Concussions have been a growing area of concern with clients of all ages. Concussions have been growing in a number of sports like Football, Hockey and Soccer as well as older population that suffers from balance issues can result in a concussion.
Some of the common symptoms of a concussion are memory problems, headaches, nausea, balance problems, decreases attention and decreased focus.
Andrew has seen in the beginning with people who have a Concussion an exercise strategy that uses a combination of using head movements with the eyes closed to then using head movements with the eyes open and eye tracking. Ultimately progressing to specific eye movements that directly target their frontal lobe coupled with TENS Unit Vagal Nerve exercise will ultimately help clients with full improvement from a Concussion.
Clients who have Head Injuries are also commonly called Traumatic Brain Injuries. These types of injuries can cause problems like, memory, headaches, balance problems, attention, focus, processing, brain fog, fatigue and motor skills issues.
Clients who have Head injuries can be challenging to help. Clients ten<a id="concussions"></a>d to have multiple areas of the brain that are affected. The other challenging part of working with these clients with this type of condition is fatigue.
The key for the Traumatic Brain Injuries is to first find areas and exercises that work first and keep exercising those areas and keep increasing the repetitions until the client can start to tolerate exercises in the target area.
Balance Disorders can come by itself or it can come from another condition like Concussions, Strokes, Parkinson etc...
People who have balance disorders it is really important to look at where the brain is perceiving themselves and to look at their visual system.
These first level brain degeneration their brain’s will perceive them falling backward. This is important because their head movements are dominant going back which is one of the reasons, they have tightness in their neck muscles and their eyes will be dominant going down.
Clients with these cases, it is important to exercise their eyes up, move their head down. In the beginning with the head movements it is important to see if the client is better moving their head with their eyes open or closed. Another important point is if the client can handle exercises with their eyes open does the client do head movements or just eye tracking which the client’s eyes move but not their head. The sound exercises on my Brain Exercise Software can help a lot with clients who have balance disorders.
Movement disorders are neurological disorders that cause abnormal movements. These movements can be voluntary movements or involuntary movements. The movements can be slow or fast.
Some common movement disorders are Dystonia, Ataxia, Tremor, Tourette’s Syndrome and Restless Leg Syndrome.
Movement Disorders affect the sublayer of the brain called the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia has 2 pathways that influence the motor pathways with movement. One pathway excites the system and the other pathway relaxes the system. Movement Disorders affect the relaxing part of the basal ganglia which causes the excitatory pathway to over fire.
In my experience exercises that can help with movements disorders is Vestibular Head Movements to calm the excitatory pathway down and exercise the relaxing pathway in the sublayer of the brain called the basal ganglia.
With Vestibular Head Movements I find the exact specific way to do the exercise which can be different for each client. My work involves customizing those exercises that will be specific for each client.
Other exercises that work is to exercise the frontal lobe. There is an area of the frontal lobe called the dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex. This area can help with, short-term memory, focus, and attention.
One of the ways to exercise the frontal lobe and the dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex is to have the eyes move to an opposite target called an anti-saccade. This exercise can be accomplished using the eye movements exercises in my Brain Exercise Software.
Memory problems can happen with any Neuro- Degenerative condition. Memory problems commonly happen with Concussions and Traumatic Brain Injuries.
The frontal and parietal lobe are responsible for short term memory.
In my experience exercises I see that can help memory are head movements which usually can prime the memory areas, then progress to eye tracking with taking the targets away but having the client continue to have their eyes track the target even though the target is no longer there. The eyes moving to targets that do not move but disappear and reappear in a new still position can help a lot and then finally the eyes moving to the opposite area of where the target is which activates directly the frontal lobe and the dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex and these areas of the brain are responsible for attention, focus and short term memory. All the eye movements can be accomplished using my Brain Exercise Software. Another exercise that can help memory is using smells.
Parkinson’s disease affects the nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine. Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include muscle rigidity, tremors, changes in speech and gait.
In my experience head movements back, eye exercises down and sound exercises that can exercise the back-ear canal can help a lot. All these exercises can be accomplished by using my Brain Exercise Software with using the vestibular virtual reality exercises, sound eye exercises
A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or reduced, depriving the brain tissue of oxygen and nutrients. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die.
During a stroke, the brain does not receive enough oxygen or nutrients, causing brain cells to die. Ischemic stroke: This is the most common type of stroke. A blood clot prevents blood and oxygen from reaching the brain.
Hemorrhagic stroke: This occurs when a weakened blood vessel ruptures and normally occur as a result of aneurysms or arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).Transient ischemic attacks (TIAs): Also referred to as a mini-stroke, these occur after blood flow fails to reach part of the brain. Normal blood flow resumes after a short amount of time, and symptoms cease.
I give them reflex eye exercises. These reflex eye exercises can be accomplished using my Brain Exercise Software.
The next thing that works really well is Vagus Nerve exercises. In clients who have strokes they use humming first which is a direct Vagal Nerve exercise followed up by using a TENS Unit on the ear to exercise the Auricular branch of the Vagus Nerve.
The next thing that I see that works is Virtual Reality Vestibular exercise for Head Movements because these types of exercises will cause a volitional eye reflex which will further help decrease the muscle tone and help improve movement.
The last exercise that I see that works is eye movements to still targets. With clients who have strokes and using the specific order of progression that I mentioned above can help improve a client’s movement a ton with clients who have strokes.
Auto Immune conditions are conditions when the immune system mistakenly thinks a tissue or tissues in the body is foreign and the immune system starts to attack its own tissue.
Some of the common Auto Immune conditions are Hashimoto’s Thyroid, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ulcerative Colitis, Celiac Disease.
Andrew Amigo, Founder of The Accomplished Brain has a very effective approach to working with clients who have Auto Immune Conditions. His approach is to exercise the Brain, and with nutrition and supplements to support the Gut and Immune System and using this approach can help clients to improve a lot. With these clients, Andrew is trying to figure out what foods the client reacts to then puts them on a very targeted antigen elimination nutrition that limits the amount of exposure to those foods that can cause the immune system to react. Andrew recommends specific targeted supplements like fish oil, vitamin d, curcumin and glutathione that helps to create balance in the immune system. He also looks at specific foods that create a balance in the gut microbiome as well as supplements to help improve digestive function.
Andrew’s effective approach also looks at exercising the brain and ultimately exercising the Vagus Nerve in the brainstem. The Vagus Nerve is responsible for helping the digestive system and research shows that exercising the Vagus nerve can help improve the immune’s inflammatory response. His approach looks at different types of exercises for the Vagus Nerve like breathing exercises, humming, gargling and using a TENS Unit exercises the auricular branch of the Vagus Nerve.
Andrew has found that doing head movements, and eye movements can help improve the Vagus Nerve which can help with Autoimmune Conditions. These exercises can be accomplished through Andrew’s Brain Exercise Software.
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a condition that causes kids to be hyperactive and unable to control their impulses and have an inability to pay attention. Kids with ADHD may have an issue managing their time, being organized and setting goals. Boys are more common to have ADHD than girls.
Some of the symptoms of ADHD are being easily distracted, difficulty finishing tasks, hard time sitting still, talks obsessively, and interrupts others.
I find these kids do great with multi-planar movement activities. They do very well running for 45 minutes to an hour. They do very well with isometric limb movements. They do good with eye movements moving opposite the still target.
Learning Disabilities affect kids as well as adults. Learning Disabilities can result in difficulty reading, writing, doing math, spelling, reasoning, recalling and organizing.
Some of your common learning disabilities are dyslexia, dysgraphia, auditory processing, and dyscalculia.
Andrew’s revolutionary Brain Exercise Software has brain exercises like the Vestibular Virtual Reality exercises and Sound exercises for balance and the Visual Motor Imagery Exercises which can help kids with dyslexia.
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is not a specific disease but a syndrome which is a collection of symptoms. It is clinically defined as a heart rate increase of 30 beats per minute or more from the lying down to the standing position within 10 minutes or less.
Andrew has found that his Brain Exercise Software has helped clients a lot with dysautonomia. His breathing exercises, the Vestibular Virtual Reality exercises and the Sound exercises has helped clients a lot.
ALS is a non-curable motor neuron disease. ALS affects neurons in the brain and in the spinal cord. Symptoms include muscle weakness, decreased swallowing, decreased speech, decreased balance and abnormal walking.
Andrew’s program cannot cure ALS. However, his program can help clients to slow their progression.