The Brain Map That Changes Everything

Velocity Health: I fractured the occipital plate in my skull and suffered a traumatic brain injury. ⁓ spent a good amount of time in intensive care. And honestly, I will say to this day, if I could go back and change that situation, I just wouldn't. ⁓ it ignited something in me of like untapped potential that I didn't even know was there. I just started wheeling and dealing and, you know, decided that hey, if I if I do get a second chance at life, which I believe I've been given, I'm not gonna take it for granted. So You know, went through a lot of different types of therapy. And honestly, I feel like neurofeedback found me. I d I did not find it. And now I get to work with people every day who are learning the potential of their brain. What is the biggest misconception that you're correcting when patients come to you or or ⁓ prospects come to you? That they are stuck with what they're born with or what they've been struggling with for a long time. That this is what it is, that they are broken, that it can't be fixed, that They they are this. I am anxiety. I am depressed. It is mine. It is who I am. That you are not beholden to what you're born with. Your brain is absolutely capable of changing. It just doesn't know how to do it yet. Look at root cause. And this is not neurofeedback specific. This is across the board. We are constantly putting band-aids on bullet holes. Period. And if we could actually find and look towards the root cause, I believe that that is where ultimate healing happens. Welcome to the Ultimate Asset, the podcast where elite physicians, health strategists, and high performing leaders explore what it really takes to protect and elevate your most valuable asset, your body and your mind. This is high performance medicine powered by Velocity Health. Welcome back to another episode of the Ultimate Asset where we talk about all things health, wellness, and how we can optimize our time. Today I am so glad and so excited to be talking with Angie Nowak from Brain Code STEM Tears. Angie, hi, great to see you. Hi, hi. You are enjoying these beautiful summers in Colorado, it seems. I cannot get honestly, we didn't even have really a winter. It just has kind of been warm. all year and I run outside. So I I'm enjoying it. One might say too much. There you go. I love it. Well, the very opposite of here in Ohio, where I felt like we had endless winter, and now it is ⁓ absolutely perfect as well. But today we are going to be talking about the most important asset. And one could argue that all of our organs are important, but I would say it all starts at the command center in our brain. So ⁓ Angie, you are one of the founders and leader of Brain Code. ⁓ tell us a little bit before we get into Brain Code and neurofeedback about your story. You have a a series of events that happened early in your life that really brought you to this work and I've heard you share it before. It's quite moving. So take us back to the moment when things kinda changed. Absolutely. It's funny that you say a series of events. My family for a long time called it the unfortunate series of events because it was just like one after another, kind of all in a very tight time period. But yeah, I grew up in Washington State, very beautiful, stable family. I just personally was kind of an underachiever. I feel like my brain was very heavily focused on social, not really, you know, highly academic, not really highly driven. ⁓ but Just believed somehow I would go to college. And honestly, by a Christmas miracle, I had some untapped potential in test scores and got in. ⁓ and then between sophomore and junior year, visited my family for the summer. I went and donated blood because I was still trying to hustle and be a good person. And when I went to leave, I passed out and I fell on linoleum over cement. And the way in which my body locked up, I fractured the occipital plate in my skull and suffered a traumatic brain injury. And unfortunately, the team that was there, as well as my family, I I don't think really had a lot of understanding of brain injuries. So unfortunately, I didn't go to the hospital right away. I didn't end up going till maybe 15 hours later when I wasn't walking, I was throwing up kind of now that I understand brain injuries, ⁓ all classic signs of of a head as s significant head trauma. ⁓ so when I finally ended up in the ICU, they immediately did a scan, saw the that the plate was broken down the back and And fortunately, right, like the Lord decided that was not my time because by that time, had the bleeding been worse, we would have been in, you know, quite a different situation. So ⁓ spent a good amount of time in intensive care. And when I was finally released, I was released in a walker because I had really serious vestibular issues and couldn't walk on my own at the time. And honestly, I will say to this day, if I could go back and change that situation, I just wouldn't. ⁓ it ignited something in me. of like untapped potential that I didn't even know was there. That hearing, you know, a neurosurgeon say, Hey, we're not going back to college, maybe never, but definitely not now. You know, we need to do all of this different stuff. I just started wheeling and dealing and, you know, decided that, hey, if I if I do get a second chance at life, which I believe I've been given, I I'm not gonna take it for granted. So, you know, went through a lot of different types of therapy. My mom was a huge advocate for me, quit her job, drove me to like twenty therapies a week and I fought my way back, relearned to walk and, you know, ended up going back to college and went through my undergrad, went through my master's program. And honestly, I feel like neurofeedback found me. I d I did not find it that, you know, you kind of put stuff out there and it it comes back to you. I I had to learn at a very young age what our brains are capable of and and how I was capable of healing. And I, you know, I knew that that would be part of my story. And now I get to work with people every day who are learning the potential of their brain. Wow, what a what an event. I mean, how old were you when that happened? You were like 18 or 19? I just turned 19. Wow. Do you remember like waking up in or do you remember falling and were you in the ambulance? And or do you remember kind of the moment when when you realized what had happened? Yeah. So they d they didn't call an ambulance, unfortunately. I do remember waking up and there were people around me and ⁓ my head my head hurt really bad, my neck hurt really bad, and they immediately moved me. So, like pick me up and moved me. Again, looking back, I'm going, like, did no one here have training? ⁓ so pick me up, move me. I started throwing up. I don't know honestly how much time passed between when I finally said, Can you call my family? Can you call somebody to come get me? As I'm obviously not gonna be driving home. But it was probably several hours. ⁓ my sister came and got me, and when I saw her face, I knew something was bad because she walked in and looked at me and was like, what is going on? And she told me later I was ghost white. Like looked like I had eaten a red lollipop because my mouth was so red, but the rest of me was like white as a sheet. She took me home and I felt bad, but if you if you have suffered a brain injury or ever been like like so dehydrated or delirious or something, I was not fully with the living at that point. Like she brought me food and I wouldn't eat it. And I kept telling her that it tasted bad. But actually I didn't have proper taste for a long time because of the impact, it actually affected my nasal cavity. And so I couldn't taste things particularly well. Like everything tasted like it had gone bad. ⁓ and I couldn't like walk to the car. She had to help me and then she had to help me into the house and, you know, all these different things. And finally, you know, my mom, it was maybe midnight that night and my mom called the on-call nurse because I couldn't stop throwing up and they said, bring her in now or or we're sending an ambulance. And I do remember when the doctor came in and said, Like very you know, just very realistically, like, hey, there's a pretty significant skull fracture, there's bleeding. And that it was definitely a moment of like, is this it? You know, like this this could this could be it, you know. And it I I obviously you're fearful in that moment. My mom was with me, but it never maybe it never got to the point of being so real that, you know, or or that ⁓ indefinite that I never thought like this is it. It was kind of this could be, but like what's you know, what's kind of next steps? How do we how do we What do we do about this? So sort of went to problem solving mode pretty immediately in some ways. That's probably the way that my brain works always is like, how do we fix it? What is the solution? Did you actually have to have surgery? Like did they have to evacuate any of the blood or they were just monitoring things and Yeah, I didn't have to have a shunt, thank goodness. Cause if they had been if I had been getting some head shaven at nineteen, that would have added some other trauma. ⁓ no, they said, Hey, we're gonna monitor the bleeding. Like, because it had been so long as you know, since it had happened, they were like, it it doesn't seem like it's getting worse. Like, let's just sit and monitor it. They did think that my neck was broken. ⁓ so I was in a neck brace, like, you know, all this different stuff. And again, I'd been moved around a bunch, so I like, ⁓ god. ⁓ But no, I didn't I will say though, you know, I went into the hospital, I didn't leave for weeks, you know, and I obviously wasn't expecting that. Like I didn't take anything with me. I didn't know, you know, what was happening. But again, I wasn't really cognitively well because there was so much swelling in my brain that it wasn't like I was thinking about it, you know, that particularly intuitively. Was there a moment you remember where you thought this is I'm not dead, which is great, but this has changed my life forever. Like will I walk again? Will I be able to attend college again? Like do you remember some of those those moments? That came later. So I was you know, when you're in the hospital I was in so much pain, like they kept putting me on like morphine and different things. So one, I've never I've never done drugs in my life. Even, you know, a nineteen year old college student, I'm sure they're like, well she probably has a tolerance. None. Like it would literally touch my vein. And I was like, you know, so they had to give me phenorgan and then give that to me, which is an anti nausea. And so I I was really just like half asleep, you know, for the next however long. ⁓ and they started trying to do some stuff in the hospital to get me to walk, but I just couldn't I couldn't balance, I couldn't do it. So finally when I got released, I was released in a walker. And that it I, you know, I guess probably because I come from a kind of like rough, rough and tumble family, just of not we are not like a pity party type of family. My mom was never like, This might be your future. You know, she never was like that. She was like, This is a moment, this is a time when I met with my neurosurgeon and he, you know, just kind of was speaking some truth. Like she looked at me when he left the room and she was like, Nope. Like this is not this is not gonna be it. You know, so it was never I honestly never even thought it was an option that to to like allow this to be a thing or to feel like a victim of my circumstances. And that's probably because of my mom. She she was never gonna allow that to be a thing. How important do you think that that belief is? ⁓ 'cause you know, doctors were guilty of acting like we know all the time. And you know, it's in good good faith, I guess, to describe to people what a typical path might sort of feel. But I've become much more cognizant about talking about things like this is what we sometimes see, but every one of us is an individual. Do you remember like your mom kind of being the one that really shook you out of that and saying, like, look, this is you are going to have a different path. And how important was that belief for you? I think that mindset is make or break. Truly. I I believe that. That I don't believe I don't believe my body would have been capable of the healing that it did if my mindset had not been, this is gonna happen, we are gonna do this, we will overcome, like the that kind of unwavering determination. Like I don't think like your brain will ⁓ your body will ⁓ give up far or your brain will give up far before your body actually needs to. That's why you're always told when you're lifting, like, do that one last rep, because it tells your brain that you can do it, because your brain, right, is telling you like I need to quit. And actually your body could go way further. My body was absolutely capable of it, but because my brain was telling it, you can do this. There's there's no option not to, right? ⁓ so truly, you know, and I mean, yeah, there were sad days and there were hard days, but as a whole, I don't even remember that period of my life being so awful and so traumatic. Like it just it was kind of a a moment in time and yeah, it took a lot and I had to fight for it, but never was I like this will define the the rest of my existence. You mentioned you tried all sorts of different therapies and your mom was driving you around to all these different places. What were some of the things that didn't work for you? So I did a lot of different types of like vestibular therapy, and it was helpful. ⁓ but I think a big part of you know what kind of set in was the vision therapy that your vision happens in the back. And so because I had like nerve issues, like so much damage. one of my eyes wasn't working, so the other eye was kind of taking over. So I think I I like my brain just am I sitting? Am I standing? Am I laying down? Like my brain just didn't really know what was happening. ⁓ so the vision therapy was really helpful to kind of get both eyes back engaged. I had glasses with prisms in them for a long time. So getting my vision back on gear. But ⁓ honestly all I th I believe that all of the therapies that I did, I'm sure played a component. You you know what though you say that, you know what probably did the least was counseling. They immediately I am a counselor, by the way. I'm an LPC. ⁓ they put me in counseling with some guy. I'm 19, he's like 50 something, and they were like, How is your accident? I was like, ⁓ like wouldn't say a damn thing. Didn't speak a word. It was I'm sure after maybe like 15 sessions, they were like, She doesn't want to do counseling. And I I didn't want to. So that was probably the least successful. The therapy I did was like emotional counseling. You know, I think everyone identifies with a different piece of this, right? They some folks kind of need the coaching and the encouragement and validation. And some like you, it seems like you'd made your mind up. Like this will not define me. I will get through this. And and that I agree is so, so powerful. You you talked about how neurofeedback found you. So out of all these different kinds of therapies you were going through, tell us a little bit about That moment or or how that came to you and where that came from. Yeah, I was in the middle of my master's and having a moment of crisis, as I'm sure everyone does in grad school, where you're like, do I even want to do this? I don't even like people's feelings. ⁓ so I'm, you know, kind of middle of my masters, having that, you know, kind of crisis moment. And a ⁓ professor that I was close with close with said, Hey, you know, you're a lot more brain-based, right? You're not super up in the feelings and you know, early developmental trauma, you know, like talking about it. You're you're kind of solution focused. He was like, you know, I know this woman who is doing this like neurobrain mapping thing. I I'm gonna introduce you. So I went with him and I I met this woman who at the time knew Rachel and was connected with Rachel. ⁓ and I got a taste of you know, kind of what that looked like and hearing just hearing stories right of people like, hey, changing their life and changing their brain in six months. And I was I've done that, I didn't do neurofeedback at that time, but I was like I've done that. I know that that's possible. ⁓ and then I, you know, probably ⁓ a year and a half later I graduated with my master's and they called me. I mean, within a week, ⁓ they had called me. We were neurotimized at the time and said, Hey, you need to come work with us. And I was like, I don't know. ⁓ and ⁓ this, you know, this woman, it was not Rachel at the time, it was different woman. She said, I know the Lord has told me. I was like, that is aggressive. ⁓ but she was right. Like she was 100% right. So I Would work my full-time job during the day and then I would go see clients at night. And I did that for a few months and then ⁓ went on with them full time. And I never looked back. Like it truly I remember the first person sitting across from me who was struggling with a brain injury and didn't have a lot of hope. And maybe didn't have the same support system that I did and was feeling very discouraged. Right. And they were this wasn't a new brain injury. This is years down the road. And I, you know. I was like, hey, I you know, that I don't know what you're going through, but I absolutely believe that the brain is capable of change even years later. Let's freaking go. Yeah. Do you was that sort of the moment or was that the case that kind of helped you believe in neurofeedback? Or do you remember like, ⁓ man, this stuff really works in a different way than anything else I've really seen? That was experience. That was time with clients and experience that at first someone is telling me like this is the best thing ever. I'm like, okay. You know, that we'll see. You know, we'll we'll see what it is. But I remember, yeah, probably three, four months into doing it when I was watching people who I had started or early on in their process, you know, when I began, who now are coming in going, Angie, I haven't had I used to have panic attacks weekly and I haven't had one in two months. People who are going, you know, and I can give you, I could give you a thousand stories. Right, of I had a a young man who came in 13 years old, had been kicked out of multiple schools, who had been kicked off of multiple hockey teams, was labeled as the bad kid. Period. Right? This is a this is a problem child. And you know, his mom came and was like, listen, this is our last stitch, like we gotta do something. His brain in his prefrontal cortex, his decision-making center was going a thousand miles an hour with no brakes. That was an angry, overstimulated, impulsive kid. Two months in she came to me and said, Will you come speak to the parents for the hockey team? Because they've been asking me what medication we put ⁓ on. And I I told them none. Because they're going, Th I want some of what you have because this is a different young man. And I could give you a hundred stories like that. So once I started to see that change, also I was doing my own neurofeedback at the time because I was like, If I'm gonna work here, I'm gonna do it. ⁓ and I was starting to experience those changes in myself. And by that time I was all in. Wow. You're an athlete who wants to reach your absolute peak potential. But what if the thing holding you back has nothing to do with your training? Nobody's looking at your hormones, your sleep, your micronutrients, and nobody's monitoring whether you're actually recovering or whether you're digging yourself a hole you don't even know about. You could be overtraining, you could be leaving your performance on the table. And if you're dealing with fatigue, gut issues, joint pain, things that won't go away, nobody's actually telling you why. Velocity Pro is a six month physician led program that starts with a Full diagnostic workup. This is blood work, hormone panels, body composition, cardiovascular imaging, and a full body springbug MRI. Then we integrate with your wearables. We monitor your training alone, your recovery, your readiness every single week. Real oversight from a sports medicine physician who actually understands how athletes respond to data differently than the general population. So don't leave your performance up to chance. Link is in the show notes below. We'll see you there. So Thank you for sharing all of that. I know that's personal and and it's so moving. And and the fact that you have sort of sublimated some of that, that, you know, tomal, if you want to call it, that happened in your life and now are using that to help others is is so cool. So tell us a little bit more. Let's go deep on what is neurofeedback. I'm sure the audience now is listening and they're like, okay, well, what is it? So tell us a little bit about what the process is and The sort of science behind neurofeedback. Of course. I know, I'm sure they're like, quit talking about it and you spill the tea. Tell us what it is. So neurofeedback is operant conditioning of the brain. It is reward-based training. We're teaching the brain to create new neuropathways to serve them better. So we always start with a baseline QEEG brain map. It's a quantitative electroencephalogram, similar to an EEG or like a specked image, except that we're not only looking for something structurally wrong. So it's that we won't see it if somebody's had a brain injury or a concussion. Obviously, we're gonna see that. It's just that that's not the only thing that we're looking for. We're looking at the electrical and the neurological wave activity happening in the brain. And literally everything is gonna show itself to us within neurological patterns: anxiety, depression, ADD, PTSD, brain injuries, sleep issues. All of those things manifest themselves within patterns. And that's what we're looking to see. But we see it through kind of the lens or the scope, if you will, of brain waves as all human beings are capable of producing the same brain waves. Delta deep sleep, theta drifting into sleep, alpha is a receptor, beta clean energy, high beta fight or flight. And we need it. We need all of them. If we're in danger, high beta is critical because it tells us to run. If we're trying to go to sleep at night, it's not gonna do us any favors. So start with that brain map. And the nice thing is that it really doesn't have a lot of impact when we do it. This is not, you know, blood work. What did you eat this morning? You know, versus what are we, what, you know, time of your cycle are you on? You know, those things can have like little impact. But in general, this is your fingerprint, right? This is, this is the way in which your brain is functioning. And I'm gonna see it either way. So you could be having a good day, a crummy day, I'm gonna see it. So we do that brain map. And then the actual neurofeedback, this is the treatment, this is the way in which we change those patterns, is that operant conditioning. And the beautiful thing is we can do a brain map and neurofeedback from anywhere in the world. I'm located in Denver, Rachel's in Texas. We can do this from anywhere. I can ship you equipment anywhere. We can do the brain map. We can do the treatment. So you do have a headset at home. It has a lot of little electrodes embedded into it. Key component, there's never ever any electrical stimulus going into your brain. Okay. This is not shock anything. Nothing's going in. ⁓ the electrodes are just picking up information. They're monitoring and reading what the brain is doing. And then the feedback loop of neurofeedback is the electrodes pick up the electricity, it goes into an amp or an amplifier on your phone. So you have an app, the amplifier amplifiers in that, it goes into the app, and then it is fed back to you. So you're watching something through visual and auditory forms of reward, watching, listening. Those things are very much working as a mirror for your brain, that your brain gets to experience in real time what it's doing. And training itself. Essentially, if you think about like a video game, your brain is holding the remote control to this situation. It is controlling everything, but not with thoughts, with waves. Interesting. So I I did this too as we were sort of getting to know one another many months ago and and I thought it was such a cool experience. I got the EEG ⁓ shipped to my home ⁓ out here in Ohio, and then I worked with your team and and we sort of got my brain back. So when someone gets the initial brain map, what are some of the things that they might see? You started to mention sort of the high beta and beta. Can you like tie those to some of the different sort of personality types or disorders that you might see and and how that sort of ties into what you see on the brain map itself? Yeah. Probably the number one thing that we work with is anxiety, right? Overstimulation, anxiety, ⁓ trauma. As that's just kind of our culture. We are overstressed, we are underslept, and we are, you know, highly anxious. So a lot of people associate with the term anxiety. Now, anxiety alone can come from 50 different patterns in the brain. So, you know, someone coming in and saying, I I struggle with anxiety. Okay. I need looking at the brain map, I need to see exactly where that's coming from, right? Because that could be, you know, 50 different, 50 different patterns, 50 different types of protocols. We need to know exactly what's the individual and unique kind of fingerprint of this person. So anxiety is a big one. A lot of times I see it in high beta, excess fast wave activity, fight or flight, right? When people hear when we talk about a sympathetic nervous system state, living in that fight or flight, people are like, That's me, I live there. Probably, realistically, right? That I see a lot of. I had slept two hours last night. I worked 90 hours last week. You win. Yeah. You're the winner and your brain will punish you for it. You know, that it I I see that a lot. I see a fast alpha pattern for anxiety where people have excess fast alpha wave activity in the brain. That's a lot more internal anxiety, right? That's somebody who maybe doesn't even really associate with the term anxiety, but is analysis, paralysis, ruminating, brain never shuts off. Just, you know, kind of these ⁓ just over and over and over at the brain cannot really let things go. ⁓ ADHD is a very incom not common pattern that I see in the brain actually. Now, I see a lot of people diagnosed with ADHD who associate with the symptoms of ADHD. ADHD is overproduction of theta wave activity, excess theta, which is excess slow wave activity. Adderall, Ritalin are stimulants. They speed the brain up so that that person can focus. However, if you have all of the symptoms of ADHD but actually have fast wave activity, and then you're prescribed a stimulant, that's gonna feel pretty crummy. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, I'd say probably eighty percent of people who see us are on some type of medication when they do. That's just, you know, also kind of our culture that n rarely do people start with neurofeedback. You know, like, hey, I'm having these symptoms. Maybe I'll go do this brain training thing. No, they're like, I went to my doctor, they prescribed me a med. I did a little bit of counseling. And again, there's no shame in the medication game. I believe like you you You made a decision with the information that you had. Exactly. Now we can give you a lot more information to make a hopefully a different decision. Yeah, I saw a crazy stat around one third of college students in this country are at some point prescribed an SSRI. Like, do we really think that they have that kind of pathology? Maybe. is a failing not of patients at all. And I hope people don't hear that, right? It is a failing of the medical system that we don't use the diagnostics and the tools that have great data around this. ⁓ you know we we pulled some some data around this and PTSD was a really striking one that we saw. There's a twenty twenty three meta-analysis, ten RCTs that found neurofeedback had a remission rate of almost eighty percent versus twenty-four percent. of controls. Kind of hard, you know, when when you're doing RCT and and even just one RCT, right? But we're talking about 10, we're talking about fool thousands and thousands of patients. ⁓ and and you know there's something real there about this. So tell us a little bit about what you see on a brain map ⁓ with someone that has PTSD and then what does some of the neurofeedback kind of exercise look like for someone like that over time? Yeah, PTSD is a huge one. And whether that's you know kind of normal population PTSD, let's say, you know, an assault or a car accident or a loved one dying or something like that. We also work with a ton of first responders here in in Colorado, in Tulsa, and in Dallas. we have different government contracts, fire, police, ⁓ veterans. And so I see it obviously it's a different type of PTSD, but still PTSD. I do tend to see that in in high beta. A lot of times I see it in the prefrontal cortex. Okay. And the prefrontal cortex is our executive functioning, our decision making, right? So when we have, you know, when we experience like very traumatic, high-intense situations, like let's say a first responder where they have just repeatedly, right, that what they see, what they've had to do, you know, different things like that, their brain now probably was trained to keep them safe, first off, right? That as a first responder, hey. You need to be alert, you need to be aware all this stuff. Okay, great, right? So you're on the job and you're alert and you're aware and that keeps you safe. But wait, now you go home at night and you have little kids and a family and all this stuff and and you lose your, you know, you lose your cool on your on your spouse. ⁓ okay. You know, you yell at your kids and you haven't slept in 10 years because your brain, it's not safe to to fall asleep. ⁓ I see these patterns constantly. Actually, sleep is probably one of the biggest ones with first responders. ⁓ that when sleep starts to set in, which actually generally is pretty early on, they're like, I'm a believer, I I like I have to do more of this. If it changes nothing else, my life has been changed. Because if you think you're not sleeping, you're not healing, you're not restoring, you're not recovering. ⁓ so sleep is a really big one that often people with PTSD have a lot of fast wave activity and it takes energy away from slow wave activity, so they don't really have anything in the bucket for sleep. Right. What is the actual sort of neurofeedback look like when they're training through this over a six month program. You'd mention, you know, you're kind of playing the video game with your mind, but can you be a little bit more specific? Like what does it actually look like on the screen or the sounds or whatever? Like what is someone trying to focus on? And then how does that tie back to sort of retraining their brain through different brain waves like that? Totally. So an actual session, you know, let's say someone's at home, they would go get their headset, which is a band that goes around their head We do an onboarding, so we show them how to put it on, how to use it properly. They put it on. Then they're going to log into the app on their phone. They have an individualized ⁓ password, their you know, ID, everything like that. So they log into their account. And we have put in there now, each person is probably gonna have 20 different protocols, let's say, but they're logging in and they're doing their protocol for today, which might be labeled, you know, Angie's protocol this week. Okay, I click on that protocol, and then I have a bunch of different things that people can watch. I have shows that they can watch. They could listen to a podcast. They might be doing some eyes closed. So that's actually more of their personal preference. I don't really care what you watch. I could have you, I could have you watching a blank screen. That would be wicked boring. When Neurofeedback came out in the 50s and the 60s, it was literally a red light and a green light. And when the green light was on, you were being rewarded. And when the red light was on, you weren't. That sucks, right? So we've come a long way from that. I watched New Girl Will I train because I just needed to be distracted. I don't really care what you watch. If you're watching something that you enjoy, your brain's probably gonna work a little harder for me. So you're watching your show. Over top of that, there's a dimmer screen. So you're literally gonna see the screen going in and out of brightness. Your brain, only by producing the wave activity that I'm asking for, is working to keep that screen lit. So your brain is physically, your brain has the dimmer screen. It is literally turning it up and turning it down, depending on wave activity. And same thing, you'll hear the volume going in and out, right? Higher, lower, higher, lower. What I'm asking your brain for is thresholding to be producing the wave activity within a threshold that it needs. So if your brain is all high beta, all fight or flight, all fast, I might have put into your protocol today, okay, produce three hertz less of micro voltage in high beta and three hertz more of micro voltage in theta. That's the goal, right? This is the goal that I've set for your brain. Your brain, our brains are incredible, human beings, as they are performance-based. Our brains are always looking for ways to win things. If you walk into a room and the lights are dim, you're automatically like, ⁓ where's the switch? Where can I, you know, turn that up? If something, if there was a crash outside my window right now, I would automatically look to it. Not because I enjoy the sound of that crash, it's novelty. It catches my attention. Everything that we're doing with neural feedback is not based off of your personal brain. Like, ⁓ do you like lights going in and out of brightness? It's the human brain and what the human brain determines as novelty stimulus and reward. So as your brain on a very passive, deep down level, this is not thought based. And this is what's hard, especially trying to think about like, ⁓ I need to get into theta wave and I need to like slow my breathing and like really get like in a meditative state. Your brain is kind of doing it automatically because it's trying to seek the reward of keeping like watching that show or hearing that podcast. That's exactly right. That for so many high achievers, we almost have to get out of our own way to allow our brain to do what it's gonna do naturally, right? If we're like, I'm gonna win neurofeedback, I'm gonna crush the sense. That was my problem when I did the neurofeedback. When I did the brain map, I I was trying, I was like, ⁓ well, I'm in high beta. I need to slow down. ⁓ like think about it too much. And I wonder if that was like firing my executive function even more, right? I'm sure it is, 'cause you're like, ⁓ I'm gonna win them. Matter this, like clenching, you know? And and we do work with people to kind of, you know, the best thing that I can say is don't do anything. Literally just watch it passively. You're not trying to win it. You're not trying to excel. Just watch it. Just let your brain, kind of let your brain have a break. Cause this is this is kind of software versus hardware. A lot of the things that we try to do to help ourselves, right, are more like software updates on a computer. That might be counseling, that might be meditation, that might be exercise. And that's great if we need a software update. If we have a hardware issue, a software update cannot touch that, right? That is that deeper down. So you almost have to get out of your brain's own way to be able to let the hardware do what it needs to do to heal. If you are enjoying the discussions we are having on the ultimate asset, check out our new research newsletter, Accelerate by Velocity Health. Every month, we focus on the newest scientific research published around the world. Our team of expert physicians and clinical researchers break down scientific papers and deliver you the Velocity Health Perspective. Accelerate your health goals and optimize your ultimate asset. Sign up today following the link found in the description. Yeah, FDA has approved amygdala-based EGG feed ⁓ neurofeedback therapy for PTSD specifically. Can you all tailor in and target different parts of the brain? And and how does that piece sort of work? Actually, yes. So that's what the map is for, is right for us to determine what areas, what lobes, you know, where do we have this overactivity and underactivity. One of my favorite protocols that I do is FPO2. It's actually kind of an interesting. Protocol where I put an electrode basically in my like the upper side of my eye socket. It is like a direct hit to the amygdala and I train that down. I have a lot of fast wave activity. Probably no one listening to this is surprised by that. ⁓ my brain runs very on 2x speed for all of you out there. I wonder what's in Angie's brain. It's fast. It's all fast. ⁓ and I so yeah, direct shot to the amygdala and it trains it down. ⁓ or we can train over that, right? Like we're putting electrodes on the surface, right? Surface wave activity, but we're able to train. deeper down, you know, hypothalamus, amygdala. So absolutely, you know, 100% that if someone's amygdala is just on fire all the time, that would be extremely uncomfortable. Mm-hmm. You mentioned that sometimes you'll see things on the maps that kind of surprise people a little bit. How how often do people come in on a med like for ADHD and you've discovered that there's actually something else. Like you had an old brain injury or there's something else going on. Do you see that? And and what is that moment kinda like for patients when you can tell them like, look, you're not broken. This is not a disease. Like you there's actually a organic cause here that we can identify. Do d tell us a few of those kind of experiences. It's incredible. Honestly, map reviews are my absolute favorite. It's so validating to people. It's like that visual form of grace, right? And often I hear things like that never fell right for me. That diagnosis never seemed like it fit, but I just believed it, right? Especially with ADHD. That, you know, I'll say, Hey, you know, I'm not discounting your diagnosis. I'm just saying I don't really see that neurological pattern. I see all the other symptoms totally. It's just coming from a different pattern. And regularly it's like I knew it. I knew that that wasn't right. I knew that that didn't fit for me. But you know, YouTube and Instagram and everything or whatever, you know, kind of we just talk about symptoms. We don't talk about neurological patterns. And this is actually a big critique of the DSM. So the DSM five is the diagnostic statistical manual for counselors, for psychologists. And ⁓ Thomas Incel, who was the director of the National Institute for Mental Health, very publicly criticized it by saying, The DSM 5 has a lot of reliability, but very little validity. And I completely agree with that. That reliably, all of us, you know, counselors go, yeah, if you show X, Y, and Z, these three symptoms, we give you this diagnosis. Validity would be: does that come from a deeper down biological source? Where is that coming from? We do not have that information. Not that I'm saying those ⁓ diagnoses are completely invalid. There just isn't a lot of validity with that because we're not looking at anything deeper down. We're not looking at the source of that issue and and where that's coming from. But we prescribe medication based off of that. So there's yeah, there's just a lot of, you know, kind of critique to that, in my opinion, as as people, you know, when I sh look at brain maps and when I talk to people, I'm like, hey, I totally understand your diagnosis, but here's where where I really see that coming from. I think it can bring bring a lot of grace and understanding to exactly your your comment that. This isn't your fault. This isn't something that you choose every day, right? If you were stronger, you could just get rid of this, you know. Well, if you can wake up tomorrow and forget how to walk, you must be a much stronger person than I am because I I can't do that. But you think you should be able to wake up tomorrow and forget 20 years of of developmental trauma? No way. Why why don't we do this more often then? If we can kind of confirm certain diagnoses or or you know, write them off because it clearly doesn't match the EEG pattern for something like ADHD or or anxiety or depression. Why do you think we're we don't have more brain mapping and neurofeedback and all that right now? I'm about to get, I'm about to, I'm gonna just gonna step onto my soapbox and I'll step off in a minute. This is honestly realistically, our medical system, this is big pharma, right? That Absolutely. Even if somebody wanted to be on a med, I could absolut we could do a brain map and you know go, okay, we believe that this is the type of med. This is you know, this could work best for you. Or we could throw spaghetti against a wall and we could see what sticks. Hey, let's try this med. ⁓ God, that that didn't work. Let's let's try a higher dose. ⁓ still still doesn't work. Okay, let's add this med to this med to see, ⁓ that's not real. Or we could do this rigmarole for years and keep people on medication rather than ever getting to the source. And I believe that in a lot if I get hit by a bus, call the ambulance, call them up. Take me to the hospital because I want that type of reactive medicine. Heck yes. Like cut me open, do what you gotta do. I want it. Where's the proactive, right? What do we do proactively to actually change those things so we don't get to that point? Our medicine is very reactive. So yeah, we we absolutely could do a brain map. We have we have the ability to look at all those things. We don't do that because that takes extra expertise. That would cost probably realistically less, you know, less money for people over time if if we got it right, you know, the first time. And and that's really not something our our system is interested in. Yeah, that that is a much more balanced soapbox than than I have been on in the past. I mean I've I I totally agree with you. And ⁓ you know, I think when we first met at a a ⁓ a sort of CEO, founder event in in Aspen, I had given that same sort of analogy that the acute care in this country is amazing, right? Like like you said, if you got hit by a bus, if you are having a heart attack, if you're having a stroke, there's no place in the world I would rather be than the United States. But absolutely. So take out the bus getting hit, right? There's probably public health stuff there that we could talk about. But preventing the heart attacks, preventing the strokes, preventing the depression, preventing the anxiety, like Where is the system there? Right? We don't have that because it is a volume-based game. And then you talk about pharma and you know, I've been very critical about SSRIs. I think that they serve a purpose in an acute phase, sort of ⁓ you know, if someone's acutely suicidal, then yeah, they've probably saved many, many lives, right? But there is no better business model in the world than recurring revenue. Of keeping someone chronically ill and on a medication for the rest of their life, just enough that they don't die from it or die from their condition, but continue to purchase that bill. That's why big pharma are the the biggest lobbiers in the country and spend more than anyone else in the world on ensuring that certain policies and you know logistics are are are a certain way because That perpetuates the status quo, right? There seems to me that something like neurofeedback where we're actually getting to the heart of it or the brain mapping even, just understanding is this the right diagnosis or not. Should be a standard of care. I mean, especially in a places like, you know, especially with the data around PTSD, it's it's crazy to me that we don't have a brain mapping capability in every single VA in the country, for example. That's right. I don't think this would surprise you, but so to diagnose depression, to diagnose anxiety, we usually have these depression scales, right? And there's a bunch of, you know, very famous depression scales. The the people funding the money, I mean, and I'm gosh, I'm forgetting off the top of my head, there's a couple of major depression and anxiety scales that are funded by Pfizer that funded the research to create the scales to diagnose the disorders to prescribe the meds. In the 70s, ⁓ What was it, Lexapro? was like really, really big. And they're prescribing a lot of LexRun and it's like, wait, we need a scale that makes it easier for doctors to diagnose and then prescribe. So this is not we're not making speculation. This goes like layers deep of how do we put people on meds. And I agree with you that medication can absolutely save lives. It's not even a question. It should be a short-term fix to find that long-term solution. And we have perverted it to be the long-term solution forever. take five meds for the side effects of these five other meds, it's ⁓ it's become a a very serious issue. Yeah, absolutely. It's it's unfortunate. Again, we use medications all the time and they are life-saving in many ways. ⁓ I would want an antibiotic if I had pneumonia or sepsis or whatever it is. And our drug looting stents save all sorts of lives every year. But there does seem to be this sort of insidious force that continues to perpetuate something that is clearly not in our own best interest. And I think the hard part is, you know, we've never done and nor would it be feasible to have a thirty and forty year long study of like, okay, well, we did this study on something like SSRIs for for years or five years, which is a long big study. And then we extrapolate that people get put on when they're nineteen and they stay on until they're sixty five. Like Do you really know what that's done to your life and to your brain over that amount of time? I I don't know that we really have that data. I mean, I think you mentioned SSRIs are are kind of a band-aid on a bullet hole, right? And and really getting to that heart of it is is one of the keys here. So on on the neurofeedback in the in the ⁓ brain mappings, how many sessions do you find that it Like when do people sort of make the connection? When do they start to actually feel better? Is it like, man, after this first one, I feel like I could come off meds, or is it like closer to that six month mark where they look back and they think, I feel a lot better now? No, that's a good question. I would love if it would be on the first one. I would also love if I went to the gym for two days and was shredded. That would be sick. That'd be the best. ⁓ the reality is with building muscle, it takes longer. Same thing with neuropathways, right? That and I have people who are more neurologically sensitive who I would say start feeling it faster, right? That if you have so much fast wave activity, that is like a shaken can of soda. If we just crack the top a little bit, there is a lot of relief that happens. So I'll have people two weeks in, they're like, ⁓ my gosh, I've never felt this way. Is we still have a long way to go, but that's great that you're starting to have some relief earlier on. I would say general population, most people four to six weeks. You're gonna start to notice that change. And again, it's not that change is not happening before that. It just takes a little bit longer for us to see the fruits of that labor. How many sessions are they doing per week typically? Yeah, with the remote program, generally three to four, and usually for six months, sometimes longer. Again, this is completely tailored to every person. The reason we say three to four is because three sessions a week is what it is going to take to commit to permanency. The way in which we bill and the way in which our program is, you can do unlimited sessions. Now, don't do more than one session a day because that is depreciating value. That will not change anything. But if I if you want to do a session, you know, five days a week, you're just gonna get there a little bit faster. I had my sister called me a few years ago and said, I think mom has dementia. I was like, well, she doesn't, but okay. You know, so I I knew she didn't, but I was like, let's do another brain map. Let me take a look. So I took a look. And my mom had a lot of early developmental trauma. She had been through a lot of stressors. She was living in fight or flight. So her brain couldn't even catch up. She wasn't remembering things because she was literally in fight or flight. Do you think you have the best memory right after you rear end somebody? No. You know, so I had her do neural feedback, but I had her do it every single day. She did it seven days a week. You might be like, Angie, that's too much for your mom. It was. But I knew that if I told her three days a week, it would be no days a week. And if I told her seven, she would make it a part of her daily routine and she would do it, and she did. So you also kind of know yourself best, you know, that hey, if you need to do this every single day to remember to do it, seven days a week is is your jam. Interesting. So you can see what would you have seen if it was dementia? Yeah. Generally that is overproduction. We have a lot of excess slow wave activity and we can see a declining alpha speed. So our peak alpha frequency is also known as our processing speed. It's the speed in which our brain takes in information and kind of commits it to permanency and then regurgitates it. Think about it like a conveyor belt. Okay. Your conveyor belt needs to be going a certain speed to kind of make things happen. And we have a certain alpha speed at, you know, when we're two years old. We're born with no alpha speed. And then it starts to develop. So two years old, it's it should be, you know, X speed. ⁓ twelve years old, it should be X. By the time you're fully developed, it should be ⁓ right around like a 9.7 to a 10. If I see somebody, you know, let's say 50s or 60s, who it's it's a significantly slower processing speed, that's not a great sign, right? If and if I do let's say two brain maps in a span of six months or a year and it's declining, ⁓ those are some early indicators like ⁓ we might have some some significant cognitive decline. I'm not gonna Diagnose somebody with dementia, I'm gonna say, hey, let's go get you to to somebody who has the ability to diagnose this, right? Let's go do some other cognitive testing to look at this. ⁓ but it the brain can definitely give us some early indicators. Interesting. You you mentioned a couple of times the remote ⁓ piece. What's the difference between the remote and the in-person sessions? And and is there any difference in outcomes there? R really, no. There is not a difference between efficacy of of in-person and remote. I would say that first off, I mean, do you live near one of our centers, right? If not, remote as you. You are remote. ⁓ but no, there's not, there's not really an efficacy difference. So it kind of depends on the person. I do have people who are like, Angie, I've had a Peloton for years and I hang my dirty clothes on it. Never stabbed myself on that. Well, then you're probably not an at home workout type of gal, you know, that you probably need to go into a center. And you know, somebody else might be like, I have a home gym, I work out in in it every day. Okay, you're a little more self-motivated. You can make this happen. Now, one, our job, you have a a remote coach who you meet with every other week. That person is also there to hold you accountable and like, hey, I I see you're not doing your sessions, we gotta get back on this, right? Nothing's gonna happen if you're not doing that. So that's on us and that's on you. ⁓ so there will always be people who like doing in-person sessions, but the remote program is kind of a baby that would was birthed out of COVID. that, you know, people stopped wanting to go in office. They felt trapped for a long time and wanted to travel. You can take this headset with you anywhere. You can literally do this from anywhere as long as you have some Wi-Fi. ⁓ so it's such a it's just such a beautiful way to kind of have this incredible treatment, but not be tied to a place for, you know, six months while you do it. Yeah, absolutely. And that's part of the notion of why Veloci Health is virtual first as well. People are all over in the world now. They're traveling see family and at a conference and they want the flexibility. And I think there's a very, you know, patriarchal nature, ⁓ sometimes, at least in big health systems, of well, you gotta come downtown and spend four hours of your day and fight with parking and climb up six stories of flights and stairs and then come see your doctor for twelve minutes, right? That's not the point at all. We want to maximize the time and ⁓ efficiency what we get with each of our members. If you're finding value in these deep dives into health and performance, please take a moment to subscribe to our YouTube channel. It's the best zero cost way to support the show and helps us bring you more world-class experts. Also, be sure to hit follow on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. While you're there, leaving a five-star review or a quick comment really helps other high performers find us. We appreciate you being part of this community. One more question before we we get into a little bit of a lightning round as well, which is the role of sort of social media. You you mentioned talking, you know, ⁓ working with teens and kids. Like what proportion of your your clients first off are, you know, adolescents or kids? And what do you can you actually see in their brain waves in their their brain map, like this person's glued to their screen for six hours a day versus this kid's a Montessori skid who's outdoors all day? Absolutely, we can see that. Yes. So first off, I'd probably say 30, 35% of our population is under the age of 18. Generally, we don't work with kids younger than five. They have a hard time sitting still for the brain map. They can't sit still for sessions. They're pulling off electrodes. You need to be to the age of which I can bribe you. If I can bribe you, we're probably good. If you can't even accept a bribe, like let's wait a minute, you know? ⁓ I talk to parents all the time about this. First off, there's an amazing book called Glow Kids, G-L-O Kids. It talks about the technology addiction in America and literally compares a brain map of a child addicted to technol technology to an adult addicted to cocaine. Wow. And it looks extremely similar. So first off, let that horrify you for a minute. ⁓ but absolutely, I think what parents I don't think this is parents not caring. I believe that, you know, if you're a relatively good person, you love your kids and you want the best for them, they actually don't understand the danger of this. As if I was like, would you give your kid a bump of cocaine? They go, never. That would be horrible, that would be cruel, that would be child endangerment. But they're sitting on screens that are overstimulating their brains twenty-four-seven, right? If you even if you just take a take a child and take away a screen and watch their reaction versus taking away a a plastic toy, you have a very serious difference in reaction as their brain is so attached to that screen and and to what they're experiencing. Right. So absolutely we see that. And I see it in overstimulation. I see it in fight or flight. I see it in hypervigilance. Like the I beta and the the beta alpha stuff. Do you see that is exactly right? So fast, so overstimulated. And kids manifested differently. Some kids are angry, some kids are anxious, you know, all these different things. But then you're right. We have kids being put on SSRIs and medication who are on social media 24/7 and on screens 24/7. And if I were to even suggest a screen detox, You would think that I was suggesting ⁓ something unspeakable, you know, that like you know, ⁓ an exorcism. I'm like, okay. So, you know, but I do have those conversations with parents and I recommend books to read to educate themselves of just going, Hey, learn a little bit more. ⁓ my niece is 19 and my sister my sister is freaking cool and she Caroline, my niece, finally got a phone when she was 18 and could pay for it herself. ⁓ before she had she had one of those gizmo watches that can call like your mom and the cops, you know. ⁓ and that's what she had. And I'm sure Christina was mean mommy and she was uncool. And Christina was like, I'm gonna protect her brain for as long as I can. And and she did. And now Caroline has 50 different social media accounts and God only knows what and drives my sister crazy. I'm like, you you did what you could, but truly, Caroline's brain's not even fully developed. Her brain actually cannot tell the difference between her thoughts and feelings and reality. So even though she's looking at AI images and and fake bodies and all this stuff, and I could say, you know, that's a you know, that's a a screen. That's not a real person. And she's like, Yeah, I I know it's not. Her brain cannot tell the difference of that. So she's still comparing herself to unreal images subconsciously, no matter what. It's crazy. Yeah. I mean, our our kids are young, they're toddlers and and we've tried our best to and we don't. Like they they get maybe, you know, thirty minutes here and there on an airplane if they need to, but basically that's it. And we just force them to be outside and Color and use your brains and kind of they go. I don't know. How do parents believe like what are the reactions of parents? Are they coming to you? You mentioned like this is the last chance we've got. ⁓ so I'm assuming there's some that are on that side of the spectrum. Are there others that are kind of drug in there like, ⁓ this is kind of stupid. I don't I don't believe this is gonna do anything or ⁓ challenge you all on the evidence and things like that. I get both. Yeah. I have parents who are like, Hey, I've done a lot of research. We believe in this, you know, we want this for ourselves, for a kid, whatever. And I get people, you know, parents who come in and are like, hey, my primary care, I do have primary care physicians, God bless them, who refer to us all the time and are like, Hey, my primary care recommended this. It seems woo-woo, you know, it seems like snake oil, but you know, I I love when people are like, sell me. I'm like, first off, it is absolutely not my job to sell you. Like, no, thank you. I will do what I can to educate you. But if you think this is stupid, then it's stupid. You know, like, okay, that you know. But let me at least give you a knowledge base to think that this is stupid, you know, and I love sharing studies and I love sharing before and after brain maps. And the proof the proof is in the results, you know, that when when your kid in in six weeks is having, you know, better sleep and more focus at school and you know, better social understanding in these different things, let's have a conversation then. And I've definitely have people come back to me and go, ⁓ my gosh, you know, that this I thought this was woo-woo at the beginning and And I know that this is real and that's so impactful. But absolutely, you know, you you always are gonna have people who come in and are very skeptical and maybe also have tried a lot of things that haven't worked for them before. And I know that p feeling of of frustration and kind of at a deficit where it's like, if I even open myself up to trust something new, what if I get disappointed? Yeah, the irony is people probably believe there's much better evidence, better quote unquote than ⁓ you know. on things like medications, but as we sort of just mentioned, a lot of these studies are very short. They don't actually they're not very generalizable to the broader population. They don't take into account long term time horizons. And it it's our evidence base is shaky at best for for many different interventions in medicine. So it's ⁓ ironic sometimes to hear things like that. But all right, Angie, let's talk thirty seconds. 60 seconds maybe if you need to expand on something. But ⁓ let's go through a few of these and round it out a bit. So, what do you think is one thing that people can do this week for their brain health that's not narrow feedback, not a supplement, but a a good habit that they can sort of engage in? Go outside first thing in the morning and get sunlight into your eyes. Don't have sunglasses on, not through a window. It's gonna start setting your circadian rhythm. And literally going outside first thing in the morning, that first morning light, is gonna help increase melatonin like 15, 16 hours later for when you go to sleep. So the best hack that I can give you is start working on your circadian rhythm, which is gonna affect your sleep, which is gonna affect your health, which is gonna affect your brain. Definitely a domino effect. Amen. We start with sleep in basically all of our executives and athletes. It's just so wrecked in so much of our society. Wrecked. Absolutely. Which condition responds most dramatically and most consistently to neurofeedback in your anxiety. Hands down. Yeah. A lot of things respond quickly and incredibly. Anxiety is like the number one. That when s when I get a call and they're like, I'm struggling with anxiety, I'm like, slam freaking dunk. Let's do this. Like I never I never waver of like, man, is there the research behind it? Do I have the efficacy? It's not even a question. What is the biggest misconception that you're correcting? When patients come to you or or ⁓ prospects come to you. That they are stuck with what they're born with or what they've been struggling with for a long time. That this is what it is, that they are broken, that it can't be fixed, that they they are this. I am anxiety, I am depressed, it is mine, it is who I am. That you are not beholden to what you're born with. Your brain is absolutely capable of changing, it just doesn't know how to do it yet. I love that. It's beautiful. Out of first responders. veterans and trauma survivors, which population do you think is most underserved by the current population and which one or by the current system and which one responds best to neurofeedback? So those are kind of separate questions. Most underserved is veterans, ⁓ that it is really hard to work with TRICARE, which is veteran insurance. It it's just really hard to break in, right? That I see a lot of veterans who are on a lot of very significant like antipsychotic medication, as well as, you know, those people don't even do, they don't do a brain map before they're prescribed that. If they have any type of like epileptic discharge already happening in the brain, which maybe 40% of the population has, but doesn't show any active seizures, an antipsychotic is going to make that exponentially worse. So I just I I see a lot of really rough things with with that population and they don't have the funding to do it themselves. They can't get insurance to cover it. That's that's a really tough situation. As for responding quickly, that is first responders. ⁓ my gosh. First responders do so well with neurofeedback. First off, they don't have to talk about feelings. And I'm making a generalization, but first responders, I don't know too too many who are like, could we just like get into the emotions of like what I bet they're like, please don't ask me about that. Let's just like tell me the numbers, tell me the science. And they respond so well to neurofeedback. It's incredible. That's great. Thank you. When you see Healthy, perfectly, beautifully functioning brain. Not that any of us really have that, but what does a really great CEG map look like when you're looking at that? So you're exactly right. There is no perfect brain. There's no one brain that I'm like, ⁓ everybody's brain could be this brain. Like we all have different strengths and masteries and things that make us so unique. So we wouldn't even want to have the same brain because we're all unique and incredible. A brain that I love just because of my personality. I love beta on the singulate. Beta is flow state, not high beta. Let's not let's distinguish. Beta is flow state, motivation, energy. Rachel and I call it the CEO pattern. When I meet like a very high-power, driving, get it done, motivated person, I'm like, that person's got beta on the singular. It's not in the question. Right. Like, you know the person that. They're the 4 AM club and they're they're just like going so hard at everything that they do and you know they're gonna be successful no matter what. They've got freaking beta on the singulate. ⁓ so I love that pattern, but that pattern needs to be balanced with some healthy theta, with some beautiful delta, with some flexible alpha. So that's where even a high performer who's coming in with like a very beautiful functioning brain, there's always areas that we can fine-tune. Like, what if we had a little bit more focus, a little bit more motivation? What if we had a little bit softer, you know, notion with our children? Like, yeah, we're a we're a baddie when it comes to business, but can we be soft with our families as well? Like how do we have that flexibility? That's really cool to hear. Most people think aging is a slow, inevitable decline. Your doctor tells you your fatigue is normal for your age, while the internet tries to sell you the latest unproven biohack. They're both wrong. Decline is not inevitable. It's optional. I've just released my new book, The Ultimate Asset. Extends your prime, not just your lifespan. This isn't a wellness book or a collection of trendy supplements. It's a roadmap for high achievers who refuse to settle for within-range healthcare. Inside, I break down the exact data-driven framework we use at Velocity Health to help CEOs and elite athletes look, move, and feel like they are in their prime indefinitely. Stop guessing with your help. Learn how to bridge the gap between standard care and elite performance. You can find the ultimate asset on Amazon. The link is in the show notes below. What do you think would be one change in the way that psychiatrists or physicians, frankly, or in the health system are trained to bring about positive outcomes in this realm? Look at root cause. And this is not neurofeedback specific, this is across the board. Let's look for the root cause. We are constantly putting band-aids on bullet holes, period. And if we could actually find and look towards the root cause, I believe that that is where ultimate healing happens. agree with you more on that one. We we get so many patients that are on five and eight and ten medications. They've been to ten specialists and yeah. Everyone's just throwing a medication at the disease and then treating the side effect of the first medication and just spirals. And ⁓ you know, I the the stat will will elude me here, but the number of medications that the average sixty five year old on is staggering. And by the time you're seventy five Is just a fact of life, frankly, that you're taking a handful of pills every day. And that's not what I think any of us intended ⁓ at any point in our lives. So and we just accept that as like this is how it is, this is just aging. I don't believe that. I do not accept that. I agree. We don't either. What last one, what is your own sort of brain maintenance routine look like, Anthony? What do you do? So I I did neurofeedback many years ago. I did probably 60 sessions of of ⁓ in-person and it just was transformative for me. I I struggled with anxiety after my brain injury and some really serious insomnia. And neurofeedback was incredibly transformative and changing for me. So I still do some maintenance sessions. Let's be serious. I have all the access to every single piece of neurofeedback equipment in the world. So and I but I honestly don't train that regularly, you know. So neurofeedback is a part of that. But for me, it's kind of the day-to-day grind that I work out generally every day. And some people may be like, rest days. I hear you. I know I've seen the research. I know what you're I understand. I feel like exercise for me is like my Xanax, that that helps me just feel very even and maintained. Sleep is my ultimate asset because I've been somebody who's dealt with some pretty severe insomnia. Like probably for 10 years, I slept three, four hours a night. It was awful. And I have done a lot to heal my sleep and to change that. And I am psychotic about it. That if you want to get a 7 PM dinner, Angie will not be present. Nope. I th that's window. I'm already in a bath. I'm already in Epsom salt and magnesium. Like, don't call me. ⁓ I'm not on screens at night. I have all of my Wi-Fi turned off. Like, there's just a lot of things that I do as I believe that my system is kind of sensitive from a brain injury, from I was on Low-grade antibiotic acne medication for 10 years. So my gut was messed. You know, there's there's a lot of things that I know the root cause and I've done a lot to change that. ⁓ so for me, sleep, exercise, and honestly, gratitude and and relationships. That you are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. I am big on auditing my circle, that the people I want to have close to me. I want to be encouraging and life-giving and are going the same direction that I'm going and I'm not going to drag anybody up that hill with me. Amazingly well said. And this is why one of the reasons, one of the many reasons we love working with Brain Code at Velocity. And, you know, we have no commercial stake or anything like that, but we we just believe in it so much because it is all an interconnected system. This is what we preach to our patients all the time. And if you can't get your sleep right, you can't get your mind right, if you're stuck in this. high beta, you're stuck in this sort of fight or flight constantly. We see it play out in their in their inflammatory markers, in their diabetes, in their high blood pressure. I mean, it's all part of the same puzzle here. And, you know, I also love you that you all are sort of living the values, right? And so much of our team is, you know, pushing themselves to do the same kinds of things that we're preaching to our patients. And I think that's important. Patients can sort of see that and sense that and feel that. ⁓ you all have built an amazing company in Brain Code that's doing so much good in this world. How can people find out a little bit more about Brain Code, ⁓ follow along the Angie story and and just generally educate themselves a little bit more about this space? Yes. So Our Instagram at Brain Code Centers, we try to give away a lot of like free brain health and information and tips and you know all this stuff. So we're big really big on education and information. Follow us at Brain Code Centers. Braincodecenters.com is the website. We do a hundred percent free consultation. So I never want it to I never want someone to be charged to learn what their options are, to, to learn more about their brain and if neurofeedback is a right fit or at is this the right time. ⁓ so you can ⁓ Schedule yourself for a free consultation on our website. And Rachel and I do almost 100% of the consultations for Grain Code. So you're gonna have to talk to one of us if you want to do it. Angie, thank you so much for sharing all of your brilliance, your wisdom, your insights, your encouragement. I think people need to hear conversations like this. ⁓ we, as we mentioned in the very beginning, you know, our ultimate asset is. Ourselves, right? If we can't get ourselves right, what is the point of this entire experience? And that starts up here. So thank you for sharing your time with us. And thank you all for listening. And until next time, we'll see you again. Be well. Thank you for listening to the ultimate asset. Until next time, keep investing in your greatest asset, yourself. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before making any changes to your health regimen. Never disregard professional medical advice or delays seeking it because of something you've heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided in this podcast is solely at your own discretion.