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DNRS: Could This System Change Your Response to Stress?

An image of the brain's response to stressSo many people suffering from a variety of seemingly unrelated health conditions do not know what causes them. These include conditions from adrenal fatigue to anxiety to loss of libido. But often, these and many other health conditions, stem from a common source – your body’s response to stress. And this response starts in your brain. The Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) aims to help you retrain your brain’s response to stress and thereby help you address these health issues and their symptoms.

What Is The DNRS?

The term DNRS refers to a program aimed at reversing limbic system impairments. It may help change your brain’s response to stress and thereby allow your body to heal from many of the health issues associated with a problematic stress response.

DNRS uses your brain’s own neuroplasticity to retrain your stress response. Neuroplasticity refers to your brain’s ability to adapt to circumstances. These adaptations can be helpful or problematic.

How DNRS Works

In essence, DNRS uses various therapy components that include cognitive and behavior modification therapies together with cognitive reappraisal. The program currently consists of educational videos provided through a streaming subscription, formerly DVDs. You are advised to practice the content of the videos for an hour per day for six months. Some users report this practice takes considerable time and emotional and mental energy.

DNRS uses certain mental tools to rewire your limbic system. It does this by building new neural pathways. This allows your limbic system once again to provide your body systems with properly functioning pathways, thereby dealing with many of the symptoms caused by limbic dysfunction. One of the major benefits is an increased ability to deal with stressors. DNRS thus also promotes a state of healing for an overactive NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response.

Together, you may see a decrease in your stress response as well as a change in your thought patterns. Ultimately, you may retrain your brain to respond to various stimuli in a less negative and more balanced manner.

One study done at McMaster University in Canada suggests DNRS may help those with anxiety, fatigue, environmental sensitivities, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and improve overall quality of life. The 102 participants in the observational study saw positive changes in several metrics over a year's time.

Not everyone is enamored of DNRS, however, with much literature questioning the few studies done on it and pointing out discrepancies.

However, judging by testimonials alone, DNRS may just be a great tool in dealing with adrenal fatigue and its symptoms.

The Tools of DNRS: IMAGINE

While DNRS has many components, one of them focuses on retraining the way you see or perceive situations. These are summed up in the acronym IMAGINE.

Intentions

  • Remove your focus from your symptoms. Rather focus on what you want to achieve with the exercises.
  • Carry them through!

Motivation

  • Motivate yourself and become an active part of your healing journey.
  • Keep your eye on the goal!

Awareness & Association

  • Make yourself aware of the various conditions you have resulting from limbic system disfunction.
  • Make yourself aware of the various causes of your symptoms.
  • Associate your symptoms with the causes.
  • Make the changes needed to address the causes.
  • Cultivate awareness of the positives in your life.

Gains

  • Keep reminding yourself of what you stand to gain by keeping up this process.
  • Whenever you see the smallest positive change, remind yourself it is a gain and something you missed before starting your healing process.

Incremental Training

An image of a young woman in training holding her temples

  • Expose yourself to your stress triggers in tiny dosages. And immediately shut down habitual negative thinking habits.
  • Reaffirm new, positive thinking habits and thereby encourage and strengthen the growth of new neuronal pathways.

Neurological Rehearsals

  • This refers to positive visualization whereby you constantly ‘see’ the healthy outcome.
  • This type of exercise, where the focus is on positivity, reduces your brain’s ability to ask for stress hormone production, resulting in the production of ‘feel good’ hormones instead.

Environmental Awareness

  • Take note of any possible toxins in your environment. This could include your household cleaning products, the chemicals on the foods you eat, and even your exposure to electrical emissions.
  • Then take steps to limit or avoid this type of exposure.

The Role of Your Limbic System

Your brain is in charge of all your body functions and systems. The limbic system of your brain consists of various structures involved with the response to stress, memory, emotions, and learning ability.

Exposure to environmental toxins, physiological trauma, bacterial infections, or long-term emotional stress, for example, could cause your stress response to increase. This could result in a consistently activated fight or flight response. Over time, your brain synapsis may become frozen in this single response, which could result in permanent damage and a continuous stress response. We will discuss this more when looking at your Neuroaffect Circuit.

Limbic System Components

Your limbic system is composed of different structures, each having its own or similar functions.

Hippocampus

The hippocampus is the site of neurogenesis, where new stem cells are manufactured. It is also the site associated with learning, emotions, and memory. Dysfunction in this area may result in memory impairment issues.

Amygdala

Your amygdala is associated with new memory formation and the emotional responses of fear, happiness, anxiety, and anger. Damage to the amygdala can cause anger issues, irritability, and loss of fear. Furthermore, people who have bipolar disorder, autism, and depression often show discrepancies in this area of the brain.

Cingulate Gyrus

Believed to play a role in emotion, pain, and behavior regulation, the cingulate gyrus also helps control your autonomic nervous function. It is also involved in fear and monitors your response when confronted with anything seen as unpleasant. People with bipolar disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder often have differences in the structure of their cingulate gyrus.

Hypothalamus

Your hypothalamus controls autonomic functions. These include your body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure levels, libido, and feelings of thirst or hunger. It also plays a significant role in your stress response. It carries out these various activities by integrating information from other areas of the brain. An impaired hypothalamus may show symptoms that include weight gain or weight loss, libido issues, fatigue, or feeling either too hot or too cold. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression are also associated with a hypothalamic impairment.

Basal Ganglia

An image of a man holding his hand as his finger moves on its ownThe main function of the basal ganglia involves movement. This includes not only your ability to walk or use your hands but also eye movement. It also plays a role in your cognitive behavior while also playing a part in reinforcements of certain behaviors and rewards. This part of the brain is thus strongly associated with the development of addictive behaviors and habit formation. Damage to this structure could cause tremors and involuntary muscle movements. Those with Parkinson’s disease, for example, may exhibit this kind of damage.

Your Neuroaffect Circuit

Your Neuroaffect Circuit forms part of your internal stress response system. Called the NEM stress response, it is a biochemical orchestra consisting of different circuits that, governed by the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, take action when stress presents itself.

Your limbic system is an essential element in this stress response. It is connected to both your autonomic nervous system and endocrine system, both of which form part of your NEM. It is also both neurally and chemically connected to your pituitary gland. The latter, as part of the HPA axis, plays an important function in determining various hormonal reactions during stress exposure.

Your brain, autonomic nervous system, and gut microbiome make up the three main components of the Neuroaffect Circuit. Chemical messengers called neurotransmitters are used as a means of communication between the three. So, in effect, when presented with stress, the brain components will immediately react by sending messages to the autonomic nervous system and gut. Your body would then get into a state of readiness to deal with the issue. This would include the release of certain stress hormones, the reduction in the production of hormones not immediately needed to deal with the situation, an increase in certain body functions, and a reduction in others. Your blood pressure would go up and your heart rate would increase, for example. At the same time, you may find your gut functions diminish.

When the stress is passed, these functions should return to normal. However, with prolonged stress, the different functions may not return to normal. This could result in imbalances and dysfunctions in multiple organs and systems. These conditions relate to adrenal fatigue and limbic system impairment.

Symptoms of Limbic System Impairment and Adrenal Fatigue

Neuroaffect dysfunction can result in limbic system impairment and adrenal fatigue. Symptoms include, amongst many others:

  • Brain fog
  • Memory problems
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Development of food sensitivities
  • Chronic inflammation
  • Fatigue
  • Sleep issues
  • Hormonal imbalances
  • Issues with libido

Furthermore, you may also experience problems concerning cellular communication, your detoxification abilities, and your gut’s ability to adequately absorb nutrients. In other words, you may experience systemic issues that seem unrelated.

Stress-Related Conditions DNRS Could Help

While some in the healthcare industry are skeptical, others firmly believe that DNRS could have many benefits. Chronic stress, no matter the cause, can push your body into a continuous NEM stress response. This may not only impact your brain function but result in adrenal fatigue and a host of other health issues. Amongst these stress-related health issues we can include:

  • Depression
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Inflammatory conditions
  • Food sensitivities and allergies
  • Bowel and gastrointestinal tract issues including irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, constipation, and bacterial overgrowth
  • Circulatory issues
  • Disorders associated with hormone imbalances
  • Heart disease

An image of a woman laying on the couch holding herself for comfortThe list can go on and on. And just about all these conditions relate back to issues with your Neuroaffect Circuit and its brain, gut, and autonomous nervous system connection. The root cause of these issues is none other than stress.

To deal with the stress, you need to get rid of any stressors in your life. But this could be impossible. The alternative is finding a way to manage your stress. DNRS is one such stress managing option. DNRS is a tool to reprogram the way your brain perceives and deals with any stressors.

Anyone finding themselves in a stressful situation, or who is dealing with the symptoms of stress, could potentially benefit from DNRS. What makes DNRS unique is that it helps your brain develop new pathways and reactions for your innate stress response.

In Closing

DNRS, together with other adrenal support protocols, may prove a valuable tool in recovery from adrenal fatigue and the myriad health issues associated with the condition. Do, however, first discuss your intention to start DNRS with a qualified healthcare provider. They are best able to discern its suitability for you.

If you believe you suffer from a limbic impairment, here are a few things you can do to alleviate the situation.

  • Try the IMAGINE exercises as described.
  • Talk to your healthcare provider about whether DNRS is suitable for you.
  • Try limiting your exposure to possible stressors and follow adrenal fatigue protocols for effective healing.

If you would like to know more about ways to retrain your brain to reduce stress-related conditions, the team at Dr. Lam Coaching can help. We offer a free** no-obligation phone consultation at +1 (626) 571-1234 where we will privately discuss your concerns and various options. You can also send us a question through our Ask The Doctor system by clicking here.

© Copyright 2022 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.

Dr. Lam’s Key Question

Healing from adrenal fatigue is a long, many-pronged process. But DNRS may play a strong supporting role with regards to your adrenal health. Do first talk to your healthcare provider about DNRS for adrenal support before following the program. They are best able to judge its suitability for your circumstances.

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