Doc Meek

Posts Tagged ‘learning disabilities’

Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

The brain can be likened to a multiple-drawer steel filing cabinet

– PICTURES in the top drawer of the brain

– SOUNDS in the middle drawer of the brain

– FEELINGS (tactile) in the bottom drawers

– FEELINGS (emotions) in the bottom drawers

This is part (4a) article in a series of 7 articles, designed to help us work with our very own brain more easily, and to encourage our children or our students to learn how to work with their very own brains more easily.

If you missed the Introduction to this series of 7 articles, or the first 3 articles , simply click on the titles below:

(Intro) Learning to run our brain: 10 minutes daily

(1) Learning to run our own brain: Fear of failure

(2) Learning to run our brain: Vital need for HOPE . . . always

(3) Learning to run our brain: What are qualifications for the daily “brain coach?”

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The brain can be likened to a vertical multiple-drawer filing cabinet

If we want to easily retrieve a specific file folder from the filing cabinet, we have to make sure we put that specific file folder securely in the filing cabinet in the first place. 😮

OK, if my brain is a “filing cabinet,” how do I get the needed stuff . . . in and out of it . . . easily . . . every day?

Well, for one thing, we might prefer a “softer,” simpler image of the brain-as-filing-cabinet analogy. How about this approach . . . this gentler image?

Our brain can be likened to a vertical 4-drawer wooden filing cabinet; photo at: hayneedle.com

To get stuff in and out of our filing cabinet (brain) easily, we need to remember two major things:

A. Our brain is immensely complex, with extensive storage capacity

B.  Our brain–despite enormous complexity–mainly does four (4) things

So what are the four (4) simple things my brain does?

(1) Our brain brings in information

(2) Our brain moves information around, organizes it

(3) Our brain stores information

(4) Our brain brings information back out, brings information to our attention

Can be more complicated in my private practice

The problem is that each of our brains is unique, and each of us does these four (4) things in thousands, perhaps millions, of different ways. 😮

However, that is my problem really, when I am working with a particular client in my private practice. Or, more accurately, it is a joint effort, a partnership between myself and my client.

As a learning specialist, when I am working with clients to help them overcome learning problems, we need to figure out, jointly and specifically, some of those thousands of ways in which their brain is working uniquely for them.

Less complicated in regular daily life

For our everyday purposes, knowing those four (4) simple things, and learning how to manage them more easily, is straightforward. Let’s check on some simple and easy things we can do with each of these four (4) processes our brain uses all the time.

(1) Our brain brings in information

Some people call this “registration.” In other words, how do we “put in” information when we first encounter it? Sometimes this is “done for us,” by the brain’s various subsystems, if the input is dramatic enough. Most of the time, however, this registration process is very much up to each of us, individually. Our personal choice entirely. All we have to do, really, is consciously think about what we want to input securely on the “first pass,” so to speak.

The classic example of remembering names will be presented in part (b) of this fourth (4th) article.

For a colorful review of ways to improve this process of “registration,” see my previous article. Just click on the title:

The learning brain needs “uprightness” for greatest efficiency

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So, now that we’ve looked at brain “registration” or brain “inputs,” let’s move on to the second (2nd) of the four (4) macro processes the brain uses.

(2) Our brain moves information around, organizes it

The brain is doing this all the time, especially at night, while you are sleeping. This is one of the most important functions of our brain. And this is why it is imperative that you get a decent night’s rest. A “sleep-deprived” brain is not just going to have problems with registration and memory, it will produce all manner of dysfunctions: mental, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, etc.

Get enough sleep deprivation, and your brain is sure to find dis-ease, and follow up with disease. Not funny.

More about this aspect of our brains in future articles.

(3) Our brain stores information

Again, our brains are doing this all the time, especially when we sleep. Get a good night’s rest, eh? 😮

More on this in future articles.

(4) Our brain brings information back out, brings information to our attention

Ah . . . retrieval of the information we need . . . the bane of our existence . . . especially as we grow older, eh?

This is the “relax . . . and it will come out a lot easier” game. You know this. When you are tense, anxious, depressed or stressed, information is not as readily available to the “surface,” as when you relax . . . take it easy . . .  and let the brain’s subsystems dive deeply and easily for important things. More on this in future articles.

To having a fun run at managing our brain more easily!

Doc Meek, Tues, June 29, 2010, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

P.S. Hey, my writer friend, Richard Paul Evans, just told me:

“Today is GratiTuesday!” This is the day we can express gratitude for all those things for which we are grateful. The thing for which I am most grateful — besides my wife Jeannette of course 😮 — is that I am able to feel gratitude. This has not always been so, so I am doubly grateful. 😮

—

“What if you are smarter than you think?”

https://docmeek.com

THE LEARNING CLINIC WORLDWIDE, INC. 

CANADA: Dr. Meek (587) 400-4707, Edmonton, AB

TONGA: Mele Taumoepeau, P.O. Box 81, Nuku’alofa

USA: Dr. Meek (801) 738-3763, South Jordan, Utah

For optimum brain health, get optimum heart health:  

See full size image; HOPE image may be subject to copyright; image from: www.myspace.com/happy_roots

The vital priority of HOPE

This is the second (2nd) in a series of seven (7) articles on having fun learning how to run our very own brain, or if you like, learning how to manage our very own brain. If you missed the introduction or the first article, just click on the appropriate link below:

(Intro) Learning to run our brain: 10 minutes daily

(1) Learning to run our own brain: Fear of failure

Our brain is an incredibly wondrous part of ourselves, even when it is not working optimally. Think of how it helps you every day, minute-by-minute, second-by-second (your every breath and heartbeat, literally). 😮

Out of sight to flower bright

The point of the crocus photo above, for me, is not that every flower brings color and freshness and HOPE to each of us (which it does). Rather it is that when we look at a dark (hopeless) rotten piece of soil or other dark (hopeless) space, we have no no clue (no evidence) that out of that utter and complete darkness will spring life and color and fragrance and HOPE.

When our lives present us with dark spaces, we are tempted to give up HOPE. Indeed we may actually exercise the decision, based on the unavailable evidence before us, to actually give up HOPE.

Little do we know the huge price we may pay for that HOPE-less decision, for giving up our grip on the present, and our vital lifeline to our future.

We do need concrete reminders it seems

When I am working with clients who have given up HOPE, I ask them to develop their own meaningful image of something, or someone, that epitomizes HOPE for them, HOPE in capital letters. For some it would be a picture in their mind’s eye (their powerful visual brain) of sunshine, gentle soul-warming sunshine.

If they choose a person, I advise them to make sure the HOPE symbol person is “permanent” in some way, such as a dead hero, or dead ancestor. The problem with living HOPE symbols is that they may die, and your HOPE might die with them. Unless of course, they are permanently implanted in your brain as a living being image, or a living soul, whether they die or not.

An airplane would be my image of HOPE. Which seems unusual until you know that I love flying. When I was younger I flew little airplanes. Loved it. I still love flying in various aircraft, even when I am simply traveling on a commercial airliner.

I am always astounded when the weather is black and stormy here below, and I have lost my way mentally, so to speak, and the darkness seems total, I am able to draw on my flying experience.

The plane in storm darkness here below, as it departs the ground, and gains altitude, emerges gloriously into sunlight above. I am completely refreshed mentally, physically, and spiritually in a way not easy to describe.

HOPE is knowing sunshine is always above the clouds, no matter what my circumstances are here below.

“Mornin Sun” from: http://photobucket.com/images/%22mornin%20sun%22/ ………………………………………………………………………………………………

Why don’t I remember the glorious sunlight when I am in the darkness on the ground!?

My mental image of an airplane does actually bring that remembrance to mind, to my brain’s visual centre, when I need it. I have to practice remembering the airplane image and the sun above, however, for this to be effective for me.

My friend says that the sun is not always shining above the clouds. At night, it is the stars that are always shining above the clouds. And, says my friend, “The stars shine out HOPE for me far brighter than the brightest sun.”

Yes! Whatever image you create especially for you, for your very own brain, right?

“Hey, guy, HOPE fades,” say some

“So does bathing,” says Zig Ziglar, “that’s why we recommend doing it every day.” 😮

We all need to develop some simple way to refresh our HOPE image daily. A picture of HOPE on the fridge at home? A HOPE picture taped to a mirror at home? A small simple symbol of HOPE hanging from the rear-view mirror in our car? A HOPE reminder on our desk at work? An HOPE image in our back pack for school, or multiple HOPE images in our main study materials? A simple HOPE ditty we sing to ourselves anytime?

HOPE is more secure if you use an image that is “permanent,” like sun, moon, stars, nature, music, poetry, prose quotation, powerful story, etc.

Perhaps we could use a baby or a child, provided we don’t know them. The generic innocence of infancy, if you like, as a symbol of HOPE. If we know the baby or child, and they die, there may be a real risk that our HOPE might die with them. Unless of course our HOPE is pinned irrevocably on them as an eternal being, as an eternal “child of God,” for example. If that is unquestionably permanent for you, then is might be solid for your HOPE image.

“Beaming Sunshine,” from: http://photobucket.com/images/%22beaming%20sunshine%22/ …………………………………………………………………………….

What is  your concrete image of HOPE?

Every person will have a different picture of what means real HOPE to them.

For some, it is not a visual image of HOPE alone; for some it is a song of HOPE, or a piece of inspiring music of HOPE.

For some it is a poem of HOPE.

“INVICTUS”

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

– William Ernest Henley, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

“INVICTUS” is particularly inspiring when we remember two things:

(1) This was no “armchair” exercise for William Ernest Henley; he suffered terribly and his poem of  HOPE sustained him. Among other things he had his leg amputated below the knee. [From Wikipedia: William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).]

(2) Even though Henley doesn’t say it explicitly in the poem, we all need to keep in mind, in the reality part of our brain, that we do not need to face the horrors alone. Help is often where we least expect to find it, and even when their is no obvious source of help or HOPE, the HOPE seed is implanted within the brain and heart and soul of each of us. Our HOPE is stronger than we think.

And still, we need to nourish it constantly, like a plant, so HOPE will flourish and flower always in us.

We just simply have to hang on to HOPE for dear life, no matter what!

To hidden strengths we don’t know we have!

Doc Meek, Sun, June 27, 2010, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

—

“What if you are smarter than you think?”

https://docmeek.com

THE LEARNING CLINIC WORLDWIDE, INC.

CANADA: Dr. Meek (587) 400-4707, Edmonton, AB

TONGA: Mele Taumoepeau, P.O. Box 81, Nuku’alofa

USA: Dr. Meek (801) 738-3763, South Jordan, Utah

For optimum brain health, ensure your heart health:

This is the first (1st) in a series of seven (7) articles on having fun learning how to manage our very own brain. – Doc Meek

Image above from Luciano Passuello: http://litemind.com/fear-failure/

If you missed the introduction to this series of seven (7) articles, just click on the title below:

(Intro) Learning to run our brain: 10 minutes daily

What are we talking about here?

In my intro above (posted Friday, June 25, 2010), I outlined seven (7) things we can learn about how to manage our own brain:

1) Fear of failure

2) The vital need for HOPE!

3) Qualifications for our external-to-the-home “brain coach”

4) Easy success with active learning brain training (filing cabinet brain) and remembering names

5) The eyes don’t see–the brain sees

6) Tasks of the “back 90%” of our brain, and the “front 10%”

7) Where do Moms come in?

How do I get started overcoming fear of failure?

Strangely (to some), the place to get started is to take a look at our fear of failure. Whether we are a student, a parent, or a teacher, the fear of failure can stop us before we even get started.

If we want to learn to run our own brain better, we need to take time to look at, and feel, our fears about undertaking such a project. Some say that looking at our fears first and feeling them only strengthens them. We will find it to be the opposite of that, I think. If we avoid looking at our fears, they will trip us up later and we will then indeed fail–the very thing we were trying to avoid, right?

Fears are actually our friends, if we choose to feel/see them that way.

Fears are my friends!?

Yes.

They alert us, in advance, what to watch out for as we go along, a kind of distant early warning signal that prepares us for “the worst” as we forge ahead, hoping for the best.

Isn’t that contradictory?

Seems that way, doesn’t it?

In reality, direct awareness of our very real fears allows us to plan ahead more carefully and to ride out our relapses and our failures with a degree of equanimity and resilience not otherwise available to us.

Isn’t that what our friends are for? 😮

To our friends!

Doc Meek, Sat, June 26, 2010, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA (updated Oct 20, 2012)

P.S. Some extra reading–and some viewing–on how to overcome fear of failure:

(1) Article (Comprehensive):

If you want to read a comprehensive article on how to “Overcome Fear of Failure,” by Luciano Passuello, a Brazilian who lives in Curitiba, Brazil, and whose passion is the mind, just click on the title below:

Overcome Fear of Failure, Part I — Building the Right Mindset

Hi, I’m Luciano Passuello. I am a 35-year-old Brazilian, currently living in Curitiba.

It was not long ago when I realized that my deep fascination for the mind is my greatest underlying passion which, in many ways, intersects with several other interests of mine.

This website is my journey exploring that underlying passion.

To get in touch with me, please use this contact page.

Image/text above from: http://litemind.com/fear-failure/

(2) Video (2 minutes):

If you want to watch a short video on overcoming failure by Brian Tracy, a Canadian who lives in San Diego, California, USA, click on the Brian Tracy photo below.

brian tracy fear of failure
2 min – 1 Oct 2006
Uploaded by funny1968
www.youtube.com

—

“What if you are smarter than you think?”

https://docmeek.com

THE LEARNING CLINIC WORLDWIDE, INC. 

CANADA: Dr. Meek (587) 400-4707, Edmonton, AB

TONGA: Mele Taumoepeau, P.O. Box 81, Nuku’alofa

USA: Dr. Meek (801) 738-3763, South Jordan, Utah

For optimum brain health, ensure your heart health:  

Human neurology thrives on color, movement, gentle music, and “uprightness” for the most efficient learning

The learning brain needs “uprightness,” in addition to color, movement and gentle music (discussed in my previous article, June 12, 2010). If you wish to review that previous article, just click on the title below:

A learning brain learns best with color, movement, and gentle music

Teacher Helping Student at Blackboard – bonniej; image from the following website:

http://teacher-mentorship.suite101.com/article.cfm/reflective-teaching-strategies-for-more-effective-k-8-instruction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What is meant by “uprightness” for most learning efficiency?

The ideal of “uprightness” occurs when the student is at a blackboard (greenboard).

The brain is so constructed neurologically that it is most efficient when the material to be learned is “above the noseline,” so to speak, as in the photograph above.

In other words, the best brain “registration” for memory occurs when the material to be learned is located above a line straight out from the students nose.

Why is “above the noseline” best?

We are not sure why. It seems that human neurology  is arranged vertically, somewhat analogously to a vertical four-drawer filing cabinet.

(1) The top drawer registers and files visual material, the pictures we see with our eyes.

(2) The second drawer down registers and files auditory material, the things we hear with our ears.

(3) The third drawer down registers and files haptic material, the tactile sensations we encounter with our hands, and the rest of our body. It also includes the proprioceptive system, the internal sensations of the muscles, joints, tendons, and inner ear, that accompany body movement.

(4) The bottom drawer registers and files affective material, the emotions we feel in our “heart,” or “gut,” if you like.

Thus, when we are presenting visual material to students, and almost all of academic learning is visual (reading for example, or math worksheets, or whatever), we need to get as close as we can to the ideal of being “upright” at the blackboard (greenboard).

Some teachers have wall-mounted “Smart Boards,” connected to their classroom computers, and these follow the ideal even more than blackboards (greenboards). The student is “upright” before the “Smart Board,” the student is moving his hands to manipulate the material appearing on the “Smart Board,” it is in color, and presumably gentle learning “baroque” music could be added as background, although I have not seen this yet.

Voila! All the best items needed for best learning:

– Color

– Movement

– “Uprightness,” to provide material “above the noseline”

– Gentle “baroque” music (about 1 beat per second, or 60 beats per minute)

– Not to mention a caring teacher close at hand 😮

Yes! Caring!

Doc Meek, Thursday, June 24, 2010

At Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; not at South Jordan, Utah, USA

P.S. Now the question becomes:

“How do we approach the ideal of “uprightness” when the student is seated at his or her desk?”

This is a good topic for a future article. This would ideally include the use of fairly steeply-sloping “drafting board” type desks, or barring that, simply using clipboards propped up on a stack of textbooks, or on the student’s upraised knee. Think about this. Use your imagination–your top drawer. 😮

The trades are honorable and worthy

For years I have been speaking and teaching about the value of professional trades people in our society. The least easy ones to convince are people with an academic orientation. They seem to feel that everyone should pursue an academic career. Even though I myself am a highly-credentialed academic, this narrow approach is not a good concept in my view.

The trades are honorable and worthy and should be encouraged by adults, and sought after by students who want to travel that road. It is a good road and the pay is good, frequently better than the majority of academic jobs.

I have attended meetings of professionals designing curricula for public schools, and the main focus is almost always on academic courses. Where are the electricians, the welders, the computer technicians, the native North American craftsmen, the plumbers, the graphic artists, the carpenters, the farmers, the entrepreneurs, the housewives, at these meetings?

The bias in decision-making is obvious, isn’t it?

Trades people would be excellent curriculum designers

My Dad was a Journeyman Electrician and he would have made a great curriculum designer.

Why would my Dad have made a great curriculum designer? He was a good committee man, gentle and patient. He was intelligent, innovative and wise. He had a good grip on the practical world and common sense. He was very aware of the real needs of the business and industrial world we live in, and the kinds of education and training needed to get good  jobs in both the academic and non-academic domains. In short, he had all of the extensive qualifications needed to sit on such a committee in the real world, and be very effective.

“Even Jesus was a carpenter.” – Missionary Friend

Sometimes in meetings, as my fellow academics and I would ponder academics, I felt compelled to draw our attention upwards for a moment. I would point up to the ceiling and say, “Without the professional electrician who installed those lights, one by one, we could not do our work here today.” Then I would go on to point downward to the floor, over to the walls, through the windows, etc. The group was usually dumbfounded. Such groups tend to take it all for granted.

Sometimes I would add: “Without the maintenance staff in this building, this place would look like a landfill site, and the toilets wouldn’t flush.” 😮

I am not against academics

I want to be clearly understood. I am not against academics–I am one! 😮 I am delighted to be an academic, glad to associate with fellow scholars and live in an exquisitely-conceptualized mental world with them. And we do practical work. We are professors at universities, academic teachers at thousands of schools the world over, and planners and researchers, etc.

I have worked hard all my life in the academic schoolwork domain to help children and adults overcome learning difficulties.Surely this was/is a very worthwhile academic career? Of course. Still, that doesn’t stop it from being a relatively narrow, circumscribed space, right?

I have also helped my Dad wire houses, helped friends build their homes, and so on. My Dad taught me that manual labor and skilled trades are honorable and “worthy of all acceptation.”

Evening and night staff are some of the greatest people I have known

Wherever I have worked, I have made it a point to get to know the maintenance and custodial staff. As a “night owl” I always enjoyed the support of the people who make the building work for me, and all the day denizens as well. Yes! 😮

I have great gratitude for, and high respect for, all those who labor that I might be able to do my work. This includes my Mom’s labor as well of course. No pun intended. 😮

It is a mistake in my view to attempt to diminish the value of manual labor or technical skills (or stay-at-home motherhood for that matter). Without these honorable and worthy enterprises, our society could not function properly, or at all.

To a sense of equality for all careers!

Doc Meek, Tuesday, June 22, 2010 (1st posting, very early in the morning) [About 1:00 am, as I recall] 😮

P.S. Some resources (copy and paste the URLs below into your computer’s web browser):

Canadian Schools Directory: http://www.trade-schools.ca/

American Trade Schools: http://www.itrade-schools.com/

I just published my first article for today (Saturday, June 12, 2010, in the morning), entitled: “Brains love movement & ‘take-a-break’ music (and maybe even a power nap?). If you wish to review that article, simple click on the title immediately below:

Brains love movement and “take-a-break” music (plus . . . maybe even a power nap?)

Someone reminded me that that is true for working brains. They do need a break from working and learning.

What about a learning brain in the very act of learning?

Herewith, my second article for today (Saturday, June 12, 2010, in the afternoon), entitled: “A learning brain learns best with color, movement, and gentle music.”

A brain that is actually in the process of learning–a learning brain–also likes movement, even while engaged in the very act of learning. Complex as the brain is, it still loves the simple things (color, movement, and gentle music), to help it learn more easily and remember better, stronger, longer.

What do you mean by color?

If you study and learn using pastel-colored paper with regular pens and pencils, or using multi-colored pens or pencils on regular white paper, you engage a part of the mind that loves color and enhances learning. Working on a blackboard at school (if it is colored green, as most are nowadays), with or without colored chalk, also stimulates the brain for most efficient learning.

Teacher Helping Student at Blackboard – bonniej; image from the following website:

http://teacher-mentorship.suite101.com/article.cfm/reflective-teaching-strategies-for-more-effective-k-8-instruction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What do you mean by movement?

If you can find ways to move your body while learning or studying, you will jump ahead of the class. 😮 An example at home might be jumping on a rebounder (mini-trampoline) while memorizing something you may have found not easy to memorize before. An example from the classroom might be squeezing a small soft sponge ball in your left hand while writing with your right hand (or vice versa if you are left-handed), which engages a part of your brain that loves physical movement and will help you learn better if you move part of your body in some way. Even chewing gum is helpful, although most teachers prefer this to be done at home. 😮

What do you mean by gentle music?

Not rock. That will just make your body want to move, while nullifying your thinking brain. 😮

The learning brain loves music that is swinging low and easy, about one beat per second or 60 beats to the minute, sometimes called “baroque” music. This engages a part of the brain that amplifies learning. Hey, you zing to the head of the class.

“Uprightness” is also needed for most efficient learning

This is a good topic for a future article. [See P.S. below for future article.]

Blessings and Friendship,

Doc Meek, Saturday, June 12, 2010 (2nd post, in the afternoon)

At Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; not at South Jordan, Utah, USA

P.S. Click on the title below for this future article, published Thursday, June 24, 2010:

The learning brain needs “uprightness” for greatest efficiency

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), or 100% oxygen supplied under varying pressures in a tightly-sealed compression chamber, has proven to be an astounding help for a host of brain problems. Side effects are minimal to non-existent. You would think the mainstream medical community would quickly make it a solid adjunct to whatever else they are doing for the healing of toxin-damaged or older brains. In reality, other countries are far ahead of North America in this regard.

Horizontal lie-down HBOT one-person compression chamber; photo from www.adventisthealthnw.com/HM-HBOT.asp

Sit-up HBOT one-person compression chambers at Canadian Hyperbarics, at the General Hospital, in Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA; Link to Canadian Hyperbarics website:  http://www.canadianhyperbarics.com

Photo by Director Gordon Ward, Director, Canadian Hyperbarics, http://www.canadianhyperbarics.com

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Despite the wide array of problems for which HBOT is effective, our Canadian and US society has managed to keep this valuable and life-saving therapy in an ongoing controversial turmoil for decades. This may be because it appears to be expensive, and governments are fearful of incurring very large costs if large numbers of people realized how useful and effective it is.

In reality, the costs of HBOT pale in comparison with the huge costs associated with the ongoing and very expensive conventional treatments for heart disease, stroke, neurological problems, diabetes, MS, etc.

Part of the problem may simply be that the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society (who devised the hodgepodge and limited list of conditions which government and insurance-approved facilities generally use to prevent access to this priceless therapy) is an ultra-conservative organization not prone to real leadership in HBOT.

Thank heaven for the private freestanding clinics that know that hyperbarics will heal a host of brain problems and other problems, and that provide genuine and much-needed leadership in HBOT.

One such is Canadian Hyperbarics at the General Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA. They will help anyone who is up against the barriers of the highly-limited treatment provided by government or insurance-funded HBOT.

The Director of Canadian Hyperbarics is Gordon Ward, a personable and internationally-known expert in the HBOT field. Humorous and self-effacing, Mr. Ward has unfortunately often been obliged by forced circumstances to reluctantly demonstrate greater knowledge and expertise than many government or insurance-funded facilities staffed with hyperbaric physicians. More about Canadian Hyperbarics in future posts.

For more information about Canadian Hyperbarics and HBOT, please copy and paste the following URL into your computer’s browser line, the line you use when you want to get to a specific website on the internet:

http://canadianhyperbarics.com/index.html

Mitigation of  neurological problems, including memory problems

There are more than 75 million “baby boomers” in the United States, and millions more in Canada, who could use HBOT to ward off memory problems as they age, and this would require a huge outlay of public funds if HBOT were approved for this purpose:

WIKIPEDIA – The Free Encyclopedia, graphed the “baby boomer” cohort:

United States birth rate (births per 1000 population). The blue segment is the postwar baby boom.

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I am familiar with the mitigating effects of HBOT on neurodegenerative problems, Cerebral Palsy, LD (Learning Disabilities), ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), Autism, and a host of other brain problems and potential brain problems.

Governments typically only recognize the effectiveness of HBOT for a short list of ailments, such as carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene, necrotizing tissue (“flesh-eating disease”), near drowning, decompression sickness (“the bends” to divers), crush injury, burns, exceptional blood loss (severe anemia), advanced wound care including diabetic wound care, and so on. It is a very narrow and short list of 13 conditions created by UHMS (Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society) and adopted by governments and insurance companies for treatments for reimbursement purposes. This protects governments and insurance companies from the large costs that would be incurred if all of the ailments that can be treated effectively were appropriately approved for coverage.

It must be said here that many countries in other parts of the world are far ahead of the United States and Canada when it comes to proper utilization of HBOT for a wide variety of conditions. For one thing, they have far more HBOT compression chambers than is the case in the US and Canada. Some countries even have mobile HBOT chambers for emergency use.

The prevailing philosophy in many countries worldwide  is to increase immediate access to a HBOT chamber in the case of heart attack and brain attack (stroke), as it has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt that immediate HBOT treatment makes a huge difference to outcomes for the victims of these common problems. HBOT is, literally, life-saving. More, it vastly increases the future quality of life of those it saves. And those it prevents from having serious brain problems.

To your brain health!

Doc Meek, May 8, 2010, at Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA

P.S.  If you wish to pursue this topic of HBOT further, Kathy Summers has written a top-notch article.

Thank you, Kathy! LINK: http://www.healthwriting.com/health/hbot/

When we think of our brain, we naturally think of what is inside our heads, located between our ears, behind our eyes, and safely within our skull.

Very few of us would think of our brain as partially residing in our intestines. Our spinal cord, maybe, not our gut.

We do say to others sometimes, “I feel in my gut that this is true, ” when we have no hard evidence to back something up. However, we don’t think of that as a brain activity usually, do we?”

Well, perhaps our “gut” doesn’t think in the way we usually think about thinking. However, it is intimately acquainted with our brain and they talk to each other all the time. We may not understand the language they are using when they talk to each other. They do understand it, however, and are really good at communicating with each other.

And, amazingly, when the stomach or intestines are having trouble with food or toxins in the food, they not only yell at the brain, they cause the brain to function less than optimally.

“Brain fog,” is familiar to many. Thinking of the digestive system as a possible cause of “brain fog” is not something very many of us think about.

Not very often would a parent think of digestive problems as related to the learning disabilities of their child.

More on this “second brain” in my future blog postings here.

Doc Meek, Learning Specialist

Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; and South Jordan, Utah, USA

With the help of that great Mom, Mrs. Elmer, whom I mentioned in my first post (and the boy of course), all three of us got to the top of the mountain!

The first thing we did was ask Mrs. Elmer’s son Bob what he liked and what he was good at. He loved sports so we began talking in a silly fun way to that part of his brain that was so smart about baseball. Then we introduced the smart baseball part of his brain to the spelling part of his brain, which was not so smart, yet.

Turns out the two of them (the two parts of the brain) were able to team up and turn the spelling part into a great team player. Bob learned to spell words he had always avoided and began to think, to himself: “Hey, maybe I’m smarter than I thought!”

This was just the beginning. We taught young Bob how to make pictures in his mind’s eye so he didn’t have to try and struggle to remember. He just looked up at his special TV screen (projected from his mind out in front of him) and wrote down what he could see clearly. No more hurt and anger about not being able to remember stuff. “I just copy it off my secret screen,” he says.

His marks went up. Now he was seriously thinking, “Hey, I am smarter than I thought.”

After we helped Bob discover he was smarter than he thought, his teacher told us what he reported to her: “Boy, I had no idea I could read like this! After I went to Dr. Meek, I liked going to school instead of getting into fights all the time.”

– Doc Meek

Hi Everybody, Doc Meek here.

Learning is not easy for some of us.

I have been helping children overcome learning challenges for many years now.

I was reminded of Mrs. Elmer (not her real name) the other day. This great Mom came to see me at THE LEARNING CLINIC more than thirty years ago now. She brought her son Bob (not his real name) with her and said gently: “He’s in grade four, doesn’t read well, hates school, and fights on the playground all the time.” Bob nodded in somber agreement.

It was not easy for the three of us to get to the top of the mountain together. I’ll tell you how we got there in a future post.

– Doc Meek