Are You Left or Right? Brain Dominant

Our brain dominance has everything to do with how we approach, react, and conduct our lives. This guides our personality, relationships, aging, and how our bodies degenerate.

Who we are:

LEFT vs. RIGHT

Logical vs. Empathetic
Nonfiction vs. Fiction
Realism vs. Imagination
Planned vs. Spontaneous
Math and Science vs. Art and Creativity
Small Details vs. Big Picture
Orderly vs. Random

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior, but the short cut to understanding oneself can be done by knowing which side of brain dominance we have. The side of the brain we live our life from most often. It’s the side of the brain we use at a lopsided rate. We all have talents and weakness originating from the left hemisphere or right hemisphere. For example, left brain individuals tend to be very detailed and systematic. Preferring engineering, technical, military, accounting, or any micro-focused intense job. They tend to have more robotic, dry, sociopathic, and O.C.D. like personalities. On the opposite side, right brain individuals are more expressive, spontaneous, and fun loving. They tend to have skills in drawing, music, creating, and design. Some negative attributes of right brain dominant people are difficulties in finishing tasks, extreme emotion, and letting others lead for them. The goal when practicing Functional Neurology is to balance the left and right brain function, which enhances the good qualities from both sides. This is done with treatments using Optokinetic tapes to move the eyes in certain directions and isolate stronger function in the more under-used areas of the brain. Spinal or extremity adjustments on the opposite side of lower brain function can also enhance that brain’s activity. These treatments can have a profound effect, not only on our personality, but how the brain slows degeneration of the body and pain.

Our relationships:

The list can go on forever, but this matters in how we relate to our parents, raise our children, work with others, or who we choose to marry for the rest of our lives. In my observations, couples tend to be of the opposite brain dominance. It’s a good thing, because each dominance has attributes that can contribute that the other is lacking. As a whole they are a stronger unit. For example, if the husband is often late to events and the wife is always early then she can help him to be more punctual. When it comes to parenting, if the parent is left brain strong and the right brain child has an unkept room. Then, instead of always being military strict and punishing, the parent can hug the child and help them break down the wall or messy room by picking it up with them and bonding instead. The idea is to hug the empathetic right brain child and reason through conversation and logic with the left brain child. In the work environment, right brain people create great things from nothing and left brain people complete and perfect upon what has initially been created. Finally, understanding brain dominance can give us a better understanding of how we were raised by our parents. For examples, we might think our father was very cold and didn’t show his feelings often. When in fact, he might be left brain and robotic like in personality type. Or when our mom couldn’t pack for vacation until the very last minute is simply right brain with poor planning skills. My advice is to forgive them for who they are not and love them for who they are.

Developing and aging:

Assuming normal development, we all fix our conjugate gaze and eyesight by 2 months of age. We are able to turn by 3 months, crawl at 6 months, walk by 1 year, and talk by year 2. We all know adults who mix up left and right direction all the time and rely on making an “L” with their hands to figure which way is actually left. It is a very common thing that happens as a result of skipping too fast through developmental phases in our brain. In this case, we did not crawl long enough from 6 months to 1 year of age. If we walked too soon, one never activated the directionalism part of our brain. We can do it later in life, but it is harder than at 6 months. The motor strip part of our brain, which is developed to control spinal muscle tone and movements, happens automatically without our conscious awareness. No baby decided when to move, turn, sit up, crawl, and walk. It was a perfect sequence of events by design.

When our brain is fully developed it controls extensor muscles for posture rather easily. We consider this good upright posture, but as the brain slows down with age, or really underuse, flexion muscles take over and we regress to fetal posture. No one ages into extension, it’s always back to the fetal flexion posture. We lose ambulatory control, gut function, and our mental sharpness. After age 2 it is all downhill, without intervention. We sit too much, sleep in the wrong position, and generally don’t move like we did when we were toddlers.

Degeneration: Chronologic vs. Neurologic

Some of us degenerate slowly while others are rapidly falling apart. Like at high school reunions when we notice we all look like our parents or comment that they haven’t aged a day. Chronologically your high school classmates are the same age, but neurologically we are all different ages. The true degeneration rate depends on the speed of the brain, through the spinal cord and nerves, connecting to organs, bones, and soft tissue. Every system in the body is at the end of a switch or nerve. It just depends on how fast the connection is. The slower the speed, the faster the system degenerates.

The under-used or slower side of the brain is called a hemisphericity. Our “hemi” inhibits or slows the connection to extensor posture muscles of the head, neck, and shoulder above spinal thoracic level T6. It also slows the connection to muscles for posture muscles below T6 on the same side. Think of what it looks like sitting in front of computers for too long. The neck is stiff, shoulders are rolled forward, the lower back hurts, and we are slow to stand up. Usually, one side is worse, which is probably our hemispheristic under-used brain side. This weakness in posture muscle tone causes pinched nerves, inflammation, and pain in our limbs. This can also unstabilize joints by aberrantly moving them outside of a normal and safe range of motion. Which breaks down ligaments and other internal structures within joints by moving them incorrectly hundreds of times a day.

Usually, we wait for these symptoms to magically go away. Sometimes they don’t and a visit to the Primary Care Physician is needed. They can prescribe medications like pain killers, muscle relaxants, and anti-inflammatory drugs. If that doesn’t work well enough, you’re sent to an Orthopedic Surgeon to examine joints through the use of imaging and to determine the grade of internal destruction. They can only offer medications, shots, and many types of surgeries. The problem with that scope of treatment is that they never address the real cause of the degeneration. It is the Neurologic decrease in the control to the muscles that move and protect the joints. Given, this does not pertain to traumatic events usually treated in an emergency room. Hemisphericities can also have an affect on the Autonomic Nervous System controlling digestion, cardiovascular, and other internal organs. There are more things to degeneration besides brain dominance, like proper Fuel (food and supplementation), Oxygen, and Detoxification. I will cover these in the next article.

I have created numerous exercises to excite, strengthen, and easily maintain good posture control using brain function as the primary engine. We combat and treat hemisphericities with Neuropractic, Physiotherapy, Medical Massage, Neurogym, and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (H.B.O.T).

You can catch us on “Coffee with Doc” every 2nd and 4th Saturday at 6pm in person or on zoom. Text the word “coffee” at 562-881-2129 for the link to the next talk. I’m looking forward to meeting you.

“I Won’t Crack You Up, But I’ll get On Your Nerves.”

-Doc Brock

Don’t wait, call 562-912-4225, Text 562-881-2129, follow on Instagram, or visit our website at drbrockjohnson.com