Terry A. Rondberg, DC | Wellness for Mind and Body

Seemingly every day, science finds more evidence to prove that what we THINK is critical to how we FEEL, physically as well as emotionally. To a great degree, our thoughts can, and do, regulate our health. While intelligence is distributed throughout the entire body, the brain is the central processing location, the “Grand Central Station ” of the network of nerve impulses. We teach this to our patients when describing the benefits of chiropractic, acupuncture, or other neurologically based health care.

It would probably be a good idea, then, to make sure they have some basic information on how they can maintain and improve brain health at all stages of life.

John H. Byrne, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) at Houston Medical School, studies the neuronal and molecular mechanisms underlying learning and memory. Here are three tips he offers for maintaining and improving brain health. Giving this list to your patients will be one more way you can help them live longer, healthier lives.

1) Exercise

“Everyone knows that exercise is good for the heart, but what they may not know is that exercise also appears to be good for the brain,” said Dr. Byrne, the June and Virgil Waggoner Chair. “There is a lot of recent evidence demonstrating that exercise itself promotes neurogenesis — the generation of new nerve cells in the brain. It had long been believed that once you lose nerve cells, they are gone for good and the brain cannot regenerate them, but exercise appears to inspire the brain’s ability to generate nerve cells.”

2) Diet

“There are certain ‘brain foods’ that seem to have a benefit on the brain,” Byrne said. “New research shows that Omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in salmon and other fish, may build the brain’s gray matter. Foods and beverages that are rich in antioxidants may also help keep the brain sharp. For brain food, consider a glass of red wine, some salmon, blueberries, a little bit of chocolate or a cup of green tea. Foods, indeed, can play a role in brain health, but remember, everything in moderation. Research shows that those who are obese have a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases that affect the brain. Staying slim appears to promote brain health, so exercise, watch your calories and eat the right types of food.”

Naturally, there are some “qualifications” to that advice. Taking the cue from Byrne’s counsel “everything in moderation,” a glass of red wine is good… a bottle isn’t. Dark or raw chocolate is good… milk chocolate isn’t. Salmon and selected other fish in small quantities is good… mercury-laden species or fried fish isn’t.

3) Brain activity

“You’ve heard the saying,’Use it or lose it.’ It’s true,” Byrne said. Those who are intellectually active have a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s. You must exercise your brain cells just as you exercise your muscles, so read a book or do a crossword puzzle. Those types of activities can protect your brain. There is also evidence that social activities help to promote brain health. Interacting with others stimulates the brain.”

SOURCE: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Neurofeedback, like chiropractic, has proven effective for migraines and tension headaches, urinary incontinence, high blood pressure, anxiety, and other conditions. Increasing research indicates that neurofeedback, like chiropractic, is useful for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, while helping manage patients with autism, brain injury, posttraumatic stress, seizures, and depression. Corporate executives, musicians, artists, and athletes, including some medalists from the Beijing Olympic Games, used neurofeedback and chiropractic to reach their peak performance during competition.

U.S. soldiers returning from war use neurofeedback to help with post-traumatic stress disorder. People suffering from chronic pain often find relief with neurofeedback. Even athletes are using it to gain better control over their bodies.

Students at Iowa State University have access to neurofeedback to help with stress management.  For over a century, millions of people have benefited from chiropractic care for stress reduction. The students sit in a quiet, dark room, wearing noise-suppressing headphones and sensors on their fingertips that measure their heart rate and skin conductance. They practice relaxation techniques while watching real-time graphics demonstrate how their body is responding. As a result, they see which techniques lead to actual relaxation.

Once users of neurofeedback learn what techniques alter their body’s physiology, they can practice until they have learned the techniques. Then they have tools to use when necessary.  Neurofeedback stress evaluation studies have demonstrated the enormous benefits of chiropractic care along with neurofeedback.

Neurofeedback addresses brain disregulation. This includes anxiety-depression, attention deficit, behavior disorders, various sleep disorders, headaches and migraines, PMS and emotional disturbances. It is also useful for organic brain conditions such as seizures, the autism spectrum, and cerebral palsy. Neurofeedback provides training for self-regulation. Self-regulation is necessary for good brain function and training allows the central nervous system to function more efficiently.

Regarding organic brain disorders, it can only be a matter of getting the brain to function better rather than curing the condition. When it comes to problems associated with disregulation, there is not a disease to be cured. Where disregulation is the problem, self-regulation may be the remedy.  But the word cure would not apply.

Over the years, many Neurofeedback (EEG) training protocols have been developed to help with certain problems such as attention, anxiety, depression, seizures, migraines, and cognitive function. There are different assessment tools available to help determine which protocols to use. These are simple neuropsychological evaluations. We use the NeuroInfiniti.

We’re getting a lot of interest in our articles on the brain and neurofeedback, and how it relates to chiropractic. Thanks to everyone for the great questions. We are posting the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) here for everyone to read and to learn. Please keep the feedback coming!

-Dr. Terry Rondberg

How are Neurofeedback and Chiropractic successful?

Chiropractors are especially concerned with childhood brain-based problems whose needs are not addressed, including:

• Seizures and sub-clinical seizure activity
• Severely disruptive behavior disorders such as Conduct Disorder and Bipolar Disorder
• Autistic spectrum and pervasive developmental delay
• Cerebral palsy
• Acquired brain injury
• Birth trauma

Many children have sleep problems that can be helped:

• Bed wetting
• Sleep walking, sleep talking
• Teeth grinding
• Nightmares
• Night terrors

We can also help with several adolescent issues:

• Drug abuse
• Suicidal behavior
• Anxiety and depression

We can help maintain good brain function as people age. The good news is that almost any brain, regardless of its function level, can be trained to function more efficiently.

Are the effects of Neurofeedback and Chiropractic long-term?

If brain disregulation is addressed, the answer is yes. Neurofeedback is about the brain learning and if that brings order out of disorder, the brain will continue to use its new capabilities, while reinforcing them.

Conditions are different with degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s, the dementias, or when we are working against continuing insults to the system, as may be for autism spectrum. In such cases, the training needs to continue over time.  Allergic susceptibilities and food intolerances make it more difficult to hold the gains. Poor nutrition, digestive function and a poor nerve supply are problematic. A child living in a toxic environment (physically or psychologically) will have more difficulty retaining good function.

What is the success rate of Neurofeedback and Chiropractic?

In the past twenty years of experience with Neurofeedback, practitioners have reached high expectations for success in training. When such success is not forthcoming, or if the gains cannot hold, then there is a reason which needs to be pursued. In the normal course of events, Neurofeedback ought to be effective with everybody. Nearly everyone should make gains they themselves would judge as worthwhile. Our brains are made for learning and skill-acquisition. On the other hand, we are working with many families whose expectations have been lowered by their past experience. They must see progress before they agree. With  chiropractic care, who would not perform better with a healthier autonomic nervous system?

Among the vast majority of clients (>100% in most clinician’s experiences) the outcome exceeds the prior expectations. Against such low expectations, the changes that can be produced with Neurofeedback and Chiropractic may appear miraculous. One chiropractic office using neurofeedback has a sign on its front desk: “We expect miracles.” What appears miraculous in all of this is nothing more than the incredible capacity of our brains to recover function when given a chance and the body’s miraculous ability to heal itself.

What happens if Neurofeedback and Chiropractic patients are taking medications?

With successful Neurofeedback training and regular chiropractic care, the medications targeting brain function may not be needed, or needed at a lower dosage, as the brain and nervous system dominate the role of regulating itself. This decrease in medications is striking when the medications play a supportive role in any event, which is often the case for the more severe disorders we treat. It is important for patients to communicate with their prescribing physician regarding Chiropractic care, Neurofeedback and medications.

Neurofeedback has evolved from a fascination during the ‘60s and ‘70s to the current mainstream methodology for improving certain health conditions and human performance. Neurofeedback, like chiropractic, was considered a radical type of health care approach, but as the years have passed, it has become more mainstream. Now it is accepted as another form of health care.

This evolution has been driven by years of scientific research demonstrating that the mind and body are connected, and that people can be taught to harness the power of this connection to improve physical activity and health.  Interest in neurofeedback is growing, and the need for an answer to: “what is neurofeedback and why is it a perfect fit for chiropractic?” The leading professional organizations representing the field have provided the following definition:

“Neurofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance. Precise instruments measure physiological activity such as brainwaves, heart function, breathing, muscle activity, and skin temperature. These instruments rapidly and accurately “feed back” information to the user. The presentation of this information — often in conjunction with changes in thinking, emotions, and behavior — supports desired physiological changes. Over time, these changes can endure without continued use of an instrument.”

The patient is strapped to sensors that provide real-time readings of internal bodily processes, such as muscle tension, blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature and brain-wave activity. Then, they are taught strategies to gain better control over those processes, which can help achieve certain health goals.

Neurofeedback is like using computers to listen to your body and displaying that information so you can see it and decide how to change it. We think of this as an emotional exercise. You use your head instead of your muscles.

It is directly training the brain to function more efficiently. We observe the brain in action from moment to moment and share that information with the patient. Then we reward the brain for changing its activity to more appropriate patterns. This is a gradual learning process. It applies to any aspect of measurable brain function. Neurofeedback is based on electrical brain activity, the electroencephalogram or EEG.

Practitioners apply electrodes to the scalp to listen to brainwave activity. The signals are processed by computer, and we extract information about certain key brainwave frequencies. (All brainwave frequencies are equal, but some frequencies respond differently). We show the ebb and flow of this activity to the patient, who then attempts to change the activity level. We promote some frequencies but other frequencies, we hope to diminish. We present this information to the person in the form of a video game. The person is effectively playing the video game with his or her brain. Eventually, the brainwave activity is “shaped” toward more desirable, more regulated performance. The frequencies we target, and the specific locations on the scalp where we listen to the brain, are specific to the conditions we try to address, and to the individual.

About the Author – Terry A. Rondberg, DC
Terry Rondberg, known worldwide as an expert on chiropractic and wellness, is publisher of The Chiropractic Journal and the author of several books on the medical field, including Chiropractic First and Under the Influence of Modern Medicine.

Part Two of a Two-Part Series.

The dominant anatomical feature of our brain is the undulating surface of the cerebrum – the deep clefts are known as sulci and its folds are gyri. The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and is largely composed of the two cerebral hemispheres. In terms of evolution, it is the most recently developed brain structure, dealing with more complex cognitive brain activities.

It is often said the right hemisphere is more creative and emotional while the left deals with logic, but the reality is more complex. Nonetheless, the two sides have some specializations, with the left focusing on speech and language and the right focusing on spatial and body awareness.

Further anatomical divisions of the cerebral hemispheres are the occipital lobe at the back of the brain and the parietal lobe positioned above the occipital lobe. The former lobe is devoted to vision, while the latter controls movement, position, orientation and calculation.

Behind the ears and temples lie the temporal lobes, dealing with sound, speech comprehension and some aspects of memory. To the fore are the frontal and prefrontal lobes, often considered the most highly developed and most “human” of regions, controlling thought, decision making, planning, conceptualizing, attention control and working memory. They also deal with various social emotions such as regret, morality and empathy.

Another classification is the sensory cortex and motor cortex, controlling incoming information and outgoing behavior, respectively.

Below the cerebral hemispheres, but still referred to as part of the forebrain, is the cingulate cortex, which directs behavior and pain. Beneath it lies the corpus callosum, connecting the two sides of the brain. Another significant area of the forebrain is the basal ganglia, responsible for movement, motivation and reward.

Beneath the forebrain lie more primitive brain regions. The limbic system, common to mammals, deals with urges and appetites. Meanwhile, the brain structures of the amygdala, caudate nucleus and putamen are most closely linked with emotions. The limbic brain also houses: the hippocampus – vital for memory formation; the thalamus – a sort of sensory relay station; and the hypothalamus, which is reponsible for regulating bodily functions.

The back of the brain has a highly convoluted and folded swelling called the cerebellum, which stores movement patterns, habits and repeated tasks – actions we perform without much thought.

The most primitive parts, the midbrain and brain stem, control the bodily functions we conduct subconsciously, such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep patterns. These parts of the brain also control signals that pass through the spinal cord between the brain and the rest of the body.

Though we have discovered an enormous amount of information about the brain, crucial mysteries remain. For instance, how does the brain produces our conscious experiences?

The majority of the brain’s activity is subconscious. But our conscious thoughts, sensations and perceptions, which define us as humans, have yet to be explained by brain activity.

About the Author – Terry A. Rondberg, DC.

Dr. Terry Rondberg received his Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) at Logan College, and has gone on to found the World Chiropractic Alliance, The Chiropractic Journal, and author several books on chiropractic and wellness.

Part One of a Two-Part Series.

The brain, it is said, is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces our thoughts, actions, memories, feelings and experiences. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing about 1.4 kilograms, contains one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons.

The complexity of the connectivity among these cells is mind-boggling. Each neuron can make contact with tens of thousands of other neurons, via tiny structures called synapses. In fact, our brains form a million new connections for each and every second of our lives. The pattern and strength of the connections is continuously changing and no two brains are identical.

In these changing connections, memories are stored, habits are learned and personalities are shaped, from reinforcement of certain brain activity patterns and losing others.

While most people know about “gray matter,” the brain also contains white matter. The gray matter is the cell bodies of the neurons, while the white matter is the branching network of thread-like tendrils, called dendrites and axons. They spread out from the cell bodies to connect to other neurons.

Another cell is the glial cells. These outnumber neurons ten times over. Once thought to be support cells, they are now known to amplify neural signals and to be as important as neurons in mental calculations. There are many different types of neurons, only one of which is unique to humans while the other is unique to great apes, the so-called spindle cells.

Brain structure is shaped in part by genes, but mostly by our experiences. In fact, via a process called neurogenesis, new brain cells are being created throughout our lives. The brain experiences bursts of growth and also periods of consolidation, when excess connections are pared. The most notable bursts are in the first two or three years of life, during puberty, and also a final burst during young adulthood.

Brain maturity also depends on genes and lifestyle. Exercising the brain and proper nutrition are just as important as it is for the rest of the body.

Our neurons communicate in various ways. Signals pass among them by the release and capture of neurotransmitter and neuromodulator chemicals, such as glutamate, dopamine, acetylcholine, noradrenalin, serotonin and endorphins.

Some neurochemicals work in the synapse, passing specific messages from release sites to collection sites, called receptors. Others also spread their influence more widely, like a radio signal, making whole brain regions more or less sensitive.

Deficiencies in certain neurochemicals are linked to disease. For example, a lack of dopamine in the basal ganglia (the part of the brain that controls movement) leads to Parkinson’s disease. It can also increase susceptibility to addiction because dopamine affects our sensations of reward and pleasure.

Similarly, a deficiency in serotonin, used by regions controlling the emotion, can be linked to depression or mood disorders, and the loss of acetylcholine in the cerebral cortex is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Within individual neurons, signals are formed by electrochemical pulses. This electrical activity can be detected by an electroencephalogram (EEG), placed outside the scalp . These signals have wave-like patterns, which scientists classify from alpha (common while we are relaxing or sleeping), to gamma (active thought). When this activity goes awry, it is called a seizure. Some researchers think that synchronizing the activity in different brain regions is important for perception.

There are other, indirect ways of imaging brain activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomography monitor blood flow. MRI scans, computed tomography scans and diffusion tensor images (DTI) use the magnetic signatures of different tissues, X-ray absorption, or the movement of water molecules in those tissues, to image the brain.

These and other scanning techniques have helped determine which parts of the brain are associated with which functions. For example, different parts of the brain govern activity related to sensations, movement, libido, choices, regrets and motivations. However, some experts argue that we put too much trust in these results, which also raise privacy issues.

Before scanning techniques, researchers relied on patients with brain damage caused by strokes, head injuries or illnesses, to determine which brain areas perform certain functions. This approach exposed the regions connected to emotions, dreams, memory, language, perception and to more enigmatic events, such as religious or “paranormal” experiences.

One famous example was the case of Phineas Gage, a 19th century railroad worker who lost part of the front of his brain when a 1-metre-long iron pole blasted through his head during an explosion. He recovered physically, but experienced permanent personality change, showing for the first time that specific brain regions are linked to different processes.

About the Author – Terry A. Rondberg, DC

Dr. Terry Rondberg is has been a champion of the chiropractic profession for decades. After receiving his Doctor of Chiropractic (DC), Dr. Rondberg founded The Chiropractic Journal, the industry’s first professionally edited source for chiropractic news and features.