Could Listening to Your Brainwaves Fight Migraine?

The technology is called high-resolution, relational, resonance based, electroencephalic mirroring. But you may have heard more about it from the brand name – Brainwave Optimization.

The idea is this. Imagine that the functioning of your brain is like a spinning plate. The plate should spin evenly and smoothly, but sometimes it gets knocked off kilter. It continues to spin, but it’s wobbling. The two sides are no longer even.

Brainwave Optimization allows your brain waves to even-out again. The spinning plate evens out, and the imbalance lessens.

A recent study of 52 migraine patients received an average of one or two sessions a day, 90 minutes to two hours each session, over nine days. Patients reported improvements in the areas of insomnia, traumatic stress, and headache.

Researchers are also interested in potential for blood pressure and traumatic brain injury.

In each session, brain waves are translated into sound that the patient listens to. In a natural way, over time, the electrical signals in the brain become more balanced.

But as Brainwave Optimization clinics have opened around the world, doctors and researchers stress that the findings are very preliminary, the studies small, and most of the evidence anecdotal. In other words, the growth of a company and the money being exchanged is quickly overshadowing the research being done.

This isn’t unusual in many complimentary therapies. But it is a reason to be cautious about something that could quickly lighten your wallet and fill up your schedule.

Behavioural neurologist Dr. Alex Henri-Bhargava expressed concern:

It sounds intuitively sexy to people: I can rebalance my brain and that sounds like a good thing. But no real neuroscientist that I know of really thinks that their technology is actually doing that…
What is brainwave optimization?

In an investigation done in Canada, it was found that Brainwave Optimization was being sold to patients with dementia. As with migraine patients, patients with dementia and their families are often willing to fork out the money if slight hope is offered. (Dementia Patients Sold Unproven ‘Brainwave Optimization’)

We all want innovative, non-invasive treatments with limited or no side effects. But it’s important that research is done to find the best treatments, so that migraine patients can find the best help quickly, and without breaking the bank. It’s hoped that Brainwave Optimization will be studied more carefully, and that treatments like it will help many people. We look forward to learning more about the science behind these brain-balancing sessions.

For more information, visit the official Brainwave Optimization website, Brain State Technologies. For some information on recent studies, see Sound therapy may balance brain signals to reduce blood pressure, migraines. Also see the recent related KickStarter project – BRAINtellect 2, a brain optimization product you can use at home.