Butter Your Brain

Hey Everyone!

I'm really excited about this article of Unpopular Science. I want to share a single case study with you, and this hits really close to home because the subject was none other than me!

First let me give a little disclaimer and some education about the research world. Case studies are often viewed as interesting and helpful starting points for further research theories, but because they are not reproducible across a large group of people (for example large randomized control trials) they are often not looked at as the top tier of research. Unfortunately, this has in some ways done a lot of harm to the world of medicine. We want a one-size-fits-all silver bullet, but humans, our injuries, and how our bodies compensates for them are not all the same; and therefor treatment needs to be tailored to each individual. Learning what each person needs takes time, practice, and the ability to listen to the patient. A restriction in one person's neck may cause pain in their neck, but the exact same restriction in another person may cause symptoms of acid reflux. It all depends on how their body responds to the restriction. With this being said, there are certain patterns that occur more often and using case studies to collaborate findings can help identify these patterns to help clinical reasoning and treatment options. Hopefully what I experienced will help other people and lead to further research.

I can't start any story this way without thinking of Golden Girls and my favorite character Sophia. I had to add this GIF. Forgive my crazy humor and scroll down for the rest of the blog post.

Picture it, Bellevue March 2025... I'm in a class (MAB1 - Manual Articulation of the Brain) designed to teach us how to manipulate the tissues of the brain. It's day two and I'm already super excited about what we have learned so far and the section on the visual cortex is coming up. Not a lot of people may know this about me but I have had tension in my cranium for most of my adult life, tons of pressure behind the eyes making it hard to keep them open, migraines (occasionally lasting up to 3 days, with nausea, light and sound sensitivity), pain in my head with bright light, light sensitivity, and despite 20/20 vision a sense that my eyes aren't tracking correctly and seeing correctly. I kept telling my medical providers that it felt like there was a glitch in the system; my eyes were seeing everything but the relay to the brain was stuck somewhere on the tract. I am not sure exactly what caused this restriction in my cranium but we have though it was due to a whiplash incident while snowboarding in my 20's (amongst various other accumulated bumps and bruises life brings.)

So I asked the teacher to use me as the demo patient and when I told her my symptoms she immediately wanted to use me for the visual cortex. I hope up on the table and as soon as she laser locked her hands into the point in my cranium where the restriction was I immediately let out an audible sigh. It was like my brain melted. The release she did took about five minutes and honestly it has been a game changer. I have followed my symptoms over the last month and been really happy with the results. I no longer have pain in my head when exposed to bright light, my eyes don't feel tired and I don't have fatigue with them being open. I need sunglasses occasionally and appropriately. My migraines are way better; I have had only one since and it lasted a half day and there was no nausea or light/sound sensitivity and it was way less severe. And the best part is I feel like my eyes are doing what they are supposed to do, see!

Incidentally, I have also had some other interesting results that I was not expecting. It has been way easier for me to mentally focus. My dreams actually changed from trying to find something or accomplish a task and not being able, to dreams where I could find what I was looking for and get where I was trying to go. Crazy! I could also feel a flow from the front left brain to the back right brain - like an ease of movement that wasn't there before. My whole head felt less restricted. It honestly felt like someone buttered my brain.

I realize that everyone with restrictions in the same area as myself may have different symptoms and I realize that people with the same symptoms may have restrictions in different areas, but the teacher had enough knowledge to know what it might be and the practiced hands to feel where in my body needed her to go. I am so grateful that I had this experience and hope that others can to.

So, from someone who suffered for over 20 years with symptoms that didn't need to be there... go get your brain buttered! Please reach out if you have any questions about this technique and come see me or another MAB provider. I will be taking more brain classes over the next two years and can't wait to learn more!