Neurofeedback

 At a recent American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting Douglas Smith, MD a professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania basically said there is not such thing as a mild head injury. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) affects over 1 million Americans every year. While the usually treatment is observation and release, we are now learning that these injuries are not so mild. Patient's persists in neurological and cognitive deficits and may also experience anxiety, insomnia, depression, headaches and gastrointestinal problems.  Even more disturbing is that one does not have to hit one's head to have a head injury!

What can be done about it? Noticing there is a problem is the most important thing. If you or someone you know has been in an accident or diagnosed with a mild concussion, pay attention. Notice if there have been changes in the person (or yourself). If you aren't sure, get to a clinician who is adequately trained to assess the situation. If you have any of the above problems see your doctor even if the incident was many years ago.   Neurofeedback, vitamin D, homeopathy, and fish oil are amazing at not only reducing brain injury but helping the brain recover from the injury. In particular, LENS or Low Energy Neurofeedback System is showing great promise in improving symptoms of 80% of patients with TBI!

Fall is here, and with it comes a new school year with football and soccer being the primary sports being played. These sports carry the risk of injury-- particularly head trauma. Concern amongst parents and health officials has grown over the last few years with the raised awareness of the dangers of head trauma, which often occurs even when consiousness is maintained.  Every year in the United States there are 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). That’s one every 23 seconds. To put that in perspective, HIV infections are diagnosed in the US at the rate of one every nine minutes![1],[2]

 Migraine Headaches can be not only debilitating but very painful. Relief of the pain is just the first step for us in treating you. We want to help find the reason for the pain and help you eliminate the headaches for good. 

Migraines really are not just one condition but rather a cluster of conditions that present in the same way. We work with you to understand the cause of your headaches to help you better eliminate them safely and effectively. 

The causes of migraines are often associated with hormone imbalance, past head trauma, and digestive issues just to name a few. At Insights To Health, we work with you to find the root cause while providing symptom relief. We combine natural therapies and supplements and also offer neurofeedback a gentle approach to pain treatment. 

 This depends upon the particular case but in general we say between 20-40 sessions. Using LENS, most patients report improvements within 4-5 sessions. 

 Neurofeedback can help a variety of conditions that arise from central nervous system imbalance including insomnia, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, attention deficit, and multiple sclerosis to name a few. It doesn't help everyone with that particular condition but because we are Naturopathic Physicians we can look at other causes of your imbalance and treat in other ways. 

Scholarly literature suggests that neurofeedback "should play a major therapeutic role in many difficult areas. In my opinion, if any medication had demonstrated such a wide spectrum of efficacy it would be universally accepted and widely used.  It is a field to be taken seriously by all."

Frank H. Duffy, M.D., a Professor and Pediatric Neurologist at Harvard Medical stated in Clinical Electroencephalography 2000.

Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback procedure which renormalizes the brain and the central nervous system. It uses the tiny electroencephalogram (EEG) signals created by the brain through sensors  and responds with signals back to the brain.

At Insights to Health, we use a specific type of Neurofeedback called LENS or Low Energy Neurofeedback System, that provides feedback via an extremely gentle electromagnetic signal. LENS works without conscious effort by the patient and is therefore appropriate for children and severely disabled individuals as well as for adults.