Fight or Flight Concept Updated | Remote Counseling in Paterson

The old concept of Fight or Flight was helpful in helping to explain the stress response. It’s just not good enough anymore.

Our nervous system is much more complex than that.

Hans Selye gave us his theory on stress and Walter Cannon gave us his concept of fight or flight.

They also talked about the autonomic nervous system with its sympathetic and para-sympathetic branches. The sympathetic speeding things up and the parasympathetic slowing things down. Sounds simple enough. It was relatively easy to explain the concept to people. But, it didn’t explain everything. It also led to some flawed thinking. Many people came to think that sympathetic activation was bad and would lead to negative health outcomes and parasympathetic activation was good and would always lead to positive health outcomes.

This is not a quote from a well know scientist but instead what old people | know used to say “Too much of one thing, is good for nothing”.

Too much sympathetic activation can lead to problems like anxiety and hypertension. Too much sympathetic activation can lead to problems like low energy, depression, and hypotension (low blood pressure). Another update has to do with additional Fs being added to the original Fight or Fight. Our reactions are not binary. Freezing is a third response. This is the deer in the headlights response or playing dead like an opossum. Sometimes not moving can be helpful. At other times it could be the worst thing for survival, Fawn is a new one for me.

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The Role of Biofeedback in Managing Migraines

Migraines are debilitating headaches that can significantly impact one’s quality of life. Traditional treatments often include medication, but an increasing number of people are turning to biofeedback for a non-invasive and drug-free approach to managing migraines.

What is Biofeedback?

Biofeedback is a therapeutic technique that trains individuals to control physiological processes that are typically involuntary, such as heart rate, muscle tension, and skin temperature. By using sensors and visual or auditory feedback, individuals learn to recognize and regulate these bodily functions, which can help in reducing the frequency and intensity of migraines.

How Biofeedback Helps with Migraines

1. Muscle Relaxation: Tension in the neck and shoulders can trigger or exacerbate migraines. Biofeedback helps individuals learn to relax these muscles, reducing the likelihood of migraine onset.
2. Stress Reduction: Stress is a common migraine trigger. Biofeedback techniques teach individuals how to manage stress more effectively, leading to fewer stress-induced migraines.
3. Improved Blood Flow: Biofeedback can help individuals learn to increase blood flow to the extremities, which may help prevent migraines caused by constricted blood vessels.
4. Enhanced Awareness: By becoming more aware of their physiological responses, individuals can identify early signs of a migraine and take preventive actions.

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Protein linked to brain rejuvenation | Biofeedback Treatments Engelwood

 Mouse studies hint at a way to treat age-related decline

A single molecule may play a central role in rejuvenating aging brains, albeit in multiple ways, new research suggests.

Studies in mice of three different techniques for combating the cognitive decline that accompanies aging found that they all increase levels of a protein called platelet factor four, or PF4. This in turn improved cognitive performance and biological signs of brain health, three research groups report August 16 in Nature Aging, Nature and Nature Communications.

“PF4 may be an effective factor, and this kind of work will help bring it toward a therapeutic agent” for age-related cognitive decline, says bioengineer Michael Conboy of the University of California, Berkeley, who wasn’t involved in the work.

One of the research groups, led by neuroscientist Dena Dubal of the University of California, San Francisco, was studying klotho, a hormone linked to longevity. Injecting the hormone into mice boosts cognition, but since klotho is too large to cross the blood-brain barrier, it must act on the brain indirectly via a messenger.To search for this intermediary, Dubal’s team injected mice with klotho and measured changes in the levels of six proteins in the blood. PF4 increased the most, the team reports in Nature Aging.

Platelets are known for their role in wound healing and clotting, and they release proteins — including PF4-called platelet factors into the blood. “My first reaction was, what do platelets have to do with cognitive enhancement? This is crazy,” Dubal says. Follow-up work in mice found that PF4 enhanced neural connections in the hippocampus, a region crucial for memory.

Another UC San Francisco team, led by neuroscientist Saul Villeda, had previously shown that blood plasma from young mice rejuvenates the brains of elderly mice. A look at how young plasma differs from old revealed that young plasma contains much more PF4, the team reports in Nature. Injecting PF4 into old mice returned the immune system to a more youthful state, lowering levels of inflammatory proteins and reducing inflammation in the brain.

Separately, neuroscientist Tara Walker, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues found that exercise boosts PF4 in mice. Delivering PF4 directly to mice’s brains spurs new nerve cell growth in the hippocampus, the team reports in Nature Communications.

The new studies all show that PF4, on its own, improves cognition. More and more research is pointing toward a link between the immune system, cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s,” Villeda says.

The main limitation of these studies is that few findings in mice translate into safe and effective therapies in people. But in humans, as in mice, PF4 declines with age.

In July, Dubal and colleagues reported that klotho improves cognition in aging monkeys, whose brains are much more similar to ours. But whether that improvement involves PF4 is not known.

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Scientists make waves in awake brains | Biofeedback Ridgewood

Controlling spinal fluid might help treat neurological diseases.Waves of cerebrospinal fluid that normally wash over brains during sleep can be made to pulse in the brains of people who are wide awake, a new study finds.

Previous research has suggested that the clear fluid may flush out harmful waste, such as the sticky proteins that accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease (SN: 7/21/18, p. 22). So being able to control the fluid flow in the brain might have implications for treating certain brain disorders. I think this [finding] will help with many neurological disorders,” says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the work. “Think of Formula One. You can have the best car and driver, but without a great maintenance crew, that driver will not win the race:’ Spinal fluid flow in the brain is a major part of that maintenance crew, Kipnis says. But he and other researchers, including the study’s authors, caution that any potential therapeutic applications are still far off.

I think this [finding] will help with many neurological disorders,” says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the work. “Think of Formula One. You can have the best car and driver, but without a great maintenance crew, that driver will not win the race:’ Spinal fluid flow in the brain is a major part of that maintenance crew, Kipnis says. But he and other researchers, including the study’s authors, caution that any potential therapeutic applications are still far off.

In 2019, neuroscientist Laura Lewis of Boston University and colleagues reported that strong waves of cerebrospinal fluid wash through our brains while we slumber, suggesting that sleep may give the brain a deep clean (SN: 11/23/19, p.11). The slow neural oscillations that characterize deep, non-REM sleep occur in lockstep with the waves of spinal fluid, the team showed. These flows are far larger than the rhythmic influences that breathing and heartbeat have on spinal fluid.

As brain activity during sleep causes blood to flow through the brain, spinal fluid flows in behind the blood. Such fluid infusions clear out toxic proteins and maintain constant pressure in the skull, experiments in mice have shown.

In the new study, “the first question we wanted to answer is, can you manipulate [blood flow] enough to also drive [fluid] flow when someone’s awake?” says Stephanie Williams, a neuroscientist also at Boston University.

To stimulate blood flow in the brain, Williams, Lewis, and colleagues showed six healthy adults a flickering checkerboard pattern. A mix of techniques, including functional MRI and electrodes, confirmed that the intense stimulation affected blood flow in the brain and allowed the team to see the order of events.Neural activity increased when the flashing pattern was turned on, followed by increased blood flow. Cerebrospinal fluid flow was suppressed while blood flow increased, and then surged into the brain as blood flow ebbed when the stimulation stopped, the team reports March 30 in NOS Biology. Longer stimulation produced larger spinal fluid flows, suggesting it was possible to maximize the response.

The effect of brain activity on spinal fluid flow is separate from the influences of heartbeat and breathing, the team found. The brain has a way to control its own fluid flow; Lewis says.The team did not measure whether the waking flows cleared waste from the brain. However, previous studies in mice have found that certain audiovisual stimuli reduce levels of toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Testing of the technique in humans is underway.

“It’s a beautiful study, but wouldn’t draw therapeutic conclusions from this; says neurologist Steven Goldman of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. The brain’s fluid flow system is optimally set up for cleaning during sleep. “It would be more effective to just ensure a good night’s sleep; Goldman says. “Any manipulations over and above that would be best employed during sleep; Lewis’ team acknowledges that the induced flows were smaller than those seen during sleep. But the change in flow was still ‘pretty substantial; Lewis says. The technique could help scientists figure out how the process might be disrupted in diseases like Alzheimer’s, she says.

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Medications Aren’t The Only Option | Biofeedback Ridgewood

As the Opioid Crisis shook the public’s view of painkillers and pharmaceutical companies came under fire for their marketing practices, many patients looked for alternatives. One of the leading contenders; talk therapy.

Psychologists, therapists, and social workers have become a crucial part of pain treatment programs, proving to be as effective or more so than medication. Still, finding the right pain counseling can take effort.

Many pain psychologists treat chronic pain with cognitive behavior therapy (which focuses on reframing thoughts to positively affect behavior and emotions) or mindfulness (which involves learning to become conscious of feelings without reacting to them). Acceptance and commitment therapy combines C.B.T. and mindfulness to help patients accept their emotions and respond to them. Another method is biofeedback, which monitors patients’ muscle tension, heart rate, brain activity, or other functions to make them aware of their stress and help them learn to control it. And some clinicians use hypnosis, which can be effective at managing pain for some people. What unifies all these treatments is a focus on teaching patients how they can use their minds to manage their pain.

Large medical centers and boutique practices are more likely to have comprehensive pain treatment but tend to be in urban areas. People in rural areas or those who can’t afford the services get left out, said Rachel Aaron, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins Medicine. But even in cities, not all large medical networks have pain services.

If you are interested in trying a pain therapist, Dr. Aaron said, the first stop should be your primary care doctor. Some insurance plans cover pain psychology, but others do not. It’s important to talk to a mental health provider first about how to get treatment covered.

After that, look for specialized pain clinics by calling hospitals in your area or use the Find a Therapist function on the Psychology Today website.

Some experts recommend working with licensed professionals with doctorates or master’s degrees in psychology or clinical social work with additional training in chronic pain, and to interview them about their training and approach before getting started. Most important, you should feel comfortable enough to open up with them.

Most pain therapy programs start with six to eight weekly sessions, said Fadel Zeidan, an associate professor of anesthesiology and executive director at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of California, San Diego. Often the first session is an evaluation to learn about the pain problem and the emotional issues it may be causing. You might then learn mindfulness techniques to separate the physical and emotional aspects of pain, train yourself to reframe negative thought patterns, or practice paying more attention to pleasant sensations.

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This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain | Biofeedback Therapy Piermont

 Five ways to soothe a mind fixated on anxiety, stress, and streams of information.

Coronavirus cases are receding across the United States, and face masks are coming off. Little green shoots are finally poking through the earth, signaling the arrival of warmer weather. The pandemic has not been declared over, but after living in survival mode for the past two years, some would say we are emerging into a new normal. Though that doesn’t mean our minds are at ease.

Many have endured illness, economic upheaval, climate crisis, grief, and racial inequities. Add to that inflation, supply chain issues, and the ripple effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine – three of the biggest sources of stress among people in the United States right now, according to a recent poll for the American Psychological Association.

Perhaps, experts say, the arrival of spring can serve as a natural point to take stock of our mental well-being and reconnect with the things that bring us purpose and joy, offering our brains a respite when possible.

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