Stink’s tics are still pretty yukky. I’ve decided to go full bore and save for Brain Balance. This is the one time I will mention here that I am accepting donations for this. Please don’t feel obligated give me a penny. I’ll keep on writing here forever. I just figured, with so many people with less worthy causes making $ off their blog, I would finally try and create a small stream of income for something I find quite worthwhile. I am also open to notes here that tell me I’m extremely tacky to do this. I would not disagree. At the same time, after wrestling with this for a year, I decided that there’s no harm in asking.
Here is another site in which a scientist poses important questions about Brain Balance’s claims:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/brain-balance/
I am interested to hear from people who have used the program: 1) how much did it cost, 2) what were the services provided, 3) what were the results, and 4) for how long have those results been sustained.
The program is around $6,000 dollars. This includes assessments, food allergy testing, nutritional counseling, and three months of Mon, Wed, and Friday sessions at the center. For me it also included many meetings and phone calls with the director of our center. I had so many questions and concerns!! The gains we saw over the past two and a half years have continued and we are still seeing gains. My child is truly a different kid than he would have been. it was life-changing for him. It was a huge investment of money, time, and effort but I would do it again for the results it got for my son.
My son’s story will be on the blog Tuesday the ninth.
Hi rgcamom,
Thanks for sharing that! Would you mind if we shared it on the blog as a regular entry? This is such a hot topic; we’d love to get more out there about it so people can weigh in and see how they feel. Please send us an e-mail to parents@njcts.org to let us know. Thanks!
You are welcome to use my testimonial. it does have some typos in it….:)
Terrific. Please e-mail us at parents@njcts.org so we have your e-mail address. That is how we can enter it into our system to sign you up as a contributor! :)
I am Andrea’s friend who went through the program in Georgia. My son did it two and a half years ago when he was in the second grade at the age of nine.
He had no diagnosis, but lots of issues. My son had motor tics that started at age three with strep infections and eventually just stayed. He was very awkward physically and socially. He didn’t know how to act ….at all.
I was very skeptical but Brain Balance changed my son’s life.I would do it again in a heartbeat. Here is a link to his story. (I wrote this about a year ago). I am happy to give any input if it is helpful.
http://brainbalanceparents.ning.com/forum/topics/success-story-from-someone-one-and-a-half-years-after-finishing
I think many parents are interested in avoiding the pharmaceutical route, so the allure of Brain Balance is no surprise. I wholeheartedly agree, Andrea, that some alternative therapies are just as beneficial as drugs, but then again, some don’t amount to anything but snake oil.
It is a shame they didn’t take you up on your offer to review their program – I’d be much more willing to take a leap of faith if I read a testimonial on a blog I trusted (like yours, Andrea). I don’t trust any testimonial put out the company themselves – my inner skeptic just won’t allow that!
As for having Brain Balance at the TS walk…not sure how feel about that. NJCTS is a trusted source of verified information – having a Brain Balance booth there might suggest that NJCTS endorses their product and as far as I can tell, it is still an unproven product. Perhaps NJCTS could encourage Brain Balance to let a few of our TS families review the program?
Michelle,
Thank you for the perspective. That is the way we have been leaning, too. It’s tough to distinguish between having something available that can help people and weighing whether it really works or not. Can we count on seeing you at the walk? :)
I do not think we have this program here in Australia. No one here seems to know much about it.
HEre is a great article that is very skeptical about Brain Balance. But the comment section has some interesting conversation about why, just because there aren’t a ton of studies, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/brain-balance/
It’s a decision parents need to make. For me, I’d love to try it. Perhaps TS New Jersey should wait until someone tries it and likes it before letting them come speak? Or let them come with the open opinion that this is very “new” and unconventional.
Hi Michelle – I have heard a lot about this pseudo science also, but after an eval – which cost me about $175, maybe 200… don’t remember… I found that the results matched everything I saw at home, from his focus to his balance to his handwriting, math and reading skills. It made sense to me that the left and right brain are not balanced, and rather than hitting all of it with a pill, focus on just the one side that is weak. In my son, that is the left side, and this makes sense, as at UCLA they were leaning toward high functioning Aspie, but he really doesn’t 100% fit this. This makes sense that his right brain is more over develped and that his quirks might be from A. personality and B. some functional disconnect. I read the book by Dr. DeMilo and that made sense to me also. I am not new to this journey and find that alot of the brain/body stuff really does help my kid. That all said, this is an expensive maybe. I did write them to ask if they were interested in a “review” and never heard back. That bugged me – not that they don’t want to hand me 6k, but that they didn’t even write back. Are they afraid of bad press? Hmmm…. anyway, that’s my thoughts. Yours?
Ladies, we are considering having a Brain Balance representative at our 3rd annual Youth Advocate 5K next month. Do you think it would be worth it for us to bring him along?
Where is the evidence that Brain Balance actually works? I’d hate to see the organization affiliated with something that wasn’t reputable or effective.
We would hate it as well, that is why we are looking into it first, as well as asking people for their opinions here. If anyone else has anything to add, please let us know. Thanks Karen and Andrea!
I personally know someone who has a son with T.S. whose tics went away after this program.
Here are some links from their site.
http://www.brainbalancecenters.com/the-truth/
Here is their success page
http://www.brainbalancecenters.com/results/
There’s a ton of stuff on Youtube with the founder talking.
I can see why people would be skeptic. But people are also skeptic about chiropractors and they have done amazing things. This is just one more avenue.
Thoughts?
It does sound very promising, but as with anything, certain issues have to be weighed before an organization can throw itself into the ring with another. Andrea, if you could get more people who have used it to weigh in on this topic right here on this post, that would help us immensely.
We’ve been thinking a lot about Brain Balance, too. I’ve read some stuff that suggests that it is pseudo-science, though. What made you decide to take the leap?