 Migraine headaches, tension headaches, cluster headaches, sinus headaches... migraine with aura, migraine without aura. There are all sorts of headaches out there.
The thing is, headaches are complicated. Not all headaches are the same and there isn't one cause for all headaches. People get frustrated by this. Depending on what thing or things are causing a headache, chiropractic or other services I offer may be a total solution or part of the solution. One thing I do to deal with headaches that many others do not is Chiropractic Craniopathy . Chiropractic Craniopathy is an advanced level of training that a chiropractor can undertake as part of Sacro-Occipital Technic (SOT®). It takes years of study and practice to become certified. It is not a weekend course that a chiropractor takes. In basic terms, it deals with the micro-motion and position of the bones in the skull as well as the soft tissue involved in these structures. Chiropractic Craniopathy can also help with temporomandibular joint problems (TMJ or TMD) and these issues as well as dental issues like a bad bite or malocclusion can contribute to headaches as well. Sometimes a chiropractor and a dentist have to work together in these situations. Headaches can also be caused by the vertebra in the neck being subluxated (a chiropractic term for misalignment or joint articulation problem). Poor posture, muscular tension, dietary issues, food allergies, emotional stress...all these things can contribute to and cause a headache. Another therapy I use for headaches is Neurofeedback. People with headaches often have abnormal brainwave patterns that match the symptoms of the headache. By retraining the brain, I can often reduce or eliminate headaches, especially if they haven't responded to other therapies. Headaches may take a team approach. I'm happy to work with other professionals you may be working with or help you find another professional to help you if I can't do it alone. Interested in knowing if what I do might be able to help your headaches? Give my office a call 727-509-3760, email thedclcsw@gmail.com or book online https://www.tuttlehealth.com/schedule-an-appointment.html
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 The average person doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). But it's something that's really important.
First off, what is CSF? Picture a balloon with water and a gummy worm on the inside. CSF is the water and the brain and spinal cord are the gummy worm. The balloon is something call the dura mater, which houses the brain and spinal cord. For years, traditional medical textbooks said the purpose of CSF was to act as a cushion for the brain and spinal cord. Osteopathy and some forms of chiropractic like Sacro-Occpital Technic ® (SOT®) believed that the CSF was essential to the health and well being of the central nervous system and the person in general. They proposed that CSF helped remove toxins from the central nervous system and bring fresh nutrients to your central nervous system. It was a way the body "cleaned shop." The SOT® chiropractors and osteopaths believed that part of a person being healthy was having proper flow of CSF in the body. Disease states were associated with pooling or reduced CSF flow. With CSF not moving, the brain and spinal cord could not get proper nourishment and would be stewing in a pool of toxicity leading to disease. Now science is "discovering" what the osteopath's and SOT® chiropractors were saying all along. CSF has been shown to interact with the lymphatic system and interstital fluid, which act to both remove toxic materials from the body and bring important things like white blood cells to the body to fight infection. Problems with CSF flow have been documented in people with problems in the spine, pelvis and head (1, 2, 3). As an SOT® chiropractor, I have been trained to not only restore function to the spine but place a special emphasis on CSF flow to maximize your potential. How's your "flow?" Are your spine, pelvis and head functioning properly to maximize flow of CSF and function in the body? Call my office 727-509-3760, email thedclcsw@gmail.com or book an appointment online to have yourself checked out. 1. Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics at the Lumbosacral Level in Patients With Spinal Stenosis: A Pilot Study Se-Woong Chun,1 Hack-Jin Lee,2 Koong-Ho Nam,3 Chul-Ho Sohn,3 Kwang Dong Kim,4 Eun-Jin Jeong,2 Sun G. Chung,4 Keewon Kim,4 Dong-Joo Kim 2. Yamada, S. Cerebrospinal fluid physiology: visualization of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics using the magnetic resonance imaging Time-Spatial Inversion Pulse method Croat Med J. 2014;55:337-46 3. Head movement, an important contributor to human cerebrospinal fluid circulation Qiang Xu1,2, Sheng-Bo Yu1, Nan Zheng1, Xiao-Ying Yuan1, Yan-Yan Chi1, Cong Liu1,2, Xue-Mei Wang3, Xiang-Tao Lin4 & Hong-Jin Sui1 Influence of respiration on cerebrospinal fluid movement using magnetic resonance spin labeling Shinya Yamada1, Mitsue Miyazaki2,3*, Yuichi Yamashita3, Cheng Ouyang2, Masao Yui3, Masao Nakahashi3, Seiko Shimizu3, Ikuo Aoki3, Yukuo Morohoshi4 and James Gordon McComb5  The VibraCussor works on many soft tissue issues and feels great. My patients will tell you I do more than just adjust the spine.
Soft tissue (muscles, fascia and more) becomes tense and will pull bones out of alignment. I can give an adjustment to a person, but if their soft tissue doesn't come along for the change then the adjustment may not hold. To address this issue, one of the tools I use is the VibraCussor. The VibraCussor vibrates, giving percussive impulses that go deep into the soft tissue of the body. It can be set at various speeds tailored to the individual needs of the patient. The repetitive vibrations and impulses work at undoing fascial restrictions, relaxing muscles, treating trigger points and releasing joints. This is part of why my visits are longer than what patients may be accustomed to. Why do I take the extra time during my sessions? To help my patients get better faster! Contact the office at 727-509-3760 or email thedclcsw@gmail.com to schedule an appointment or learn more. You can also schedule online.  I know enough to know that there's always more to know. That's why when I take continuing education courses, I always try to find things that can really help my patients. One of the courses I recently took involved learning more about a technology called microcurrent point stimulation made by a company called Dolphin Neurostim.
These hand-held devices give off DC microcurrent and are applied to various points on the body to help with a variety of conditions, especially PAIN. Dolphin runs at a low frequency that is close to the current that the human body creates and uses. Studies have shown that after Dolphin Neurostim is used on a person, he/she experiences an increase in parasympathetic nervous system activity. So what? Well parasympathetic nervous system activity is the "rest and digest" part of the nervous system. Sympathetic nervous system activity is associated with increased stress and pain. I first used this device on myself, of course, and have started using it at the office with great results. Patients tell me they feel less pain and feel more relaxed. Others declare they feel "even better." Scars are another thing that the Dolphin can be used on. When you have a scar on the body, the body forms adhesions that the restrict motion of the soft tissue and joints, leading to lack of mobility and eventually pain. The pain may happen near the site of the scar or even at a place on the body far away from the scar. That's another blog entry really, but I recommend that you read a book called Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers to really understand this concept if you are interested in learning more. You might say, oh it's a TENS unit. IT IS NOT! TENS units act at a very high frequency. They "trick" the brain into thinking there is no pain for a short period of time, but they don't relax the nervous system. In fact, they aggravate it and ultimately make the pain cycle worse. TENS units don't fix anything. The Dolphin, on the other hand, addresses the root causes of the problem. Tight muscles? Trigger points? Tight fascia? All of these things can be helped by Dolphin. The list is too long to include everything Dolphin can be used for. But consider the following to give you a general idea:
Contact my office if you would like this therapy. Existing patients feel free to ask if it might be something to help you. 727-509-3760 or thedclcsw@gmail.com  When I heard that there were insoles and socks that would affect the brain I immediately threw up a critical nay. But then I saw imaging using qEEG technology, like I use in the office, showing changes in the brain after people wore the socks made by a company named Voxx. I was still doubtful, so I tried them out myself. I also tried out insoles you put in your shoes using the same technology. Lo and behold, I noticed a change. I was standing up straighter. I was more balanced, especially when going to the gym. I couldn't believe how stable I felt doing squats. I then had a exacting person put them on and they noticed a difference too, especially with stability. Now I wear them every day. Voxx was originally designed to enhance athletic performance. Studies showed that golfers and runners had significant improvement in their performance wearing Voxx insoles.  Stability and balance are important for people of all ages. But in the older population a fall can have very adverse outcomes if a person, for example, breaks a hip or fractures a bone elsewhere in the body.
Other people have reported reduction in foot, low back and neck pain as well as increased range of motion using the Voxx products. It would appear that these socks and insoles are sending therapeutic messages into the central nervous system. This in turn results in the positive experiences people are seeing with balance as well as pain, range of motion and overall performance. Would you like more stability when you move? Would you like less pain? Are you an athlete who would like to perform better? Voxx might be for you. Stop by my office to learn more and see if Voxx is right for you. I'll even give you a FREE test to see if Voxx is right for you. You can learn more as well as order socks or insoles here: https://tuttlehealth.voxxlife.com/ Some parents wanting Neurofeedback for their children have a difficult time getting them in for sessions during the school year. Extra-curricular activities, homework, and perhaps tutoring make keeping regular appointments for Neurofeedback difficult.
Now that we are at the end of the school year and starting summer, there is more free time and flexibility in the schedule. Therefore, it is easier to get in for the Neurofeedback appointments! To schedule an appointment, call 727-509-3760 schedule online at www.TuttleHeath.com, or email thedclcsw@gmail.com.  Flashing like a strobe light, these photic stimulation glasses stimulate the brain at different frequencies using light. Tuttle Health, LLC has recently acquired two new technologies to help patients! These are both stimulation therapies for the brain. Visual entrainment is photic (light) stimulation of the brain in which a person wears glasses that flash light. Similar to a strobe light, the speed of the flashing can be adjusted to stimulate the brain in a desired frequency. The stimulation frequency is based on what is shown in a person's brain map.  pEMF microtesla coils are placed on the head either alone or in conjunction with Neurofeedback sessions. Micro tesla is a very low electromagnetic field. How strong is the electromagnetic field? Not any stronger than those earbuds you wear in your ears every day. It's the frequency of the field generated and the location or placement of the coils that make the brain change.
These additional technologies add to the value of the neurofeedback services I provide and give me more ways to help patients get better faster. You can reach the office at 727-509-3760 or email thedclcsw@gmail.com to learn more or schedule an appointment. I'm honored be co-author on a presentation that received a research award for "Best Scientific Paper" at the Association of Chiropractic Colleges Research Agenda Conference in 2019 (ACC-RAC). I have presented there three times prior to this for research related to chiropractic and brain function. This award was for a second round of analysis on data I collected on brain function immediately before, immediately after, and 1 week after chiropractic adjustments. Thanks to my colleague Stephanie Sullivan, DC, Ph.D. who helped lead this second round of analysis.
This research showed that there was a change in "effective connectivity" in the brain, which is basically the direction of information flow from one area of the brain to the other. Robert Thatcher, Ph.D., who developed the science behind effective connectivity analysis, likens it to the relationship between a parking lot and a football stadium and the people in and around the two. He states "effective connectivity measures the direction and magnitude of the flow of people that travel between the two locations.“ In other words, how many people are moving and in what direction they are moving. Our work showed that chiropractic adjustments resulted in a marked change in information flow in the brain up to one week of having the adjustment. This work is also being presented in Berlin, Germany at the World Federation of Chiropractic conference in later March. The abstract is below. Changes over time in effective neural connectivity following a chiropractic adjustment Stephanie Sullivan, Rebecca Shisler Marshall, Dan Tuttle, Emily Drake, Ronald Hosek, Jerry Hochman Objective: To assess changes in brain communication patterns over time. Methods: A secondary analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data from a previous single session chiropractic randomized controlled trial (NCT01953614) was analyzed at three time points: baseline, post, and one-week post. Brain communication changes were measured using LORETA Phase Slope Index (PSI), measuring direction and magnitude of communication between brain regions. Analysis was conducted on normalized PSI scores between fourteen study-specific Brodmann Areas. To control for Type I error, permutation tests were performed, followed by two-way mixed ANOVA and univariate analysis for significant simple main effects (SMEs). Results: One significant change was observed baseline to post with SMEs for the sham group (p=0.03). From post to one-week, six of the seven SMEs were observed for the sham group (p:0.001 to 0.033), involving the visual association cortex or posterior cingulate. In contrast, for baseline to one-week post, three of four SMEs were present following chiropractic care (p:0.003 to 0.027), and changes were observed in cortical executive function regions. No SMEs were observed in the control. Conclusion: Changes in brain communications patterns were more evident in relation to one-week post intervention and differ regionally between chiropractic and sham interventions. Dana J. Lawrence (2019) ACC Research Agenda Conference 2019: Peer Reviewer Acknowledgments and Abstracts of Proceedings. Journal of Chiropractic Education: March 2019, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 51-77 What is Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Technique (CMRT)?
CMRT is a type of soft tissue work developed by a chiropractor and osteopath named Dr. M.B. DeJarnette. It involves manual stimulation to the organs of the body. A CMRT-trained doctor may also touch various reflex points on the body depending on which organ is affected. This is additional work beyond simply adjusting the spine. What's the general idea behind CMRT? Each spinal vertebra in the thoracic and lumbar spine corresponds with an organ or organ system. For example, thoracic vertebra 5 goes with the stomach. When thoracic 5 is subluxated (chiropractic term for a vertebra not functioning properly), the stomach function can be affected (a somato-visceral reflex). Similarly, if the stomach is irritated by something, it can send signals back into the spine causing the vertebra to become subluxated (a viscero-somatic reflex). This is part of why some people have to go back to chiropractors again and again to have the same vertebra adjusted. They haven't fixed the viscerosomatic reflex. Who performs CMRT? Only chiropractors with advanced training in Sacro-Occipital Technic® (SOT®) practice CMRT. It requires additional continuing education after a doctor graduates school and then practices using it on patients. I am the only doctor certified in SOT® Methods in Pinellas county and only 1 of 2 in the entire Tampa bay area. What are SOME of the problems I have successfully treated with CMRT:
Want to know more or see if CMRT might be the right therapy for you? Email thedclcsw@gmail.com or call 727-509-3760.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be a complicated disorder to treat. I am trained in a variety of techniques to treat PTSD, including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, regular behavioral therapy, Neurofeedback, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is something that only licensed mental healthcare professionals who have been trained can provide. According to the EMDR institute:
Those are impressive numbers, especially when you consider the years of therapy that some people have to go through to deal with PTSD and sometimes only get partial relief. EMDR is thought to work at a biological level involving trauma networks in the brain. However, the exact way it works remains unknown.  What I like about EMDR is that it guides the person to have awareness of how their psychological issues are manifesting in their body. With some patients, I do both EMDR and chiropractic in the same session. With those patients, I find that the areas that the psychological issues manifest are the same areas that require chiropractic treatment. Thus, my expertise in both mental and physical health may potentially help to improve patient outcomes because I can target the problem in a variety of ways. Of course, any patient can elect to only do EMDR as a therapy in my office. I do not pressure patients into any therapy they do not wish to partake in.
EMDR isn't just for PTSD. It has been used to treat phobias, panic disorder, somatoform disorders, performance anxiety, chronic pain, headaches, GI problems, eating disorders and negative body image. If you are interested in seeing if EMDR might be the right therapy for you, give my office a call at 727-509-3760 or send me an email to thedclcsw@gmail.com. |
AuthorI'm a Chiropractic Physician, Psychotherapist and researcher. I'm interested in helping people live their lives to their full potential. That could be simply without pain. Or it could be without more complicated physical or mental health problems. Or it could be getting help in making changes in their life so that they can achieve their dreams. Archives
January 2020
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