How to understand the state of your nervous system: INSiGHT Scan Technology
At ChiroHouse we use INSiGHT Scan technology to get a broader and more precise picture of a patient's neurological health, telling us whether their autonomic nervous system is healthy, balanced, and fully charged… or stressed out, imbalanced, and worn out.
While traditional medicine relies primarily on symptoms and looks for obvious pathology on standard exams like blood work, MRIs, and EEGs, many chiropractors use an incredible piece of technology called the INSiGHT Scans - a technology that’s here to revolutionise your understanding of health and function!
When we get into things like technology and neurology, many of us can get overwhelmed and confused quite quickly, but that’s the beauty and practicality of our INSiGHT Scanning Technology – it’s super simple and easy to understand.
This article will help cover some of the main concepts that underpin our INSiGHT Scans and what the results mean about your nervous system.
The power of the central nervous system
The most critical system that determines whether you, your child (and your entire family) is healthy or not is the Central Nervous System, or the ‘nervous system’ for short.
It’s made up of three divisions:
Sensory
Autonomic
Motor
Together to coordinate EVERY internal body function with EVERY movement and with EVERY thought, emotion, behavior, and cognitive function. It’s ‘Air Traffic Control’ for the entire human experience!
Many people invest quite a bit of time, energy, and resources into trying to get cardiovascularly fit and healthy, strong and flexible in the gym, work on gut health or build up your immune system, but often overlook the one common thread that ties them all together – the nervous system.
We can measure how well (or not) the nervous system is doing its job with our simple, safe, and reliable INSiGHT Scans!
How does the nervous system work?
The nervous system is a two-way street.
One set of nerves is called ‘sensory’ nerves that send information and report to the brain and brainstem precisely what’s going on inside the body (internal environment) and outside the body (external environment).
The other set of nerves is more of what is termed ‘motor control’ nerves that send signals out from the brain and spinal cord and tell the various parts of the body what to do, when to do it, how to do it, etc.
Your sensory nerves influence the behavior of your motor nerves. For example you might hear a loud crash close by and your motor nerves might respond by sending signals to your body to move away from the crashing sound.
With a whopping 37.2 million cells to manage, the autonomic nervous system has to be lightning-fast with crystal-clear communication. Think of it like being supercharged for high-speed data transfer—way beyond 5G! No dial-up speeds here, especially when we're dealing with your child's vibrant growth.
One very important thing to note here, a child’s brain (nervous system) doubles in size during its first year of life and continues growing and developing at that rapid pace for the first 3-7 years of life so making sure this system is working at full function is simply the most important exam and assessment any pediatric provider could ever perform for your child.
An INSiGHT Scan that tells you exactly how your nervous system is functioning and communicating is far more valuable than knowing where they sit on the height and weight chart in your pediatrician’s office.
So What do INSiGHT scans actually tell us?
The INSiGHT Scans are about finding, tracking, and understanding if subluxation and dysautonomia are present. And if they are, we need to know two things about them:
How significant or severe (mild, moderate, severe, or intensive)?
Where within the neurospinal system are things primarily located?
(We're talking about precise tracking and laser-focused targeting)
When too much tension and stress is stuck in one specific area of the neurospinal system, it helps us better understand why certain symptoms and conditions may be present. Additionally, running the INSiGHT Scans as part of a wellness checkup and before any symptoms may be present helps us predict and get ahead of potential trouble later.
What is Subluxation & Dysautonomia Again?
A Vertebral Subluxation and Dysautonamia cause the nervous system to suffer from three (3) major issues:
Stuck and Stored stress, tension, spasm, etc.
Lack of balance, coordination and adaptability
Disorganization and dysfunction
Some of the signs and symptoms that your nervous system is Subluxated, stressed out, tense, and stuck in sympathetic fight-or-flight mode are things like:
In kids
Colic and frequent crying in an infant
Excessive tantrums and meltdowns in a toddler or preschool-aged child
Motor and speech delays
Sensory processing and emotional regulation challenges
ADHD and anxiety type challenges later on in school-aged children and teens
Adults
Inability to handle day to day stress – anxiety, depression, anger, frustration
Unusual energy – tiredness, fatigue
Muscle imbalances, poor posture, aches and pains
Organ and system challenges – breathing, asthma, digestive conditions
Stored energy – headaches, back pain, neck pain
While the ‘sign’ or symptom is called something different in each case and in different age groups, the actual root cause behind the challenges is nearly the same – a stressed out, wound up, out-of-balance nervous system.
Now that we understand why the INSiGHT Scans are so important and what they are looking for… let’s dive into each of the three (3) individual scans!
While we may label symptoms differently in different cases or age groups, the the actual root cause behind the challenges is nearly the same – a stressed out, wound up, out-of-balance nervous system.
Now that we understand why the INSiGHT Scans are so important and what they are looking for… let’s dive into each of the three (3) individual scans!
1. NeuroThermal Scans
NeuroThermal Scans provide crucial insights into the regional effects of subluxation and dysautonomia, helping practitioners understand the autonomic nervous system's impact on the body. These scans reveal how well the autonomic nervous system is regulating key functions like digestion, immune response, hormones and more. This scan zeroes in on the nitty-gritty of conditions like colic, reflux, ear infections, allergies, sleep hiccups, and adrenal glitches. It helps to understand what’s going on with patients who are experiencing difficulty in these areas.
There are three (3) common findings with EMG scans, and we’ll briefly describe them here and then show examples of each type below:
Raging Bull – this is when the nervous system is stuck on the ‘gas pedal’ and entirely sympathetic dominant, leading to challenges with things such as impulsivity, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and so forth.
Drunken Bull – this scan finding most often correlates with someone struggling with coordination, focus, reading comprehension, communication, etc.
Raging Drunken Bull - more often than not in adults who have been subluxated for longer, often they’ll end up with both scan patterns and signs and symptoms of each.
Diving a bit deeper into this particular scan, our INSiGHT EMG Scans also use a 3-step scoring system that allows us to really understand what’s going on with a persons neuromotor system and, thus, overall brain and neurodevelopment.
Here are the 3 scores we see on your EMG Scan and a quick explanation of what they mean, and then we’ve provided some examples of EMG scans as well:
Total Energy Score – this score tends to go way up in an individual who’s wound up and stuck in sympathetic mode, and therefore a high score here is most often seen with our ‘Raging Bull’ cases struggling with things like anxiety, behavior, energy and sleep issues, and so forth. Adults high in this score tend to have more aches an pains.
Pattern Score – this is a significant score to the overall neurological tone, and a low score here indicates a person who’s likely struggling with emotional dysregulation, focus and concentration challenges, postural exhaustion and a weak core, and so forth
Symmetry Score – this score measures the balance between the right and left sides of the neurospinal system, which is crucial to be then sure that there is balance in overall brain function and coordination
Raging Bull (High Total Energy) EMG Scan:
The #1 thing that signifies this scan as a ‘Raging Bull’ scan is the excessively high Total Energy number, shown in the bottom left corner (413.8). The “normal” score should be 100. This means the entire neuromotor system is fully locked into fight-or-flight tone and interfering with neuromotor development and function (standing, walking, etc.), sleep, behavior, emotions, digestion, and more. Interestingly, this child is also a ‘Drunken Bull’ as shown by the other two low scores.
Drunken Bull (Low Pattern + Symmetry) EMG Scan:
For this individual, her Pattern score being low (24.2) signifies she’s struggling with ‘Drunken Bull’ type neurological challenges – emotional regulation, sensory processing, motor coordination, digestion, and more.
NeuroSpinal EMG Scans
This particular scan is vital for us to help people in our community with neuro-developmental and neuro-sensory challenges rooted in stuck and stored tension, altered muscle strength and tone, and exhaustion of the neuro-motor system.
In children the EMG scan serves as the most important form of testing when conditions like Autism, Asperger’s, Sensory Integration Disorders, ADHD, and Anxiety are being investigated.
In adults, the EMG scan provides essential information for people in our community struggling with regulating emotions, behavior, learning, and memory.
This is because each of these neurodevelopmental and neurosensory challenges is rooted in stuck tension, altered tone, and exhaustion of the neuromotor system.
Neurological and tone challenges are a big deal. If the EMG scan detects patterns of stuck and stored tension and imbalance, the brain is almost certainly stuck in sympathetic (fight or flight) tone and also struggling with an imbalance between its core functions.
NeuroCore Scans
These scans use a type of technology many of us are familiar with: Heart Rate Variability! These scans are beneficial at getting a broader picture of an individuals neurological health, telling us whether their autonomic nervous system is healthy, balanced, and fully charged… or stressed out, imbalanced, and worn out.
The key word here is ‘variability’ because the number one marker of good neurological health is the ability to be adaptable and resilient. Adaptability is the key to good health.
We all encounter stress and challenges throughout life; germs, bacteria, viruses, physical injuries, emotional ups and downs almost daily. Good health is not determined by avoiding or trying to hide from these things but by being able to adapt and overcome them.
The vast majority of these scans in our office look like the sample scan below for kids and adults alike. The white dot to the lower left as it indicates two very common findings that are the result of subluxation and dysautonomia:
Shifted left – meaning the patient is stuck predominantly in sympathetic fight-or-flight mode and/or has an exhausted parasympathetic nervous system and vagal tone issues
Shifted low – indicating the patient has lower ‘reserve capacity’ and adaptability, or “low energy”
The HRV Scans are the most helpful tool we have in sorting out what’s going on with our community as well as keeping people in a high level of adaptability, health and wellbeing for their entire lives.
Millions of Canadians take multiple medications to try and get some sleep, mood regulation, and decrease their pain + tension… and we can get all of that and more with neurologically-focused chiropractic adjustments!
Putting It All Together
While your chiropractor will take you through each scan individually, perhaps the most important aspect of the INSiGHT Scans is being able to put them all together and get a full picture of what’s going on with your nervous system and overall health!
The INSiGHT Scans do exactly what they’re named for – give us insights and an understanding of the most crucial aspect of your health in ways no other health practitioner can.
The nervous system truly is the ‘mom’ of the entire body, keeping everything and everyone on track at all times! And just like quite a few moms, it can get wound up and worn out.
But it truly doesn’t have to be that way! Your chiropractor will put together (or already has) a fully personalized and customized Care Plan just for you. With each adjustment during your Initial or Wellness Care Plan, you’ll see the stuck stress and tension leave your body and the calm, relaxation, and healing capacity kick in!
We can’t wait for you to experience the power of a healthy nervous system, that Chiropractic brings to the table!
Article adapted from PXDocs by Dr. Tony Ebel
