Autonomic Dysfunction Treatment Malaysia

What is the autonomic nervous system?

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls several basic functions, including:

• heart rate
• body temperature
• breathing rate
• digestion
• sensation

You don’t have to think consciously about these systems for them to work. The ANS provides the connection between your brain and certain body parts, including internal organs. For instance, it connects to your heart, liver, sweat glands, skin, and even the interior muscles of your eye.

The ANS includes the sympathetic autonomic nervous system (SANS) and the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system (PANS). Most organs have nerves from both the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.

The SANS usually stimulates organs. For example, it increases heart rate and blood pressure when necessary. The PANS usually slows down bodily processes. For example, it reduces heart rate and blood pressure. However, the PANS stimulates digestion and the urinary system, and the SANS slows them down.

The main responsibility of the SANS is to trigger emergency responses when necessary. These fight-or-flight responses get you ready to respond to stressful situations. The PANS conserves your energy and restores tissues for ordinary functions.

Symptoms of autonomic dysfunction

Autonomic dysfunction can affect a small part of the ANS or the entire ANS. Some symptoms that may indicate the presence of an autonomic nerve disorder include:

• dizziness and fainting upon standing up, or orthostatic hypotension
• an inability to alter heart rate with exercise, or exercise intolerance
• sweating abnormalities, which could alternate between sweating too much and not sweating enough
• digestive difficulties, such as a loss of appetite, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or difficulty swallowing
• urinary problems, such as difficulty starting urination, incontinence, and incomplete emptying of the bladder
• sexual problems in men, such as difficulty with ejaculation or maintaining an erection
• sexual problems in women, such as vaginal dryness or difficulty having an orgasm
• vision problems, such as blurry vision or an inability of the pupils to react to light quickly

You can experience any or all of these symptoms depending on the cause, and the effects may be mild to severe. Symptoms such as tremor and muscle weakness may occur due to certain types of autonomic dysfunction.

Coping and support

Finding support to help you cope with autonomic dysfunction can be just as important for improving quality of life as managing physical symptoms.

Methods for coping and improving quality of life include the following:

• Depression can occur with autonomic dysfunction. Therapy with a qualified counselor, therapist, or psychologist can help you cope.
• Ask your doctor or therapist about support groups in your area. They’re available for different conditions.
• You may find that you have more limitations than before your diagnosis. Set priorities to help you make sure you’re doing the things that are important to you.
• Accept help and support from family and friends if you need it.
• Ask for help if you need it.

What is Neurofeedback/EEG Biofeedback?

Neuro = brain & Feedback = information given back to you

Neurofeedback treats a variety of conditions in a safe and effective manner because it works at the subconscious level. It creates changes in the brain by creating new electrical activity through a process of measurement and reinforcement.* Quite simply, one is reinforced for changing their brain waves at a subconscious level through the use of computers. The brain learns to self-regulate, which calms the nervous system, reducing or eliminating symptoms. Without self-regulation, many problems of the central nervous system can result – Lack of Focus, Anxiety, Depression and Physical Symptoms, to name a few.* Neurofeedback is successfully used to treat ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, Stress, Emotional Distress, Behavioral Issues, Mood Issues, Pain, Lyme, PANS/PANDAS, Headaches, Concussion, TBI and a variety of other issues. Almost any brain, regardless of its level of function (or dysfunction), can be trained to function better. These changes are lasting.

Source:

https://drroseann.com/services/neurofeedback-biofeedback/

http://www.healthline.com/health/autonomic-dysfunction

Researchers discover brain inflammation in people with OCD

A new brain imaging study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shows for the first time that brain inflammation is significantly elevated - more than 30 per cent higher - in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) than in people without the condition. Published today in JAMA Psychiatry, the study provides compelling evidence for a new potential direction for treating this anxiety disorder, which can be debilitating for people who experience it.

"Our research showed a strong relationship between brain inflammation and OCD, particularly in the parts of the brain known to function differently in OCD," says Dr. Jeffrey Meyer, senior author of the study and Head of the Neuroimaging Program in Mood & Anxiety in CAMH's Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. "This finding represents one of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the biology of OCD, and may lead to the development of new treatments."

Inflammation or swelling is the body's response to infection or injury, and helps the body to heal. But, in some cases, this immune-system response can also be harmful, says Dr. Meyer, who holds a Canada Research Chair in the Neurochemistry of Major Depression. Dampening the harmful effects of inflammation and promoting its curative effects, through new medications or other innovative approaches, could prove to be a new way to treat OCD. In an earlier study, Dr. Meyer discovered that brain inflammation is elevated in people with depression, an illness that can go hand in hand with OCD in some people.

A novel direction for developing treatments is important, since current medications don't work for nearly one in three people with OCD. About one to two per cent of adolescents and adults have OCD, an anxiety disorder in which people have intrusive or worrisome thoughts that recur and can be hard to ignore.

The study included 20 people with OCD and a comparison group of 20 people without the disorder. Doctoral student Sophia Attwells was first author of the study. The researchers used a type of brain imaging called positron emission tomography (PET) that was adapted with special technology at CAMH to see inflammation in the brain. A chemical dye measured the activity of immune cells called microglia, which are active in inflammation, in six brain areas that play a role in OCD. In people with OCD, inflammation was 32 per cent higher on average in these regions. Inflammation was greater in some people with OCD as compared to others, which could reflect variability in the biology of the illness.

Additional investigations are under way to find low-cost blood markers and symptom measures that could identify which individuals with OCD have the greatest level of inflammation and could benefit the most from treatment targeting inflammation. Another notable finding from the current study - a connection between resisting compulsions and brain inflammation - provides one indicator. At least nine out of 10 people with OCD carry out compulsions, the actions or rituals that people do to try to reduce their obsessions. In the study, people who experienced the greatest stress or anxiety when they tried to avoid acting out their compulsions also had the highest levels of inflammation in one brain area. This stress response could also help pinpoint who may best benefit from this type of treatment.

The discovery opens different options for developing treatments. "Medications developed to target brain inflammation in other disorders could be useful in treating OCD," says Dr. Meyer. "Work needs to be done to uncover the specific factors that contribute to brain inflammation, but finding a way to reduce inflammation's harmful effects and increase its helpful effects could enable us to develop a new treatment much more quickly."

Source: 
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-06-brain-inflammation-people-ocd.html#jCp

How scientists are trying to unlock the mysteries of hypnosis

Nevertheless, Patterson and research partner Jensen have made considerable strides by examining the neural underpinnings of a hypnotic trance. To study hypnosis, Jensen uses electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures electricity in the brain. Our individual neurons are constantly generating electrical pulses as they transmit information from the body to the brain and around the brain itself. Occasionally, large groups of neurons will coordinate these pulses into a sort of rhythmic pattern. Picture the brain as a giant football stadium, and the pulses are like the fans doing a wave. Using sensors attached to the skull, scientists can listen for broad electrical rhythms — called oscillations — caused by wide swaths of neurons working in concert.

Keep in mind, though, that the brain isn’t a single stadium, but rather 1.2 million interlocking stadiums at once. So the EEG may pick up many different interlocking elements, and to make matters more complicated, because the sensors are on the outside of your head, only the outer parts of the brain can be measured. That makes the stadium even harder to hear. “The Rolling Stones are in town, but you don’t have a ticket,” Patterson says. “So you are standing outside the stadium. It’s very loose. You don’t know what, exactly, you’re hearing, but you can tell if they are singing a ballad or a rock song.”

Amazingly, even with all these barriers, when scientists listen to multiple places in the brain, a neurological picture of hypnosis begins to emerge. During meditation, the “stadium chant” that many parts of your brain participate is measurably slower than in daily life; during hypnosis, the chant becomes even slower — about the only way to get the brain rhythms slower than those during hypnosis would be to fall into a coma.

In the human brain, alpha waves — electric waves that pulse 8 to 12 hertz, or 8 to 12 times per second — prevail when we are relaxed or closing our eyes. Theta — 4 to 8 hertz — commonly arise when we are drowsy or lost in thought, and delta waves — 0 to 4 hertz — happen when we are asleep or in a coma. Jensen’s work suggests that theta and alpha waves may be key to pain relief. When going about our daily activities, the brain generally uses the much faster beta and gamma waves (up to 100 pulses per second). This is especially true when we’re in pain, which usually goes hand in hand with anxiety and stress. Thus, if hypnosis can trigger slower brain waves, those waves may replace the faster patterns and thus replace the perception of pain.

The implications for helping the millions of people in chronic pain might be enormous. This idea led Jensen to a fascinating study. He looked at the brains of 20 patients before and after they experienced some relief from pain through both hypnosis and meditation. He found that people who naturally had high levels of theta waves — in other words, people with naturally relaxed, slower electrical activity — experienced a great deal of pain relief from hypnosis. Meanwhile, people with busy, overactive minds benefited the most from meditation, which slowed their buzzing brains down to a crawl.

“Meditation takes care of a problem that you have. Hypnosis builds on a skill,” Jensen says animatedly. “It’s capitalization or compensation. Are you capitalizing on a strength or are you compensating for a weakness? It looks like meditation is compensating for a weakness, and hypnosis capitalizes on a strength.” Imagine pain management as a skill, like running or weight lifting. According to Jensen, hypnosis is a little like taking an already strong sprinter to the gym and pushing her to a whole new level.

If Patterson and Jensen are right, their research could back up much of what scientists have suspected for many years: Hypnosis may be an exotic brain state that directly accesses expectation and perception — a little bit like turning off all the software in your computer and accessing its basic coding (although that is a huge simplification). And while a placebo says, “Take this amazing thing and it will make you feel better” and giving you a promise for the future, a hypnotic suggestion says, “Floating along this stream, you suddenly feel better,” which is a promise for right now. Which one is better? Which one taps into your expectation more effectively and permanently? That is a question that will take much more time and experimentation to unravel.

Source:

http://ideas.ted.com/how-scientists-are-trying-to-unlock-the-mysteries-of-hypnosis/