There is another side to healing from chronic disease and hard to treat illness that is often forgotten, and without giving it attention, it can be difficult to get better.
If you have experienced a form of physical, emotional or psychological stress or trauma and find yourself stuck in an ongoing cycle of illness and chronic disease, you may have “limbic system impairment” and rewiring your brain may be the missing part of the puzzle required to fully heal.
A brain that is stuck in a feeling of constantly being under threat and unsafe, in a state of “fight, flight or freeze”, affects not only our mental state, but also every system of the body and give rise to varied and seemingly unrelated symptoms.
“Just as the brain remembers people, place, smells and so on – it also stores what [are called] “memory traces of the body’s past infections”” – The Scientific American
In my practice, I often have patients that are stuck in this feeling of being unwell, feeling unsafe in their world, and constantly worrying about their health. The neurons in the brain are misfiring and triggering a misguided immune response.
Obviously, this isn’t a state conducive to healing, but what can they do?
How to how heal your brain and your body
Fortunately, there are programs available to us that use neuroplasticity to retrain the brain, specifically the limbic system.
Neuroplasticity is simply a term that refers to the brain’s ability to modify, change and adapt it’s structure and function throughout life. In this case, your ability to move from a feeling of sensitivity, stress and overwhelm to one of acceptance, positivity and wellness.
These programs have been found effective by many people to improve their relationship with their health condition and to reduce the severity of the health condition itself. These programs work particularly well alongside the Nutritional and Functional Medicine support I offer. The programs work with health conditions including:
- Long Covid
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic Lyme Disease
- Food Sensitivities
- Anxiety
- Chronic Pain
- Chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS)
- Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
- and many other conditions
Both the Gupta Program and Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) are self-led online programs that are both effective in supporting healing of these conditions.
The Gupta Program
It is estimated that at least 2% to 5% of the population suffer from Fibromyalgia, a complex pain condition, that can be difficult to treat.
A 8 week pilot study, showed that the the Gupta program had significant greater reductions in symptoms and pain, and improvements in overall health, compared the placebo group. The key results were:
Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS)
McMaster University followed 102 people who attended the 5-day DNRS Interactive Training Seminar for one year. They asked them to complete 6 standardized health surveys prior to attending the program along with 3, 6 and 12-month follow up surveys to track changes in symptoms.
The study found significant changes in health outcomes using the DNRS program.
Which Program?
Whilst slightly different in their approaches, these two programs are more similar than they are different and both are excellent, effective and similarly priced. It really comes down to which one your instinct tells draws you towards..
Having worked through both of these programs myself, I can tell you that the Gupta program is more meditative and contains more supporting practices and guided meditations than the DNRS program. The Gupta program also sends out a hardcopy of their notes and a floor poster to do their main exercise which may be helpful.
Personally, I found the Gupta program a better fit for myself. Although as I say, it really comes down to your own personal preferences.
I’ve included links to both programs below. NB/ I do receive a commission if you are kind enough to use those links :)
