Order and Disorder – How your Brain Functions Order your Life

By Dr. Dennis Maness, HealthWalk MindSoul Division

When we think of the brain, we think of structure and order. When there is normal structure and order, we maintain healthy cognitive functions. However, when the order is not maintained due to chemical imbalance, injury, stress or other disorders, we experience confusion, sluggishness, mental fatigue, memory loss depressive feelings among other challenges.

Managing this order is the work of the brain’s two master switches. These switches tell the brain cells when to fire and when not to fire. The Stop signal is called the GABA Receptor and the Go signal is called the NMDA Receptor.

If all the body’s processes came to the conscious mind, we would be so busy making decisions that we wouldn’t have time in our day for a life. These switches in the brain know your SET LEVELS or homeostasis. Some of these SET Levels are naturally set in the brain such as breathing, your heart beat and even when our eyes blink in order to lubricate them. Combined, these levels become what we call homeostasis, the level at which our brain operates.

Certain behaviors, chemicals and even our diet will confuse these switches and as well as wreak havoc on the communications between the lobes of your brain making it difficult to find the right words, creating brain fog and even making it difficult to sleep. The first question to determine the cause of any brain condition would be is it chemical or mechanical?

When someone comes to our HealthWalk office I review the two avenues of the brain. I look at the chemical imbalances by conducting a neurotransmitter test and I also do a brain map on the client’s brain. Let’s review both and see how one complements the other.

The Neurotransmitter Test:
Neurotransmitters are chemicals our body uses to relay information and communicate with itself. The brain’s 100 billion neurons connect the various organs and brain regions into a complex network of circuits that control specific functions within the body. Simply speaking, these circuits serve as on/off switches for the millions of messages and processes carried out on a daily basis. For example, the perception of danger “turns on” circuits in the brain that induce a fear response, which may communicate to the body different messages such as “tense up muscles”, “palms sweat”, “increase heart rate”, and “breathe faster”.

Neurotransmitter behavior has a direct affect on smooth operation of our brain. Neurotransmitters define our moods, actions, and health. The importance of neurotransmitters transcends their role in the brain. Organs throughout the body are connected to the brain via a vast network of neurons. The brain uses neurotransmitters to tell the heart to beat, the lungs to breathe, and the intestines to digest. This is known as the autonomic nervous system.

So; it’s easy to see how a chemical imbalance can have a negative affect on your body. Therefore, one of the first things I consider is a neurotransmitter test.

The Brain Map:
Your brain map is your unique brain pattern and it shows the dominant and subdominant frequencies in your brain and whether they are balanced between the brain lobes, any pain or stress information as well as brain activity that can keep you awake at night, trigger addictive behavior, memory lapses and/or other issues.

We utilize HealthWalk’s proprietary protocols to adjust frequencies and improve communications between lobes while monitoring the activity utilizing a qEEG machine. The difference between the machine we use in the office ($20,000 to $60,000 price tag) and the consumer driven models (usually priced under $8500.) is the functionality and training in the use of the equipment. To operate the qEEG, BrainState and NeuroStimulation machines require board certification and between nine months to two years experience before becoming certified to operate. BrainState requires three weeks on site training and a certification test to operate the BrainState equipment. Those who operate over the counter equipment with no professional training even under the best of intention can do more harm than good.

Brain entrainment happens, professionally, consciously and unconsciously. We are constantly training our brain to make many sub conscious decisions such as stopping for red lights, turning on a light switch or riding a bike. You can easily think of many automatic things you have trained your brain to do, like reading, swimming etc. These switches turn off and on as we have trained them.

Brain Entrainment:
Brain Entrainment merges the psychological with the neurological, utilizing qEEG and a form of neurofeedback to change an undesirable behavior to a preferred behavior. Brainwave entrainment literally translates into training of the brain.

Many of the things we have trained our brains to do automatically involve the Limbic System. The Limbic system connects to key parts of the brain such as the hippocampus where memories begin and the cerebral cortex where higher thoughts originate. The Limbic System and the Hypothalamus are deeply interconnected with emotional feelings i.e.; Imbalances in this area can manifest in certain types of behaviors such as eating, drinking, sexual activity and all methods of satisfying the deeper emotional issues.

At HealthWalk we use a form of brain entrainment to retrain the behavior of the brain. Proprietary protocols are used to measure the brain's response during entraining your brain utilizing NeuroStimulation Sound Therapies to train the brain to a balanced mental state. With Entrainment, this new mental state sets a new homeostasis or set level for your brain promoting lobe specific entrainment and lobe specific communications.

You determine your own SET Levels for these emotional activities. The following emotional behaviors are examples of what brain entrainment has worked successfully on:

• The Stress eater, the person who eats when under stress.
• The Depressive eater, the person who eats when experiencing feelings of depression
• The Habitual Smoker, the person who smokes for the Serotonin burst or the simulative feelings
• The Alcoholic who drinks to relax, to forget, or to offset stress
• The Workaholic who works because he / she has set patterns that have became habitual.
• The cutter who has no intent of committing suicide, however, it is his or her method of getting the attention they need when things are not going right.
• The Nail Biter who bites their nails when stressed
• Swearing or emotional outbursts when stressed
• Oppositional Defiant behavior, refusing to follow directions as a method of retaliation when you don’t get your way.

These are only a few of the Limbic SET Levels people create due to emotions, lifestyle, bad habits and environmental influences.

We all want to improve at least some aspects of our mental health be it memory, productivity, better grades, reduced stress or to get a good night’s sleep.

It all starts with a decision to move forward. This is where HealthWalk comes in. Call us today for your appointment.

Consider the excitement with my Heroes for the month of July. They each started with a decision to move forward.

1. Following a stroke, a San Diego attorney came to HealthWalk MindSoul Brain Technology for support and today he has recovered his ability to communicate - his speech and cognitive function are operating quite well. He looks as if he added at least two inches to his height as he is walking straight. He and I are also proud of that new smile he is wearing.
2. A young lad with ADHD came in with his parents for a series of MindSoul Brain Technologies sessions to deal with his lack of focus and hyperactivity. Now he can control his cranial activity and avoid the feeling of being ‘Hyper’. He is able to stay focused and be attentive to detail at home and in school. He and his parents as well as we are so pleased.
3. A gentleman who had a stroke almost a year ago came in; he had lost feeling in his right arm and his ability to move his wrist, hand and fingers. Following two sessions, the feeling has returned to his arm. After his third session, he is able to close his fingers, make a fist and is regaining mobility in his wrist.

We are proud of everyone’s progress this month and are looking forward to even greater results in July. Way to go team!