Restore your heart-body-brain balance for optimal health
If you had a way to improve your physical and emotional health in 30-60 minutes a day would you do it? 36 million Americans are starting to do so. Yoga is taking the US by storm. It is over 5000 years old but is just becoming popular here. Why is that? In this week’s podcast, I discuss the health benefits of yoga and how it can help you with not just your physical issues, but mental and emotional one’s too.
In other articles, I’ve talked extensively about neurofeedback therapy including LENS. But I wanted to describe LENS in more detail in this article as I have been getting more questions about this type of treatment. LENS is short for Low Energy Neurofeedback System. But how does LENS work and what does it treat? LENS neurofeedback is excellent for mind-body healing. It helps both physical issues such as migraines, autism, and post-concussion symptoms. But it can also help issues in the mind such as emotional trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.
LENS neurofeedback is a simple procedure that helps heal the brain. Using the patient’s brain wave pattern, the system nudges the brain. This helps it transform maladaptive patterns. Parts of the brain that aren’t functioning optimally start working more efficiently. Over-functioning areas return to a more normal level. As the brain balances, the patient feels better. It’s safe, simple, and effective as appointments are generally short, but the benefits last for a long time.
The procedure of neurofeedback therapy is simple. I attached wires to your ears and head. The wires have a clip at the end and are technically called “leads”. With LENS, there are one on each ear and one or two attached to the scalp. I generally start with a mapping process. This is a mild form of treatment allowing your brain to acclimate to the neurofeedback stimulation. But it also allows me to get a sense about how your brain is working.
Depending upon the protocol, you may close your eyes for a few seconds or a few minutes. This is repeated depending upon the type of session (mapping or not) and what the treatment goals are. In general, sessions are less than 30 minutes. I spend a lot of the session assessing the person before and after giving neurofeedback. I want to see subtle changes that may have happened during the session, but also during the previous week. For most patients, one visit a week is enough to see benefits grow over time.
Typically, it takes 2-5 sessions to complete a map depending on the person. Some patients are more sensitive or reactive and benefit from fewer points over time. But those patients typically notice the changes right away and seeing improvement in many areas. With LENS neurofeedback, sometimes less is more. Fewer points result in bigger changes.
With a completed map, I start to analyze it. I won’t go into all the details of the maps here, but we can explore some of the concepts related to maps and neurofeedback therapy.
Brain waves have two basic measurements, amplitude, and frequency. Amplitude represents the height of the waves. Frequency is the speed of the wave and how we define the type of wave. In general, there are four types of brain waves that are measured with neurofeedback. The chart below is a short summary of that information. (You can click on it to enlarge.)
The frequency determines the type of brainwave. Each wave frequency will also have a height. A person can have delta waves, for example, with tall or short amplitudes. The different types of waves and amplitudes give us a picture of what is happening in a patient’s brain. As you can see from the table, different types of brain waves have different meanings. Treatment protocols change depending on what symptoms the person is having.
How does LENS Neurofeedback work? No one knows for sure. But we do know it works for many conditions. Several studies on the instrumentation have shown that very little energy goes to the brain. It produces 10 to the minus 22 watts/cm2. That’s not much energy. When it was first tested, scientists assumed it must be a placebo effect because it is so low. But double-blind placebo-controlled studies have shown changes that could be seen on fMRI. A functional MRI can measure changes in the brain in real-time. Patients who received real LENS treatment showed changes while those who received the control didn’t. So what is going on? There are several theories including affecting the vagus nerve, changing blood profusion, or brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is a term coined by Marion Diamond, Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. She published a paper in 1970 suggesting that our brains adapt when we are exposed to different situations and stimuli. This allows for the brain to develop continuously if stimulated.
(As a side note, Dr. Diamond was a professor of mine when I went to Cal as an undergrad. She would write on the chalkboard with both hands and she could play tennis with both too. (Not in class though.) She told us she did this to work both sides of her brain.)
Dr. Len Ochs, the inventor of LENS, said that the signal from LENS may be stimulating the brain to develop new neural connections. This results in changes in the brain. This makes sense given Dr. Diamond’s theory. But the reasons that neurofeedback works may be less important. It works for a variety of conditions and people get better with almost no known long term side effects.
LENS neurofeedback can treat almost any condition related to the brain. I have successfully treated people with Multiple Sclerosis, anxiety, depression, autism, insomnia, OCD, migraines or other headaches, RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder), ADD, epilepsy (seizures), and Parkinson’s. The results have been great for all, although other Naturopathic treatments were necessary in some cases. Concussions, post-concussion syndrome, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) respond very well to LENS neurofeedback therapy. In terms of head injury, it was believed neurons died as a result of an injury. Now we know they don’t die. They involute. Connections get lost and the brain’s efficiency decreases. But LENS neurofeedback therapy appears to “wake” those neurons up, improving symptoms. It may be a clue as to how this form of neurofeedback therapy works. And it may be why LENS neurofeedback is so helpful with other conditions. For example, some of my patients find their anxiety or insomnia improving though I am treating headaches.
In the case of PTSD, many patient’s reactions to stressful events decrease. The LENS neurofeedback therapy appears to help them be more aware of their reactions in these situations. This allows them to function better in relationships, their jobs, and in society.
There are many types of neurofeedback therapy, but I mostly use LENS neurofeedback therapy. It is simple, easy, effective, and has few if any, side effects. When they do occur, the side effects such as fatigue, are short lasting. The benefits, though, are not. Patients improve and often don’t need other treatments. I have seen life-changing improvements in as few as ten sessions. I find that the majority of my patients improve from neurofeedback therapy regardless of their condition. I offer LENS neurofeedback in Honolulu, Hawaii, the North Shore of Oahu, and Portland, Oregon. You can email me or call my office to learn more or to schedule a session. I look forward to meeting you in person.
Many people believe that you can’t heal from a concussion. They believe traumatic brain injury is a lifelong affliction. I want to share a 50-year old secret that proves them wrong. Neurofeedback has been around for a long time, and is an excellent tool to treat not only concussions, but also insomnia, depression, anxiety, migraines, and many other conditions.
In this podcast, I discuss the healing power of neurofeedback. Specifically, I have been using LENS Neurofeedback or Low Energy Neurofeedback System, for almost 10 years now. I’ve had amazing results with treating concussion. I’ve also treated autism, ADD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, RAD, and migraine headaches successfully. It doesn’t help everyone. But I’ve helped nearly 80% of the people who’ve come to me. Listen to my podcast to learn more!
Concussion affects at least 3 million Americans every year. There is a lot of talk now about TBI due to football and the movie “Concussion”. But it isn’t only about football players. Many people live with post-concussion syndrome and don’t even know it. Do you know how to recognize the problem? Listen to this podcast to learn more.
In this podcast, I discuss why doing a 21-day detox can help reduce toxins in the body. While diet by itself won’t solve all of your health problems, reducing the toxic load in the system can be helpful. Elimination is important for maintaining optimal health regardless. The organs of elimination are digestion, lungs, and kidneys. I mainly focus on digestion in this discussion.
I finally put together a podcast. I decided to start with something that is a little complex called Epigenetics. Epigenetics is a new branch of science that looks at how our DNA function changes. DNA will change what it produces based on environmental factors. Diet is an important factor in epigenetics. In this podcast, I explain more about what epigenetics is and how diet affects us.
I see many people who want to lose weight. It’s something they feel is important for their health regimen. Several years ago, I started a 21-day detox program for these patients. It has been wildly successful. But the program is much more than just a weight loss program. It is a powerful detox program. You will lose weight with it. But the real benefit is that you start to detox naturally. It is a way to feel better and reduce total toxin load and lose weight. You’ll start to feel better, but even more importantly, you will start to learn how to better take care of yourself. Weight loss is great. But if you don’t feel good, what does it matter? Detoxing naturally is important. Let’s go through some of the benefits of elimination and detox.
Detoxification is the process of eliminating toxic substances in the body. Toxin accumulation in the human body can be harmful. Our bodies accumulate toxins through food, drink, and the air we breathe. The body also produces some toxins as waste products of metabolism and digestion. What are some examples? Eating fish larger than a salmon can lead to mercury toxicity. Tuna in particular are large and accumulate many toxins including mercury. If you eat a lot of tuna, these toxins enter your body, and if you cannot eliminate or detoxify well, they will be stored in the body. The FDA recommends pregnant women avoid eating large fish due to this very problem.
The air we breathe can also be an issue. Oregon Public Broadcasting highlighted the poor air quality in Southeast Portland. Monitoring found high levels of cadmium and arsenic. Air quality has been a problem in this area for some time, but levels were high of late. Heavy metals can be extremely toxic to the body. (You can find out more at Scorecard.org for your neighborhood.)
Exposure doesn’t mean you’re doomed, though. Why are some people so adversely affected by toxins? I have discussed epigenetics in a previous podcast. Changes in our DNA function change our capacity to discharge toxins. There are three body systems responsible for detoxing the body:
• Digestive System: We remove toxins through defecation
• Respiratory System: We remove toxins through breathing
• Urinary System: We remove toxins through urination.
I want to save the respiratory system for another article. It’s an interesting system for elimination. I will save that for a discussion about breathing and heart rate variability. But, if the other two systems overload, the lungs are affected.
Each elimination system removes different types of toxins. If one system overloads, the others try to pick up the pace. If they can’t do that, the body will send waste through the skin. This is why some people get rashes or acne unexpectedly.
When the body can’t reduce toxic load, it may store them in fat cells. Our cells may hold onto water to dilute the toxin. Some people will get fluid or inflammation in their joints. Other people start to have problems in their nervous system. There are patterns to this that are identifiable by trained professionals. I can distinguish the causes of subtle changes in the body. My patients may come to me noticing weight gain. They feel like they are bloating or retaining water. I notice subtle changes in liver and kidney function. Changes that can foretell more serious health issues. A detox can be a good place to start reducing total load so that those problems can heal.
Detoxing naturally isn’t about weight loss. My patients who have done the 21-day Detox and Weight Loss Program for home notice this. They feel lighter. It’s not just the number on the scale. Yes, they have lost 15-25 pounds in that 21 days. But more importantly, they begin to feel their nagging aches and pains lift. They stop having pain in the morning when they get out of bed. They feel their digestion improve. They start to sleep better. Their mental fog lifts. These are some of the benefits people notice.
Our bodies need to remove toxins to function properly. Our liver removes complex toxins and shuttles these waste products to the colon. If the body can’t remove them fast enough they will sometimes diffuse back into the body. This is why Naturopaths are so interested in bowel habits of patients. If the bowels aren’t working efficiently, the liver’s work is for naught.
The kidney performs some of the same functions for different types of toxins. It removes excess electrolytes such as sodium and water soluble toxins.
Supplementation can be helpful for detoxification too. There are many vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and botanicals that can improve elimination. Knowing the imbalance is important though. Giving something for the liver when the problem is in the kidney may not help the underlying problem. In most cases, this won’t hurt the person. One reason I practice natural medicine is because of the credo “do no harm.” Diluted botanical remedies, neurofeedback, supplements, and other natural supplements are generally very safe. But haphazard prescriptions won’t always help the patient. They can also be expensive. Understanding why the problems exists allows for targeting treatments that are safe and cost-effective.
A detox can help jump start the body in being more efficient in removing toxins by reducing load. This can clear away some of the compounding (or confounding?) causes of the problem. Just by eating properly, your body will have more space to remove things that are harmful to you. Supplementation can be helpful in suggesting to the body to release the toxins. After a detox, sometimes the underlying cause becomes more obvious. Treatment is then more targeted and effective.
While the 21-day detox for health and weight loss isn’t for everyone, it has helped many people. The results are astounding. My patients start learning how to eat better. They learn to make better choices, how to control portions, and which foods affect them adversely. I work with patients to help their bodies become more efficient eliminators. The detox is only one way that I do that. You can find out more about the detox here.
As a Naturopathic Physician, I get many questions about diet and detox. The most common question I get is around diet with autistic children and adults. Diet plays a major role in autism treatment. Why does this diet work with this child with autism but not this other one? The answer to this question applies to more than just autism. People are often confused about why a new diet may stop working after some time. When they first start it, they feel good but after some time, they notice that nothing changes. Or they tried it one time and it helped, but another time the same diet change didn’t help. What’s going on? In this post, I want to explore these questions and discuss the factors that may contribute to this.
I started working with people diagnosed with Autism a few years into my practice. Autism is either a series of conditions or one condition with different causes. It presents in many ways based on the person. I started using LENS neurofeedback in my practice in 2009. I had one child with Autism respond immediately to the treatment. After that, I had many children and adults with Autism come to see me. I ask all new patients about diet. With Autistic children, the parents had tried many different diets. Gluten-free, casein-free, specific-carbohydrate diet, phenol-free, and others were all tried by different people. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. The Autism Research Institute has a chart that shows the efficacy of different diets. What was interesting to me was that some of the diets helped some of the people some of the time. There wasn’t any one diet that worked with everyone. And some people found specific improvements with one diet but not another. Some patients, for example, found that sensitivity to noises improved with gluten-free diets. But they saw no change in sensitivity to touch with the same diet. It was curious.
SIDE NOTE: If you look at the chart carefully, there is a column that shows the ratio of better:worse. The ratio on average is much higher for alternative treatments than for pharmacological treatments. The only pharmacological treatment that shows promise at this time is the IVIG therapy. It is a therapy used to boost the immune system. The chart doesn’t evaluate neurofeedback.
Dr. Kenneth Aiken, a nutritionist in the UK, has a theory that makes sense. His book, “Dietary Interventions in Autism Spectrum Disorders,” gives an excellent overview of the subject. Dr. Aiken explores the different diets and comes up with a few recommendations. It’s a good book about diets in general but he highlights that maybe autism is a series of disorders and not just one. This would explain why some people do better avoiding gluten but not something else. Dr. Aiken comes up with a more holistic dietary approach that is relatively easy for most families. He addresses the challenge that many autistic children don’t eat enough. (If you read the book and are still confused, feel free to make an appointment with me to discuss. I have many different approaches to the treatment of autism. )
What his book doesn’t cover in detail is epigenetics. I have created a podcast about this, but want to explain more here. Epigenetics is the science of how the environment affects our DNA expression. What we eat, drink, breathe, and experience changes how our cells turn processes on and off. There is a relatively new field called nutrigenomics that explores how what we eat can change our DNA function. Research suggests that diet has a big impact on the function of DNA. In mouse studies, researchers observe physical changes in mice with unhealthy diets. Traits like diabetes are then passed to successive generations. This transmission occurs even if the mother changes her diet back to the healthy diet. An intervention like supplementation can restore function. (this part is confusing) It’s amazing.
What does this have to do with Autism? Autism is most likely not a genetic disease but an epigenetic one. Dietary changes can reduce symptoms, but in most cases doesn’t cause a complete reversal. In general, I find that supplementation and dietary changes together are more effective. This could be why my patients of complain that a simple diet shift stops helping. They need more than just a shift in diet.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t change your diet if it’s not healthy! But we shouldn’t expect that by itself to always fix the problem. Other factors may be part of this situation and I will cover those issues in another blog post. For now, remember that diet is part of the solution for autism treatment and other issues. But there are other aspects that are important in total health. If you want to learn more, feel free to schedule an appointment with me.
The yoga studio I go to has different teachers that teach classes for students of all levels. It is unusual, as there is a mix of advanced students and beginning ones in the same class. Last week, one of the teachers had us do a lot of planks. This is a core building exercise that requires the yogi to hold the pose as if doing a pushup – at the top of the pushup – sometimes for several minutes. After the class, I had a discussion with another student about all of the planks. “It’s not that the pose is physically hard to hold for that long,” she said to me. “It’s that my mind has trouble holding the pose.” It was a curious comment. What is it about doing something painful that is hard? Why do we have trouble pushing through the sensation?
In this post, I want to discuss how one holds emotions in the body. Emotional healing is an important aspect of physical healing, and an important part of my practice. But how do we release emotions? Why do they come out at times when we don’t expect them to appear? This is an aspect of my medical practice that fascinates me, and the answer isn’t clear. The simple answer is, when the person is ready. There are many techniques to release this storehouse of emotions, and we can explore some of them.
I think most people would agree that stress is held in the body. It’s something that one can feel and experience. Many people feel the effects of a long day at work in their neck or shoulders. But there is a deeper issue that can happen where trauma and grief are stored in the body. I have worked with many patients who have discussed this phenomenon as part of their work with me. Many report breaking down in tears while exercising as something shifted within their body. Emotions stored are released as part of the healing process.
How do we access these emotions physically? Candace Pert was a molecular biologist who studied the mind-body connection. She discovered that the body synthesized tiny molecules in response to difficult emotions. These get deposited into various places in the body. She and other scientists proposed that the body is a storehouse of unconscious thoughts and feelings. All of the things that have happened to us are stored in our bodies in response, regardless of whether we recall them or not.
Why is yoga so helpful for clearing negative emotions? Yoga, as an exercise, focuses on three things: movement, breath, and awareness. These three components play out in many of the techniques used to release emotions. When most people think of yoga, they are thinking about the exercise. Yoga is actually a series of practices that include Hatha Yoga, a series of poses. These poses are either done individually or in a sequence called a vinyasa. Each pose, or asana, has a specific breathing rhythm associated with it. The transitions between asanas also have a breathing pattern. There is a synchronization between the breath and the movement. The breath is part of the ritual and allows for a cleansing of the mind, body, and emotions. The practice requires awareness and focus. One may become aware of the places that are stuck and painful.
Many yoga teachers say that yoga begins when one wants to move out of a pose or quit. Bringing attention to the discomfort can help release the pain. The awareness requires non-judgement. It is what a Buddhist would call “Mindfulness.” Mindfulness is awareness without struggle. It is pure acceptance of what is. It is about being with what is true for you in that moment. You accept the feeling, the pain, the experience. And by doing that, the discomfort magically begins to soften. It is as if we have given our bodies permission to let go.
Yoga is such a wonderful metaphor for the process of letting go. I suspect that many people benefit from yoga because there is a visceral experience. You can feel where you are stuck and release that tension. You feel the struggle in your body. For example, let’s say you’re trying to stretch your hamstrings. There’s a quality of softening you must embrace to do so. Otherwise you are just tearing at the muscle fibers. You learn to let go.
Doing this on a psychological level, though, isn’t always as easy. This is because we have a different type of block called a “defense.” We still have the same struggle. It’s just happening in our minds. Psychologists tell us that we have defenses for a reason. We build defenses as a way to protect ourselves. They may be hiding trauma, abuse, or shame. We create them because at the time they form, we don’t have the emotional capacity to process what is going on. The defense becomes a part of us and we begin to identify with it. It is analagous to the tight hamstrings. We don’t remember when the last time the legs were loose.
To move around defenses, psychologists have created various methods. Emotional healing techniques allow us to access these parts of ourselves. Talk therapy helps us see our defenses. We gain greater awareness and can change our typical response. Other techniques focus not so much on the spoken word, but some sort of visceral release. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a technique that helps patients process trauma. Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT uses a self-tapping pattern while recalling a specific event. Both of these techniques appear to allow for the body to reprocess the events on a cellular level.
While we don’t always recall the specifics, release of the event is possible. These methods suggest that there is a connection between our minds and our body. Memories are stored in the body and accessed through the brain. But the use of these techniques allows us to move around our blocks. We don’t always have to recall a specific incident. (Although both the above techniques require one to do so.) A specific event isn’t always recalled while doing yoga. It arises out of the breathing and the movement.
In my medical practice, understanding this is crucial, as so many people come to me with anxiety. Very often, anxiety strikes and is free floating. There is no easily identifiable event or experience that one can identify. Focus on the past is less important. Focus on the present is key. It is where the defense lives. It is where the body lives.
A method that I use in my office works on a different principle of mind-body connection. HeartMath is a form of biofeedback that uses heart rate to help the user relax. It’s more than relaxation though. It helps the person see on the screen how their body reacts to different types of thoughts. Calming thoughts help bring the body in a state of coherence or where different systems in the body work together. Negative thoughts bring the body out of coherence. Watching this on the screen allows the user to learn to breathe better to gain more coherence. HeartMath works by helping the user stay in the present and notice subtle changes in their body.
Emotional healing during yoga is a great illustration of a mind-body connection. The body remembers even if we don’t. But there really isn’t a distinction. Our body knows, and it keeps track. From the mild aches and pains we feel getting up in the morning to full-blown disease, our bodies remember.
Every year, the Holiday season seems to get more hectic. All the stores are having the best Christmas sale ever. There are magazine proclaiming how to make the holidays perfect. It’s a lot of pressure. Many of my patients ask me how they can manage stress during this time. They complain of fatigue, depression, insomnia, and feeling run down. The stress leaves them susceptible to colds and flu. Is there anything you can do to avoid this? The answer is yes. Let’s look at some tips to help you avoid the stress of the holidays and take better care of yourself.
The first tip has to do with diet. Right after Halloween, I walked into my local “health food” store and noticed something. There were holiday treats everywhere. Chocolate, cookies, and cakes were on every aisle. Patients tell me that from November until the end of the year everyone brings treats into work. There is temptation all around.
You can’t always avoid the treats at work. (Although you don’t have to eat them. ) But you don’t have to bring the sugar home. Instead of baking high-carbohydrate and sugary treats, try something new. These treats can give you the sweetness of this time of year in a healthy form. There are tons of blogs that have paleo and refined sugar free options for treats. (Big Man’s World and the Detoxinista are two of my favorites.) I suggest trying at least one new recipe this holiday.
Holidays have become a frantic rush to out do the year before. Magazines claim that we can make this years meal “the Best Holiday Dinner Ever!” But a simple refocus on the holiday from “best ever” to “let’s enjoy what we have” will help us reduce stress.
Here are a few tips to make the holiday meal less stressful:
• Think basics. If you want to do a holiday dinner, stick with the basics: meat and vegetables. If your guests have special requests, invite them to prepare that and bring it to share. You don’t have to do it all. The point is to express joy and love, not to spend your time and energy catering to a huge crowd.
• Draft help. Split up your task list and share it with the expected guests. Getting others involved will help them feel a part and allow you to enjoy the holiday more. Drafting help includes clean up and dishes. Set a rule that the TV doesn’t go on until the dishes are finished.
• Let go. If you’re the type that obsesses over details and needs things done just right, this is a good time to let it go. (Frozen song aside ). Remember that the dinner takes a fraction of the time to consume as it does to prepare. Let others help in their way so you can enjoy your guests.
Meals and sugar aren’t the only things stressful about the holidays. All the running around, buying the perfect gift, and parties can be stressful. Here are a few more tips to keep your mental health.
• Don’t be in a rush. Take time to enjoy each holiday celebration as it comes. If you don’t get everything done that’s OK. Be sure to enjoy the holiday yourself. If you like to give gifts, do so. But don’t at the expense of your own sanity and pocketbook.
• Drink Water. Drink enough water to stay hydrated. This will help your body detoxify. We tend to eat a lot of rich food this time of year. Water can help. It also helps decrease your chance of getting sick.
• Make sleep a priority. Try for 8 to 9 hours of deep refreshing sleep per night. This will recharge your batteries and helps prevent illness.
• Take Time for You. This is a social time of year. There are many parties and activities that people do in December. It’s easy to lose sight of your need to have some down time. Along with extra sleep, it’s a good idea to have some alone time. If you have people coming to stay with you, take a time-out before they arrive.
• Be Thankful. Many studies show that gratitude is a key component of health. The more thankful we are for things, the better our mental health. It can ward off depression and anxiety that could otherwise be a challenge this time of year.
I’m sure there are other ways to de-stress the holidays. These are just some simple ideas to get you started. Remember it is the season for sharing, joy, and love. If you can focus on those, you will be that much closer to staying healthy during the season.
Happy Holidays!
Dr. Gil