Education series offers ‘Steps for Improving Your Brain’
?The Edmond Education Series continues March 21 with “Steps for Improving Your Brain,” a presentation by Jonathan Vestal, DC, owner and chiropractor at Family Wellness Chiropractic in Yukon.
The learning session will be from 1 pm to 2:30 pm in the north end of the Edmond Parks and Recreation Building, 733 Marilyn Williams Dr.
Dr. Vestal is practitioner of functional neurology, which seeks to evaluate the functioning levels of the nervous system, determine which areas of a person’s nervous system are weak, and devise an appropriate treatment to improve the quality of how their nervous system functions.
He spent almost four years serving as a functional neurologist at the NeuroLife Institute, a neurology clinic at Life University near Atlanta. He worked with patients who suffered from a host of advanced neurological conditions such as: TBI/concussion, cerebral palsy, autism, vertigo, Parkinson’s, and many more. He also teaches chiropractic neurology to other chiropractors around the country as a part of BrainDC, founded in 2017 to provide education to doctors.
Dr. Vestal is certified in Interactive Metronome which is used to address disorders of timing, coordination, and spectrum disorders as well as a variety of disorders including PTSD, concussive injuries, and mTBI. He is certified in ATM (Active Therapeutic Motion) which is a specialized neuromuscular retraining approach to those with functional impairments, musculoskeletal complaints, and sports injuries.
According to the Functional Neurology Society, functional neurology relies on a key concept of “neuroplasticity.” Nerve connections in the brain are considered “plastic” because they can be shaped or modified by sensory, motor, cognitive or emotional experiences. Simply put, what you are exposed to can rewire your nervous system.
The basic unit of the nervous system is a nerve cell called a “neuron.” There exists over 100 billion neurons in the human body, each one having a specific function and connection to other neurons, forming extensive electro-chemical circuits and highways of communication.
While this system was once considered “fixed”, it is now known that this vast collection of nerve cells is capable of remarkable change.
“For example, by repetitively firing a pathway from one neuron to another, we can expect an increase in the number of chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) produced by the “talking” neuron as well as an increase in the number of receptors on the “listening” neuron (synaptic plasticity),” according to the society.
“Furthermore, a nerve cell can grow connections to new neurons (synaptogenesis) and can even extend to far reaching areas (neuronal migration). This is essentially how we learn a new skill and why ‘practice makes perfect.’”