What is Functional Neurology?

Study of the brain and how it works. Functional neurology emphasizes the nervous system and indeed neuron as being the modulator of human expression and experience. Functional neurology interventions have been derived from many sciences including neurology, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, embryology and cellular biochemistry. Functional neurology has diverse application in restoring health and maintaining health. Traditional neurology is taught using a disease based model and while it may help detect the presence of disorders it may be less sensitive than functional neurology in investigating neurological symptoms. Functional neurology assesses how well groups of nerves are working. Under active nerves may quickly fatigue and be unable to do their job. The functional neurologist can determine the specific group of nerves that need attention and can prescribe individually very specific exercise designed to improve performance and function. The original concepts of functional neurology was developed by Dr. Carrick of the Carrick Institute, this institute in USA also provides the post graduate course of study in functional neurology. Correcting functional neurological imbalance requires extensive knowledge of neurophysiology and neuroanatomy and further the central integrative state of the neuraxis. The medical neurologist usually prescribes drugs or medications or injections. The neurosurgeon usually uses surgery as the means of correcting conditions. The chiropractic neurologist uses medication free and non-surgical treatment methods. Specific chiropractic adjustments together with individually very specific stimulations and exercise provided by the functional neurologist (usually a chiropractor who has done the post graduate functional neurology study) provide very powerful methods of stimulating the appropriate areas of the brain or highly specific groups of nerves.

The chiropractic functional neurologist does specialist post graduate study in functional neurology and is trained to better understand the physiological function and anatomical structure of the human nervous system to better discern the etiology (cause or origin) of the patients disorder.

Dr. Carrick sees new opportunities ahead for a cooperative relationship between medical neurologists and chiropractic neurologists as greater emphasis is placed on patient outcomes and appropriateness of services. "Certainly, our training is similar. There may even be an intertwining of disciplines to some extent in coming years," he told NeuroPractice magazine. "Recently a large percentage of medical doctors have been enrolling in our chiropractic neurology training programs. We have several physicians, neurologists, orthopaedists (orthopaedic surgeons), neurosurgeons who travel from Europe and Asia for the training. We're really pleased that it seems that our brand of neurological application is being accepted as complementary to medicine and occupational, physical, therapeutic modalities, and that it is in concert with what seems to be the direction of research and intervention for a variety of conditions." (ref 1. below)

References:
1. NeuroPractice, September 1998, 5(9).

2. Neurology: Heart of the profession - Journal of the American Chiropractic Association, Jun 2000. 3. Overview of functional neurology, by Randy Beck TAC Volume 24 Issue 02, Nov 2006.