Ep. 068 – Gaze Stabilization

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Good morning and welcome to Episode 68 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

If you are looking for something simple that you can do that isn’t too strenuous, then tip number 68 is the ticket! Today Dr. Trayford teaches about gaze stabilization. Gaze stabilization is an eye exercise where you train your eyes to hold steady while looking at a target. Listen in as he explains exactly how to conduct this exercise. Have someone check your eyes to see how often your eyes stray and then practice this technique several times a day. This will help you develop the ability to track a moving target as well has hold your gaze on a still target. And of course, all of this will help your brain function more efficiently.

This tip is an entry -level tool for helping to build better function of the eye movement system. Gaze stabilization is really important. It relates to our ability to hold our eyes on a target. Now there are elementary speaking, there is so much to get into here.

To hold your eyes on a target deals with more primitive brain function. In the tri-brain theory this relates to the reptilian brain, which helps us to identify if something is a friend or foe.

While holding your eyes on a target relates in many ways to primitive brain stem function it also relates to aspects of our frontal cortex, which is central to defining your humanity and advanced cognitive ability.
Most people don’t necessarily equate eye movements or the ability to hold your eyes on a target with overall brain function. This is something that we’ll elaborate on in the longer podcasts.

The most basic activity is holding your eyes on a target. If you’re looking at a spot on the wall, it might be hard to tell if you’re truly holding your eyes on a target. People often experience square-wave jerks, which are an involuntary movement that pulls the eyes off the target instantaneously. People might not be able to tell that they’re actually doing it.

In the past we’ve discussed the VNG or Videonystagmography testing. But really it can be as simple as holding your finger in front of your eyes and watching to see if the eyes stay on the target will tell you a lot about gaze stabilization.

If your eyes can’t hold a target, they can’t follow a target or catch up to a target. This leads to additional dysfunction in cognitive function and ability to focus. Children with ADHD or has suffered brain injury often struggle to hold their eyes on a target.

This is something you should discuss with your physician or a physician versed in functional neurology. What you want to do is simply look at a target that’s about arm’s length away, at eye level. Then turn your head from side to side, fairly slowing. With about two seconds per turn of the head. Do 10 repetitions, two or three times per day to start training these systems.

If there are challenges that you’re experiencing, you need to get with a physician that can help you with treatment intervention.

If you have any concerns regarding the information and applications discussed in this podcast, please consult your physician and a doctor who is experienced in functional neurology. Michael Trayford DC, DACNB is available for consultation by calling (828) 708-5274. Thanks for listening. Continue reading →

Ep. 067 – Read Voraciously

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 67 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares brain training tip number 67. This tip will help stimulate your brain to be more analytical, imaginative and relaxed. You’ll exercise your brain’s ability to comprehend and predict, and you can do it all in the comfort of your favorite chair. The tip is to read! Reading is crucial for language development and maintenance. It will make you a better speaker and a better writer, but most importantly, it will keep your brain sharp!

Do you read a lot Jason?

Jason: I can read. I do read. I know how to read. But my wife is the more of the reader in our family.

I know you love the films, but do you read the books for the movie.
Jason: all of the books I read are related to film.

I recommend to anybody and everybody that they read. This is kind of like drinking water. There are some people who say I don’t like drinking water. Which is something I’ve never understood. There are some people that say I don’t like reading. There might be some long-standing reasons, like developmental issues or dyslexia that might be related to it.

In general most people have an innate desire to learn and language is the primary tool for learning. It’s such an important part of the makeup of our brain and our society as the primary way to transmit information from one person, place, and community. Reading is the primary means of communicating all of these various forms of information.

We need to understand for our own personal, cultural development that reading is critical to so many factors in our lives. It’s integral to a certain degree.

There are so many brain benefits to reading: mental stimulation and getting the brain working and the synapses firing and hormones circulating. You might read an article that evokes and emotion and it stimulated the brain and hormone production.

This extends to improving memory as well. When you read a book you have to remember different things that are happening in the plot. This is particularly true with fiction. When you have to remember characters, plot and the sequence of events, your memory is lifting a lot of weights. That’s why some people are good at following things through. Whether it be a book or a movie and other’s not so much.

Analytical skills. Remembering characters, the ones you like and don’t like. Looking back on it and reflecting with my kids, they have to read their books and explain the central theme and character development.
Improved focus and concentration is an obvious benefit, as you need to follow the action through the course of the story.

Improved writing ability. People write better when they read more. I know this for a fact. I do quite a bit of writing and I see my writing abilities improve when I’m reading morning.

Stress management, reading is escapism, as are movies and exercise. A good book can provide an outlet that exercise would have in other cases.
Entertainment. The good thing about reading is that it’s inexpensive.
Generally speaking if you’re learning something from what you’re reading, it’s better for you than a book that offers you a little escapism. Still even a book that only provides entertainment is still offering you mental stimulation.

Ep. 066 – Know Your Number – Heavy Metals

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 66 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares brain training tip number 66. Dr. Trayford loves sushi and eats it often. If you also eat a good amount of fish, you might want to have your heavy metal levels tested. There are a few different ways to test these levels, so talk to your doctor about what is the best way for you to determine these numbers. There are ways of flushing them out. They are toxic to the body, so we definitely want to be aware of our heavy metal numbers.

This tip is about heavy metals. It’s important to know and understand a little bit about heavy metals in your body. This really hits home for me right now. I recently had my heavy metals checked out and found out that my mercury level is sky high. Also my antimony levels were also very high.
There are two factors related to heavy metals in the human body. How you’re getting them in and how you’re getting them out. Your body does a good job of detoxifying and pulling out what we put into it. But there are certain things that the body has a hard time eliminating. Some of these things can be very detrimental for the brain and body.

In my case I attribute my situation to be related to high sushi intake. I love sushi and I’ve eaten it most of my adult life.

There are charts you can find on line that show you the average mercury content of a fish. In general a large fish that takes it’s primary diet from eating other fish, especially in cold water, will tend to have higher levels of mercury.

There are some challenges with this. Things like tuna have been associated with heavy metal concentrations.

We’re also seeing increased levels of arsenic, which is found in many rice sources. It comes from the ground. People have been looking for additional sources of protein intake and they turn to soy and rice based products. A lot of medical foods now have some type of rice or protein component. There’s a move away from that now because there are sources of arsenic showing up in rice.

Heavy metals also extend to things like cadmium, antimony, and lead. There are these other things we’ve talked about. The bottom line is to get your heavy metals checked.

There are several different ways you can do this. There might be a little confusion between the clinical and consumer world.

The test used to involve testing samples of your hair and nails. Samples were sent to a lab.

If you’re seeing heavy metals in your hair and nails, your body is already doing a decent job of eliminating these metals from your system. What you really need to be looking at is the level of heavy metals being stored in the body in fats and other tissues. Because those are the heavy metals that the body is struggling to eliminate.
Have you heard of chelation?

Jason: Yes I have actually. No I’ve heard of Keloid scarring.
Chelation involves introducing a substance to the body that binds to another substance and pulls it out of the body. There are several different kinds of substances. They are all designed to free up heavy metals and then you can look at the urine and see how much heavy metal is showing up in your urine sample over time.

There is a little bit of controversy. Certain states won’t allow this type of testing. But there are certain types of chemicals. One is called EDTA and another is DMSA, or DMPS.

These are basically abbreviation for long chemical names.

DMPS is considered to be one of the most aggressive and controversial. There is some states that don’t allow this type of testing. It does a very good job of binding and releasing mercury and other heavy metals, so they can be eliminated from the body and measured in the urine.

The process of chelating is something we will get into in future tips. Understanding your heavy metals should be towards the top of the list. Because these metals will interfere with nerve transmission, they can cause inflammation and over time they can give you a brain that does not work very well at all.

Get your heavy metals tested.

Ep. 065 – Measure Your Oxygen Levels

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 65 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares brain training tip number 65. For anyone concerned with health we have good news: It is actually affordable for people to have their own pulse oximeters in their homes now. You can easily measure the oxygen saturation levels for yourself or your family with a pulse oximeter. This is the device with the red light that nurses will sometimes put on your finger tip. Oxygen and sugar are the two main sources of fuel for the brain, so it is quite important to make sure that you are getting enough oxygen.

A lot of people are unaware of the fact that they can measure their oxygen levels. Consumer level medical technology has advanced to the point that you can measure oxygen saturation, or pulse oximetry at home. You might have noticed a little red thing on someone’s finger when you visited them in the hospital. What it’s actually doing is measuring the oxygen saturation of their blood in real time.

Years ago these units were priced $400 each. Now they are selling for anywhere between $18 to $50. You can get a really good solid unit for about $25.

You clip it onto your finger and it reads heart rate and oxygen levels. Pulse oximetry is a good way of looking at how much oxygen is being carried in your blood. This is a great way to see how your brain is getting fed on an hourly or daily basis.

Oxygen and sugar are the two main fuels for your brain. 100% is optimal. Most people will float around 98 to 99%. If you attach this little device on your finger and you see an oxygen percentage of 90 or 92% it’s not good. Even if your body has gotten used to operating at a lower oxygen saturation level, you should still investigate the cause.

In some people like chronic smokers, that aren’t getting the best amount of oxygen circulating in their blood stream, we tend to see oxygen saturation levels around 95%. A bedridden person might be around 90 to 94% oxygen saturation.

Every percentage point can elevate brain function significantly. So we can have people track this on their own and do breathing exercises to help improve and track their own oxygen levels. If you notice that your oxygen levels are dipping low, you can start doing one of the various breathing exercise tips we’ve discussed earlier.

You can track an important biomarker while demonstrating to yourself that you have absolute control over making your brain work better.

Ep. 064 – Brain Training for Peak Performance

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 064 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. It’s Monday again, so this is our weekly, 30-minute episode. (Tuesday through Sunday we produce five-minute episodes with daily tips.) Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast provides advice for helping you to improve the function of your brain.

In Episode 064, Dr. Trayford explains some of the most effective techniques that he uses to train peak performers. Whether an athlete, business person, or musician, these individuals push themselves to execute every motion with exact precision. Biofeedback, balance-testing and eye-testing are just the beginning. If you want to up your game, in any arena, Dr. Trayford knows how to train your brain to help you achieve peak performance! Continue reading →

Ep. 063 – Know Your Numbers: Sedimentation Rate (ESR)

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Happy November and welcome to Episode 63 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares a brain training tip for another medical test that you can reference to monitor your health. If you can have your sedimentation rate numbers tested you can detect inflammation and track damages from injury. Ask your doctor if this test might be helpful for you.

Sedimentation rate is a pretty basic test. It’s one of the biomarkers, hospitals monitor in people that have suffered a traumatic injury. Some other common terms include: erythrocyte sedimentation rate, or Sed-rate.
It’s sort of like when you put a bunch of dirt in a vial and shake it up, then let things slowly settle down to the bottom. This is similar to how sedimentation rate is measured, except instead of particles of dirt it looks at how fast red blood cells sink to the bottom of a vial as part of a blood test. It’s one of the markers for inflammation.

It’s an inexpensive test for many different conditions, inflammation, infection autoimmune diseases and things like that. Almost all of these conditions impact brain function.

The range is measured between zero to twenty. Ideally, you want to it measure zero or as close to zero as possible. When we’re seeing that in combination with C-reactive protein we know that something is going on. It’s another canary in the coalmine type of testing.
Most insurance companies will cover a test like this as common diagnostic testing.

Ep. 062 – Sleep: Nasal Strips

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Happy Halloween and welcome to Episode 62 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

For Halloween today Dr. Trayford talks about something very scary: not being able to breathe well at night. Have you ever been jolted awake from disrupted breathing? It is an alarming feeling. It might be due to your pillow’s height, sleeping position, your weight or another condition. Of course the brain needs oxygen at night to perform its many wiring and learning functions, so you want to make sure to get to the bottom of this issue. Dr. Trayford recommends trying nasal strips. They truly help with breathing at night. If the problem persists, consider a sleep study.

This tip relates to sleep and the use of nasal strips.
Jason: I’ve seen those and I can’t believe that they really work!
They do! I’ve seen under certain circumstances. I need to use them in a hotel room or if I’m sleeping in a new location. When I’m sleeping in a hotel room I generally have restless sleep. Also if the pillow are too high, which is common in a lot of hotel rooms, my windpipe gets a little bit bent and my trachea closes down on the back of my throat.

Keeping the nose open a little bit help. A lot of people have trouble breathing when they’re sleeping. In most cases if it’s not related to bladder or an issue with a restless mind, then it’s usually some sort of breathing issue.

I know myself if I lie on my back I have a difficult time when breathing through my nose. Oxygen flow, especially in the brain is very important when you’re sleeping. As we’ve talked about in the past.

There’s a lot of rewiring, remodeling in the pathways and taking out garbage in the brain. This all requires energy. The brain’s two primary forms of energy are oxygen and sugar. So if you’re experiencing a decrease in oxygen, it’s significant and the brain will suffer as a result.

In some instances, where people are dealing with severe sleep apnea, they might need air pressure regulating CPAP machines. But in basic instances where someone is being woken up by that quick little jolt of your breathing stopping. It might be remedied by using nasal strips.

In a situation like this you might need to have a sleep study done to determine the extent of the issue. However, that shouldn’t be the first step. Using nasal strips is worth trying to help you find better quality of sleep.

Bottom line, at all costs, you want to be able to achieve quality sleep on your own. If you start using alternative devices they can become a crutch that you become dependent on. If you or your spouse is having trouble sleeping, I suggest giving them a try as an effective first step in trying to remedy sleep problems related to breathing issues.

This is especially true if your spouse tells you that you’re choking when you’re sleeping, or stopping breathing. You should discuss this will your physician to explore your options.

Ep. 061 – Limit Carbohydrate Intake

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 061 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares brain training tip 61! There is so much diet and nutrition information out there these days! As you are sorting through all the claims, there is one safe and effective diet goal that you can keep in mind. It is truly healthy for you to limit carb intake. This isn’t radical and it isn’t new, but don’t get caught up in all the hype. Watch the carbohydrates and give your brain and body as much natural fuel as possible!

Carbohydrates are all over people’s radar these days. Some people are eating way too much and some people are eating way too little. There is no one size fits all. Not everyone is a perfect fit for the Atkins, Paleo or Mediterranean diet or whichever nutrition plan the case might be.
In my mind it’s not about eating on any one diet plan as it is eating smarter rather than following any strict script. Just look at the first three letters of the word diet.

What we want to look at in this tip is basically just setting up some common sense approach to how your diet can help you build a better brain. One of the things to address is to limit your carbohydrates.
By far more people fall into the camp where they are eating too many carbohydrates.

In the 1980’s there was a diet crazy where people tried to stay away from fats and instead focused on eating more carbohydrates.

What we really want to do is focus on eating quality carbohydrate foods that are high in soluble and dietary fiber and complex carbohydrates.
The way I describe it, if it is a food with a jacket that you can eat, then that is good. If you can’t eat the jacket on that food, like a banana, it means that the fruit inside usually has a lot of simple carbohydrates.

If you think about things like an apple where you can eat the jacket. It’s a sign of a fruit that has more fiber and complex carbohydrates. So when you eat a banana or a pineapple, your blood sugar spikes quite quickly.
In general our plates are overloaded with simple, empty calorie carbohydrates. Pretzels, ice cream and other simple snacks are loaded with simple carbs.

It’s not about completely eliminating a type of food, but limiting it and being smart about what you’re eating and when.

Ep. 060 – Gratitude Journal

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 060 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares brain training tip 60! There is power in pondering and considering things you are grateful for. You can actually strengthen your brain and enrich your life at the same time: Taking the time to write down things that you are grateful for will exercise your brain and make you an all-around healthier (and happier) person!

The concept of keeping a gratitude journal has really started to be researched extensively. Forbes published an article in November of 2014 that explored the value of keeping a gratitude journal.

Something happens neurologically when we reflect on our choices, relationships and special events in our lives. Actively reflecting starts to hardwire neurological changes in the brain. If you’re constantly focusing on emotions that make you fearful, angry and resentful, they eventually get hardwired into the brain.

Research has found that keeping a gratitude journal can help pull you out of negative patterns, and start you on a course that leads to positive thoughts and actions. Gratitude journals have shown to be even more effective, than simply focusing on having positive thoughts in your day.
Keeping one has many different benefits.

One of the biggest improvements comes with the ability to open up new relationships, or to communicate better in your current relationships. Reflecting and being grateful for the people that help you in life, expands your empathy, and empathy is one of the cornerstones of healthy relationships.

It also improves physical health. We understand pain levels come down when people are grateful. Research has found that people that are stuck in negative emotions, have higher pain scales, than people who practice gratitude and positive thinking on a daily basis. This was published in a journal of 2012 journal of personality and individual differences.

Psychological health is the obvious one. Study after study has found that gratitude and mental well being go hand in hand. Next to exercise it is one of the best treatments for depression.

It also reduces aggression and enhances empathy. We can feel more for others when we start to really reflect on our experiences with them. Most of our gratitude is based on our experiences with others, so we don’t feel angry towards them.

Sleep, has been shown to be very important for brain health. There are studies that have been published, one in the journal of applied psychology, found that people who wrote in a gratitude journal for 15 minutes at night before going to bed experienced better sleep and longer
Self-esteem is also impacted. When you sit down and reflect on what you’ve accomplished and what you’re grateful for, these are researched backed as well.

We start to reduce our social comparisons when we show gratitude. We’re not judging people as much when we’re doing that. With the advent of the Internet and people trying to show each other up. Especially for younger girls as they’re growing up and trying to compete in the world of being a teenager these days. With my 11-year-old daughter, this is something we are always trying to teach her.

Mental strength. PTSD and other conditions are impacted dramatically. There are studies done with veterans that have seen significant benefits from gratitude journaling.

It costs little more than a cheap composition notebook or simply maintaining a special file on your computer’s hard drive.

The journal doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It can just be a simple composition notebook. If you’d like you can even break it down into different categories: personal life, business.
You really just want to look at the different aspects of your life and reflect on them. The results will be amazing.

Ep. 059 – Go a Little Further Each Day

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Jason Pyles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Good morning and welcome to Episode 059 of the Train Your Brain Podcast with Dr. Michael Trayford. Every Monday we produce a 30-minute episode. Tuesday through Sunday we produce episodes with five-minute tips. Every episode of the Train Your Brain Podcast features a tip, so you can receive pointers 365 days a year that will help enhance the performance of your brain!

Today Dr. Trayford shares brain training tip 59! He admonishes us to go a little further each day. If you have an exercise routine already in place, you might find yourself plateauing after a while. At that point, cautiously consider pushing yourself just a little bit. Adding another block to your run or another five minutes to your routine will add up!

This tip incorporates a philosophy that can fit into many aspects of your life, in this case it pays particularly large benefits for your daily exercise routine. Human beings are capable of doing great things, but you can’t reach great heights without pushing your own limits.

If your daily exercise routine involves taking a vigorous walk through your neighborhood and you always turn around at the same spot, you might get stuck in a rut. The next time you want to go a little bit further. Just keep in mind that you don’t want to push through serious pain. The goal should be to go a little bit further each day, not to go to extremes each and every day.

If I just push on for extra tenth of a mile, or you put in that one more set, or five more minutes at practice, it will all add up over time. Pushing your limits, a little bit each day is money in the bank. It’s like compound interest. The results will serve you in the long run. This goes beyond the little things.

You’ll eventually start to notice significant improvements. In time you might end up doing things you never thought you could do before. I know people who have used this principle that are running marathons and they never intended to run in a marathon when they started.

This mentality also keeps you from getting caught up in a limiting mindset. Pushing yourself a little further in your exercises and other aspects of your life, fosters a sense that of unlimited potential.
By going a little further each day, your brain and body will thank you for it.

How to train your brain 365 days a year for a sharper mind.

Tag Archives: attention

Ep. 068 – Gaze Stabilization

Ep. 067 – Read Voraciously

Ep. 066 – Know Your Number – Heavy Metals

Ep. 065 – Measure Your Oxygen Levels

Ep. 064 – Brain Training for Peak Performance

Ep. 063 – Know Your Numbers: Sedimentation Rate (ESR)

Ep. 062 – Sleep: Nasal Strips

Ep. 061 – Limit Carbohydrate Intake

Ep. 060 – Gratitude Journal

Ep. 059 – Go a Little Further Each Day