscitation Science-University of Pennsylvania – May 2013
Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention-University of California – Jan 2013
Drugs and the Brain- California Institute of Technology – Dec 2012
Dean’s List 2004 University of Colorado Denver – May 2004
Academic Letter Recipient Boulder High School – May 2002
Professional and Community Service:
Paleo f(x)™ 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Worked as a volunteer for dinners team, audio and video, and speaker support
Patient Consultant for Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Improving the Transition Experience (BRITE) initiative funded by PCORI – (Mar 2016-Present)
Guest Presenter for Brain Injured Clients at the Mary Lee Foundation (2016,17,18)
Mount Sinai Brain Injury Research Center – (May 2011-2016)
Since my TBI in 2011, I am a volunteered participant in a 5 year followup study being conducted by Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Brain Injury Program, where I was an inpatient in their Acute TBI Rehabilitation facility.
Writers’ League of Texas 2013 and 2014 Agents And Editors Conference
Worked as a volunteer for speaker support
SCD Lifestyle (2015)
Worked as Volunteer as a researcher for the “Solving Leaky Gut” program
Westlake High School (May 2014)
Delivered a presentation to a medical terminology class.
Mary Lee Foundation (November 2013′ May 2013, February 2018)
Presentations to TBI survivors and loved ones.
Texas State Legislature – (Feb 2013)
Testified before the Texas State Legislature on the behalf of the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) to support continuation of funding of the DARS Comprehensive Rehabilitative Services offered to survivors of TBI and spinal cord injuries.
Media:
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2018 – Interviewed as guest expert for Keto f(x)
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Been Interviewed on numerous media outlets, including:
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Podcasts
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Blog Posts – Features and Guest
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TV
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Other
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2014 – Featured in Optometric Extension Program Foundation “Optometrists Change Lives™” 2014 Calendar.
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