Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hey, let's talk about what an intensive program is. We get a lot of these questions, but I want to answer some really specific and targeted questions that we get often. The first thing to understand is why we developed this intensive care program.
And really it, it kind of boils down to this concept of neuroplasticity. So when I came back from Costa Rica, right, I was essentially retired. I moved. I lived in Costa Rica for a bit. I'm not going to get into my full story. But when I came back, I said, okay, if I'm going to do this, I want to do it right.
And so the right way to establish. Positive neuroplasticity, which is change in the brain, right? So the way to establish positive, sustainable change in the brain is we have to have adequate frequency, intensity, and duration of stimulus. So if I want to truly change a life, if I want to truly change someone's disease state or whatever's going on, I have to fire those networks in the brain often enough with enough intensity and duration.
To really make it worthwhile we all know this, for example, if you go to the gym and you go once a week and you do five bicep curls, you're not going to really see a change in your biceps. If you go at a structured period of time, right? And, and on Mondays, you're doing this Tuesdays, you're doing this Wednesdays, you're doing this, right?
You have this structured outline of when to exercise, what muscles at the right time for the right duration, for the right intensity, etc Then you start to see the change in the body. The same thing is true of the brain, right? So I don't want to replicate this ages old, you know, PT model or even Cairo model or whatever.
We're okay. Let's start at three times a week for a month and go down to two times a week. No, I want to really get in and make changes as quickly as possible. And that's why we created the intensive care program. The intensive program, it's going to be consecutive days, right? So, whether it's three days, whether it's five days in a row, two weeks, three weeks, a month, multiple months, we're going to talk about all that.
Again, the goal is consecutive care. And we're doing typically around 18 hours worth of care per week, right? And so that's typically going to look like three hours on Monday and that'll be exam diagnostics. If we finish all that in time, then we'll do some therapies. And then three hours on a Friday, and that's going to be our exit day.
Or if it's not your, if it's not your day to leave, then we're going to continue with therapies there on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we have your time of four hours throughout the day spread between. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. So if you add all that up, that's about 18 hours in a week.
Yes, we can vary from that in certain situations. And of course we're going to, you know, have different suggestions for different. Cases. So we always want to consult with you first benefits. There's several benefits to this type of program. For us specifically in, in our office in Austin we have multiple different types of doctors.
Okay. So we have doctors like myself that specialize in developmental functional neurology. I have a physical therapist, have an occupational therapist, but all of these people, all the people that work with us, we each have our own specialty. We have something that we are each really good at. We're all working under the auspice of developmental functional neurology and laser therapy, photobiomodulation and all of these things, but we each have these key things that we specialize in.
So this. Model that we've developed allows us to all collaborate, collaborate collectively with one another, and we are each involved in your case, right? So you get to work with the person that's best with this primitive reflex. You get to work with the person that's best with this type of vestibular care, et cetera, right?
So that's where we leverage our team. For your benefit, right? And so that's where we get this rotation of doctors to the case. And we do collaborate each morning. We all come together before the day and we talk about the case. We talk about the patients that we're seeing that day and we even outline like, okay, let's have this doctor here.
This therapist there. I think that's a huge benefit of going through our program and something that really nobody else offers. This is not something that You see anywhere else. So what type of benefits who can benefit from this? Of course, we're known all over the world to see some of the most complex neurological disorders on the face of the planet.
Anything from traumatic brain injuries to complex regional pain syndrome to you name it. We have seen pretty much anything come through the door, but we can also work with health optimization. So I go through the program, my wife does intensives, my kids do intensives. We do this because we understand that even though you don't have a disease state or an injury or something like that.
I still want my loved ones to function to their fullest, right? And I want them to thrive. So we also offer those optimization programs and they're still in that same intensive care model. Obviously it's going to look different, but we still need proper frequency, intensity, and duration of stimulus, right?
So there's still going to be that same cadence of care. So what type of benefits, like what are we going to see? What can you expect to see? During this time period. Here's what I'll tell you. We will establish positive neuroplasticity. That's going to happen, right? Sometimes we get these huge miracle cases.
I hope that happens with you. And you've probably seen, you know, on social media or wherever that we do get those results that does happen. But I want you to understand that I'm wanting to. Come together with you and develop this journey because healing is a journey. And the purpose of doing this intensive care model upfront is to really kickstart the development of this positive neuroplasticity, kickstart this whole healing aspect of the brain and nervous system.
So that we can. Do this. We can't accomplish your goals in a shorter period of time than if we were to drag it out over a longer period of time. Now that being said with seeing positive neuroplasticity, right? That being the ultimate goal at the end of your time with us, whether it's a, or Three days, whether it's six months, whatever that time period is, we will develop a home care plan, right?
So we will send you home with a plan so that you can continue to make progress at home after we've worked with you. And that's the goal. We want to jumpstart systems and then send you home with a plan so that you can continue this care, whether by yourself. With local therapists with a loved one helping you, whatever that looks like for you guys, right?
So that's the general outline, right? And you've heard me reference different time periods, right? So we do have three day intensives. Those are, those are short, obviously very focused. These are typically for more of the, the mild, like neurobehavioral disorders, maybe some dyslexia. ADHD, that kind of thing.
Again, more, more mild conditions. This can be for some help health optimization. Well, this can very much be for that executive that wants to continue to gain an edge cognitively or whatever that may be. Or some people that just want to get a foot in and really start some care. This, this is not typically where I suggest people start.
Because I really would prefer to at least start with that, with a five day, with a week long. I do prefer in the majority of cases to at least start with a two week intensive because that gives us more time to learn your neurology, your specific biochemistry. Not just from the diagnostics, but then from the therapies, because we also diagnostically gauge how you respond from the therapies that we're doing with you.
And that tells us a lot about the integrity of your nervous system. So oftentimes by the end of that first week We have learned a lot more about you in that second week might look a lot different. Most people start with a two week. Now, if you have a more severe situation going on, let's say again, CRPS something like this.
I do like a four week start. I would prefer to engage with someone for a month. Especially if there's a, a long chronicity to what's going on, right? So someone has been suffering for years and years. There's a lot of negative plasticity that has developed that, that is more beneficial to you. It's more beneficial to establish that positive neuroplasticity just having that longer period of time in there.
Does that mean if you have one of those types of problems that I'm saying, Hey, I'd like to, you know, start with a month long that you can't do a week, right? No, you can. We want to meet you where you're at. Right? We want to help you however we can. So if that means starting with, you know, a week long intensive developing the home care and then developing a follow up plan, right?
Because that's going to be part of this too. We're going to want to follow up based on your needs. During that exit. Right. So we may want to follow up in four to six weeks or three months or six months or whatever that may look like is going to be dependent on the situation. I mean, that's, you know, kind of the long and the short of it.
I've had people again, stay with us for three days. I've had people stay with us for multiple months. I've had people stay with us for an entire year. You know, some people come and they work with us for. Two weeks. And they say, you know what, we've seen more progress in these two weeks. And we've seen from doing all these therapies over the past two years.
So we're just going to move through the Austin area and we're going to continue this. We've had people do that and we don't, we're not suggesting this to people. This is what people have naturally started to do because they see that we get results faster that way. So how should you prepare for one of these intensive programs?
Well, first thing I want you to realize is that I do want you to wear proper attire, right? So clothing is a big deal. I'd preferably want you to be in shorts and like a t shirt because we're going to be accessing various parts of the body. Like if you just have one localized region that you're coming in with a complaint, why still may need to access the lower part of your leg for a certain type of reflex or something like that.
Right. So. Shorts are ideal if it's cold outside here in Texas, you know, you can come in pants, but then have shorts to change into or something like that. But loose clothing, athletic clothing, that's going to be best. Stay hydrated. Dehydration alone reduces brain function. Even just by, you know, 2 percent dehydration in the brain, you're going to see a reduction in cognitive function.
So I need you to stay hydrated. You need to stay hydrated. I do not want you consuming a lot of sugary drinks, sodas, Gatorade, this kind of stuff. I want you to drink water. Maintaining hydration is key. We may suggest something like deuterium depleted water or something like that. But if we want to make that suggestion, we will, but just know that I need you to be hydrated coming in.
And then while you're going through the program to maintain that hydration to get the most benefit. Sleep is very important and this is something, and I understand a lot of you people coming in are going to be having sleep problems and that's part of it. Part of, you know, what's going on with you totally understand.
But for a lot of you, for a lot of people traveling in from other countries, please allow for at least a few days to acclimate, right? So if you're coming in from Europe or Australia or wherever you're coming in from, if you could please allow for a few days to acclimate, I know you're not going to be fully acclimated, but it's going to really help.
If you can have at least a regulating. Sleep cycle and be getting some sleep. Ideally, right. An adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep. That's going to be best case scenario. Kids, depending on age, you're going to need anywhere from nine, 10, 11, 12 hours of sleep. So sleep is very important, both leading up to the program and during the program.
And again, I understand that sleep is a major concern for many of you. So if sleep disruption is part of. While you're coming in, that's fine. We have ways to work on that and to help you sleep. Many people actually do sleep better while they're doing their intensive care program. Very important.
Bring snacks. Don't bring something again, high in sugar, bring something more protein or fat based protein bars, avocados, boiled eggs, nuts, seeds this kind of thing. We may, You know, be working with you and go, Hey, there's a little bit of neurological fatigue here. Let's take this person back to a private room and do some Vegas nerve stimulus while they have a snack.
Right. So please bring some good, healthy snacks. Do not plan to go sightseeing, right? So we're just North of Austin, Texas. And so a lot of people come in and they'll want to go downtown and see the nightlife. And they'll want to go see all the bats under the bridge and they want to drive to Waco and see.
The magnolia, you know, place and all these things. That's great. Let's not try to do that during the week that you're doing your intensive care. Oftentimes that's being done for the people that are traveling with the patient and I get it. I completely understand it. But then that patient shows up pretty tired and fatigued the next day.
So if we're going to do that type of stuff, maybe let's save that for the weekends. That would be more ideal. And of course, bring all the medications that you're on. Bring extra if you can. So, you know, especially if you're traveling, let's say you're traveling from the UK and you're coming in for a chronic pain condition and you're coming for two weeks, you know, or, or whatever, then bring enough medication maybe for a month, right?
You, I've, I've had cases where someone started with us. It was a CRPS case and we made dramatic results. I think they had planned to be with us for three weeks, I think made dramatic results. And she said, you know what? I don't want to leave because I'm, I've come so far, I feel like I need more time.
And she added on an additional three weeks, but she ran out of her medication and it was a very strong medication that you don't want to just stop. So bring some extra if you can. And then of course. If you're traveling with any type of medical equipment, ventilators, suction machines, anything like that, bring all the cords and necessary things for that.
If you're on a specific supplement regimen, bring all of that. And again, bring some extra. We will probably be talking about that. We may make some changes. We may add to it or whatever it's going to be based on what's going on. And of course, if you have any kind of updated labs or imaging or any kind of studies that could help us in your case please send those ahead of time.
So if we, you know, did a consult a month before your intensive starts and, you know, a week before we start with you, you got a new MRI. Send that over to us before you show up. If you don't, that's okay. At least bring us the report. Sometimes the imaging on the disc is hard to extract, so we cannot always read the images if someone just brings us a CD.
So please bring the report or email it to us. Ahead of time. So those are just some of the most common things that I'm asked and some of the things that I want you to be aware of so that you can get the most out of this life changing experience. So, so again, we want to meet you where you're at.
We want to be able to provide the care that is best suited for you. We're going to make the best case recommendations for you. But then remember, this is a journey. We're partnering with you in this. And I'm excited about it, and I look forward to your questions and to helping you soon.