Functional Neurology

Functional neurology is a specialized field within healthcare that focuses on optimizing the function of your nervous system. It shares some training with traditional neurology, but functional neurology takes a different approach to treatment. Unlike traditional neurologists, who may rely on medications or surgery, functional neurology practitioners utilize a natural and non-invasive approach to address nervous system dysfunction.

Innovative Health & Wellness Group’s team of experienced practitioners utilizes advanced technology and a personalized approach to functional neurology. Here’s a glimpse into the process:

• In-Depth Consultation: We begin with a comprehensive consultation to understand your health history, current concerns, and lifestyle habits.
• Neurological Assessment: We may use various tools to assess your nervous system function, including computerized cognitive testing, balance and coordination evaluations, or specialized eye movement analysis.
• Identifying the Root Cause: Based on the information gathered, we work collaboratively with you to determine the underlying cause of your nervous system dysfunction. This may involve nutritional deficiencies, past injuries, stress, or sleep disturbances.
• Personalized Treatment Plan: We develop a customized treatment plan tailored to your needs. This may include recommendations for dietary changes, stress management techniques, physical therapy exercises, or targeted nutritional supplements.

At Innovative Health & Wellness Group, we are committed to providing cutting-edge technology to enhance our functional neurology services:

• Brain Function Stimulation Chair: This innovative chair utilizes a safe laser system to target specific brain areas, promoting improved sensory and cognitive function. It can be beneficial for conditions like autism, learning disabilities, stroke rehabilitation, and even athletic training.
• Balance & Coordination Assessment: We use the Balance Tracking System (BTrackS™) to evaluate balance and coordination issues objectively. This enables us to create individualized treatment strategies for patients with balance and dizziness issues.
• Eye Movement Assessment: RightEye technology helps us assess vision-related brain functions that can impact overall health and learning. We can identify potential vision issues affecting your well-being by tracking eye movements and creating customized treatment plans using functional neurology.
• Concussion Symptom Management: We utilize the ImPact computerized cognitive testing system to effectively diagnose and manage concussion symptoms. This system can assess memory, focus, and reaction time, allowing us to create personalized treatment plans and recommend appropriate activities to support brain health after a concussion.

Our Innovative Health & Wellness Group team consists of highly trained doctors specializing in functional neurology. They have completed extensive training to diagnose and manage various neurological conditions.

We are passionate about utilizing our functional neurology and neurochemistry expertise to help you achieve optimal brain and nervous system function.

Functional neurology is a powerful tool that can potentially benefit a wide range of individuals, including:

• Those with chronic pain: Headaches, migraines, back pain, and other chronic pain syndromes may be linked to nervous system dysfunction. Functional neurology can help identify the root cause of your pain and develop a personalized treatment plan to achieve lasting relief.
• Individuals with neurological conditions: Functional neurology can benefit those experiencing vertigo, dizziness, tremors, Parkinson’s, or other neurological disorders. By optimizing nervous system function, we may improve symptoms and overall well-being.
• Children with developmental delays: Functional neurology can play a role in addressing challenges like learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). By identifying underlying nervous system dysfunction, we may be able to create a treatment plan to support optimal development.
• People seeking to optimize cognitive function: Functional neurology can improve memory, focus, and concentration. This can benefit students, professionals, and anyone looking to enhance their mental performance.
• Athletes seeking peak performance: Functional neurology can help athletes optimize their nervous system function, potentially improving coordination, balance, reaction time, and overall athletic performance.

Functional neurology offers a natural and personalized approach to healthcare. If you suspect any health concerns may be linked to nervous system dysfunction, contact Innovative Health & Wellness Group today to schedule a consultation with our experienced practitioners.

We are dedicated to helping you achieve optimal health and well-being through functional neurology.

You probably think of nerve pain as tingling or shooting down your leg, such as with sciatica. The pain can be more simply thought of as aberrant sensations. The sensations can be burning, tingling, shooting, or numbness. Depending on the location of pain, it can reflect different causative origins. Nerve damage can be divided into neuropathy and radiculopathy. There can be many causes of the nerve pain.

Causes of Nerve Pain

Neuropathy is damage to the nerve resulting from trauma, compression, diabetes, inflammation, or disease. The main causes of compression occur due to impingement between a muscle and bone. Common entrapments are carpal tunnel and sciatica.

Radiculopathy is much like neuropathy, but the difference is the location. Radiculopathy occurs at the spine and can be due to trauma, arthritis, joint degeneration, and disc injuries.

Treatment Options

Options vary depending upon the root cause of your nerve pain. A comprehensive physical examination that includes motor and sensory evaluation is needed. Depending upon the findings you may need further diagnostic studies or you may begin treatment. Innovative Health & Wellness Group offers adjustments, soft tissue work, nerve-specific therapy, nutrition, and strengthening.

We use specialized equipment that interacts with the neurological communication between the muscles and nervous system. This device allows us to isolate key muscles by determining if the nervous system is communicating effectively for the muscle to turn on/off in a smooth and coordinated fashion. If the muscle cannot absorb force appropriately, and therefore load joints appropriately, it is only a matter of time before pain or injury occurs. Our devices enable us to locate inefficiencies within the neuromusculoskeletal system and maintain appropriate neurological communication. These therapies reset the nervous system using active range of motion to break a neurological compensation pattern and retrain a new, efficient, pain free movement pattern. Creating new neuromuscular patterns takes time. Upon examination, the doctor will recommend a treatment plan that is appropriate for the pain/injury you are experiencing.

Our specialized equipment is not only for people in pain, but can also upregulate athletic performance and prevent injury as well by enabling the nervous system to communicate with muscles and joints accurately and efficiently.

Having a wide variety of tools available for your treatment allows us to create a plan specific to you and give you the best chance of recovery. In severe cases surgery is needed. It is important to know that even with surgery, most will still need treatment afterward to increase function.

Balance reflects the health of our musculoskeletal and nervous system. For this reason, an examination of balance is part of each new patient exam at Innovative Health & Wellness Group.

Simple Ways to Examine Balance:

• Tandem stance (stand with one foot directly behind the other)
• Stand on one leg
• Romberg test (stand with feet together and eyes closed)

These are all simple tests, but your balance and sway during these tests are important. If you sway in any direction or have difficulty maintaining, this shows that your balance is off. There are many causes of decreased balance.

Decreased Balance

It is very important that we identify the reason for your decreased balance. The cause of decreased balance will impact your specific functional neurology treatment plan. We know that decreased balance can result in many issues, such as back pain, injuries, falls, and poor sports performance. Each issue creates stress and prevents you from living the life you want to have. The goal at Innovative Health & Wellness Group is to help you improve your wellness and get your health back.

Causes of Decreased Balance:

• Injury to ankle, knee, or hip
• Muscle imbalance
• Whiplash
• Concussion
• Neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Dementia)
• Developmental delays