Brain Health Articles
Hot Tips for a Healthy Brain – by by Martha H Howard, MD
Brain Health – by Dr. Melody Hart
Your Brain And You – by by Monica Talebnia
Computerized Testing Solves Medical Mysteries – by Martha H. Howard, MD
Vision Training: A Family Affair Copyright 1997 Esther Kuntz – by Esther Kuntz
There is no “magic pill” for your brain. It is part of a whole ecosystem that includes your body and all your surroundings—including, unfortunately, the artificial flavors, dyes and additives in your favorite junk food, and the chemicals in the hair spray you just inhaled. Your brain has only 2% of the body’s weight, yet consumes 20% of the body’s glucose. How to feed and care for it?
Avoid chemicals as much as possible!
The more your house and office are “clean and green” the better your brain will work. Watch out for house rehab paint strippers, paints, varnishes, and the fumes from new carpets and furniture. Avoid using plug-in or spray deodorizers. Use natural citrus sprays instead. Lime Mate Mist is a good one. Use body products that have natural ingredients instead of chemicals—a lifetime of breathing hairspray can really lower those IQ points. Get organic foods whenever you can, or if they are not available wash all foods with a good fruit and vegetable wash. And learn the “dirty dozen”—the list of fruits and vegetables that, if not organic, are likely to have the highest pesticide content.
Drink water!!
(“Energy Drinks” and “Sports Drinks” with all their sugar and dyes don’t count here, people.) Dehydration actually causes brain damage. Drink at least 8-10 glasses a day.
Take fish oil.
This is really important. Deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to lower intellectual performance and is linked with dementia. Fish oil’s “active ingredients” are the essential fatty acids, DHA and EPA. 30% of the content of your brain is these very fatty acids! No fatty acids, no brain. And it’s really tough to eat enough fish to get the right amount of fatty acids, so take a good supplement. Do your best to get at least 600 milligrams of combined DHA/EPA per day.
Eat fresh fruits and vegetables!
The best ones, according to the US Dep’t of Agriculture, have the highest antioxidant value: blueberries, blackberries, cranberries, strawberries, spinach, raspberries, brussel sprouts, plums, broccoli, beets, avocados, oranges, red grapes, red bell peppers, cherries, and kiwis. Five servings a day of fruits and vegetables is recommended. (a serving is a half cup.)
Drink Green Tea
Green tea (and to a lesser extent, black tea) slows the build-up of plaque in brains from amyloid deposits, and also prevents strokes. Drinking tea also helps mental alertness.
Eat Eggs
Eggs are rich in choline, a fat-like B vitamin. Studies have shown that it increases memory and chases away fatigue.
Get Exercise
Greater blood circulation means more oxygen to the brain, and more production of mood-enhancing endorphins.
Meditate
Meditation changes brain frequency and function. The frequencies of deep meditation allow a “brain rest” you cannot get anywhere else. Meditation also enhances connection and symmetry between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.
Try the three top supplements: Alpha-lipoic acid, Acetyl-l-carnitine and Phosphatidyl Serine.
• Alpha Lipoic acid (aLa). This supplement is a powerful antioxidant, and is both fat and water soluble. It can actually get into the brain easily, and can pass through to all areas of the cells to “mop up” free radicals and stop their damage. A former NIH researcher, Dr. Bruce Ames did “rat maze” studies on Alpha Lipoic Acid and the next supplement in the list, Acetyl-L –Carnitine, and showed that the combination of these two caused aging rats who had been confused in the mazes prior to taking the supplements, to make dramatic changes within a month—to be able to perform in the mazes like young rats.
• Acetyl-L-Carnitine. This is the other half of the “A-team for the brain.” It is a primary contributor to the production of the neurotransmitter “acetylcholine,” which is required for mental function. Double-blind clinical trials suggest acteyl-L-carnitine helps the performance of people with Alzheimer’s, and delays the progression of the disease.
• Phosphatidyl Serine. This supplement actually stimulates cells brain cells to make new dendrites and axons. People who take it remember more names, faces, phone numbers, and written information.
That’s it—the whole brain makeover. Happy thinking!
The brain controls the entire body. It is our primary health maintenance organ and the seat of energy production. When it is functioning well total body health is improved. The best way to get good long term brain enhancement is to feed it and use it. Brain nutrients have a rapidly noticeable effect on increased brain performance. Good consistent brain nourishment can straighten out even grave mental, emotional and coordination problems.
Brain health different for children, teen, adult or elderly – for children and teens the brain is still developing, adults you looking at strengthening and maintaining so you avoid degeneration as much as possible when elderly.
How to keep your brain healthy
• Practice stress busters like yoga, or meditation
• Sunshine is great – be outdoors 20-30 minutes per day
• Avoid electromagnetic fields (EMF’s), limit cellular use and acquire protection from WiFi and electricity
• Choose lean quality protein
• Eat Almonds to improve memory, drink Apple juice to increase acetylcholine
• Reduce sugar intake
• Take a B-complex to handle stress and increase memory power
• Emphasize omega 3 fatty acids and omega 9 fats, avoid trans fats
• Practice good sleep habits, avoid heavy meals at night they cause tossing and turning
• Engage in aerobic exercise and mental exercise
• Avoid exposure to chemicals
• Balance the Neurotransmitters in the Brain Serotonin, Dopamine, GABA, Acetylcholine
• Use Energy Medicine such as Colored Light Therapy to balance system, Lasers for biofield restructuring, Ondamed to enhance the bodies frequencies
Possible Props: supplements, foods, energy equipment.
by Monica Talebnia
You are the lucky owner of a magnificent piece of biological machinery – the human brain. Your brain is always on, performs lightning-fast calculations, and is a whiz at making connections between seemingly unrelated factors and observations. The only downside is that your brain didn’t come with an owner’s manual.
Fortunately, your brain has no moving parts. All the action is on the inside – inside the black box. And, your brain is always available. It will do whatever you tell it to do. All you have to do is take care of it properly – provide it with energy, take it out for a walk, and make sure it’s connected.
The energy part could be easy, but most of us fall down on the job. Our bodies require high-quality nutrition, but mostly what they get is a poor substitute. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain cereals; complete protein from milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, fish, chicken, turkey; and plenty of water cover daily requirements for optimum functioning. [If you're a vegetarian, make sure you get complete protein from dairy products - rice and beans do not provide complete protein!]
A balanced food plan provides your brain with all the energy it needs 1 – and it needs plenty of energy! Glucose is the primary source of energy for your brain – complex carbohydrates like potatoes and whole grains make it all happen.
Going for a walk – a metaphor for all kinds of vigorous physical activity – not only helps keep you in top shape but is also one of the best things you can do for your brain. So many recent scientific studies have shown that peak brain function and levels of exercise are strongly related.2, 3
Physical activity causes new areas of your brain to “light up” and builds connections between areas of your brain that weren’t connected before. So, you’re body’s getting smarter at the same time that you’re getting smarter! A pretty good deal.
Finally, it’s very important to make sure that all the parts of your body are talking to each other in the right way and at the right time. Your brain needs to receive the information it’s supposed to receive to make good decisions, and your body needs to receive the information it needs from your brain to get all the jobs done that need to be done.
Regular chiropractic care helps make sure these things are happening. Regular chiropractic care helps balance the flow of information in your nervous system, taking care of you and your brain.
1) Rosales FJ, Zelsel Sh: Perspectives from the symposium: The Role of Nutrition in Infant and Toddler Brain and Behavioral Development. Nutr Neurosci 11(3):135-143, 2008
2) Christie BR, et al: Exercising our brains: how physical activity impacts synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus. Neuromolecular Med 10(2):47-58, 2008
3) Lange-Asschenfeldt C, Kojda G: Alzheimer’s disease, cerebrovascular dysfunction and the benefits of exercise: From vessels to neurons. Exp Gerontol 43(6):499-504, 2008
Computerized electric conductance testing measures electric response at acupuncture points. This scan can read the balance of energy in your lungs or other organs; it can reflect your reactions to food and food additives. It can show whether you have a reaction to dust, molds, and other allergens, toxic chemicals, or metals, whether you are infected with a parasite, bacteria or fungus, and how your emotions are affecting your health.
At Wellness Associates of Chicago we have had more than four years of experience testing with this system. The results have high rate of agreement with other forms of testing. Our clients have found that when they eliminate the foods, additives, chemicals and allergens that the computer shows are reactive, generally their illnesses–”irritable bowel“, chronic sinusitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD), ADD, eczema, acne, abdominal pain, restless leg syndrome, migraine headaches–go away.
We have heard wonderful results from parents. Recently the mother of a seven year old we had tested last year came to get tested herself. She told us that her daughter’s life had changed completely. From age two to age seven, five long years, her daughter had had severe eczema, sores all over her body, intense itching, repeated ear and sinus infections, gum disease, and recurrent strep throats. Her mother said she had been at the doctor almost every week. After testing with the computer method, and removing the allergenic foods and airborne pollutants identified by the computer from this little girl’s diet and environment, her mother said that she had just spent a year being completely well. She only saw a doctor once-when she fell on the playground and hit her hand. She only got a rash once, and that was when she decided to try to eat a piece of cake.
This non-invasive method is suitable for adults and children. We have tested children who are less than two years old. There are approximately 14,000 items in the system, including hundreds of foods, and many chemicals, metals, microbes, and allergens. They may be tested painlessly and quickly. The standard test takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes. A wand that looks and feels like a ballpoint pen is pressed against different acupuncture points on the fingers, while the person who is being tested holds another metal wand. The result is shown on the computer, and is able to be printed out and taken home as a guide.
The computer can detect many types of reactions. One is the “classic” Type I allergic reaction that is a histamine response, and causes symptoms such as hives and immediate swelling of the lips face or throat. However, the computer also records other types of allergic response, including the other three, more delayed-type responses. Delayed type responses are particularly important in food reactions, since many allergies to foods do not involve histamines. Allergists often tell people who suffer from illnesses caused by delayed reactions to foods that they absolutely do not have food allergies. Yet, the allergists have limited their testing to skin tests for histamine response, and have never considered the possibility of, or testing for, delayed type allergies.
These delayed symptoms come on as much as several hours to a day after eating an allergenic food, and cause inflammatory responses that target many different parts of the body-causing problems such as attention or memory deficits, (allergy-based brain dysfunction), sinus or migraine headaches, “irritable bowel”, bloating, fatigue, chronic sinusitis, swollen lymph glands, eczema, psoriasis and other forms of skin problems, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, rapid heart beat, and swelling in the face, hands and legs. These are often diagnosed with terms based on the symptoms rather than the cause-and are called, for example “fibromyalgia” “chronic sinusitis” “irritable bowel syndrome” or “chronic constipation”, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) etc. These “diagnoses” are really only descriptions of groups of symptoms, and do not deal with the causes of the problems. Therefore, the delayed type allergies are never discovered, and are not treated. In the United States, this type of testing must be classified as non-medical, and non-diagnostic. In Germany, conductance testing is used extensively by medical doctors, and its scientific basis is recognized.
Here is some of the latest scientific theory about the method, from a recent article by a Chinese researcher. In terms of the science of electronics, balance in the body system can be defined as “coherence, or harmonic resonance, in a dynamically stable system of electromagnetic standing wave interference patterns within a resonance cavity.” This may seem complicated at first, but is easy to understand with some definitions of the terms:
1. resonance cavity: an enclosed space, such as the human body, which contains patterns of electromagnetic waves
2. standing wave patterns: patterns of standing waves similar to those in water around submerged rocks in a stream
3. dynamic stability: a stable pattern which is maintained only with continued stable energy input
4. harmonic resonance: a coherent pattern of electromagnetic or sound waves that is like the distribution of tones in a harmonic chord of music
5. coherence: coordination of patterns in a manner that makes a field of wave forms work as a system.
If you picture the “standing wave” patterns of the body as a field of stable waves like those around rocks in a flowing stream, you can see that it would be “dynamically stable” just as the stream is, and would be affected by many factors. If you slow a stream down, speed it up, or move the rocks, there is a change in the height and pattern of the waves. The same thing happens to the wave pattern in your body when physical, emotional and environmental factors change your energy and state of well-being.
Acupuncture points represent standing wave peaks in the body’s entire system of waves. They are close to the surface of the skin, and have higher electrical field strength than other points in the system.* Measuring response at these points of higher electrical field strength can reveal much about the operation of your entire system. This is the current scientific theory behind the testing.
Computerized testing helps to solve medical mysteries by getting beyond diagnoses that are only descriptions of symptoms, and discovering the real causes of health problems.
*Zhang, Chang-lin “Skin Resistance vs. Body Conductivity: On the Backgound of Electronic Measurement on Skin” ISEEM, Vol 14 No. 2, (January 2005) pp. 151-174
For more information about Electric Conductive Testing or to contact Dr. Martha Howard, call 773-935-6377.
by Esther Kuntz
My lifelong vision problems never would have been diagnosed or treated if it hadn’t been for my young children.
Initially, my husband and I sought Dr. Getzell’s help because both of our children had difficulties with reading and writing, as well as balance and fine and gross motor skills. I was completely unaware that I too had severe difficulties with visual perception. At age 40, my eyesight was still better than 20/20, and I had always been very proud that I never needed glasses or contact lenses. My husband and friends envied my “perfect eyesight.”
But as Dr. Getzell explains, sight and vision aren’t synonymous. Sight is how clearly and at what distance one sees objects. It tells nothing about how well a person’s eyes, brain and body work together to process what is seen. It is vision, not sight, that influences learning, thinking, posture and balance.
Nevertheless, I had always excelled academically and earned my living as a professional writer. I would never have gotten treatment—or indeed even suspected I had a problem—if my children hadn’t become patients first. But within a year, all three of us were wearing behavioral lenses and doing vision training activities daily.
One salient trait that we all shared was a tendency to focus in on a small portion of whatever we looked at—what Dr. Getzell called tunneling, or a failure to see the big picture. Although our eyes could see everything clearly, the amount of information that our brains took in and processes was limited.
For example, a year ago I was assigned to cover a conference for a newsletter. I looked at the flyer and picked up the phone to ask for directions and find out where I should park. The person I spoke with immediately pointed out that all of that information was on the flyer in front of me. I had looked at the flyer, but I hadn’t seen the whole page.
The first clue that I shared the same diagnosis with my children came during my son’s initial exam. To demonstrate the concept of visual perception to us as parents, Dr. Getzell asked my husband and me to each try to knock over a plastic bowling pin with a ball, both with and without special glasses. Dad accomplished this effortlessly without lenses. But when he put them on, he fell down. The opposite happened to me. Without lenses, I missed the pin by a mile. With them, I knocked it over. It was then that I began to wonder whether poor visual perception might be the explanation for my poor athletic ability. I had taken refuge in academics as a child because I couldn’t play.
Still I was doubtful.
Certainly, I read and wrote well. My articles were published in national magazines. But Dr. Getzell explained that I didn’t read and write as well as I would be able to if I completed vision training.
I had suffered from eyestrain since I was about 25, which limited the number of hours I could work. One optometrist had given me some eye exercises, but they made my eyes hurt more, so I had quickly given them up.
I began vision training for two reasons: one was for my benefit, but the other was to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment personally. Children are rarely self-aware or forthcoming in telling their parents how vision training is transforming their lives for the better. About the most they will do is complain about having to spend so much time doing the activities.
Skeptics of any treatment or educational intervention for children frequently claim that the child would have achieved the results without it. The child simply developed at a slower than average rate, they argue. He would have done it anyway. Or perhaps the credit should go to some other teaching method used at school. The same arguments could not be made about any changes I experienced because I am an adult, and I wasn’t involved in any other forms of therapy or self-improvement.
During my eye exam, Dr. Getzell asked me to stand up, close my eyes and tell him which way my body was leaning—forward, backward or to one side. Then he would try different lenses on me until I felt like I was standing up straight. With these lenses, I walked more smoothly with longer strides and my shoulders were level for the first time. This was the prescription for my very first pair of glasses.
But it seemed like a long wait for that prescription to be filled. Dr. Getzell had made me more aware of how my vision affected the way I perceived my body. For many years, my right eye had frequently hurt from strain, but how I noticed that it actually felt lower and further recessed in my head than my left eye. I felt like a figure in a Picasso painting, even though my reflection in the mirror looked perfectly normal. Over the next year of therapy, my right eye would feel as though it was gradually shifting positions until it felt symmetrical with the left eye.
From the moment I first put on my new glasses, my world opened up for me, and two weeks of euphoria followed. I was immediately more aware of the space around me, and rooms looked larger to me. Not only was I conscious of the space in front of me, on either side and above me that I could see, but I was also aware of the space behind me.
Within a few days I began to perceive myself as the center of a circle or an ever-changing map that stretched out indefinitely all around me. (Later, when I became more aware of the space above me, I felt I was the center of a hemisphere.) This especially helped me with driving because I could make better sense of what I saw in the rear view mirror. Before I had been sometimes confused about the orientation of cars in the mirror, and so I didn’t check it as often as I should.
During those first two weeks, common household tasks become noticeably easier for me. My movements were more fluid so that I could transition more smoothly from one to the next. Kitchen work went faster, and I began to think that at last I might be able to keep up.
You see, I’d always been called slow. I remember staying in for recess and at lunchtime regularly in the early grades to complete my work. I was able to do almost everything well except sports, because I compensated for my poor visual perception by doing things slowly.
Other people sometimes accused me of not carrying my share of the load, because I didn’t work as fast as they did. I would get angry with them and frustrated with myself. Actually, I was working very hard, but because of my undiagnosed vision problems, my efforts didn’t show.
But just as I was thinking that the glasses had miraculously changed my life almost overnight, they stopped working for me. Housework became slow and difficult again. I became less aware of my surroundings. I would need more than the glasses to sustain the kind of changes I had experienced initially, so I began vision training alongside my children.
I noticed changes almost continually over the entire course of my training. Some were obvious, others subtle. But the most dramatic was in depth perception—though I had never known before that my depth perception was poor.
After I’d been in training for about two months, I looked out the window one morning and said, “What’s that?” The world suddenly looked vastly different to me. I was seeing it in three dimensions for the first time. This was something I had previously perceived only in stereo photographs and miniature rooms in museums. I had no idea that the real world looked that way. It was much more beautiful than I had ever imagined. Now every time I step outside, I still marvel at the beauty of the spaces between trees and branches.
Throughout my therapy, I noted continual improvements in my reading, balance and coordination. I no longer reread material to grasp the meaning, and my reading speed increased. Proofreading became quicker, easier and more accurate. I could check whole words and sentences at a glance, instead of letter by letter, and be certain of their accuracy. One day while I was paying bills I found myself able to copy account numbers in one or two glances—three or four numerals at a time. Before I had always copied numbers one or two at a time and checked and double-checked. I suddenly understood why I had to stay in for recess in first grade.
The glasses even affected my speech. Once when I was between prescriptions, I became less articulate. I hesitated, tripped over my tongue and felt generally less confident in myself. As soon as I got my new lenses, I spoke well again.
Dr. Getzell can demonstrate these results readily in his office. He has asked my daughter and me to read both with and without our new prescriptions. We always sound more fluent with the proper lenses. Anyone listening can easily hear the difference.
The same phenomenon happens with my daughter’s feet. Without her glasses, she is decidedly pigeon-toed. But when she wears them, her feet point almost straight ahead when she walks. Again, it all has to do with vision directing and monitoring the body’s performance.
My vision training has bestowed numerous benefits, but perhaps the most important is safer driving. My spotless driving record frankly was due more to luck than to skill. I was a very cautious, hesitant driver who checked and double checked at intersections and on-ramps, but who also had a very large blind spot and often couldn’t react quickly enough.
Now that I have completed vision training, I can check over my shoulder once and confidently turn the corner or merge with oncoming traffic, knowing I haven’t failed to see an oncoming vehicle. I’m no longer terrified of the expressway or afraid to drive my children to their many activities.
In fact, safe driving is a major reason why I want both of my children to complete vision training. At least I’ll know that when its time for them to learn to drive, I’ve done all I can to ensure their safety.
I completed my training last May. I need my glasses only for close work now. But in the six months since I finished I have observed further changes.
Dr. Getzell told me that how we see affects how we think. If we can see the whole picture, we can understand and organize better and faster, because we can see patterns and relationships instantly. Vision happens all at once, not sequentially or piece-meal.
I was doubtful until the day I cleaned my refrigerator. In the past, this had been a half day job, as I washed a shelf at a time and tried to figure out where to put it while I washed another. Then once I got the appliance entirely emptied, I fiddled around with how to put it back together again.
This time was different. All the shelves and drawers came out in order and went back in reverse order. Te operation was clear and simple.
But I hadn’t worked at vision training for a year so I could clean my refrigerator more efficiently. What about my writing?
Although being a writer is central to my identity, writing itself had often been a dreaded chore. I enjoyed having written much more than the act of writing itself. Often, I had difficulty organizing my thoughts and identifying the main idea. In short, I didn’t know where to start. As a deadline approached, my anxiety levels climbed sky high. What if I couldn’t do it?
My method for longer articles was to collect my notes and ideas on my computer and then arrange and rearrange them until I found an order that flowed reasonably well. Then I would flesh out the story. I think of this method as akin to putting a jigsaw puzzle together piece by piece.
In fact, to meet deadlines, I had to focus all of my thoughts and energy intensely on the task and give up the rest of my life and a lot of sleep. Dishes piled up in the sink, family members complained that they had no clean clothes, and I abandoned my exercise program.
Actually, I have done little professional writing in recent years because I couldn’t balance the needs of my family with the demands of editors. This article is the first I have attempted since completing vision training. And it has come together very differently.
I didn’t have time to read and arrange the copious notes I kept during the training period. I wrote this entirely from memory. From the start, I knew the beginning, the ending and every step in between.
While I had to give up some activities to write this, I didn’t have to drop everything. During the three days that I worked on it, our family routine remained the same, and I also attended three of my daughter’s performances in a variety show. And I have enjoyed the time I spent writing. I look forward to finishing soon and having this Sunday afternoon to share with my family.
Vision training has given my life a rhythm that has dramatically reduced anxiety and stress. In training, Dr. Getzell stresses rhythmic breathing and performing all activities to the beat of a metronome set at 60 beats per minute. Eventually, my internal body clock was reset to the steady beat. I used to work slowly, but then rush to catch up in an uncontrolled way. I thought that I never had enough time to finish and that I was saving time by rushing. That was why I often made mistakes in sports. Now I feel that there is time for everything, and everything will get done if I simply work steadily.
The rhythm has helped my music. I play both the piano and violin, but my rhythm was never good. And I had trouble coordinating the fingering o the violin with the bow changes, thus producing a fuzzy sound. Now I am confident of the rhythm when I play and enjoy playing more than ever.
Overall, vision training has led me to a healthier life with much less stress. I went through many changes during the years I was in training. The most obvious to everyone was that I lost 40 pounds. Jenny Craig shares some of the credit, but Dr. Getzell motivated me. He told me that being overweight changed my posture and adversely affected my vision. Also, vision training was the first significant thing I had done for myself in the 10 years since the birth of my first child. The therapy got me started taking care of myself again.
At the same time, my children have become more physically and academically capable, which makes my life easier. As my 11-year-old son winds up his training, he is able to learn new material much more readily and is doing better in all school subjects this fall than I ever expected him to.
My daughter has caught up with her second grade class in reading, after six months of vision training. (Although she got glasses at about the same time as my son and me, she didn’t begin training until later.) Interestingly, the big jump in her reading ability came over the summer, when no one was teaching her to read, but she was doing vision training. It is more common for children to lose reading skills over the summer.
My self-confidence has grown immensely. Before the training, I was a little hesitant and slow to respond because vision required such effort. (Or I missed the obvious as with the previously mentioned conference flyer.) People reacted with impatience and subtle rejection that ate away at my self-esteem daily from childhood. Now at 42, I feel I am better than ever in all ways. Even my bowling score is up dramatically from what it was a few weeks ago. Until this fall I never got more than a few points over 100.
It’s never too late to begin vision training. Remarkable changes happen whether the patient is six or sixty.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Dr. Getzell’s office: 847-866-9850, or go to his website: www.pathwaystobettervision.com