Neural reset therapy for pain, tension, posture, flexibility, joint function and more
As an elite cyclist and coach, Larry Zimich has been approached countless times over the last 25 years by companies and individuals who want him to try their products. He walks a fine line between skepticism and openness, so when a client suggested he go for a session of neural reset therapy with naturopath Dr. Paula Fainstat, he wasn't sure what to expect.
But after the first session, he noticed an immediate difference that compelled him to return for another treatment.
"I stood up and everything felt different," he says. "I don't really know how to explain how different it felt―I felt balanced over my feet, and my body felt really calm and really relaxed. So I thought, wow, maybe there is something to what's happening."
It wasn't enough for Zimich to simply feel good―he wanted to measure whether the therapy was creating a concrete difference in his athletic performance. He began to measure and record data, and five weeks later, he was impressed to see that his speed had improved by almost 10 percent, he was feeling better than he had in years and he was able to recover quicker from challenging workouts.
"People were actually asking me, 'What's up?'," he says. "They noticed that much of a difference. With elite athletes, we're trying to make differences at that top end and that's usually the difference between winning and losing. So if someone can make a difference like that, it's pretty big."
Convinced by his own success, Zimich decided to team up with Dr. Fainstat to develop a small pilot study to measure and track the effects of neural reset therapy (NRT) on athletic performance.
Regressing back to your childhood, but in a good way
Dr. Paula Fainstat (www.drpaulafainstat.com (604) 222-2433) is a Vancouver-based naturopath with a chiropractic background who has spent almost 20 years perfecting the NRT technique. She refers to NRT as "anti-aging for the joints and alignment," and says it brings the body toward the original, natural state we were born with.
"When you look at young children, you can see how well set they are, how naturally upright they are, how grounded they are in their feet," she points out. "People have lost a sense of what it's like. They don't say, 'I'm out of alignment, I want better posture, my balance isn't what it used to be,' because all of these symptoms creep up so gradually over a lifetime that people have forgotten what it's like to feel normal."
NRT can improve pain, tension, posture, breathing, flexibility, headaches, joint function, balance, neurological conditions and, like Zimich discovered, athletic performance. Patients report feeling calmer, lighter and taller, along with experiencing an improved range of motion and reduced pain, usually starting with the first session.
How neural reset therapy works
NRT isn't merely about fixing alignments at the local level―Dr. Fainstat moves deeper to balance the body neurologically as well as structurally. She views the brain as a biological computer that needs to be reset, or rebooted, and uses NRT to affect the nervous system in order to change alignment, posture, and muscle-firing patterns.
During a treatment, Dr. Fainstat evaluates a patient's posture and muscles to determine where the distorted alignments are located. Then, she taps the reflexes related to these imbalances, which activates the central nervous system and prepares it to be reset. Finally, she uses a series of dextrose injections along the spine or in the head to block pain fibres, restore local nerves and promote deeper healing.
"We're having an immediate neurological effect, while we're also changing the firing patterns of the muscles and the holding patterns of the connective tissues," Dr. Fainstat says.
Patients like Zimich appreciate the holistic approach of the treatment.
"The body is whole, so you can't just have one area that works and the rest doesn't work," he says. "If a certain area of my body isn't performing how I think it should be, a lot of times she doesn't even treat that particular area. She goes to somewhere totally different on the body, treats that area and the next thing I know, it worked."
He also credits NRT for helping improve his recovery after a serious cycling accident in September, where he broke 13 bones, punctured a lung and spent two days in the intensive care unit.
"Because I went into that accident feeling the best I've felt for ages, I was able to come out of it like I have. When you have an accident like that and you're not in really good shape beforehand, you're not going to come out of it like that."
Dr. Fainstat is excited to see the outcome of the study once it is completed this winter and looks forward to showing how NRT can apply to everyone.
"I look at athletes as a microcosm of the general public. Their level of exercise produces a high level of metabolic waste," she says. "When an athlete shows improved recovery and heart rate function within a short period of time with NRT, that says a huge amount about the potential health benefits for the non-athletic person."
Sondi Bruner is a Vancouver-based freelance journalist and holistic nutrition student. Find out more about her writing services at www.sondibruner.com, and explore vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free recipes on her food blog, The Copycat Cook (www.thecopycatcook.wordpress.com)