Think of your brain as the command centre; it affects your body, mind and spirit. When it’s not performing at its best, your brain can cause dysfunction in your relationships, your work and your life in general. The simple truth is that when your brain works right, you work right – and you will continue to work right longer if you take a proactive approach to your own health and aging.
Do you have a family history of Alzheimer’s or dementia? Have you ever had a head injury or a concussion? Are you feeling like you’re losing your edge? By accurately assessing your brain’s health today, we can provide a glimpse into your health in the future and help to correct almost every condition in the process.
The Science
A Vital Electrical Organ
The brain is a highly complex electrical network of more than a billion nerve cells (neurons) continuously relaying messages and signals between areas tasked with essential functions and those responsible for processing external stimuli. A healthy brain has the ability to learn what a person needs to know in order to thrive in a changing or challenging environment. It is a state where the following key indicators are optimized:
• Cognition- memory, attention, processing speed, problem solving, executive function
• Emotion- mood, anxiety, stress, tolerance, coping
• Kinesthetic- balance, coordination, agility, accuracy, precision, speed, power and strength
When the brain’s neurons perform below optimal levels, the entire network can fail to function. Because the brain signals and regulates the body in many ways, abnormalities that originate within the brain may contribute to or worsen physical illness anywhere in the body.
But, I feel fine. Why do I need to worry about my brain? You get a baseline test for your blood, your eyes, your prostate and your breasts – why wouldn’t you do the same for your brain?
Hundreds of minor and major conditions can be traced to brain dysfunction, which are almost always overlooked by conventional medicine.
Brain Health & Dysfunction
Hundreds of minor and major conditions can be traced to brain dysfunction, which are almost always overlooked by conventional medicine. When the brain’s neurons perform below optimal levels, the entire network can fail to function. Because the brain signals and regulates the body in many ways, abnormalities that originate within the brain may contribute to or worsen physical illness anywhere in the body.
Brain Balance
Think of your brain as the command centre; it affects your body, mind and spirit. When it’s not performing at its best, your brain can cause dysfunction in your relationships, your work and your life in general.
The simple truth is that when your brain works right, you work right – and you will continue to work right longer if you take a proactive approach to your own health and aging.
A Balanced Brain
Our specialized partner uses the well-studied Brain Electrical Activity Mapping (BEAM) technology in combination with, CNS-VS, TOVA and other neuropsychiatric tests.
Applying functional, metabolic and nutritional medicine models will optimize brain function, heal diseased brains and increase the rate of recovery of injured brains.
…When your brain works right, you work right – and you will continue to work right longer if you take a proactive approach to your own health and aging.
The non-invasive BEAM provides four key measures of brain function in critical areas that are essential for identifying underlying causes of health breakdowns.
• Power – Loss of power and symmetry (dopamine deficiency) impacts your energy and drive, causing weight gain, fatigue and diminished libido
• Speed – Loss of speed (acetylcholine deficiency) impacts information processing and recall, causing memory and concentration lapses and revealing your true age
• Rhythm – Loss of rhythm (GABA deficiency) impacts calmness and stability, causing anxiety, hypertension GERD and seizures
• Synchrony – Loss of coordinated development (serotonin deficiency) affects mind-body connection, causing headaches, backaches, insomnia and depression
Integrating Brain Mapping into Corporate Healthcare Programs
A person’s maps form an essential element in this comprehensive head-to-toe functional protocol. As a medical facility that focuses on mind/body health, we find that the condition of the person’s brain is intimately related to the condition of their overall well-being.
By addressing underlying causes of illness – which frequently relate to brain health – we’ll start each individual on their path to prolonged wellness and peak performance.
Two Examples and Results
Anxiety & Depression
After 10 years of depression, numerous medications, 220 pounds of weight gain and loss of cognitive function, a 36-yearold man and his wife came into Gaia looking for answers. The wife had to do most of the talking, because the patient had many facial tics, was unable to create eye contact and suffered from intense social anxiety.
The patient was only able to communicate this much: “Really bad. No energy. Today was a waste. I need help.” The couple owns a small business together, but he was no longer able to work. He slept through most of his days, lacked sexual drive and wasn’t able to complete even simple tasks around the house.
During his functional medical consult, I learned that he suffered several concussions in his early ‘20s as a result of not wearing a helmet while participating in extreme sports. He had gone from 220 pounds to 450 pounds and suffered from sleep apnea— which is commonly linked with obesity.
Using a combination of traditional Allopathic medicine, psychiatric evaluation, traditional Chinese medicine, and functional medicine with an emphasis on brain health, I was able to make a multi-leveled diagnosis of his physical, energetic, psychiatric, subconscious and spiritual state.
Recommendations
Due to the severity of the findings and the massive lifestyle changes required to rebalance the brain, we recommended that both parties attend our clinic for an Intensive Restorative Health Week. We felt that he would not be able to make the appropriate changes without strong guidance and education.
Based on his brain data, early retirement in a nursing home was becoming a sad, but realistic possibility, so both he and his wife made the serious commitment to come into the clinic for a re-boot.
During the week, he saw a psychiatrist with an interest in neurology, a doctor of Chinese medicine, chiropractic neurologist, yoga therapy coach, psychologist with heart-math training, osteopath, nutritionist, nurse, M.D., massage therapist, a guide mindful of meditation in nature and an Ayurvedic practitioner.
Working collaboratively, our team developed a plan focusing on rebalance. Recommendations included medication and supplements, meditation, physical fitness, new learning, counseling and nutrition with a specific diet given to emphasize an increase in all neurotransmitters and a decrease in all of the neurotoxic foods he had been consuming.
Transformation
The outcome shocked all of us. One month later, he came into our clinic without his wife, smiling, making eye contact and very pleased with how he was feeling. He was now getting out of bed at 7 or 8 in the morning and following all of the recommendations we had made.
He expressed how much he was enjoying this new way of living. He said he loved the fact that it was about the health of his brain and not a focus on losing weight that was helping him stick to the nutritional plan.
When I met with him, he spoke in complete and articulate sentences and had a sense of humor I had never seen before. He was feeling so great he and his wife ventured down to Mexico for a month-long holiday. We look forward to monitoring their ongoing success and happiness.
Just Not Feeling Right
The beauty of functional medicine is to dive down the proverbial rabbit hole to find the cause of why a client is “just not feeling right.” I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve seen who have been to multiple doctors with vague complaints like fatigue, poor sleeping, and a generalized feeling of “something is not right.”
The standard of care is to examine the client, order some lab tests and rule out the common causes. The test results are invariably normal and the client is either told to exercise, to reduce their stress, to take antidepressants— or that it is “all in their head.”
I haven’t met a single client who is “imagining” their problems. There is always a reason. Often the adrenal glands are fatigued from chronic stress or not having integrated a particularly stressful situation in their life.
Often, hormones are out of balance and can be easily corrected. Sometimes there is a metabolic issue that needs to be resolved. Many times, people are overfed – but undernourished – and getting them on a proper nutrition plan resolves the issues.
No matter what the presenting complaint, we endeavor to do the appropriate functional, metabolic, and hormonal testing to get to the root of the issue and resolve the “vague” symptoms. Life is meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest and everyone should wake up in the morning feeling fantastic!
About the Authors
Ria Duykers consults, educates and facilitates in Health and Wellness Teaching and Travel and liaise with clients to whatever level they wish, tailoring a performance to suit their needs in close collaboration with Dr. Tracy Thomson when it comes to Brain Mapping (BEAM). Please email Ria for a free consultancy: wellnesstravelglobal@me.com
Dr. Tracy Thomson, M.D., HBSc, CCFP, CYT, CMedAc, provided all the in dept information in this article and provides all services mentioned.
