Dr. Arturo M. Volpe

As the school year is starting, many parents have asked if we could have extended office hours so they could continue their children’s neurofeedback after school or on Saturdays.

I am pleased to announce that even though the office will technically still close at 5:30 pm Monday through Thursday and 12:30 pm on Fridays either Allison or I will be available on some evenings until 7 pm and on Saturday mornings to provide neurofeedback. We have not yet decided on which evenings as that will depend on the requests for appointments we receive.

I have been offering neurofeedback in my practice for close to ten years. Earlier this year I upgraded my equipment by acquiring some of the best and most up-to-date equipment available from a company called Clear Mind Center – see www.clearmindcenter.com.

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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Anxiety, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Headaches
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Neurofeedback is a brain-training therapy backed by dozens of studies proving its effectiveness. It uses computerized EEG technology to identify areas of dysfunction in the brain and then trains the brain to correct them. As a training tool, neurofeedback has been compared to teaching a child to ride a bicycle. Difficult at first, but once the skill is acquired it is never lost.

Neurofeedback has been proven to have beneficial effects for ADD and ADHD, high-functioning autism, depression, anxiety, insomnia, addictions, gait and balance problems, headaches, behavioral problems, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, and more. It helps balance the brain and the brain is truly the central computer that regulates every function of the body. When it is in balance many seemingly unrelated problems simply vanish.

Neurofeedback is nothing new for my practice as I have been offering it to my patients since the late 90’s. The equipment I used to have was the best available when I purchased it, but over time it had become outdated. Its main drawbacks were that it was not user-friendly, especially not child-friendly, results were slower to achieve than with newer equipment, and it did not offer the full range of diagnostic and treatment options now available. Read More »

Tags: ADD/ADHD, Autism, Depression, Fibromyalgia
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If you’re like me, you are aging and you see some sign of this every day in the mirror: graying hair, wrinkles, sagging skin, new spots on the skin, and so on. Though we rarely think of it, the inside of our bodies undergoes similar changes but with far more serious consequences.
 
Muscles and organs shrink and function less efficiently until, one day, they begin to fail.  For example, the brain has been shown to lose one-third of its size between ages 35 and 70. Other organs experience similar decline and this makes us more susceptible to illnesses now considered typical of aging, from heart disease to diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and more.
 
Cells are the basic building blocks of organs, and aging begins at the level of each cell, where structures become damaged and energy production goes on less efficiently. Some cells die without being regenerated and, over time, this is reflected in smaller, less active organs, decreased metabolic rate, and more.
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Tags: Aging, Antioxidants, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia
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As my nutrition practice turns ten years old, it is a good time for me to reflect on lessons I have learned about the effects of nutritional therapy on the mind. Though nutrition is a second career for me, and one to which I came relatively late in life, it is the realization of my lifelong interest in psychology and the mind in general.

While at an earlier point in my life I might have chosen to study psychology or psychotherapy, by the time I was finally able to embrace this field I had learned enough about the interaction between the mind and chemistry or nutrition to know that nutritional medicine held far more powerful answers than any type of talk therapy.

This interest led me to chiropractic school in a roundabout way, basically because I felt I needed some medical training and a license that would enable me to practice. In any case, while in school and in my first years of practice I took every seminar and advanced training I could find on clinical nutrition. However, seminars on nutrition for the mind are rare, when available at all, and consequently the field is replete with preconceived ideas and unsubstantiated theories.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer's Disease, Anxiety, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Insomnia, Weight Loss
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I grew up by the sea and often tell people that the ocean is in my blood. Recently I came across some fascinating old research that made me think that this is true in a far more literal sense than I had ever thought possible.

The research dates back to the early 1900s and was conducted by French biologist and self-taught physician Rene Quinton. In analyzing the composition of human plasma and that of ocean water, and superimposing the two, Quinton observed that they are virtually identical – the only real difference between the two being that ocean water is three times more concentrated than plasma.

Quinton attributed this difference to the fact that, since life originated in the ocean millions of years ago, seawater has become more concentrated. His conclusion was that we all still carry original ocean water in our blood. Human (and animal) plasma, in his view, is a “marine environment.”

To prove his point Quinton carried out a series of experiments that later came to be known as the “dog studies.” Though we are no longer accustomed to studies being performed on dogs, in his day dogs and cats were often used for medical research.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Anxiety, Autism, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Eczema, Fibromyalgia, High Blood Pressure, Osteoporosis, Skin Conditions
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For years I have been recommending a form of vitamin B12 called methyl-B12 for children with autism and ADHD, and more recently also for people suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFIDS), Fibromyalgia (FM), and other conditions.

Although many of us have observed the positive effects of this vitamin on speech, focus and more, there has been relatively little discussion about why it helps, and particularly why this form of B12 and not others can make such a remarkable difference.

Recently I found an informative summary of the benefits of methyl-B12 on a website dedicated to providing help and resources for people with CFIDS and FM. According to this article, other conditions that benefit from this vitamin include Parkinson’s disease, peripheral neuropathies, Alzheimer’s, MS, and more. Neither autism nor ADHD were listed, although we know only too well the benefits of methyl-B12 for children suffering from these conditions.
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Tags: ADD/ADHD, Autism, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Methyl B-12
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If you have fibromyalgia – a condition characterized by persistent muscle pain – or if a friend or loved one of yours is afflicted, you’d do anything for some relief, and if it can come in the form of a natural supplement that is good for you, all the better.

This study (J Rheumatol. 1992 Jan; 19 (1): 90-4) is a bit old, but it deserves a second look. Reviewing the blood levels of different nutrients, investigators found that people with fibromyalgia had consistently lower levels of tryoptophan, a protein-derived amino acid that the brain uses to make serotonin, the “happy” neurotransmitter.

Tryptophan is also known for an infamous episode in the 1980’s when the FDA removed it from the market after a single contaminated batch made it into the U.S., probably as a result of poor FDA supervision. Fortunately, tryptophan is slowly making its way back and 5HTP – a related compound – is readily available at health food stores.

It is not known whether fibromyalgia is in some way associated with low levels of serotonin in the brain, or whether it is some other function of tryptophan that is lacking. Nevertheless it has been a steady observation of mine that, although not a cure, either tryptophan or 5HTP can help. This is also a case where if a little doesn’t do the job, more might.

Tags: Fibromyalgia
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Although I have written about the importance of vitamin D before, new information on this vitamin continues to surface. The more we learn about vitamin D, the more we find how many critical roles it plays in the body.

A “Vitamin D Council” was set up as a cooperative effort by a group of research scientists and recently launched a new website that can be found at www.cholecalciferol-council.com

Members of this council include Robert Heaney, MD, Professor of Medicine at John A. Creighton University. Dr. Heaney is considered the world’s leading expert on vitamin D, having published over three hundred original papers on this topic.

According to Dr. Heaney, the current government vitamin D recommendations are so low they ensure deficiency for anyone who adheres to them and also avoids the sun. Oddly enough, Dr. Heaney participated in setting up those very recommendations, but later discovered that humans need 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day, not the recommended 400.
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Tags: Autoimmune disease, Cancer, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Osteoporosis, Vitamin D
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