Retraining the Brain to Heal from Chronic Illness

Mold Toxicity Summit; Outline of Presentation by Annie Hopper

1. Wired for Healing Limbic System Retraining
   1. Rewiring the brain can help many chronic illnesses
   1. Hopper’s background;
      1. Chronically ill herself
         1. 2004 Core Belief Counselor then moved into moldy sick bldg. and office was next to janitor’s closet with numerous chemicals
         1. Had MVA/whiplash just prior to moving to WDB
         1. Illness progressed
            1. Insomnia, muscle tremors/twitching, chronic pain in muscles and joints
            1. Sensitivity to multiple chemicals and smells
            1. Escalated to anything scented
               1. Hard to navigate world
               1. Violent reactions to small amts of stimuli
            1. Seizures when exposed to certain chemicals
            1. Fibromyalgia
            1. Multiple chemical sensitivity
            1. EMF sensitivity
         1. Couldn’t participate in her world anymore.
            1. Often head injury increases susceptibility to environmental issues
            1. Brain can’t handle slight toxic insults after trauma
               1. Histamine is often involved
            1. EMF affects us energetically
         1. Became homeless, spent time camping,
            1. Knew her brain was involved
               1. Not interpreting information properly
            1. Sense of smell was incredibly heightened
            1. Smelled like she was being poisoned by everything in her environment
               1. Perfume felt/smelled like bug spray
               1. Distorted
            1. Suspected limbic involvement at root of brain impairment
               1. Certain stimuli would cause “brain freeze”
                  1. Loss of voice
                  1. Expressive dysphasia
            1. Brain felt inflamed/brain fog/not working right
               1. No longer the person she used to be
               1. As a counselor, looked for patterns that disrupted her client’s path to success/happiness
               1. Was really good at it
         1. Feeling patterns had changed as well as thought patterns
            1. Brain kept circulating trauma
         1. Became very depressed/formerly extroverted, joyful, energetic
            1. C/W limbic injury
   1. Neuroplasticity; the brain is capable of change
      1. It’s changing all the time
      1. Affected by many things
         1. Can be changed for the positive or negative
      1. Any trauma can cause limbic changes
         1. Physical
         1. Psychological
         1. Bacterial
         1. Virus
         1. Emotional
      1. The Perfect Storm
         1. Traumas’ can become cumulative
      1. Creates new neural pathways
         1. Primitive limbic brain can become hard-wired because of neuroplasticity and become stuck in the “on” position
         1. We need to re-wire to stop the neural entanglement
      1. Limbic-midbrain/hippocampus/hypothalamus/amygdala
         1. Filters sensory and emotional information
         1. Categorizes information
            1. Threats
            1. Non-Threats
            1. With trauma, can make mistakes on threat/nonthreat
               1. Needs to be fixed; “unstuck”
         1. Need to get the brain out of the “fight or flight” (sympathetic) into the healing (parasympathetic) state.
         1. Being sick for a long period of time is traumatic by itself
            1. Add the fact that it’s an unknown unrecognized trauma magnifies that trauma
         1. Limbic system is charged with survival
            1. Helping to protect ourselves
         1. Involved in hormone control as well.
      1. DNRS training Dynamic Neural Retraining System
         1. Changes the sympathetic (fight or flight) response
         1. Teaches the brain to go back to the relaxed, regulated (Parasympathetic) state where it can properly regulate itself and the autonomic nervous system appropriately
         1. Ends sympathetic dominance
            1. Everything just calms down
            1. Body takes cues from that effect in the brain
         1. Sympathetic has a profound effect on hormone balance affecting
            1. Infertility
            1. Digestion
            1. Waste elimination
            1. Detoxification
         1. Need to first become aware of how this impairment is expressing in your life and your physical body
            1. Sensory sensitivity
            1. Lack energy
            1. Hormone dysregulation
            1. Chronic pain
         1. Thought pattern effects of sympathetic/lens of fear/threat
            1. Protective mechanism has gone rogue, affects thinking/feeling
            1. Need to interrupt those abnormal patterns moment to moment in thoughts/feelings
            1. Takes a minimum of 6 months to correct this
            1. Need to recognize/appreciate the brains involvement in this problem.
         1. Even after original insult is treated, the brain may still be in the abnormal sympathetic system
            1. Need to recognize this
            1. Also need to note the moment to moment indicators that the brain is stuck in the abnormal pattern
            1. Pathways to the Past tell you the brain is stuck
            1. Step by step exercises change structure and function of the brain
               1. Takes at least an hour a day,
                  1. Speech
                  1. Movement
                  1. Visualization
               1. Focuses on changing brain structurally and chemically
                  1. Stop production of stress hormones
                  1. Kick the CAN
                     1. Cortisol
                     1. Adrenalin
                     1. Norepinephrine
                  1. Get into a neurochemical state to allow shift
               1. Need to increase release of
                  1. Dopamine
                  1. Oxytocin
                  1. Serotonin
                  1. Endorphins
                  1. (get your daily dose)
               1. Incremental training/neural re-shaping
                  1. Desensitizes the limbic system to these stimuli that are not really threatening
               1. Elevating emotional state throughout the day
                  1. We have a natural negativity bias
                  1. We look for threats more than for what is going well
                  1. An old protective mechanism
                  1. Negativity bias can be magnified; we need to look at the world through a different lens to decrease negativity bias and the associated neurochemicals
                  1. The brain gets used to a specific chemical cocktail that may need to be changed.
               1. Recognize that there is a problem
               1. Recognize pathways to the past
               1. Start the exercises to correct the brain
                  1. Moving the body in a gentle way
                  1. Rewires the brain/sensitivities
               1. Move out of the chronic negative loop/stop perseverating
         1. Some exercises need to be done daily but can be broken up into 15 minute segments
         1. Curious observer
            1. Watch your thought patterns
            1. An all-day thing
         1. It takes way more energy to be sick than to do DNRS
            1. Mindfulness
            1. Gratitude
            1. Focusing on the positive
         1. To learn DNRS DVD instructional set available
            1. 5-day interactive seminars are available
   1. Vagus nerve
      1. Takes cues from brain on level of safety
      1. Parasympathetic in nature
      1. Doesn’t work well in sympathetic state
         1. Vagus cannot function correctly in this state
         1. “Tired but wired”
      1. Has afferents and efferents/incoming and outgoing activities
         1. “First brain” in the
         1. Gut-brain connection
         1. Regulates hormones
      1. Vagal nerve exercises can help
         1. “infinity knot” follow fingernail, slowly first one then the other upper extremity, then with lower extremity
         1. Gargle
         1. Gargle while reciting ABC’s, or singing
         1. Activates the vagus, tears in the eyes lets you know it’s being stimulated
         1. Activates both sides of the brain
         1. Improves CNS parasympathetic tone.
   1. Cellular level
      1. Cells go into hibernation during periods of stress/danger
      1. Poor nutrient absorption and function
      1. May be a result of limbic impairment
         1. May be healthy short-term, not long-term
      1. Stress affects us to the cellular level.
      1. Parasympathetic state needed for healing
      1. Decrease the load/trauma/toxins etc.
         1. Then change the brain
         1. This lets the body repair
   1. Changes can occur within a few weeks
      1. Feel different
      1. Thought patterns change
      1. Emotional state changes
         1. More hope
         1. More energy
      1. Less sensitivities
         1. MCS
         1. EMF
      1. Continue for a minimum of 6 months
      1. Recovery trajectory may not be linear, but it’s still happening
         1. Plateaus are possible, to be expected, don’t be discouraged
         1. There may be initial resistance to healing…
         1. Be patiently persistent
         1. It takes time for new neural pathways to form and grow in the brain

www.retrainingthebrain.com

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Dr. Raymond Oenbrink

Dr. Raymond Oenbrink DO is board certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians (AOBFP) and the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM). He specializes in complex and chronic illnesses such as Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS).

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