Common Health Maladies Can Cause Psychophysiological Artifacts and Impede Progress using Biofeedback By Dr. Tom Gross Functional Health Consultant (cid:190)Special thanks to Dr. Richard Soutarfor providing timely information regarding correlations he has seen with the NewMindDatabase as well as others on the impacts of health conditions on the EEG. Improving your abilityto identify common health maladies which can produce artifacts in your recordings and impede progress with your clients can help you manage, or co-manage these conditions to the benefit of your clients and your outcomes. 1 Medical and health education teach anatomy and physiology by dividing life up into systems. This is considered necessary to help students learn comprehensive and complex information. In our grandparents day, community doctors dealt with just about whatever walked in their office and needed to have an understanding of all the body systems and how they work together. 2 The "generalist" doctor has largely been replaced by a hierarchy of specialists, in part driven by a great increase in knowledge regarding diagnosis and treatments for the different systems. A great amount of peer pressure has developed urging physicians to refer patients out to specialists whenever their concerns appear outside the routine of one doctor and more suited to the routine of a specialist. Few and far between are the doctors who invest the time and energy to manage a case and grasp the evolving big picture for the patient. 3 This has led to an unprecedented number of unhealthy people who find no help in traditional and expected places and whose health may be steadily declining as they trudge on. I feel that what is universally referred to as healthcare is actually disease management at best and symptom management at worst and is actually health irrelevant. Health is not the absence of disease Disease is the evidence of declining health. 4 Medical doctors look for signs and symptoms of disease. Who follows signs and symptoms of health? The CDC lists Chronic Diseases as the leading causes of death and disability in the US. The CDC states that the Four Common Causes of Chronic Disease are also modifiable. (cid:190)Lack of physical activity (cid:190)poor nutrition (cid:190)tobacco use (cid:190)excessive alcohol consumption 5 I believe the CDC has grossly oversimplified the root causes of chronic disease… and framed their position in a way that gives the doctors a pass and places the responsibility squarely on the patient and to some degree smacks of blaming the victim. I definitely believe patients need to regain their power to motivate themselves to move ever closer to optimal health. However, clinicians would do well to look beyond these most common obstacles to health to find the common threads which can be assessed, supported and tracked over time. According to the CDC 2007 data it is easy to defend the statement that the top 10 leading causes of death in the US are all potentially stress related illnesses. 6 Here is a list of conditions which are considered “Stress Related Illness” (cid:190) Heart disease, cardiac arrhythmias, cancer, strokeand other circuitry problems, asthma, some dementiasincluding Alzheimer's, diabetes, susceptibility to infectionincluding colds and viruses, inflammatory disorders, hypertension, cancer, depression, obesity, anxiety and panic disorder, abusive behavior, gastrointestinal problems including IBS, reflux, dysbiosis, food allergies, ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, eating disorders, insomnia and some sleep disorders, substance abuse, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and the list goes on...(and the beat goes on) The philosophical problem with the current medical model is that life is a dynamic inextricably intertwined whole being and not a bunch of systems glued together. The truth about the body is that everything affects everything. This truth is a bit overwhelming for any clinician. 7 Example: Physical activity provides afferent input to the brain, keeping the brain healthy. Optimizing brain output helps to control and regulate sleep, thirst, hunger, digestion, absorption, energy storage, retrieval and production, respiration, circulation and hormone as well as immune regulation and reproduction (joke). The good news is that your treatments have the power to improve seemingly unrelated health conditions. The bad news is that seemingly unrelated health conditions have the power to impede your results. How can a clinician quickly screen for health-related problems which may plague clients and hinder results? 8 (cid:190)Health appraisal questionnaires have been used for decades as a quick and easy screening tool to identify potential health problems. (cid:190)I have used many of these over the last 15 years and have whittled down from the 30 page questionnaires down to a simple two page version which I have included in your notes and which you are welcome to copy. (cid:190)I have also included the accompanying nutritional recommendations according to the company who made this questionnaire (cid:190)After reviewing the health screening questionnaire, I will review some medication effects which can mimic and cause actual health problems. (cid:190)Whereas this is very dry information it'll serve as an excellent resource for future reference in screening out confounding influences which detract from the brilliance of your work. 9 (cid:190)Finally, the meat/carrot, and what you will all be waiting for… (cid:190)There are a few artifacts which have been observed in the EEG, qEEGand can be seen in the MiniQwhich we will discuss. First let's go over a simple two-page health questionnaire. (cid:190)Symptoms are poor indicators of function. (cid:190)A single symptom may be caused by many different problems. (cid:190)This underscores the limitations in pharmaceutically restraining symptoms. 10