Your EEG Is an Energy Report: The Real‑Time Map of a Low‑Power Brain

WEBVTT
00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:07.280
Welcome to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with your host, Dr.
00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:12.320
Heather Putney, founder and executive director of Transformative Neurotherapy.
00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.519
This is the place where healing happens faster.
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:20.640
Because let's face it, your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual until now.
00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:30.000
Here we take a holistic approach to brain health, bringing together science, mind-body harmony, and the tools you need to optimize your well-being.
00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:38.399
Whether you're a high-performer, executive, athlete, longevity hacker, or just someone tired of your brain working against you, Dr.
00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:41.679
Putney is here to help you unlock your full potential.
00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:51.359
From brain fog to chronic stress, we're covering it all so you can finally experience brain health, mind harmony, and total well-being.
00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:52.960
Ready to get unstuck?
00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:54.719
Let's get started.
00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:06.079
When you understand how EEG fits into clinical decision making, you can begin to see the brain not as a mystery, but as a measurable, trackable system that reveals what clients truly need.
00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:07.040
Welcome everyone.
00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:07.519
I'm Dr.
00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:14.079
Heather Putney, founder and executive director of transformative neurotherapy, back in the office today with um Dr.
00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:17.760
Michael Pierce, a chiropractic neurologist with the Human Condition Lab.
00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:26.000
And we are so excited to dive a little deeper into the topics we were just talking about, about how you use holistic interventions to help clients heal.
00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:27.599
So let's just kick it off with that.
00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:41.519
You we kind of set the stage last last time for those some of the um kind of uh tests and things um that you would kind of want to have, some information we can collect when we see uh potential metabolic conditions.
00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:59.280
And um now I'd love for you to tell the um audience a little bit more about um based off of some of the information you get back, what types of interventions you use with some different populations and maybe some case studies of like when I see this, I've done this, and the clients have responded this way, just so we can understand how this works for our clients.
00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:00.079
Oh, sure.
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:10.960
Well, I I think that it's it's it's silly not to mention how important supplements can be at the beginning, because a person who's really sick may respond really well to supplements in the beginning.
00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:16.240
Now, ideally, I would like them to get to a point where they have minimal supplements, but that may be months down the road.
00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.800
Most of the people that have a brain problem are going to have a gut problem and a bile problem.
00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:25.039
So that means we've got to fix their liver and their pancreas as well as their guts first.
00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.080
And that process often takes three, four, six months.
00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:32.400
So that's a process that really does show really good changes in EEG.
00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:33.599
And it takes a little while.
00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:38.639
So it's not like one week or two weeks, it's gonna be like months, but it does work and it's not years.
00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:40.560
It really does change the brain waves.
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:42.080
Wow.
00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:54.400
So supplements in and of themselves, depending on the right supplement for the client, can barring any other potential intervention, has the possibility to help change the brainwaves, like increase the voltage or power in the brain.
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:59.680
Yeah, that that's my short-term solution is gonna be um macros.
00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:06.240
And that sounds a little boring, but that's basically just the relative amount and ratio of your proteins, your fats, and your carbs.
00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:08.319
Now, I will give you a simple secret.
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:20.960
I start most patients out on something really simple, which is the definition or the threshold for low carb, not aggressive keto or not aggressive carnivore, just simple low carb is usually not a big shift from their normal diet.
00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:24.319
And that's just 50% of their calories from fat.
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:26.240
So I just say, let's calculate.
00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:28.400
And with today's AI, it's super easy to use.
00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:47.120
You can either type in a day's diary or a week's diary of food and tell how much and what you ate every day, or you could take photographs of your food and upload those into some of the AIs, and it will automatically tell you how many calories you're getting and what percentage and grams of those calories you're getting uh from protein, fat, and carbs.
00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:54.080
That's really important because most Americans are eating too much carbs, too little fat, and most often too little protein, but not always.
00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:55.680
That's great.
00:03:55.759 --> 00:04:24.560
And now I've worked with you before with some of my clients, and when I've talked with them about doing this, some of the big concerns they have, and I think this is a common concern, you know, out in the, you know, in the in the world, is that when I start mentioning eating more fat and adding more fat to their diet, the first thing they go to is um cholesterol and fear of that, and um and so that can't be healthy, and that that this must be, you know, dangerous for you know for their heart health or so forth.
00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:33.360
So, how do you balance or help help clients understand if they if when they hear you say eat 50% of your calories from fat, so they don't go to this panic mode?
00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:34.480
Why, why is that safer?
00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:36.000
Can you help enlighten us a little bit?
00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:40.000
Yeah, because there's really two answers to that that I use.
00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:45.360
The first one is that the ketogenic diet, which is not what I'm telling people to use at first, although sometimes I do.
00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.279
I manage quite a bit of ketogenic diets.
00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:55.360
The ketogenic diet was designed to be super high in fat, like more than 75%, sometimes up to 90% of their calories come from fat.
00:04:55.519 --> 00:05:00.000
And that's that was that was uh designed and studied for children with seizure disorders.
00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.240
And it works extremely well when it's done correctly.
00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:07.199
Most of the time it wasn't done correctly when it failed in studies and research, and that's very aggressive.
00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.319
That's not the same thing as a basic low carb diet.
00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:19.680
So if that's safe, and we know that that's the most studied diet in human history, the ketogenic diet, then by God, 50% uh calories from fat would be safe.
00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:29.199
The second answer that I give is that I try not to fight too much with anybody because, you know, I'm a carbohydrated neurologist, I was a professor of neurology, but I'm not a cardiologist or a lipidologist.
00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:40.160
So people sometimes challenge me and say, well, how dare you say that someone should eat saturated fat and and and um and uh car and and um eat cholesterol like butter and egg yolks.
00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:42.000
And my God, why should you have animal fat?
00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.439
We've all been trained since the 1950s that we should eat vegetable fat.
00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:56.959
And I say, Well, um, there are, you may not know, but there's a whole band of cardiologists and lividologists and experts that are way better than I am at this, explaining in great detail on YouTube.
00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:05.920
Um, there's a group of them on Low Carb Down Under, which is a channel from Australia and New Zealand, and they also work in Denver called Low Carb Denver, which is where I live.
00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:12.959
And they also um uh there's also another group that is part of um of of this stuff, and and it's um Metabolic Mind.
00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:44.000
Metabolic Mind is a is a show that that talks about this particular problem and it goes in great detail about the safety of how even Stanford University, Sabani Shethi, is using this method um of first line treatment for mental health disorders, is a higher fat diet, a low-carb, high, higher fat, um, either keto or carnivore type diet, as frontline instead of medications to treat people that have serious illnesses, not just little piddle problems, but you know, really serious things like schizophrenia and and and uh a uh psychotic breaks.
00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.120
So this is a this is a big deal in mental health right now.
00:06:47.439 --> 00:07:01.040
So can you help us understand why shifting your like paying attention to your macros and shifting to a higher fat diet, you know, helps the brain and helps change, you know, the energy in the brain like we're looking at, uh, or or adjust metabolic conditions or support.
00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:03.360
Well, a lot of it's about oxidation.
00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:08.879
If you if you burn carbohydrates versus fats, you're gonna have a lot of different oxidation levels.
00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.000
And the human body doesn't like oxidation if it's there's too much of it.
00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:19.519
We're we're we're programmed to have a certain amount of it for about three million years as as protohumans and about 300,000 years as humans.
00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:25.519
And so we've got this real program that says there's a certain band of oxidation that we should have.
00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:31.759
And if we eat too many carbs and not enough fat, we're gonna get excessive oxidation or oxidative stress.
00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:36.959
That will make our brain have a lot of reactive oxygen species, which is what they're called.
00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:41.040
And those are free radicals in the old days, maybe 30 years ago, we called them free radicals.
00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:42.560
And so that is a real problem.
00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:59.680
And it makes the brain inefficient, it causes damage to cells, it causes damage to protein called glycation, uh, damage to sugars, it causes uh metabolic problems and inflammatory cascades, it triggers the immune system to go crazy, it makes our microglial cells attack our own brain, thinking that we're infected when we're not.
00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:00.800
So it's a real problem.
00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:05.360
That's the main reason why we want to lower carbs and increase animal fats and saturated fats.
00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:06.160
It's awesome.
00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:15.439
Okay, well, that that's a great answer to try to help us understand why that really helps that type of um presentation and how that can be safe for people to use.
00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:17.600
I'm gonna shift gears on you just a little bit.
00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:27.040
Um, having had the benefit of working with working with you in the past, I know another um big thing that you look at um that can create metabolic issues is also toxicity.
00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:29.040
And we live in a pretty toxic world.
00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:36.879
So can you tell me a little bit about how that might impact the EEG, what we might need to be looking at, or help people understand, like, wait, I maybe I got exposed to these things.
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.279
Maybe I should go explore this a little bit.
00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.440
Can you can you tell us a little bit about that?
00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:42.080
Certainly.
00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:47.360
So EEGs are basically squiggles on a paper of brain waves, as you as you well teach and know.
00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:49.279
Um, and they reflect brain cells.
00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:54.559
Thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of brain cells underneath each electrode are emitting electrical signals.
00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:58.399
And their ability to emit electrical signals is affected directly by toxins.
00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:02.480
And so we live in a toxic soup today of xenoestrogens, alien estrogens.
00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:11.600
We live in petroleum-based products, we live in fragrances that are all uh highly toxic petroleum products, non-polar solvents like benzene and and formaldehyde.
00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:15.120
We have all kinds of chemicals that we're exposed to, heavy metals, mold.
00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:19.039
Uh, we've got natural and and and man-made ones, we've got all kinds of toxins.
00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:27.840
So it makes sense that if somebody presents with a brain problem that hasn't responded well to traditional methods, either either drugs or or alternative methods, we might say, why?
00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.080
And so we would order a bevy of tests.
00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:38.399
We would order a whole raft of tests and try to figure out what toxins might be available in this person's brain and and try to get get rid of them.
00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:42.240
So it could be mold, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, that kind of thing.
00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:43.840
Great.
00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:56.639
So so that's definitely something we should be screening for if we start to see these potential um like low voltage or encephalopathy, which is like excessive low, uh excessive slow wave in the brain, global slow wave.
00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:57.600
Oh yeah, right?
00:09:58.080 --> 00:09:58.559
Oh yeah.
00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:05.679
Is there anything else that we should be uh thinking about or screening for when we're thinking about metabolic conditions in the brain?
00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:07.519
Yeah, I I think it's really important.
00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:18.320
And you just you just mentioned it when you've got somebody with slow wave dominance where there's too much delta waves and sometimes theta waves, that often indicates a problem with the very long highways in the brain that are covered in myelin.
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:22.879
And myelin is like that plastic coating around your wires in your house to keep you from getting shocked.
00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:26.480
And that's that insulation that's around the nerves is really important.
00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:33.679
And the way to bring that back is to take DHA, which is a form of omega-3 in fish oil, but it doesn't have to be fish oil.
00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:38.480
It comes from animal products that are that are eating grass, not necessarily eating grain.
00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:40.960
And so you're looking for very healthy animals.
00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:46.960
Um cows can make it, deer can make it, uh, you know, uh livestock that you, if you're a hunter, you can get that from wild animals.
00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.840
If you eat fish that are uh, you know, wild caught fish.
00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:56.720
You're looking for DHA or decosa hexaenoic acid, and that's just a particular kind of fat that's an omega-3 fat.
00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:04.399
And it's the kind that makes good structure in your brain and makes that structural coating around your neurons, that plastic wrap, that that mine.
00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:07.039
Great.
00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:15.919
So um, so that's something that we need to be paying attention to, is possibly needing to supplement with THA or some of these other once again, we're back to some healthy fats, right?
00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:23.679
Ranked salmon and tuna and mackerel and sardines, all those contain omega-3s, along with grass-fed beef.
00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:25.120
Great.
00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:38.240
Are there any I know we're kind of close to time, but are there any other um like holistic interventions that you also kind of apply across a lot of populations um that you that you see that kind of helps brain health?
00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:40.240
Well, some other things to be mindful of.
00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:43.279
Yeah, my my board is the chiropractic neurology board.
00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:48.480
And so our group is is uh ACNB.org, the American Chiropractic Neurology Board.
00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:52.799
And you can find us and our group does kind of old-fashioned neurology rehab.
00:11:53.039 --> 00:12:03.840
We examine people in great detail and try to localize where in the brain there are problems, and then we prescribe very specific, customized, personalized exercises to make that person's brain heal.
00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:10.960
And they're often much more subtle than you think, because the brain likes very subtle little bit of trickle charge, like a battery when you're recharging a boat.
00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:12.799
You don't wanna you don't want to blast it.
00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:17.200
Um you want to give it little tiny charges, um, like you might charge a boat overnight.
00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:26.399
So you give little tiny charges, and that's little tiny exercise, like a few seconds of eye movements, or a few seconds of a spin in a chair, or a few seconds of face brushing for an autistic child.
00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:30.399
So these are these are things that a chiropractic neurologist or a functional neurologist can do for you.
00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:50.480
So it sounds like getting a a good uh group of people, referral group, to kind of work with like a functional neurologist or a chiropractic neurologist um like you, uh it really can help support people with metabolic issues or people in my situation, like clinicians that are um using EEG to help support their clients' brains to kind of take it to the next level.
00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:51.200
Oh, yeah.
00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:53.440
The the most important thing in mental health is counseling.
00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:55.600
And I'm not a licensed counselor, I'm a neurologist.
00:12:55.759 --> 00:12:59.440
So my job is to take care of all the other stuff and let the counselors do their magic.
00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:10.639
And that's really exciting and wonderful to see when somebody starts to fail at counseling and then they start to succeed again because they got zinc or they got rid of glyphosate or they fixed their insulin resistance, and that makes me very happy.
00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:12.639
Thank you so much.
00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:17.919
Um, they're opening our eyes up to a completely different world and different way of thinking about things.
00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:26.799
So um I appreciate your time today, and um, we hope to see you, you know, maybe back on this podcast down the road, sharing more of your brilliance with us.
00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:27.279
Thank you.
00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:27.840
Thanks.
00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:28.879
Thanks, Doc.
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:35.840
You've been listening to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with Dr.
00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:37.039
Heather Putney.
00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:42.559
Remember, your brain isn't supposed to hold you back, it's supposed to power you forward.
00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:47.200
So stop letting it crash your party and start letting it do its job.
00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:58.320
If you're ready to optimize brain health, sharpen your focus, and age like a fine wine, schedule your free consultation today at Transformative Neurotherapy.org.
00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:03.759
Or call us at 412-204-7397.
00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:07.600
Because here, healing happens faster.
00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:09.279
See you next time.