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Your Unique BrainPrint
An MRI provides an excellent picture of what the brain looks like, and would certainly identify any anatomical abnormalities. But an MRI of a patient right before and right after death would be identical. For all intents and purposes, the patient would be just fine if making that determination based on a picture. The fact of the matter is, life is determined by brain function, which is beyond the capability of an MRI to assess.
Each of us has a unique profile consisting of every aspect of how the brain is working: brainwave bioelectrical function; attention, memory and IQ abilities; as well as psychological mood, personality, temperament, and type. Let's take a closer look at the components of a battery of brain functionality tests:
Brainwave Function: A marvelous diagnostic test, first developed at Harvard Medical School, called the Brain Electrical Activity Map or BEAM¢â, uses simple electrodes similar to those used in an EKG, to provide a complete analysis of the brain's functional status:
Power: Voltage measurement assesses brain energy Rhythm: Assessment of brainwave synchrony or balance Speed: Assesses memory and cognitive abilities Symmetry: Assessment of right-left-hemisphere balance
Attention: Measures responses to visual stimulus, with scores for consistency, impulsivity, inattention, and speed of response.
Memory: Tests of brain recall in four areas: working memory, verbal memory, immediate memory, and visual memory.
IQ: Assesses four types of intelligence: abstract, emotional, creative, and perceptual.
Mind Health: Assesses behavioral temperament and personality.
Simple tests for each of these can be easily administered in a primary care physician's office, with dramatic impact on current and future health. The data from all of these results in a BrainPrint¢â that is as unique to an individual as a fingerprint, retinal print, and voiceprint are. Why is this important? Because a brain health assessment enables us to effectively treat causes — not symptoms. It makes no sense to pump out the basement while there is a gaping hole in the roof.
Would you rather be treated — medicated — for symptoms that occur one after another, such as irritable bowel, hyperventilation, sweating, cold or clammy hands, tinnitus, or would you rather just take some Inositol and B vitamins that restore the brain chemical that is responsible for relieving those symptoms? If you're fighting a losing battle trying to drop excess weight, would you rather starve yourself once more, or take some tyrosine and phenylalanine — natural amino acids — to shut off the brain's hunger impulse?
The battery of tests below results in a complete functional assessment of overall brain health |
- Brainwave Function: Power, Rhythm, Speed, Symmetry
- Type & Temperament
- Axis I & Axis II Psychological Assessment
- Test of Attention
- Memory Assessment
- IQ Levels
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Studies repeatedly correlate the impact of a person's psychological profile on treatment. The mind must be recruited when treating illness to ensure the fastest and best outcome. If a person is not organized and detail- oriented, there are added difficulties complying with complex instructions regarding exercise, diet, or pill-taking. Armed with this knowledge, steps can be taken with patients to truly heal.
To the health-conscious person, how to prevent illness is just as important as how to treat it. A shift is already well under way from an illness/pharmaceutical/surgical paradigm to a wellness/natural/prevention one. Tests such as the P300 wave status that is part of the BEAM¢â test are indispensable as a prevention tool. The P300 predicts Alzheimer's by as much as 15 or 20 years, when there is still time to do something about it. The chart below represents the decline in brain memory function as we age.
Characteristics of WMS-III vs. Age |
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These results were presented at the annual conference of the EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS) this past September in Baltimore, MD.
High-tech, non-invasive, diagnostic tests for the entire body as well as the brain can now identify disease at its earliest stage so that the least-invasive natural treatments, with little or no side effects, can be used effectively.
Before we discuss symptoms and treatments in more depth, let's briefly review the history of brain anatomy and physiology to discover how brain-based treatment in the 21st Century came about. |