Brain Fog
Filed under: Case of the month, Spinewave Bulletin, Symptoms, Testimonials
“I had not been sleeping well, suffered from headaches, and generally felt drained with a constant sense of doom and what I call ‘fogginess’ most of the time. I never thought for one moment that chiropractic work could be of help.”
Brain fog is an unofficial diagnosis for poor concentration, lack of mental clarity, inability to focus, indecision or forgetfulness. The term I like to use more is a sense of disconnectedness.
Disconnectedness implies a cognitive dissonance between thought and behaviour; and a dissonance between perception and reality. When perception of body or emotion is distorted, you may feel something, but that’s not what’s really going on.
There could be a hundred-and-one physiologic reasons for brain fog ranging from toxic, to neurologic, vascular, hormonal, infectious, traumatic or elemental deficiency. However, in context of “fogging of the brain” in relatively normal people – giving the definition of “normal people” a wide berth itself – all roads lead to brain. So we can look at the brain becoming fogged because of its inability to maintain normal cortical function.
The cortex is the outer layer of the brain that requires constant stimulation to keep us engaged in life. It’s where our higher “human” functions come from. The cerebral cortex is also the area that becomes damaged, shrinks and dies in the process of Alzheimer’s Disease, which would obviously be an extreme case of brain fog.
For optimal performance on a day to day basis, the cortex requires the appropriate amount of “arousal” to keep it stimulated in a positive fashion. This can also be called eustress: the right amount of stress which is healthy and promotes learning and growth. When the cortex becomes overstimulated, or over-stressed, this is called distress and has a negative impact on its function and performance. Finding balance is the key.
Arousal is a term that can be used to describe a level of physiological activity in the body leading to activation of the cortex, because all roads lead to brain. The inverted-U theory states that as arousal increases, so too does performance, up to a point where further increases in arousal cause performance to decrease (see graph).
The challenge with modern day society is that we’re over-stimulated, most of the time, beyond the point of optimum performance for the brain. Especially when we’re setting big challenges for ourselves with high expectations, or simply trying make ends meet. Either end of that challenge spectrum eventually ends in burn out unless managed properly. As the curve begins to dip over the other side, signs and symptoms of stress start to manifest in the form of pain, skin or gut problems, fatigue, moodiness or brain fog. And then if cortex is pushed too far, anxiety and panic set in.
The trouble with an “unofficial diagnosis” like brain fog is that it presents with “unofficial symptoms”, from “unofficial causes” like an over-stimulated cortex, which obviously won’t be detected in a blood test. So how do we figure it all out and correct the problem? As the Germans would say: We have ways and means. Read more
Vertigo
Filed under: Case of the month, Spinewave Bulletin, Symptoms, Testimonials
“My doctor told me that things would settle down eventually. They did not.”
Previously I had written on dizziness as it relates to eye reflexes and blood pressure. This case will briefly highlight the difference between central vertigo and peripheral vertigo.
Peripheral vertigo is the most common go-to set of diagnoses when someone starts spinning: Meniere’s Disease, otitis media, labrynthitis, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, viral infection or maybe acoustic neuroma. Peripheral refers to the inner ear region (on the periphery of the head).
Central vertigo would probably be the most likely cause of vertigo for the average person, yet, ironically, the most commonly overlooked. Central refers to neurological disruption in the centre line: brain, brainstem and spine. These 3 things are the functional units which come under the most strain on a day to day basis because of the way we stress and hold our posture. Balance and equilibrium is perceived at the levels of cerebellum and brainstem and they can receive “snowy TV” disturbance from both ends – the brain and eyes above, or spine and body below.
Central vertigo can also cover the third area of vertigo, which relates to systemic problems like blood pressure, blood sugar levels, heart conditions, polypharmacy or psychiatric issues.
Within the inner ear there are various bits and pieces that keep us on the level: Cochlea, semicircular canals and otolithic organs. The cochlea interprets sounds while the canals and otolithic organs are responsible for balance and awareness of position. The otolithic organs detect how fast or slow you’re moving in the vertical and horizontal planes, while the semicircular canals detect angular acceleration with the fluid that moves inside them. In a nanosecond, your brain can work out the angular acceleration of your head and where you are in the world with equations like this, which used to take me hours in engineering school. The brain’s depth of instantaneous computational powers is truly amazing.
What is also truly amazing is the functional design of the semicircular canals that report this information back to the brain in order for these calculations to be performed. There are 3 canals, almost precisely perpendicular to each other in each plane (x, y and z), and each canal detects angular acceleration in its plane. The wisdom of the body didn’t create these haphazardly and place them at random angles, hoping for the best so you don’t fall over. As with most things in nature, there was intent in creation. Read more
Hemisphericity
Filed under: Case of the month, Spinewave Bulletin, Symptoms, Testimonials
“I have been experiencing a raft of unusual symptoms including sensations in my face, nausea, irritable bowel, tinnitus, a large numbers of floaters in my eyes and more recently, constant pins and needles in my feet and sometimes my hands. My husband is a chiropractor, so it has been frustrating that the techniques he uses weren’t making headway with my condition…”
The traditional concept of hemisphericity refers to the idea that people may rely on a preferred mode of cognitive processing, which is linked to activity in the left or right cerebral hemisphere. This is not new to you: the right brain being the more creative, fantasy based side and the left brain being more linear and logical.
What may be new to you though are concepts in functional neurology, which describe hemisphericity as differing firing rates between the left and right sides of the brain. With various kinds of stress placed upon the body and brain – some as simple gravity – there will be a lower performing cerebral cortex and a higher performing cerebral cortex. According to Roger Sperry, the 1981 Nobel prize winner for brain research, a large proportion of the brain’s output is directed simply towards maintaining your body posture in its gravitational field, which is why posture is so important to maintain a healthy brain.
The left brain tends to be the “accelerator” of the body, whereas the right brain tends to be the “brake” system. If the brakes cannot be applied, we have a runaway nervous system with everything that would imply: allergies, overactive immune activity, hypersensitivity reactions and emotional instabilities. A left brain hemisphericity would mean a decreased accelerator, so we would think of conditions whereby the body or brain would not be stimulated enough, e.g. depression.
The cortex is also responsible for inhibiting our “primal brain”, the brainstem. The brainstem regulates the fight/flight response through the thoracic spine. So if a stressed individual is beginning to exhibit signs of hemisphericity, their fight/flight response will be elevated and will present as ulcers, reflux or irritable bowel syndrome. The cortex controls motor output to muscles too, so hemisphericity can create pain syndromes on one side of the body over time like carpal tunnel syndrome, Golfer’s elbow or sciatica.
Correction of hemisphericity is achieved by the two hemispheres of the brain reaching temporal coherence, i.e. firing at a similar rate and in harmony with each other. The role of upper cervical specific technique in hemisphericity is huge when choosing where to adjust on any given day. Plus incorporating similar non-invasive neurological stimulation such as specific limb adjusting, light, balance, magnets and supplementation. Recent award-winning research has shown that the process of a chiropractic adjustment is like rebooting a computer: EEG signals prove that there are definite changes to the way the brain processes information after chiropractic care.
Comment: Correction doesn’t happen overnight. Brain plasticity is a long process (how long did it take to reach that point in the first place?). Sally and I spent countless hours together working on lots of things. How do you know whether you might have hemisphericity? Read through the check list below. Read more