Futurehealth - Futurehealth Newsletter of December 9, 2009

By Rob Kall
The Hottest Christmas Present This Year is an EEG-based Game from Mattell

the Wall Street journal reports that the hot game this holiday season is just about sold out, and it's based on EEG. This should be GOOD for the profession of bio/neurofeedback

By Barbara Woolner
The Use of Electromyographic Biofeedback for Training Pelvic Floor Musculature

The core behavioral treatment of urinary incontinence is pelvic muscle re-education. Biofeedback "takes the guesswork out of pelvic muscle training" (reference NIDDK) because it enables the patient to improve pelvic muscle function through muscle awareness, which, when combined with a home exercise program, leads to increased muscle strength and improved coordination.

By Rob Kall
American Character Strengths Threatened By Private Health Insurer Economic Policies
The American character has been undergoing a dangerous and effective attack that has, in my opinion, gone virtually un-noticed. The character values of self-reliance, self responsibility and self control are being seriously eroded by private for profit and non-profit health insurer policies.

By Rob Kall
Your Biofeedback Practitioner's Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell described a mythic pattern that any hero, any person going through a process of growth and increased personal awareness experiences. This model works very well for biofeedback practitioners, describing the stages, steps, experiences, problems, opportunities, challenges and rewards you can expect to encounter on your path to becoming a master of the world of biofeedback.

By tom collura
INFORMATION, ENTROPY, AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE
The concept of information and entropy is key to understanding how we are able to have the ability to make choices. A brain-oriented view of this leads to helpful insights regarding neurofeedback and its potential for human development.

By Alexandra Cox
Why Brain Science Is Bad for Juvenile Justice

advocates' uses of brain research, and their reliance on 'hard' science, raise some potentially troubling questions about the potential impact of this science on ideas about human potential.

By Jon Rhodes
Relaxation And Stress
Effects of long term stress are not to be taken lightly. Although they cannot always be seen, the effects of stress can lead to serious physical, as well as mental health problems.

By Rob Kall
Handwarming from the Inside out; Thermal / Temperature Biofeedback

Have you warmed your hands lately? How about your feet?

By Rob Kall
Biofeedback and Locked In Syndrome-- in ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis /Lou Gherig's Disease)
links and some discussion on the use of neurofeedback and brain monitoring with ALS Lou Gherig's Disease (Amotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

By frances fox
Is Your Child an Indigo or Crystal Child? Are You?
Children today are different, they are more evolved, they are born wise. They receive information from more than one dimension at a time; consequently, their minds cannot stay in one dimension. Because of their inability to focus, too often they are classified as ADHD. The biggest challenge for parents and teachers is how to educate then, how to satisfy their needs and how to keep them happy.

'My Second Birth - 'Discovering Life in Vegetative Patients
For over 20 years, doctors thought Rom Houben was brain dead. But then, neurologist Steven Laureys discovered that the Belgian was very much awake. Experts say that up to 40 percent of those thought to be in a persistent vegetative state are, in fact, quite conscious.

By Judith Acosta
The Gift of Receiving--A Pre-Season Guide To Staying Stress Free
Every year at around this time, the advertising starts to remind us that the holidays are closing in. For some, that is a delight. To others, it is a cause for panic.

By Patricia Norris
Self-Regulation for Immune System Disorders

Beyond the amelioration or healing of an immune system disorder, biofeedback-assisted psychophysiologic therapy provides the experiential knowledge of self-regulation, self-mastery, and voluntary control, and an improved and empowered self image. This has far-reaching consequences, for the image that we hold of ourselves influences everything that we are and everything we do.

By Hershel Toomim
Intentional Control of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow with the Thinking Cap

This study examines intentional increase of blood perfusion in a chosen brain area when the subject is suitably informed of the rCBF of that brain region.

By tom collura
ON PERSONAL CONNECTIVITY
When we look at our personal connectivity over time, we realize that our own interpersonal connections are vast and profound. This should affect how we choose to view each other, and act accordingly.

Watching The Body's Metabolism Using Ultra Low Field MRI

One of the many astounding things that magnetic resonance imaging can do is track the changing presence of carbon-13 in the body. That's important because it shows the body's metabolism in action so researchers can see how diseases such as cancer and diabetes change the way it functions.

By Richard A. Sherman
The Use of EIectromyographic and Temperature Biofeedback for Treatment of Cramping and Burning Phantom Limb Pain

Phantom limb pain occurs among between 50 and 80 percent of amputees. For patients who describe burning/tingling phantom limb pain and have an essentially normal reactive vascular system, a trial of temperature biofeedback may provide relief.

By Warren Davies
Positive Priming

Priming is a phenomenon where being exposed to a certain stimuli makes a particular response to a second stimuli more likely to happen. For example, smelling the freshly baked bread when you walk into a store makes you more likely to buy some bread.

By Judith Acosta
Leaving the Wilderness Alive: How to Survive The Worst When All You've Got is You.

Mental survival-regardless of where a person is, whether that's in the extremes of battle or a backpacking expedition-is often a matter of recalling or being made aware of the resources one already has--particularly words. What we think, we become. Literally.

By lincoln stoller
Neurofeedback and Ayahuasca: A More Effective Program for Personal Growth

Modern neurofeedback therapy is compared with the experience and goals of the traditional ayahuasca ceremony. A program of conducting neurofeedback training in conjunction with the ayahuasca ceremony is described. It's argued that such a combination enhances the goals of each program by providing better preparation and post-training support.

EEG Neurofeedback for Epilepsy
Documents the author's exploration into the data supporting EEG neurofeedback as a treatment option for epilepsy.

By Michael Cohen
Can I do neurofeedback training at home?

Can a parent or individual do training on his own with limited or no neurofeedback training? These questions arise often. Wouldn't it be more convenient to do training at home, and less costly? Can't you do more training per week and make progress faster? The clinician/technician just pushes some buttons - couldn't I do that just as easily myself at home? If it were only so simple.

By Rob Kall
Template Feedback of Athletic Force and Movement Patterns
Over 30 years ago, I developed a concept of using transducers and sensors to convert athletic force and movement patterns into electrical activity that could be used for biofeedback. Things have come a long way since then.

By Kirtley Thornton
A Cost/Benefit Analysis of Different Intervention Models for LD/Special Ed. Students

Since the decade of the brain was declared in 1990, there have been impressive advances in the area of neurodiagnostic instrumentation measuring the physical functioning of the brain and providing a deeper understanding of the functioning of the brain.

By Jay Gunkelman
Thalamic Involvement in the Generation of the Alpha Rhythms

Alpha" it's not a simple idling rhythm" let's look at alpha generators:

By Judith Acosta
PRIMUN NON NOCERE: First Do No Harm

Primun non nocere. This is still the sacred promise of every medical school graduate across the country as he or she accepts the diploma, the title and the rank of healer in our culture. It is the core of the Hippocratic Oath. However, in a world of unreasonable speed, in which new discoveries and new pharmaceuticals are being produced in measures of seconds, not years, it may be more than doctors can promise us anymore.

By Siegfried Othmer, Ph.D.
Overcoming Obstacles to Neurofeedback Care for Veterans

We now know how to recover veterans from all kinds of mental health issues through neurofeedback comprehensively, cost-effectively and quickly—regardless of whether we are talking about traumatic brain injury, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or other less devastating mental dysfunctions.

By Hershel Toomim
Anxiety, Anger, Depression, TBI and HEG-

This study revealed two candidate pathways from cortical receipt of a stimulus to activity of the amygdala. An excitatory pathway was found through the orbito-frontal cortex. Another emotional regulator pathway was found via the right inferior lateral prefrontal cortex.