Autoimmune Disorder Stress: Search for Relief from Headaches, Fatigue
Jennifer Kragelund’s headaches were worsening, and she continued struggling with fatigue due to an autoimmune disorder. That is when she considered asking Carla Adams, OD, an optometrist at the Mind-Eye Institute in Northbrook, Illinois, for help. Her partner and wife, Jamie, had already scheduled an appointment with Dr. Adams for relief of migraines and other symptoms due to multiple concussions.
“I did a lot of research about Mind-Eye in seeking solutions to Jamie’s symptoms. Since I was accompanying Jamie anyway on the 10-to-12-hour drive from our home in Nebraska to the Chicago area, I thought, ‘Why not? If Dr. Adams can alleviate Jamie’s symptoms, perhaps she might do the same for mine, even though the reasons for our headaches are quite different,’” Jennifer recalls thinking.
“Before going to Mind-Eye, I did not realize how anxious I was and how much tension I was experiencing, especially in the shoulders.”
- Jennifer Kragelund, Mind-Eye Patient
Jennifer’s hunch proved spot-on. The care plan that Dr. Adams developed for Jennifer and the brain glasses she prescribed are doing exactly that – reducing, relieving, and alleviating.
“I have been wearing Mind-Eye glasses for only about nine months, and I am already starting to feel better. My headaches are not nearly as severe, and the glasses have calmed me down quite a bit. Before going to Mind-Eye, I did not realize how anxious I was and how much tension I was experiencing, especially in the shoulders,” says Jennifer.
The Impact of Autoimmune Disorders
“Autoimmune disorders can generate significant tension, anxiousness, and frustration. By using activities to develop visual skills specially tailored to a patient’s needs and prescribing glasses able to forge new signaling pathways in the brain, we can mitigate a patient’s stress. Stress reduction can often help a patient better manage fatigue and tolerate other symptoms due to autoimmune disease,” Dr. Adams explains.
An autoimmune disorder develops when a person’s immune system mistakenly begins attacking the body’s normal cells. Patients often complain of general fatigue, dizziness, balance problems, nausea, foggy thinking, and racing thoughts. But such physical limitations are not the only issues.
Innovative Optical Interventions at the Mind-Eye Institute
Deborah Zelinsky, OD, founder and research director of the Mind-Eye Institute, is recognized globally for her studies of retinal processing. The retina is composed of brain tissue and serves as a vital component of the central nervous system. Environmental signals (in the form of light) enter the retina and convert to electrical signals, which propagate through neurons and interact with key brain structures. These retinal signals affect not only the visual cortex but other, significant regions of the brain as well.
“People here ask me, ‘Why are you driving all the way to Chicago, when you can contact a local expert?’ But there is no local expert doing what the Mind-Eye does.”
- Jennifer Kragelund, Mind-Eye Patient
“Optical interventions, including highly individualized therapeutic eyeglass lenses, can selectively stimulate retinal activity, thereby influencing retinal processing and brain function and re-integrating a person’s sensory inputs, especially eyes and ears,” Dr. Zelinsky says.
The Mind-Eye team’s use of filters, lenses and prisms in glasses alters the way in which light disperses across the retina. Changes in luminance on the eye affect how the brain interprets and reacts to information about the environment and can impact a person’s spatial awareness, body movement and selective attention to sound.
How Brainwear™ Works
For autoimmune patients, specialized eyeglasses -- Brainwear™ -- help lessen visual stress and can improve the way these patients are able to interact with their environment and adapt to environmental changes.
“When internal and external (environmental) signals interact in harmony, they enable the brain to make good decisions,” says Deborah Zelinsky, OD, of the Mind-Eye Institute.
“But autoimmune disorders prevent the internal signals from working correctly. When that happens, the external signals become confusing to a person and often overwhelming.”
Jennifer’s Endorsement of the Mind-Eye Institute
“People here ask me, ‘Why are you driving all the way to Chicago, when you can contact a local expert?’ But there is no local expert doing what the Mind-Eye does,” says Jennifer. “I never expected the Mind-Eye to fix everything that is wrong with me, but the glasses have really enabled me to calm down and relax. I am not in pain every day and not as tired.”
Jennifer adds she “recommends Mind-Eye to anybody” with brain injuries or with disorders like hers. “The mind can play a significant role in how you visualize things and how you feel. By bending or changing light in different ways [as it passes through the retina], the Mind-Eye Institute is [positively] affecting what is not working properly in the brain.”
Although Jennifer Kragelund reports progressive symptom relief, her experience is not always the norm, nor is it guaranteed for every patient. Check out the Mind-Eye Institute at www.mindeye.com for additional information.
