It can be said that bipolar disorder is not just one mental health condition, but a combination of many. These include depression, anxiety, anger, severe mood swings, suicidal thoughts, focus problems and more. It has been called a “psychiatric life sentence” with the patient often abusing drugs or alcohol throughout out life.

Unfortunately, like many other mental health issues it’s prevalence in on the rise. In a given year bipolar disorder affects about 5.7 million American adults, or about 2.6% of the U.S. population 18 and older (ref National Institute of Mental Health 2008 Statistics)

With traditional medicine, treatment is usually lifelong and often involves a combination of medications and psychotherapy. However, those medications are known to be toxic and can cause nasty side effects like liver problems, joint pain, weight gain, memory loss, strong suicidal thoughts and more. Taking these medications long term may cause serious problems.

Some alternatives to traditional bipolar treatment include supplements like fish oil and herbal remedies such as Rhodiola rosea and St. John’s wort. But these aren’t enough by themselves and aren’t a permanent solution. But there is one therapy that may offer permanent relief.

There is a growing body of anecdotal evidence and research studies to show that brain training with neurofeedback can stabilize mood and help normalize the entire body. There are already decades of studies showing the neurofeedback can help many symptoms of bipolar disorder like depression and anxiety. Bipolar clients undergoing neurofeedback training report less susceptibility to mood swings, increased ability to focus, and reduced anger. Treatment outcome data show that 70% – 80% of neurofeedback clients show significant improvement after twenty sessions. Considering the seriousness of this disease and the limited effectiveness of traditional methods like medications and psychotherapy, neurofeedback is certainly worth investigating.

You may have noticed that neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s are on the rise. While the exact cause is still under debate, scientists agree that every person should take steps to slow cognitive decline now while they are younger. Just like physical exercise helps your body last longer, mental exercise helps your brain last longer as well. That is where neurofeedback and brain training can help.

Neurofeedback is being studied as a primary therapy to slow the natural aging process. Most people have been engaging in poor “brain hygiene”, allowing mental habits like stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia to continue unabated. Parts of the brain like the crucial hippocampus can actually atrophy, often causing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which puts older people at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

If you live in the Tampa area, a personalized brain fitness program can improve cognitive function and aid the hippocampus in archiving short term memory into long term memory. Nobody wants to forget precious memories as they get older, so exercising the brain is important. Neurofeedback along with diet, exercise and meditation has been shown to be of great benefit to this part of the brain and caused statistically significant improvements in cognitive function. The average person in research studies improved in about five of the 10 cognitive areas and many showed significant improvement!

The first step in this process is to get a non-invasive brain map to determine if there is some cognitive decline or if you are at risk for Alzheimer’s or dementia. Once that has been determined, a neurofeedback program combined with diet and exercise can effectively turn back the neurological clock and slow or stop cognitive decline. And neurofeedback can also aid in better sleep and less stress. The benefits can be truly life changing!

The Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science is world renown. The faculty and alumni of Columbia Engineering have won 10 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics. So when they publish a study, people take notice.

Recently, they completed a study on the effects of neurofeedback based on the idea that humans make better decisions and perform better at demanding sensory motor tasks when they have control over the arousal state of their sympathetic nervous system. As an example, why does act of walking across a balance beam less stressful if the beam sits six inches off the ground compared with when it is 60 feet up.

Researcher’s used real-time fMRI feedback to help participants in the study to regulate their arousal state during virtual reality aerial navigation tasks using a flight simulator. Using neurofeedback to stimulate the arousal state allowed the subjects to fly their virtual plane further and more precisely. In all, participants’ task performance was increased by around 20 percent. This explains why some people can be so cool under pressure: They are in control of their arousal state and are able to manage stress better.

If you live in the Tampa Florida area, neurofeedback is a tool that can help people regulate their arousal state better, which can reduce stress and allow one to keep calm under pressure. Best of all, neurofeedback is safe, non-invasive and readily available for anyone to use.

Neurofeedback is backed by 50 years of clinical research that has shown permanent lasting improvement in brain health time and time again. And it is already being accepted by many primary physicians and even insurance companies for treatment of mental health issues. Best of all, it requires no medications and results are often permanent. When it comes to keeping your brain healthy and in balance, neurofeedback is one of the best options currently available.

The brain is the control center for your entire body. Everything from cognitive thinking to breathing, regeneration and pain management run through the brain. If you’re taking steps to take care of your body, then you definitely need to take care of the brain. The key to keeping the brain healthy is understanding how it works.

There are 4 primary brainwaves, which control everything from sleep and regeneration to critical thinking and the subconscious. Delta waves are responsible for proper sleep and regeneration. Theta waves stimulate creativity and daydreaming. Alpha waves bridge the conscious and subconscious and help us relax, while Beta waves regulate critical thinking, focus and most rational thought. However, when these brainwaves are not in balance, it can lead to serious mental health issues like depression, anxiety, insomnia, anger, ADHD and many more.

For those who live in the Tampa area, there are many tools that can help keep the brain in balance. One of the best ones out there is not new, it’s a 60 year old program called neurofeedback.  Neurofeedback targets brainwaves specifically while you watch a movie or listen to music, carefully repairing neural connections and keeping the brain balanced and healthy. This can result in a reduction or elimination of many mental health symptoms. It can also help with focus and concentration, which can help you manage your life better. Neurofeedback is backed by 50 years of clinical research that has shown permanent lasting improvement in brain health time and time again. And it is already being accepted by many primary physicians and even insurance companies for treatment of mental health issues. Best of all, it requires no medications and results are often permanent. When it comes to keeping your brain healthy and in balance, neurofeedback is one of the best options currently available.

Historical thinking in the field of neuroscience was that the brain you were born with is the brain you were stuck with for life. However, with decades of brain study the emergence of neuroplasticity has challenged this thinking. So just what is neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is defined as the capacity of the brain to develop and change throughout life, plasticity referring to the brain’s capacity to reorganize itself. The idea is that the brain is malleable in terms of structure, allowing opportunities for new growth and connections. As structure changes, so does function.

The brain is a learning machine, thus enforcing the idea of neuroplasticity. A simple example would be learning a new language or learning to play a musical instrument. It is now known that we can change our brains by engaging modalities that stimulate neuroplasticity, such as neurofeedback.

For those living in the Tampa area, this means that people with brain damage have a hope of recovery as the brain reorganizes and creates new synaptic connections around damaged areas. It means that we can heal mental and physical disabilities by targeting the brain in the healing process. It means age related mental decline need not be a downward spiral. It even means things like pain and physical ailments can be improved or eliminated by targeting issues in the brain.

How Can Neurofeedback Help With Neuroplasticity?
Neurofeedback directly targets the problem areas in the brain, connecting neural pathways that have been damaged or never connected. To use a visual metaphor, If the brain is a complex system of roads that are not all passable, neurofeedback helps repair those roads so that all of them can connect to each other and travel between them is efficient.

On a cellular level, energy is being shunted away from certain neurological pathways representing illness and directed towards new ones that improve health. New connections between neurons are forming as neurofeedback participants alter their own brainwaves. The newest phrase for this is called “brain hacking” and it is showing a lot of promise in patient recovery and healing. For those looking for alternative methods than medications, neurofeedback is an important option moving forward.