Neurofeedback offers hope to chemo patients suffering from neuropathy

April 20, 2017– Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy have had few options to alleviate the pain, tingling and numbness that is a common treatment-related side effect of chemotherapy. Known as Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN), this condition affects up to 91 percent of chemotherapy patients; for many, the damage may be long term, increasing the risk of falls, burns and injury and impacting the quality of life.

Few medications have been available to treat CIPN, and those currently used have serious additional adverse effects themselves.  Until now.

A new study, funded in part by the American Cancer Society, found that 73 percent of patients undergoing neurofeedback brain-wave therapy experienced significant reductions in neuropathic pain, and improvements in quality of life. Researchers at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center noted “clinically and statistically significant reductions in peripheral neuropathy,” noting reduced scores for worst pain, activity performance, numbness and tingling.

“Neurofeedback training offers hope to patients who survive the horrors of cancer, only to suffer the long-term pain of nerve damage from chemotherapy,” says W. Brent Reynolds, DC DACNB BCN. “Using a Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG) to identify abnormal brain-wave patterns associated with CIPN, neurofeedback effectively targets those dysregulated areas of the brain, helping to forge new neural connections that help to alleviate pain and other CIPN symptoms. Other studies have shown that neurofeedback is effective in overcoming another treatment side effect known as ‘chemo brain’ — the mental fogginess many experience after chemotherapy.”

“When a patient finishes treatment and is given the “all clear” sign, many of us assume life will return to normal,” says Keri Chiappino, DC DACNB, BCN, a cancer survivor herself. “Unfortunately, it is rarely the case. CIPN is just one of the many life-altering side effects of chemotherapy. Having gone through my own journey with cancer, I can testify to the significant role neurofeedback plays in the physical healing process. Non-drug and non-invasive, neurofeedback brain-wave training can profoundly affect one’s quality of life.”

Reynolds and Keri Chiappino, are board-certified chiropractic neurologists and neurofeedback practitioners, board-certified by the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA). They are two of only a select few BCIA-certified neurofeedback practitioners on Long Island. The doctors offer neurofeedback training at their BrainCore neurofeedback clinic located within New Life Wellness Center, their multidisciplinary holistic health practice located in Smithtown.

Chiappino is also the founder of Healing Boobies, an online support group created to help breast cancer survivors to “get their happy back” after the “Big C.”

Contact New Life Wellness Center to learn more about the benefits of BrainCore therapy and how neurofeedback can help reduce the pain, numbness and tingling of neuropathy, and clear up chemo brain.

Source: New Life Wellness Center and Brain Core Therapy