Training the Brain

I was supposed to be sitting with my eyes closed not actively thinking about anything. I would venture to guess I was successful for about a minute before the silent laughter began as I pictured myself looking like a waxy Medusa. I had electrodes hanging from my earlobes and was wearing a nylon skull cap with uniform holes from front to back. Additional electrodes were affixed to pieces of my hair that had been pulled through the holes and dabbed with wax. No, I am not sharing a bizarre dream with you. This scenario is a snap shot of what happened when I got my brain mapped for neurofeedback. (My bizarre dream post can be revisited here if that's what you were hoping for).

It has been eleven months since I made the switch to a doctor who practices functional medicine. Here is a reminder of what the first round of blood work with the new doctor unearthed. On the same day we discussed the blood work results, we also discussed starting neurofeedback once it was established that I could tolerate all of the changes that were about to be made to my treatment protocol. I was so overwhelmed, that I don't even remember discussing neurofeedback. And truth be told, I'm four months into my weekly neurofeedback sessions and I am not sure I can fully explain it. But I'll try, with some help from various websites that offer information about it. It's all very scientific. I'm the opposite of that. 

What is nuerofeedback?

Neurofeedback is a therapy that stabilizes central nervous system function. It literally means “brain” and “input”, where the brain is monitored and input is given instantly.  Neurofeedback specifically monitors brainwaves, looks for irregularities, and then produces a signal that is designed to correct the irregularity and guide the brainwave back into a healthy pattern, allowing the brain to work more efficiently through repetition.  Neurofeedback retrains and rebalances the brain by interrupting the inefficient patterns identified by the brain mapping assessment, and helps the brain establish healthy brain patterns for optimal efficiency. The initial brain mapping of the brain waves helps paint a comprehensive picture of imbalances that may be present, such as areas of the brain running too fast or too slowly.

Neurofeedback targets the four primary brainwaves (Alpha, Beta, Delta, Theta). Each of these brainwaves is responsible for regulating the active and subconscious aspects of your body: 

• Delta brainwaves are associated with deep, dreamless sleep and regeneration. Delta brainwaves occur when you are asleep and are responsible for healing the body. 
• Theta brainwaves are associated with light sleep or extreme relaxation. When your subconscious takes over you start producing Theta brainwaves.
• Alpha brainwaves occur when you are awake but relaxed and not processing much information. When you first get up and right before you fall asleep, you are generating Alpha waves, as well as when you close your eyes to rest.
• Beta brainwaves are associated with the mental state most people are in during the day and most of their waking lives. When you are alert and focused, you are producing Beta brainwaves.

While each of these brainwaves corresponds with different body functions, they all are equally important to your health and well-being. The brain is the command and control center of the body. The brain has over 150 hormones called neurotransmitters which controls the endocrine system (body hormones) and the autonomic nervous system (stress levels, sleep patterns, etc). Correction of brainwave activity causes a whole cascade of events to happen to the autonomic nervous system, the body's hormones and the immune system, especially in it perpetual fight against infections. When the brain is functioning, the immune system is enhanced, and the body responds. Here is a little refresher on the autonomic nervous system if you need one.

Does Neurofeedback Hurt?

No. If it did, I probably would not be doing it! During each 35 minute session the brain is introduced to a restorative brain-wave treatment. The signal source varies based on the system used. At the place that I have been getting my treatment, visual, audio and optic stimulation are used. The treatment is non-invasive and doesn't require any drugs or medication. It requires me to sit and watch a movie while wearing photic glasses, headphones and electrodes while being hooked up to a computerized device that measures brain wave activity. The photic glasses give off a pulsing light throughout the whole session that helps stimulate the desired brain frequencies. The headphones, well those are self-explanatory! 

The Neurofeedback training process involves active sensors (electrodes) that are placed in predetermined location(s) on the scalp to record the brain’s electrical activity. Reference and ground electrodes are placed on the ears, to complete the required electrical circuit. The placement is determined individually through the brain map which provides information and specific protocols to be used in training. For the brain map, there is a specific electrode cap, which is placed on the scalp, and the software captures the electrical impulses in the brain. This method is known as an electroencephalogram (EEG). It takes 15 minutes to complete. The data is then converted into a visual brain map report.

During each session the patient sits quietly and watches a movie through the customized program based on the initial brain map. When the brain wave activity falls within healthy, efficient ranges, the patient can see and hear the movie without interruption. When the brain waves go into unhealthy, chaotic ranges the picture will get dim and the sound will diminish. The brain is trained into the healthy, efficient ranges as it figures out that it is rewarded with an uninterrupted visual and audio experience when it produces more stable, balanced brain wave activity. 

My Experience

Once a week for the past twenty weeks I've gone for a neurofeedback session before work. After arriving at the doctor's office the electrodes are connected to my head and hair, a minute long baseline of my brainwave activity is captured on the computer before the session officially starts, and then I watch a movie for 35 minutes while my brainwaves are mapped. Sounds simple, right? It's not. It's actually exhausting. 

The frequency of the program that was customized for me per the results of my brain map can be adjusted depending on how I am feeling or how I did in a previous session. A higher frequency baseline is easier than a lower frequency. On a good day I don't experience too many visual or sound interruptions during the movie, which is usually linked to a higher frequency session. On all other days, it is harder to follow the movie because of the interruptions in sound and visual, which usually come with a lower frequency session that makes my brain work over time. Here is a list of things I have experienced during the lower frequency sessions: 

• Stuffed up and/or running nose
• A few times my nose started running like a someone had turned on a faucet 
• Burning eye sensation 
• Sometimes I can barely keep them open towards the end of the session 
• Watery eyes
• Much like my nose, steady flow of water coming out of my eyes 
• Increased irritability and anger 
• Inability to pay attention 

I know you are probably very curious about which movies I have watched during my sessions. Before I share the details about two of the most extreme reactions I've had to date during my neurofeedback sessions, I am going to list the movies for you: Despicable Me, Finding Nemo, Date Night, The Incredibles, Wreck It Ralph, Good Will Hunting and Sherlock Holmes. The doctor has a small bin of movies for both adults and children to choose from. Clearly I am an adult fan of animated features. 

One morning based on the success of my three prior sessions my doctor decided to challenge me by lowering the frequency of the program, in addition to placing the electrodes on a different area of my head. Unfortunately for Pixar, these changes caused me to channel a lot of rage toward The Incredibles. From the minute I started watching the movie, I could barely hear or see the movie due to the audio and visual interruptions, which meant I was in a constant state of unhealthy brain patterns and was really straining to concentrate. It made me irritable. Not a little irritable, but INCREDIBLY irritable. I couldn't stand the voices of the characters (when I could hear them). At one point I had to fight the urge to just stand up and walk out of the office. My body straight up rebelled on me. By the end of the 35 minutes I was so angry and annoyed that I wanted to rip the heads off of the characters in the movie. When the doctor came in and stopped the movie I removed the headphones and said "Thank God that is over. I don't think I could have lasted another minute". The tone of my voice was really harsh and I remember thinking to myself, wow, was that me who just said that?  My doctor immediately apologized for working me too hard and assured me that the following week we would go back to the original electrode placement at a higher frequency. For the rest of that day and late into the following day I was engulfed in a cloud of anger which eventually evaporated. I did end up watching the rest of the movie over the next two sessions and I didn't love it, but it wasn't as bad as I remember it being for the first 35 minutes. On a few other occasions I have grown irritable during or after a session, but not to that degree.  

There are a few rules to follow leading up to the weekly sessions. 

• No gluten the day before
• Get a good night’s sleep 
• Eat a breakfast high in protein. 

A few months ago at a retirement party at work in the late afternoon I ate some pretzels. With the use of the word "some" I feel like I am under reporting. It was actually a heaping mound of pretzels. Make that multiple heaping mounds of pretzels. Let me back up for a second. I am usually good about bringing lunch and snacks to work that are suitable for my food restrictions. Every once in a while I miscalculate the amount of snacks that are needed for a day and I come up short. It just so happened, that the day before one of my neurofeedback sessions there was a late afternoon retirement party going on at my office. I attended. I was hungry. And I dove head first into a bag of pretzels from Costco. You know what that means, right? Yes, it was a huge ass bag of pretzels that I could literally dive into. And the crunchy salty goodness was amazing. Sometimes you cannot beat eating a bag of pretzels before dinner. Per my doctor's suggestion I have been gluten free throughout my whole treatment. Not only is a gluten free diet suggested for Lyme disease patients, but in three separate blood tests I have also shown an allergy to gluten and wheat. It is not the kind of allergy that lands you in the hospital after having to use an EpiPen, but the kind that slowly wreaks havoc on your body without you knowing it until somebody tells you to eliminate it from your diet and noticeable changes occur when you try to add it back in. Allow me to clarify once more. For the past 3.5+ years, I have been gluten free 99% of the time. Every once in a while I find myself eating some pizza or munching on some pretzels. 

The morning after my pretzel binge I woke up feeling achy and foggy, ate breakfast and went to my appointment. I can't even remember what movie I was watching on this specific day. I was in a daze and couldn't concentrate at all. I lost interest in trying to follow the movie. It seemed pointless. When the session ended and the doctor came in and looked at my results she was dumbfounded. She couldn’t understand why up until that session I had been so responsive and then suddenly I was not responding at all. After she checked all of the electrical equipment to make sure it wasn’t an error on her part she asked me if I had slept well. At that moment I realized the pretzels were the culprit. I apologized and confessed to eating the pretzels. It didn’t even register while I was snacking that it may impact my session the next day. She laughed at me and asked me if I had a gluten allergy. She nodded like this was not the first time this sort of thing had happened to one of her patients when I answered her. 

While recounting my neurofeedback experience in my co-workers office later that day I explained how my brain waves are mapped through the software, almost like an EKG for the brain, while I watch the movie on the computer during each session. To emphasize how unimpressive my results had been that morning, I channeled the late 80’s war on drug commercial and exclaimed "This is my brain on pretzels", while drawing a flat line in the air. This led to laughter and me wanting to design a t-shirt for myself that reads: "This is my brain on pretzels with two strips of bacon and a piece of toast". I have not participated in any more hard core gluten consumption before my sessions to test the theory that my brain doesn't function well when I eat it, because long before seeing the data from the "Pretzel session" I could have told you that I become sluggish, my intestines get upset and my productivity tanks after consuming food with wheat and/or gluten in them. 

Now would be a good time to share the noticeable improvements I've been benefiting from since starting neurofeedback, but I am not going to do that. Next week marks session 21 and we will be doing another brain map. I will revisit neurofeedback in more detail again in the near future to discuss the results of my brain maps and my progress. 

Over the past couple of weeks I have fallen into a pit of fatigue. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and not something major.  For the most part I have very positive news to share regarding the past couple of months and I need to be awake and alert to write it all! 

#nopretzels