I’ve been studying reflexes for almost thirty years. If you’ve listened to my podcast for a long time, you’ll know that I talk about them frequently and that I’ve even done a series just on reflexes. You’ll also know that I am quite passionate about these reflexes and why they’re so important for us to talk about. So today we’re back in the world of reflexes. My goal for this episode is to take a deep dive into the way that our withdrawal reflexes, primitive reflexes, and postural reflexes are all interconnected rather than just looking at individual reflexes.

Everything we do can be linked back to reflexes. Reflexes that are firing at a heightened level can cause all kinds of chaos in a little person’s life. Many of the “behaviours” children struggle with can actually be explained when we take a look at their reflexes and whether or not they have integrated properly. It’s not innate in us to not be able to self-regulate so if things don’t seem to be functioning as expected, get a professional opinion. The earlier an intervention is made, the more easily a change can be made.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode75

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If you’ve been following along with my latest episodes, then you’ll know we just finished a series on chronic stress and what this looks like in kids, adults, and seniors. For our newest series we are going to take this a step further and take a look at some clinical cases of students experiencing chronic stress and retained reflexes.

In today’s episode we’re going to take a look at the clinical case of a child I worked with who came in to my clinic experiencing high levels of stress and overwhelm. There are many children that have very heightened emotional reactions, but how do we navigate this? Children don’t have a point of reference to tell us if something is wrong, so if you are concerned it’s always a good idea to get an evaluation. In the case of this child, at first glance it seemed like he was developing as expected, but on a closer look, it became clear to me that he had a retained Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR). The ATNR is such a far-reaching reflex and it was no wonder this child was experiencing so many emotional difficulties. This wasn’t a kid having behaviour issues, this was a child demonstrating something faulty was going on. The good news is that the earlier we can recognize this in a child, the earlier we can change it!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode74

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Today we are finishing up our series on chronic stress. In the last two episodes we looked at children and young(er) adults and how chronic stress impacts them. Today we’re focusing on the old(er) or elderly population. Chronic stress has a huge impact on every part of our bodies and it’s really important to get it under control before you reach “old age”. Once your body begins to drastically slow down, it is so much harder to make these changes. But, if you’re listening to this and you already categorize yourself as elderly, the good news is, you can change your brain!

In this episode I talk about how the specific impacts of stress on the elderly population and I also share a little bit of my own mom’s story of stressful events and how they have drastically impacted her health. I’ve seen firsthand how stress can wreak havoc on a person’s quality of life. Your health and your brain could already be impacted by stress. So start asking questions and get that stress under control while you can!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode73

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Did you know your brain actually listens to you? How many times have you said the words, “I’m stressed.”? When you say things like this, your brain is paying attention and eventually will start to act accordingly. As adults, it’s easy for us to focus on the things we think we’re doing wrong in our lives, forgetting to celebrate our successes.

Last week we took a look at chronic stress in kids and today we’re going to talk about the influence of chronic stress on adults. The longer stress goes on in our bodies, the larger the impact it has. However, you probably won’t notice this happening because it’s a very gradual change. Yet, if left unchecked, stress will eventually have an impact on every area of your life. In this episode, I’ll talk about areas where stress may be creeping in, why exercise is key to a healthy brain, what’s going on in a brain with PTSD, and the good news - that you can change your brain!

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode72

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The past three years have been stressful for everyone on so many levels, and these events have influenced how your children’s brains have turned on. Today I share with you how a child’s perception of the world and of their parents or caregivers is what wires up their brain. I discuss how early childhood stress and experiences can lead to issues in self regulation, endurance, auditory processing, vision, reflex integration, communication, dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, social and behavior issues, and learning outcomes. I examine a stress test response in a pediatric patient, the Moro reflex, developmental milestones, and brain organization. With more education about how stress affects your child’s development you will be able to help them make adaptations and improve their learning, behavior, and brain health.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode71

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

Stress is a word that frequents our vocabularies. You’ve probably either said it yourself or heard someone else say it in the last few days. But stress is not just a six-letter word! We throw the word around lightly, but if we actually took a good look, we would see that there are many people who are experiencing chronic stress. Chronic stress can be anything that you go through that you can’t get out of easily, and there is no timeline for it. Sometimes people live with chronic stress for years.

Stress is actually an important part of survival. But, if it doesn’t ever turn off, then it’s considered to be chronic. Today stress seems to become a way of life. When our stress response doesn’t turn off, that impacts us, and there are consequences. In this episode we’ll talk about some easy ways to reduce stress right now, what you should be saying when you talk to yourself, what stress looks like at various stages of child and adulthood, the impacts of chronic stress, and how our stress response is supposed to function.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode70

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172

Today we’re starting a new series on stress. This is a word that gets thrown around a lot but it’s actually a pretty complex problem and a lot of people don’t even completely understand exactly how damaging stress can be. Every part of your body – your reflexes, gut, nutrition, brain – is impacted when you’re in a state of stress. If we want to really understand stress then we need to look at the whole body.

Stress is a physiological event. When our brains perceive a threat or stressful situation, there is a cascade of events that occur in our bodies sometimes even before we are conscious of the threat at hand. Of course, stress is an important survival instinct, but what happens when we live in a state of chronic stress? A prolonged state of stress can dysregulate your autonomic nervous system and cause a lot of concerning symptoms, which, if left unchecked, will just continue to cause more and more problems. This episode is just a starting point, but it’s important to start thinking about stress and figuring out how to recognize and then break that cycle of chronic stress. Each episode I’ll share something practical that you can do right now to help relieve some of that stress.

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SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode69

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When you hear the word cholesterol, you might immediately think, “that’s bad”. Unfortunately, cholesterol has gotten a bad rap over the years and many people just assume that cholesterol is something to be avoided. But did you know that your body makes 80% of its own cholesterol? Our bodies actually need cholesterol in order to function properly. Too much cholesterol or too little cholesterol can caused problems, as well as the type of cholesterol you have. Each person’s needs are unique and so what is right for one person may not be right for you.

Cholesterol is one of my favourite topics to educate others on because it plays such an essential role in our bodies. In this episode, I’ll explain what cholesterol actually is and the various types of cholesterol. I also dive into the side effects of abnormal cholesterol levels such as depression, infertility, and alzheimers disease. I also talk about how the pharmaceutical industry is capitalizing on society’s fear of cholesterol and how you can really examine your own state of health.

SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode68

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What goes in our mouth and in our bodies can have a very far reaching effect on our health. For children, poor gut health can lead to emotional dysregulation, brain fog, low energy, eczema, and even poor school performance. Today, I look at how what we eat affects our microbiomes and the connection between belly and brain. I explain the gut commensal graph with real life examples from stool testing and how to recognize the red flags of a sick belly. Finally I discuss how to be an active participant in your child’s nutrition and why it’s so important to involve the whole family in a nutrition plan. Through education, we can be empowered to change and gain the strength and confidence needed to be able to fight for your family’s health.

SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode67

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When we talk abut nutrition, we are really talking about the chemistry of the body. It’s not just about the foods that you eat, or the supplements you take, but about the healthcare decisions that we make and how far-reaching that they really can be. In the past three years we have really started to see the impact surrounding COVID and the COVID vaccine and how it affects our overall body chemistry and health. The potential adverse effects of the vaccine are numerous and have been largely hid from the general public. But that information is slowly becoming more available and we need to educate ourselves.

My guest today is Amy Kelly, the COO of Daily Clout and the program director for the Pfizer Document Dissection Program. This program has been looking at thousands of documents from Pfizer about the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial, manufacturing, and adverse events. Her team of 3500 volunteers is scouring through these documents and making their findings public and accessible. We discuss what Amy has learned so far from the reluctant release of these documents and how we can become informed, make better decisions for our bodies and health, and help facilitate change.

SHOW NOTES: https://connectmybrain.com/episode66

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Phone the office: 678-501-5172