Examples of Conditions We See

The genesis of a brain injury can occur due to a variety of occurrences, such as a direct trauma to the head from a fall, collision during a sport, or even from a whiplash during a car accident.  These injuries many times, unless extremely severe, will not show up on diagnostic imaging such as an MRI.  

Balance disorders encompass an array of different presentations such as the inability to maintain one's balance while standing, while walking, while eyes are closed, symptoms of vertigo, dizziness, and light headedness.  The causation of a balance disorder can range from brain injury to the way you practice a sport.  For example, a figure skater or dancer who always practices and executes body rotations, such as pirouetting, to the same direction causing aberrancies in the gain and imbalances of the vestibular system. 

Headaches can originate from a multitude of sources.  Originators can include muscular tension, vascular compromises, blood pressure abnormalities, ocular misalignments, brain injury, or as a concomitant to another condition such as movement disorders for example.

Autonomic dysfunction is a disorder that many times goes undiagnosed and missed as the cause for a patient's symptoms.  It is  a dysfunction in areas of the brain that are responsible for body functions that are under unconscious control.  These are functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, sweating, and temperature control to name a few.  Autonomic dysfunction can be the result of a plethora of different origins such as hereditary, brain injury, or lack of proprioceptive stimulation to name just a few of countless cumulative causes. 

Many gastrointestinal disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn's disease, and Ulcerative Colitis are many times caused by dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system due to brain injury or any of the other array of possible causes.  These Neurogenic Gastrointestinal Disorders do not need invasive interventions and can be alleviated by rehabilitating the areas of the brain responsible for the autonomic dysfunction.

As long as a neuron is not completely dead, it can be rehabilitated.  The way to alleviate the effects and symptomatology that develop from a stroke is not with musculoskeletal based therapy.  For example, stretching an extremity that has developed abnormal posturing due to dystonic muscle contraction.  You must rehabilitate the dysfunctional area(s) of the brain injury that are causing the dystonic posturing.  

Neurobehavioral Disorders involve both children and adults.  Examples of these disorders include ADHD, autism, OCD, and anxiety.

A movement disorder can include both the occurrence of unwanted movements, and the inability to elicited wanted movements appropriately.  Some examples of movement disorders include Parkinson's, different forms of tremors, and dystonia. 

A number of people who have contracted the coronavirus develop symptoms that continue well beyond the point of no longer testing positive for the virus. These individuals are being referred to as “Long-Haulers”.  

Every person’s brain has its own unique composition exclusive to only that individual. This results in some variance in the specific symptoms suffered by these individuals and in their severity. However, while we are still in the learning process regarding effects of the coronavirus, currently, a prevalent cause of long-hauler symptoms is due to varying forms and degrees of dysautonomia.

Whether you are in youth travel sports or a professional All-Star at the top of your sport, your skill and mastery of your sport(s) can be enhanced by targeting and further optimizing areas of the brain that pertain to your particular sport(s).  For example, there are very specific nuclei in the brain that allow for ocular stability while visually tracking a moving object.  Therefore, one way to improve a baseball player's hitting ability is to augment the strength of these nuclei to allow the athlete to see pitches at higher velocities, and with greater breaking angles, more clearly.

To understand this diagnosis, like many diagnoses, you must understand each of the body's systems, and how these systems work together physiologically.   

A Developmental disorder that attempts to categorize individuals into generalized types.  However, every person's symptomatology is unique and must be individually assessed in order to understand and formulate their rehabilitation process.