Excerpts from the chapter on BrainTap from Saving Your Brain: Causes, Prevention, and Reversal of Dementia/Alzheimer’s.
Chapter 22: BrainTap to the Rescue
One of the many challenges I have with patients these days is helping them to better handle the stress in their life. Many if not most people have difficulty in handling the many stressors in their life. Stress can come in many forms – genetic variances, environmental toxins, trauma, food, water, and beverages consumed, too much or too little sleep, too much or too little exercise, the air breathed, and most detrimental of all – negative thinking. Although I am a strong advocate for daily prayer, I find most people do not have the discipline to take 20-30 minutes each day to do this or practice yoga or meditation, or even exercise for stress reduction. However, most people have no problem spending hours on the computer, listening to music with ear buds or headphones, or watching television. I have found a couple of tools to reduce distress that work extremely well for almost everyone that they can fit into their busy schedules. These are a must for those who want to prevent or reverse their cognitive decline in dementia and Alzheimer’s.
One of the observations I have made since consistently using system survey forms and the heart rate variability on the MaxPulse is that the vast majority (75-80%) of people are locked into a sympathetic dominant autonomic imbalance. What this means is that their physiology and chemistry are operating as if they were fighting for or running for their life – not a good way to go through life. This is due to an abundance of stress factors such as food/chemical allergy/sensitivity, environmental toxins in food, air, and water, not enough sleep at the right time (10 PM – 4 AM), and most especially negative thought patterns of anger, fear, or hopelessness. All these stressors cause the sympathetic response (fight/flight) with adrenaline followed by cortisol production. This is bad for the brain long-term as was discussed in the Emotional Distress and Dementia and Alzheimer’s chapter
The vast majority of people by age 40-45, if not sooner (my clinical observation), exhibit four areas of dysfunction – hormonal, blood sugar regulation, liver/biliary (gall bladder), and digestive. Although nearly 40% of Americans will have cardiovascular disease that will reduce the quality and/or longevity of their lives, the signs and symptoms of cardiovascular disease are much less observable to the average person and physician. Hormone deficiencies, blood sugar dysregulation, and cardiovascular disease are all intricately involved in dementia and Alzheimer’s as covered in previous chapters. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease is one of the reasons for the use of a device in the practice called the Maxpulse as a screening and monitoring tool as it will demonstrate measurable changes in the thickness and stiffness in blood vessels long before symptoms are felt or a cardiovascular event like heart attack or stroke occurs. Correction of these deficiencies is important in saving your brain. The strength and integrity of the vascular system is another crucial component in the prevention, treatment, and reversal of cognitive impairment in dementia and Alzheimer’s.
An invaluable tool that works wonders for stress reduction for my patients is a technology called BrainTap. In 20 minutes the BrainTap will help a person achieve delta brain wave patterns, the type found during a period of deep sleep. This has the effect of uncluttering the brain and restoring focus and productivity. There are several businesses including Harley Davidson that employ the use of the BrainTap technology to help their workers achieve better productivity and health in the workplace. We encourage our employees to use it over lunch at the office and at home on their phone apps.
This extensively researched light and sound technology creates a perfect symmetry of sound frequencies and light synchronization for the ultimate binaural brain wave entrainment and relaxation.2-3This combination helps guide an individual to a perfect balance of left/right brain synchronization and relaxed brain wave activity. In other words, the BrainTap produces a relaxation response, giving your body what it needs to get back in balance and reverse the effect of stress on the body. At the same time the BrainTap increases the individual’s focus so they can get rid of negative self-talk and achieve their goals.
Five powerful mind technologies are combined to help change and mold the neuroplasticity of the brain. These technologies help relax, reboot, and strengthen our dysfunctional brains. Light frequencies train the brain to produce a healthy balance of brain activity, transforming the listener into a mental powerhouse with the right mindset to accomplish any goal. Embedded beats and tones emulate relaxed brain waves, guiding the brain to an extraordinary level of focus and performance that could otherwise take years of practice to achieve. Auricular acupuncture points that are known to directly balance the body’s organs and influence physiology and chemistry are activated by light frequencies. The BrainTap’s earphones are uniquely equipped with 9 LED lights at the optimum frequency for producing a feeling of serenity and balance. 10-cycle holographic music on the audio settings is designed to create a full 360 degree experience that helps produce calming thoughts and images. The voice of Dr. Patrick Porter, the developer of BrainTap, takes the individual through a guided visualization to help reduce stress and improve focus and productivity. There are over 700 different programs available for a wide and varied assortment of life’s challenges.
Human bodies were designed to be in a relaxed, healing state most of the time. However, these days most people spend most of their day in a stress overload mode. Your brain copes by increasing adrenaline and cortisol and generating more high-intensity brain waves from the stimulatory neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, dopamine, and acetylcholine. The inhibitory neurotransmitters and brain waves that allow us to be calm and focus are suppressed. Once our brains habituate to the stress pattern, it becomes difficult to wind down or turn off. This can cause foggy thinking, poor memory, lack of concentration, and low energy. All of these set the stage for unhealthy lifestyle habits such as stress-eating, alcohol and drug use, and smoking.
The BrainTap session lasts approximately 20 minutes. I would say 98% of all patients I have had try the BrainTap have a positive experience and want to continue using it. I have found it helpful in dialing down the sympathetic dominance and increasing cardiovascular function in my patients as demonstrated immediately afterwards with the heart rate variability component of the MaxPulse.
Purchase Headset – The combination of lights and sound is more powerful than sounds alone. Use daily in your home or office. Purchasing the headset gives you a 30 day free trial of over 700 programs to choose from. After the 30 days you will have access to 15 free programs PLUS 10 of your choosing forever, or you will be able to have access for two devices 3x/day for $30 per month or 5 devices 3x/day per $45/month.
Excerpts from the chapter on the infra-red head harness in Saving Your Brain: Causes, Prevention, and Reversal of Dementia/Alzheimer’s.
It has been established that when chronic, post-concussive symptoms persist for 9 months or longer, demonstrable localized areas of the brain have reduced blood flow. The SPECT imagery can also quantify the severity of the decreased blood flow. In this particular study men aged 21-50 were assessed.23 The participants had symptoms greater than18 months and demonstrable abnormalities on the SPECT imagery. All participants received neuropsychological and SPECT testing before and after the 6 weeks at 3x/week 20 minute light therapy treatments. The neuropsychological testing consisted of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test (WAIT) and the California Verbal Learning Test. The participants demonstrated improvements in the neuropsychological testing as well as increased perfusion in the brain as demonstrated by the SPECT imagery. In addition, symptoms of headaches, dizziness, sleep problems, balance, depression, irritability, anxiety, disinterest, nervousness, memory, poor concentration, foggy thinking, and verbal issues improved. One participant who was a member of a special forces unit was able to be re-deployed after being away from his unit for 3 years.
Although more research of this methodology is forthcoming in all areas -TBI, PTSD, CVA, Alzheimer’s- we clearly have a non-drug therapy without side-effects that can improve circulation in the brain and stimulate increased mitochondrial energy. Therefore we ask the question, “Why would anyone not use this as part of a comprehensive prevention or treatment protocol for dementia and Alzhemier’s?”
One of the most dramatic responses I have seen was from one of my patients who had suffered a severe stroke. In only a few days after using the light head harness device, her speech improved. A.S. had suffered a brain hemorrhage while in church in 2016. I had witnessed the event. She suffered a left brain injury rendering her right upper and lower extremity in a spastic paralysis with a significant speech loss. She had been receiving extensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy for over a year. In addition I had been treating her with acupuncture 1-2x/week for almost a year. She was able to walk around the house with a cane but used a wheel chair if she went out. Her right hand was still not useable and her speech was still quite impaired. It was very difficult for me to understand her when we had conversations. Her responses were very short, only a few words. Approximately two months prior to her use of the light head harness I had started her on a nutritional supplementation program for her brain. A.S. took home the light therapy on a Monday and was seen two days later. I began her on another technology that Wednesday called BrainTap, which stimulates more alpha, beta, theta, delta, and gamma wave activity in the brain. For example, alpha waves are consistent with acetylcholine activity which is responsible for the processing speed in the brain. BrainTap contains three auditory technologies and two light technologies. There is more information on this technology in the following chapter. The BrainTap was combined with the LED therapy on Wednesday. The following Monday, A.S. returned for her acupuncture treatment. As usual I asked A.S. how she was doing. Instead of her usual mumbled 2-3 word response, she rattled off 2-3 sentences of which I was able to understand 90% of. What a difference there was in just one week. It was a quite remarkable if not miraculous improvement. There was more change in her speech in 5 days than there had been in months. I made a comment to her mother about the improvement and she told me relatives had called from out of town and spoke with A.S. and had commented that they could understand her now over the phone where they had been unable to in the past. This occurrence was just a few days ago. We are hopeful for further breakthroughs soon. However, this device has already made an improvement in the quality of her life in just a few days.
The light therapy head harness shows great promise for helping the ageing brain.37 There are no adverse side effects. There is no drug therapy to date that shows any significant benefit. It is well documented that this therapy improves the micro-circulation to the brain which improves oxygen, fuel, and micronutrients to the brain. It is also well established that these light frequencies activate the mitochondria, the energy plant within the cells.37 The light head harness should be a component of a protocol in conjunction with nutritional and bio-identical hormone replacement supplementation for the prevention and/or treatment of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
