PEAK PERFORMANCE + NEUROFEEDBACK

“Peak performance training is designed to make the already functional individual perform at a much higher level. The difference between two equally gifted athletes, one who excels and one who “also ran,” is more than likely the ability to perform at their peak when it counts. Two equally gifted children in school may not have the same grade point average and that could obviously be for a lot of reasons. We feel that the primary reason for this type of disparity is that one of the children is likely functioning closer to peak performance than the other child. We would all like to perform at our maximum potential in whatever we do, but that is not always the case. If the brain is slightly dysregulated, it is probably more easily distracted and focus and concentration are not as sharp.

A golfer, football player, stockbroker, and high school student taking a test will all do better if they have maximum concentration. Unfortunately, concentration is a problem for a lot of people if the brain is making too many slow-frequency waves, the brain is too sluggish for pinpoint concentration. If, on the other hand, the brain is racing, as in the case of anxiety, it cannot focus singularly on the task at hand. We need the midrange EEG waves to achieve optimum performance.” (Young Brains)

“One application of neurofeedback’s capacity to change focus and attention has been in the area of performance enhancement. Neurofeedback training has been shown to improve cognitive flexibility, creativity, athletic control, and inner awareness. I do not know of any other psychiatric treatment that can do that.

In Italy, Bruno Demichelis, the head psychologist of MilanLab, a research center established by soccer club AC Milan, taught his players to maintain a state of relaxation while watching video recordings of their errors, which led to increased mental and physiological control. In 2006 several of these players were members of the Italian team that won the World Cup. The following year, AC Milan won the European championship.

Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers, the 7-foot NBA center, is a poster child for neurofeedback training. In his early years in the NBA he had trouble concentrating and often lost track of what he was doing. After a series of neurofeedback sessions under the supervision of psychologist Tim Royer he averaged a career-high 17.9 points, 13.7 rebounds, and three blocks per game, and became a dominant center in the NBA. Kaman attributes his athletic improvement to neurofeedback.” (Neurofeedback . . . Developmental Trauma.)

Neurofeedback can improve your performance academically, professionally, athletically.

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Source:
Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain
by Sebern F. Fisher
Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain 1st Edition
by Sebern F. Fisher

Gregg Sledziewski and Mikka Knapp, RDN, LDN.

The Brain Wave Center is more than brain mapping and neurofeedback. We also work with clients on the everyday things we do in life that contribute to our health, including nutrition. And, as a many of us parents have just realized – the first month of school is here!

For parents, that means the added duty of packing a nutritious lunch and snacks to sustain your children’s mental power and energy throughout the day. Luckily, choosing brain healthy snacks is easier than you think. Below are a few snacks researched by our Registered Dietitian that are easy to find and pack and taste great as well!

Trail mix with walnuts and dried fruit:
Nuts are superfoods for the brain! Walnuts are particularly powerful because they are rich in anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids, such as DHA, which are essential for brain function. They also have twice as many antioxidants as other nuts. The natural sweetness from the dried fruit makes this a kid-friendly snack.

Mashed avocado on rice crackers:
The brain is almost completely made of fat, so eating a variety of fats is important for peak performance. Avocados help the brain cells remain flexible and protects nerve cells from damage. Mash an avocado onto a rice cracker for a fun handheld snack.

Blueberries:
All berries are great for brain power, but blueberries stand above the rest. They’re perfect for quick energy and the deep blue color tells us they’re full of antioxidants. Studies have found that diets high in blueberries show improvement in memory and concentration. Blueberries even support the production of the “happy” neurotransmitter, serotonin, to help with the back-to-school-blues.

Fruit and greens squeeze pouch:
We all know dark leafy greens are part of a healthy diet, but I’ve yet to meet a kid that can’t get enough kale. Luckily, fruit and greens squeeze packs are a tasty way to sneak it into your kids’ diet without fuss. Research even tells us that those who routinely eat dark leafy greens have a mental edge over people who rarely or never eat them.

Almond butter banana roll-up:
Here’s a snack you can whip up while you’re still waiting for your coffee to brew. Simply spread some natural almond butter on a whole wheat tortilla and roll a banana up in it. It has quick energy in the carbs and sustained energy in the fat. Bananas are also a great source of potassium, which helps brain cells communicate with each other and stave off the dreaded “brain fog”.

Chia seed snack packs:
If you haven’t tried chia pudding before, now’s the chance! Chia seeds are bursting with brain benefits, like healthy omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, zinc, and magnesium. These easy squeeze packs are perfect to toss in a lunch box and will keep your little one going until
the bell rings.

Oatmeal and fruit squeeze pouch:
Researchers are the University of Toronto found that eating healthy carbs, such as oatmeal, is like a shot of energy to the brain. The quick glucose is used for energy, attention, and concentration. Oatmeal and fruit squeeze packs are a simple and time-saving way to get your kids to eat oats.

Dried seaweed snacks:
Most of us wouldn’t think of seaweed as the ideal kid snack, but kids go nuts for them! They’re crunchy, slightly salty, and a much better alternative to potato chips. Best of all, they’re rich in iodine. Research finds that even mild deficiencies of iodine can impair brain function in kids. Seaweed snacks are a great way to make sure your little one’s iodine bases are covered.

This article was written by the Brain Wave Center in collaboration with Bright Body Nutrition. For more information please give us a call
at 941-552-4500.

To view the original article in Family Living Magazine please visit: https://www.floridafamilyliving.com/single-post/2018/08/21/Back-to-School-Snacks-for-Brain-Health

Imagine if you will, living in a state of constant worry. Sometimes it is just a sense of uneasiness; at other times, it is a chronic state of fear; and at still other times, it is a paralysis of will. There are people who spend their life bracing for what could happen. Some individuals are in constant dread of some event that may or may not happen. Others have episodic dread and even panic. Technically speaking, this exaggerated fear response is a result of an overexcited limbic system. That is a part of the brain that responds to emotions.

Anxiety and panic attacks are often referred to as the disorder of “what if.” What if this happens, what if that happens, what if I get sick, what if they die, what if the sky falls, Henny Penny? Most of us are not paralyzed by the future. Sure, things can happen and we could suffer the insults of life, but we will deal with it when it happens. For others, however, their entire lives are predicated on what could happen; the thoughts and images they conjure are not very pleasant. They are living almost exclusively in the future, which means that they have abdicated the now. There is very little danger in the now. If people stopped to look realistically at the now, they would find that they are in no immediate danger of death, starvation, mutilation, or any of the other awful fears they have. The now is usually very safe, but patients with anxiety and panic don’t live in the now because they are too busy fighting with the future. Neurofeedback calms the overexcited limbic system and helps them focus on living in the now.

Children frequently have anxieties about the broad new world they are facing; fortunately for most children, these are just stages that they grow through. For some children, however, anxiety becomes a way of life and many of their anxieties are carried into adulthood. Anxieties also tend to generalize from one worry to another, to another. We frequently hear childhood stories of anxieties that persist even into the late stages of adult life. If children can be helped before these “worries” become entrenched, they can avoid a lot of pain in later years.

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Source:
Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain 1st Edition
by Sebern F. Fisher

We do not normally think of children being depressed, but depression knows no social, economic, gender, or age boundaries. There are many children with dysregulated brains who manifest symptoms of depression. Many children diagnosed with ADHD and other disorders are actually depressed, and if you clear the depression the attentional and behavioral problems disappear. Depression can manifest at any age. Once again, if we rescue the child, we save the adult. If brainwaves are not regulated in childhood, they may carry those dysregulated brainwaves into adulthood. We know of no specific clinical studies confirming that treatment of children for depression precludes depressive patterns in adulthood, but in our clinical practices, this idea seems to hold up.

Often children do not demonstrate the typical signs we think of as depressive signals; instead, some children become more irritable and defiant. They are often angry about not feeling well and so they act out or show irritability or impulsivity. They get labeled as stubborn, disobedient, oppositional, or mean, when, in fact, they just feel lousy and are mad about it. Depression produces unhappy feeling and often severe emotional pain. No one wants a child to live in a chronic state of unhappiness. Brainwave training can help even with severe symptoms. If a child or an adult is on antidepressant medications when they come for neurofeedback, they are usually trained while they are on the medication. As the symptoms improve, the medication is titrated down.

Neurofeedback helps regulate clusters of symptoms. From Healing Young Brains. Robert Hill, Ph.D., Eduardo castro, M.D.

“Early in the development f neurofeeback, several practitioners proposed the idea of global dysregulation. The idea behind his theory is that if brainwaves are dysregulated, there is a strong likelihood of a cluster of symptoms rather than just a single problem. This made sense because seldom will you find anyone with just one symptom related to any disorder. For example, a child with ADHD is likely to have sleep problems, low self-esteem, depression, and perhaps angry outbursts. Another child with the same diagnosis may show generalized irritability, defiance toward authority, and perhaps a tic disorder, and so there is usually a cluster of symptoms, not just a single problem. Practitioners observed that when they started to regulate the ADHD brain, other symptoms began to disappear. For example, not only did the child become more focused, but sleep also improved, tics disappeared, and the child became much easier to work with. In addition, therapists noticed that self-esteem improved, attitude brightened, and depression dissolved. We observed that symptoms in the cluster improved in practically every disorder we treated with neurofeedback. This reinforced the idea of global dysregulation and that various symptoms cluster with other problems; when you regulate one symptom, the others improve.

Allopathic medicine generally focuses on the primary complaint and tries to ameliorate the single problem with a treatment modality such as medication. Medications, however successful, generally carry unwanted side effects. Often a patient will have one drug to treat a single problem and two other drugs to treat the side effects of the first drug. Neurofeedback, on the other hand, seldom, if ever, has unwanted side effecs. In fact, the effects of neurofeedback are generally the amelioration of additional symptoms in the cluster. If the training session does cause an unwanted side effect such as a headache or a sleepless night, it can be remedied in a single neurofeedback session. Many physicians we work with complain that their patients come in with a laundry list of problems; how do you treat five or ten problems at once? In neurofeedback, we expect multiple symptoms with every problem and so this is not a concern. We target the primary problem while charting the other problems in the cluster, knowing that we are addressing more than a single symptom. We recognize that symptoms cluster rater than come in one nice little package with one single complaint.”

In November 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics approved biofeedback and Neurofeedback as a Level 1 or “best support” treatment option for children suffering from ADHD.

Pediatrics. 2014 Mar: 133(3):483-92. doi:10. 1542/peds.2013-2059. Epub 2014 Feb 17
In-school neurofeedback training for ADHD: sustained improvements from a randomized control trial.:
Steiner NJ 1, Frenette EC, Rene KM, Brennan RT, Perrin EC

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate sustained improvements 6 months after a 40 session, in-school computer attention training intervention using neurofeedback or cognitive training (CT)
administered to 7-to 11-year-olds with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: One hundred four children were randomly assigned to receive neurofeedback, CT,
or a control condition and were evaluated 6 months postintervention. A 3-point growth model assessed change over time across the conditions on the Conners 3-Parent Assessment Report.
(Conners 3-P), the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function Parent Form (BRIEF), and a systematic double-blinded classroom observation (Behavioral Observation of Students in
Schools). Analysis of variance assessed community-initiated changes in stimulant medication.

RESULTS: Parent response rates were 90 at the 6-month follow-up. Six months postintervention, neurofeedback participants maintained significant gains on Conners 3-P
(Inattention effect size [ES] = 0.34. Executive Functioning ES = 0.25. Hyperactivity/Impulsivity ES = 0.23) and BRIEF subscales including the Global Executive Composite (ES = 0.31), which
remained significantly greater than gains found among children in CT and control conditions. Children in the CT condition showed delayed improvement over immediate postintervention
ratings only on Conners 3-P Executive Functioning (ES = 0.18) and 2 BRIEF subscales.

At the 6-month follow-up, neurofeedback participants maintained the same stimulant medication dosage, whereas participants in both CT and control conditions showed statistically and
clinically significant increases (9 mg [P = .002] and 13 mg [P < .001], respectively.) CONCLUSIONS: Neurofeedback participants made more prompt and greater improvements in ADHD symptoms, which were sustained at the 6-month follow-up, than did CT participants or those in the control group. This finding suggests that neurofeedback is a promising attention training treatment for children with ADHD. Keywords: Neurofeedback treatment, neurofeedback vs. cognitive training, Nuerofeedback, pediatrics, pediatrics Neurofeedback with ADHD

About a dozen former Denver Broncos, some from the Orange Crush era, are taking part in a research study they say is helping them recover from post-concussion symptoms and traumatic brain injuries. They believe those injuries were suffered during their playing days.

The process uses Neurofeedback to “Re-train” the brain and restore healthy brainwave patterns that were knocked out of balance by years of hard hits in football games.

After going through the protocol, “It was kind of like night and day,” said former Denver Broncos offensive lineman Dave Studdard, “The light came back on, clarity just everywhere.”

He said concussion protocol in his playing days consisted of “Take a play off then come back in.” A few years ago, Studdard said he noticed he “couldn’t get anything clear in my mind… a constant fog. I felt like I was in a big fog and didn’t know how to get out.”

Watch the video above for the full story.

Neurofeedback has quickly become the newest tool in the war against long term concussion injuries. Just ask 12 former Denver Broncos who are taking part in a research study they say is helping them recover from post-concussion symptoms and traumatic brain injuries. They believe those injuries were suffered during their playing days.  

But why neurofeedback? The reason is because neurofeedback is uniquely suited to address the root cause of the effects from concussions and brain injuries: Brainwaves. During a football impact between 2 players, the head is bumped violently. While the brain itself is designed to withstand the occasional blunt force trauma, your brainwaves are not so lucky. Brainwaves are responsible for most every aspect of your life, from sleep regulation to routine actions and critical thinking. A head trauma of any kind can knock these brainwaves out of rhythm, which can cause a domino effect of neurological conditions to manifest days or even years later.

There are 4 main brainwave types in your head: Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta. Each serve different functions in the brain. Delta brainwaves are strongest when we are sleeping and help us rest and recharge. Beta brainwaves are strongest when we are awake, alert and processing information. You are using Beta brainwaves to read this article and process the information.

Decades of research have shown that a brain injury can impact Delta brainwaves by speeding them up. If Delta brainwaves are moving too fast, it will disrupt sleeping patterns, which can lead to many symptoms associated with a lack of the proper sleep your body needs to recharge and recover. In addition to this, a brain injury can slow down your Beta brainwaves. This can lead to a lack of focus and attention, brain fog, or even slower processing of information. If you can imagine a person who has trouble sleeping, has focus problems and processes information slower, you can imagine the negative impact that will have on their personality and well-being.

Fortunately for concussion sufferers, there is neurofeedback, a non-invasive process that restores normal brain function. Neurofeedback does one thing: It corrects brainwaves. If your Beta brainwaves are running too slow, neurofeedback can speed them up. Similarly, it can slow down Delta  brainwaves. With brainwaves moving at the proper speed, the brain and body can  heal itself and function better, thereby reducing or eliminating brain injury symptoms.

If you think you have the symptoms of a brain injury, then find out for sure. The first step is to call our office and schedule your brain map. The process is non-invasive and only takes 20 minutes. Plus we will give you a comprehensive report of findings that you can easily read and understand. If we determine that you have a brain injury, we will recommend a plan to reduce or eliminate your symptoms using neurofeedback.

Source

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/02/08/former-broncos-seek-concussion-relief-through-neurofeedback/