Impossible-to-Possible“There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat!” Well, we certainly can’t use that title, can we!?

The shift in awareness about animals, the environment and even how we hold ourselves is really quite profound. Even the saying, “Rule of Thumb” has a very dark origin that is clearly out of date. It references an outdated law that allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick only as thick as a thumb.

As we think about the brain, there are many new discoveries that also require us to shift or update our perspective.

It is very easy to feel helpless when it comes to problems or illnesses that affect the brain. The brain seems so central to being “human,” and has been a mystery for such a long time. And while I don’t think the mystery is gone, we are beginning to really understand that the brain is much more flexible, malleable and evolving than we had perceived. Let me share one more inspiring example:

In his book, “The Brain’s Way of Healing,” Dr. Norman Doidge shares the story of a singer, Ron Husmann, who had a very impressive career. He was on Broadway, television and filled concert halls… In short, he really was a star. He was at the peak of his career at 44, when his voice started to change… weaken. As you can imagine, he sought out the help of voice specialists but they were not able to correct the problem. Eventually his voice weakened to a whisper, and finally became garbled and incomprehensible. Gone was the ability to talk normally, never mind sing. It took nine years to understand that Ron’s complicated mix of symptoms was MS – Multiple Sclerosis, and Ron spent the next 28 years struggling with degenerative disease.

The rest of the story, as they say, is as exciting as this gentleman’s rise to stardom. Help came through ground breaking research in the lab founded by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita. If this names rings a bell, he was featured in Dr. Doidge’s first book, “The Brain that Changes Itself.” Bach-y-Rita’s research resulted in a new technique to stimulate the brain, using the tongue. The tongue, surprisingly, is viewed as the “Royal Road” to the brain and its activation. Activation is the key to brain function and many of the neurological challenges that people experience are a result of networks not firing together. Discovering the tongue as a pathway to stimulating the brain was an incredible breakthrough.

Placing a device the size of a piece of chewing gum on the tongue, they were able to gently, painlessly stimulate Ron’s brain. “After two, twenty minute sessions, Ron was able to hum a tune. After four he was able to sing again. At the end of the week, he was belting out, “Old Man River.”

This recovery is amazing, but the speed with which it occurred is what is truly astounding, particularly after so many years of deterioration and non use. The adage, “use it or lose it” may apply to muscles, but it seems the brain is something else again.

It’s time to update our understanding of the brain and its capacity to change, and therefore “heal”. Even the idea of “healing” may be a little out of date. Has Ron’s brain healed, or has it linked up circuitry that just wasn’t connected before?

Perhaps it is more accurate to view the brain as this immense network of circuitry that can make connections through many different pathways. The challenge is to find pathways that can “awaken” the brain. Tongue stimulation seems to impact the entire brain, regardless of where the damage is. Ron still has MS, and his brain is now functioning such that the symptoms have disappeared. In fact, Ron improved in many ways, including his ability to walk. He arrived at the clinic needing a cane and walked out able to tap dance.

That’s it for this week. I hope this blog has inspired you to love and appreciate your brain and to realize you are evolving minute by minute, every day. Right up to the end, we are forming neural pathways. How you use your brain is pretty important, so have some fun and explore new ways to stimulate your brain.