Scan your Brain and Find its Secrets

Several years ago a member of my family was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Having long suspected I had attention deficit myself, I was pleased that this person would not have to deal with the negative effects of this so-called "ailment" (lots of debate about ADD/ADHD people not "suffering from an ailment" but rather are "hunters in a farmer world" but this is a post unto itself).

All the usual treatments for him were ineffective (homeopathy, exercise, Ritalin, etc.). Then my wife read a life changing book "Healing ADD" by Dr. Daniel Amen. He'd combined clinical diagnosis of ADD/ADHD with Brain SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) imaging. If you click on the image above, it'll load a bigger size and you can see what this process sees: holes in an ADD/ADHD brain caused by lack of blood flow which is alleviated dramatically with stimulant medications like Ritalin, enhancing concentration and mitigating impulsive behaviors.

Lack of blood flow in the pre-frontal cortex is one of the prime inhibitors in executive function in the brain (which is the "boss" of behavior, focus and judgement) and thus is the fundamental underpinning of the condition known as ADD/ADHD. The result left untreated? Impulsive and risk behaviors, inattention, disorganization and other aspects that the mainstream finds dysfunctional.

We were so stunned with the possibilities of this combination and the possible insight it would provide that we ended up at the Amen Clinic months later for diagnosis and brain scanning.

Without publically disclosing all the stuff that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is designed to protect, let me state that this *was* life changing since we discovered that this family member was being treated incorrectly. Their subtype of ADHD (called "ring of fire") required a different treatment and the previous Ritalin use was like tossing gasoline on a fire (and this person is doing very, very well now).

Intriguingly, this approach (clinical diagnosis and Brain SPECT scanning) is being used for many kinds of disorders including Alzheimer's, brain injury, chemical dependency and more.