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Seniors
Balance & Motor Control
Parkinson's - The tremors, difficulty initiating or terminating intentional physical movements, the decline of social behaviors and expression, physical and intellectual self-control, memory, and general dignity of life can all be tied to the loss of activity of specific, interconnected, and interdependent areas of the brain.
The principal area discussed in Parkinson's literature is part of the midbrain or basal ganglia called the substantia nigra. When the substantia nigra is stimulated, it produces a chemical called l-dopa that gets turned into another neurotransmitter called dopamine. When we move our muscles, we activate part of the brain called the cerebellum which stimulates the substantia nigra to turn l-dopa into dopamine. The substantia nigra in turn stimulates the frontal lobe of the brain which is responsible for so many of the behaviors which are not working properly in Parkinson's Disease and Parkinsonian Syndrome.
Depending on how far damage to the substantia nigra has advanced, we can often restore much of its function along with that of the cerebellum which turns it on and of the frontal brain which it activates in turn. Between the use of specific neurotransmitter- building nutrients and carefully chosen and administered physically-based functional neurology therapies including Interactive Metronome and sensory based therapies, we may be able to restore much of the function which has been lost.
To date, we have not learned how to completely stop the progression of Parkinson's, however our therapies have successfully turned back the clock for some Patients, giving them that many more months and years of functional life to enjoy with their families and friends.
Vertigo / Dizziness - Vertigo or "the spins" happen when parts of the brain are out of balance with each other. There are three canals inside each ear which communicate with your berain to tell you whether you are moving forward, backward, or to one side or the other. When the messages going to one side of your brain are weaker than the messages going to the other side of your brain, you feel like you are falling or spinning to the weak side. Sometimes you may feel like the world is spinning and other times you may feel like you are spinning. These mean different things to a functional neurologist like Dr. Ennen and guide him in resolving the imbalance that may have caused your problems for weeks or for years.
Dizziness is a general sense of weakness that makes you feel like you could fall down or faint. Usually, it is tied to any of several underlying problems like low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) or low blood pressure (hypotension). With adrenal fatigue, these two combine to create orthostatic hypotension, that sense of dizziness or lightheadedness that happens when you stand up or sit up suddenly.
The first step in solving any problem lies in understanding the causes behind it and we do. Depending on the cause, vertigo can often be corrected in one or two visits. Dizziness from orthostatic hypotension may take longer as the parts of the endocrine and nervous system that are involved are rehabilitated, but in each case, we can help you find solutions to these aggravating problems and make life much more pleasant for you.
Orthostatic hypotension - When you stand up or sit up quickly and feel dizzy or faint, that is called "orthostatic hypotension". When you are lying down, blood doesn't have to rise and fall more than a few inches on its way from your nose to your toes and back. When you stand up, it suddenly has to go all the way from your feet up to the top of your head and quickly so your brain has oxygen and you don't pass out.
If everything is working properly, your adrenal glands tell the muscle coat of your arteries to constrict for 30-60 seconds so the blood gets to your brain faster and easier as your body adjusts to being upright. Ideally, as the arteries constrict, your blood pressure goes up 10-12 points for that half a minute to a minute and then settles down again, but sometimes things don't work the way they are supposed to. If you are worn down by stress or disease or low blood sugar and your adrenal glands are fatigued, they may not tell the arteries to constrict enough. Then your blood pressure may not go up enough or may even go down for a moment. Since this makes it take longer to get oxygen bearing blood to your brain, you may feel faint from "hypoxia" or lack of oxygen in your brain. This is doubly dangerous since the most common cause of injuries is falling down and hypoxia is especially damaging to the part of the brain (cerebellum) that controls balance.
When we work with balance problems, we start by looking at why they exist and what your body is trying to tell us is out of balance. Then we can have health successes that last and last.
To reclaim your health we first need to fix the defense system so you can keep the rest of the world's garbage out of your body and then remove the offenders which have already gained access. There is a right way and a wrong way of gong about this and we have the experience to guide you through the process with the most effect and the least discomfort.
We usually begin by restoring the normal function of the digestive system, cleaning out the respiratory system, and improving its defenses. Then we increase the circulating immune system's ability to recognize foreign substances and your liver's ability to break down the toxins and metabolites which are presented to it. The next step is to allow each cell of the body to dump out all of the metabolic wastes it has been storing, break them down to manageable compounds, and pass them out through bowel and bladder.
Once we have cleaned out the gunk and turned on the defense systems, you will be able to experience a life filled with more energy, health and joy.
Vestibular problems - Vestibules are the canals inside our ears that tell us where we are in time and space. They tell us which way we are moving or falling. When the left and right side vestibules work together smoothly, we can balance with ease and grace but when they get out of synch or balance, we get confusing information and our brain can't figure out where we really are or which way we are really moving. Vertigo is a classic example of vestibular problems. We can usually correct vestibular problems within a few visits by balancing the outputs from the left and right vestibules and the inputs into the right and left barin areas.
Tremors and Twitches - In order to conserve energy, our brain is constantly turning off and on and off and on. We call this "oscillating". There are oscillators that control the sensory functions that tell us where we are in time and space, and there are oscillators that control the motor functions that tell us which muscles to contract and relax to respond to our environment. Motor oscillators in healthy people's brains turn on and off about 8-12 times per second. When there are problems with the motor oscillators or problems in balance between the motor oscillators on the right with the ones on the left, one or both sides can slow down and we start to notice a shake or tremor. Some tremors are better when we think about them and some actally get worse. There is actually a lot more to it, but this is the basis of most tremors.
Other tremors may come from problems with the parts of the midbrain that dampen movement. These tremors are called Parkinsonian or Parkinson's-like symptoms and usually involve the brain's ability to make a neurotransmitter (brain chemical) called dopamine and to use it to turn on the frontal part of the brain. By using urine based laboratory analysis, we can identify the levels of neurotransmitters involved and then balance them using the tools of clinical nutrition.
Twitches usually come from a muscle being turned on neurochemically and then not being able to turn off because it either doesn't get the message to turn off or the message is being blocked. An example of a chemical blocker that most of us know is coffee.
Technically an "acetylcholinesterase inhibitor", caffeine blocks the enzyme that breaks down the chemical that makes the muscle contract so the muscle fiber keeps contracting or twitching. One of the most common types of twitches is a "blepharospasm" or eye-lid twitch which tells us that there is a deeper but treatable imbalance underlying it.
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