Cutting-Edge Therapies for Brain Injuries
lways an active child, Julie had numerous playground and sport- ing accidents: she fell headfirst from a slide; headed a soccer ball on numerous occasions; and rode her sled headfirst into a tree. These multiple con- cussive injuries left Julie with chronic headaches, brain fog, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Twenty-year-old Gil never wore his seatbelt and drove recklessly. When his car careened out of control and hit a tree Gil sustained massive head injuries leaving him unable to speak, move, or swallow. His physicians of- fered no hope for recovery. Eighty-year old Catherine fell on the sidewalk, hitting her head,
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which caused bleeding in the brain. The accident left her with semi- paralysis of her left side, as well as a decreased swallowing response that necessitated a feeding tube.
According to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, approximately 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. The CDC states, “A TBI is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or a pen- etrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Not all blows or jolts to the head result in a TBI.” The problems that Julie, Gil and Catherine experienced follow- ing their head traumas were related to the severity and locations of their brain injuries. Julie had to take a leave of absence from school; Gil, unable to move, was confined to a bed in a nursing home; and Catherine also required nursing home care.
Cutting-Edge Healing Therapies What these three had in common was that they all received
treatment which combined two cutting-edge healing therapies: All Digital Real-Time EEG Neurobiofeedback and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
All Digital Real-Time EEG Neurobiofeedback Helps Retrain the Brain What is EEG Neurobiofeedback? EEG stands for Electroencepha-
logram. Similar to its cousin, the ECG (or EKG), which measures the electrical activity of the heart, an EEG measures the electrical activity of the brain. The brain, with its millions of specialized nerve cells, communicates with the body via subtle electrical impulses that travel up and down the spinal column. These impulses initiate everything from thought to movement. Using EEGs, doctors and research-
10 Natural Nutmeg October 2012
ers have been able to ‘listen’ to these whispers of the brain. This research has identified normal and abnormal brain wave states for various states of consciousness. The brain’s electrical waves are measured in Hertz (Hz) fre- quency. There are four basic brain wave types: delta, theta, alpha and beta. In a normal, focused, awake state, the brain will display mostly beta waves, while in a relaxed state there will be more alpha waves. Theta wave activity is usu- ally seen in the initial stages of sleep,
while delta is seen in the deepest stages of sleep. Using an All Digital Real-Time EEG Neurofeedback device (Neuropathways®), a baseline screening can detect particular abnormal brain wave patterns that reveal past traumas to the head. These patterns are often seen as an excess of slow theta and delta waves. How did Julie, Gil and Catherine use the abnormal brain wave information seen on their EEG baseline screenings? Normally, the brain can’t easily perceive what it is doing. There are no sensors, so to speak, for it to check for optimal functioning. Quite simply, using the EEG device, Julie, Gil and Catherine were ‘fed back’ information on their brain waves for the purpose of improving and/or changing performance. Seeing their EEGs during an EEG training session, and receiving positive feedback when their brain exhibited a good brain wave pattern, they learned and remembered how to exhibit only the good patterns. You may wonder how such changes are possible, but your brain sets up new patterns all the time when learning a new task, such as learning a golf swing. You might hit the ball poorly at first, but if you watched a video of your swing and got positive feedback from a golfing pro, you would begin to learn what feels right and eventually the brain would tell your body how to execute the swing without thinking about it.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Can Bring New Life
A few years ago the Oprah Winfrey Show featured Dr. Mehmet Oz experiencing a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) session. Calling it one of the greatest longevity tools, Dr. Oz came out of the session, “feeling more alert and jazzed up.” Dr. Oz explained that, “when you take oxygen and pressurize it … the oxygen is forced into a person’s cells.” Given that “hyper” means “excess” and “baric” means “under pressure,” hyperbaric oxygen means oxygen under pressure. This pressure allows oxygen to dissolve in the blood stream, enter the cerebral spinal fluid and diffuse into the brain and
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