Brian (1s):
All right. Welcome to the Get Lean, Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn and I have Santiago Brand. Welcome to the show.
Santiago (8s):
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Brian (11s):
Thanks for coming on. Neurofeedback expert and educator. And how long have you been educating on this topic?
Santiago (22s):
Well, I've been in the field of neuroscience and brain mapping for 17 years now, and more heavily educating other professionals around the world for the last three years, I would say.
Brian (34s):
Very cool. And so you're training other health professionals that are looking to sort of get into this arena?
Santiago (43s):
Yes, correct. Part of my job is I, I'm lucky enough to travel around the globe and educate people who want to learn QEG to practice in their own clinics or hospitals. And then I also do some consultation with clients, want me to go over their brain maps and help them to understand their brains. And then other professionals who also sent me brain maps from around the world to help them come up with protocols and interventions for their clients. And we have clinic here in Singapore where I'm based, and we do some holistic work. Matter of fact, we work with a nutritionist from, she lives in, she's from the us but she lives here in Singapore.
Santiago (1m 27s):
And we combined metabolic testing with the brain mapping to help people get better health.
Brian (1m 37s):
Hmm, that's interesting. And how, how does that work as far as how is brain mapping sort of, how can I explain this? How does brain mapping sort of help an individual maybe, you know, if they wanna lose weight or lose inches around their waist?
Santiago (1m 58s):
Well, the, the first thing to understand is that we can all benefit from doing brain mapping. And what that means is we all have some level of work to do with our brain to a greater or less degree. When I scan an individual, I will scan an individual who is relatively healthy and has an ideal brainwave pattern, but they want to get better, lose more weight, gain more muscle, become more competitive in their line of work. But we can also get individuals who are struggling with obesity, who are struggling with sugar addiction, who are struggling with depression, with sleep problems. And every individual, every human being to a greater lesser degree, can benefit from train their brain.
Santiago (2m 43s):
And every time we scan a brain, we also find that those individuals also could use some metabolic work to a greater of lesser degree. Some people need a couple of vitamins here and there. Some people need a more comprehensive workout. But the point is that what's in the body is in the brain, And what it's in the brain is in the body. And many times people have trouble staying a adhere into a fitness program or losing weight because their brain is dysregulated, and it doesn't allow them to sustain discipline or stay away from that dessert or that ice cream or that cookie, that midnight snack.
Santiago (3m 29s):
When you can help people self-regulate by training the brain, you can dramatically reduce or eliminate cravings. And people find that it's easier to sustain the discipline, meaning now they can say no to that dessert without feeling guilty or without having the anxiety and having to suppress the anxiety. So we can train the brain not only for better brain and mental health, but we can also help people get more lean. We can also help people, you know, gain the weight, lose the weight gain, gain more muscle, lose more muscle, depending on what the goals are because everything is interconnected.
Brian (4m 13s):
Sure. Yeah. And when you do brain mapping, what, what sort, sort of like, I guess maybe explain to the audience what that, what that, what kind of feedback that gives you to help that individual?
Santiago (4m 26s):
Right. First step and most important thing is the brain mapping is non-invasive. We put a cap on you that looks sort of like a shower cap with some sensors or electrodes. We apply a little conductive gel that, that is to get, to be able to read your brainwave activity. And the first thing we see is squiggly lines across the screen, which are the brain waves. And this is the result of your neurons firing in real time. The best way to describe this is as we're doing a brain map, we're setting a dialogue with your brain in real time, where your brain speaking through specific patterns is going to tell us where things are going well And what we can do to make them even better, but also where you're struggling.
Santiago (5m 14s):
So every time we find something that gets repetitive in the brain for a specific period of time, it can be potentially problematic, problematic for your sleep, problematic for your memory, problematic for your addiction, for your discipline, essentially for anything, we can convert those lines into 3D images of the brain in a color coded scale that will show us the areas of your brain that we need to retrain to get to help you get better. And so people end up with information that they already knew, but now we know what the area of the brain that we need to train is. People sometimes end up with activity that they didn't know they had because they never had a brain scan, and they find a sense of hope that, and a guidance to, to wellbeing, because the brain map allows us to make the referral to other professionals like a neurologist or a psychiatrist or a nutritionist.
Santiago (6m 12s):
And they can now with that information have a comprehensive training firm for the neurofeedback brain training, fitness, better nutrition. And so what we're doing is we're creating a better individual as a whole from the mind and but also from the body.
Brian (6m 33s):
I'm just curious, what sort of led you down this road? Why was it something that came up in your personal life, or how did you get it into like brain mapping and neurofeedback?
Santiago (6m 43s):
This happened 17 years ago when I was doing my graduate studies in sports psychology. I am a sport and clinical psychologist, and I started doing sports psychology until one day I had an athlete who tried to commit suicide. And then I understood that I needed to look at people from a clinical perspective. In my professional opinion, any good psychologist, regardless of what they do, need to have a good clinical foundation. Even if you're not fully doing clinical psychology, you need to understand people from the clinical perspective. And I was not happy with the traditional ways of doing sports psychology, goal setting imagery.
Santiago (7m 29s):
I think those techniques are useful, but in my opinion, they were falling short. I, in my, in my heart, I have a feeling, I had a feeling that there could be something more a, a more palpable objective way of looking to the athlete's mind. And it was coincidentally that they invited this gentleman to do a neurofeedback workshop. So I signed up for it, and for the next three days, this guy took up sophisticated equipment and started measuring our heart rate and started measuring our brainwaves. And he had us play video games with the brain, and that was love at first set for me and right there. And then I knew that's what I wanted to do.
Santiago (8m 9s):
And that started the whole journey of brain mapping and brain training. And 17 years later, here we are.
Brian (8m 16s):
Hmm. Wow. And for athletes for performance and focus, I mean, I'm a big golfer, so I've always been interested in sort of like the mental side. What, how can you help a golfer?
Santiago (8m 31s):
Oh, many ways. I'm a golfer, by the way, too, so, okay. I, I, I remember many years ago when I was doing my graduate studies, there used to be this program on Nova with the actor from smash, his name, excuse me, Alan Anda, I think is his name. Okay. And he was interviewing this neuroscientist from the University of Arizona, and she was doing EEGs to find about the yips.
Brian (8m 57s):
Oh.
Santiago (8m 58s):
And she was looking for brain signatures on the yips. And that was really fascinating. But, you know, with a golfer, you can help with the yips. You can also help optimize concentration and stamina. You know, a golf round is about four to four and a half hours of, of grueling work, and you require as much mental stamina as you can get. And essentially what we're helping with the athlete to do, the golfer to do is to manage their focus more efficiently. We don't want 'em to have a zen state of mind for four and a half hours, which is not realistic. Right. It's very difficult to manage, but when to tap into brain resources at will and how to manage the concentration, how to bounce back from mistakes, how not to dwell on mistakes, how to have a more robust pre routine, how to isolate distractions.
Santiago (9m 53s):
So essentially we, when we were with an athlete, be it a golfer or any other sport, we mainly focus on critical moments during competition. So, you know, I'm playing really well, 17, 16 holes in 18 holes and make a make a ball game, and I need to make part win tournament. Now I force a playoff. How do I bounce back from that? You know, how do I stay focused in, in spite of all these setbacks? And that's where athletes find the most value in brain training, that they can really discover how to get an edge on competition by doing that.
Brian (10m 29s):
I'm trying to think of, and maybe you know this, there's, there is a few devices out there for golf and I, where you put it where you're like, you would hit putts with it on your head and you tried to get into maybe like this focus calm state. It, you know, that alpha theta, and I can't think of the name of the device. I don't know if you if that, if you've heard of like, some of these brain training devices for golf. But anyway, I don't know if,
Santiago (10m 57s):
Yeah, I don't know of any particular names, but a colleague of mine, mark, he arms from the Netherlands did very interesting research with the alpha brainwaves and putting many years ago. And what he found consistently through different golfers is that the alpha waves predict whether you're gonna make the put or not before you even put the ball,
Brian (11m 18s):
Really.
Santiago (11m 18s):
So those were able to get into a, what we call a locked alpha, meaning the alpha stable for a few seconds in the brain. We're more successful at putting that, those golfers could not, that could not get the alpha to lock in a specific state. And for those who don't, we can train that pattern. So, you know, we can make you better at putting, and we can predict by looking at your brain whether you're gonna make the put or not.
Brian (11m 42s):
That's very cool. Yeah. Yeah. I think with golf, that's such a huge market. I mean, I, I think there's a lot of people who probably aren't willing to maybe put the time in to getting, but I'm sure at the highest level these guys have, have been working with brain mapping and ways to get sorted to that, that zone, you know, more often.
Santiago (12m 4s):
Yeah, absolutely. One of the professional callers that talks about the most is Bryce on de Shambo. If you look at, if, if you go to YouTube and Google Bryce on the shamble brain mapping, there's an interview where he openly talks about doing brain mapping and neurofeedback. Mm. I, I think it is really good endorsement with a, an athlete of this caliber really talks about how it's benefited him. It speaks to the science and to the robustness and the utility that this has, you know, so it, this works for the housewife, this works for the pro golfer, this works for the office, CEO, this works for the college student, the high school student.
Santiago (12m 44s):
Anybody who has a brain can really benefit from this.
Brian (12m 47s):
Yeah. And I think, you know, this being a health and wellness podcast, it's like, I like to get individuals on talking about mental health And, you know, things like brain mapping and ways to sort of optimize brain health, because I think it's sort of underutilized. What would you say some, what in, what can individuals start doing today to help with brain health?
Santiago (13m 12s):
The most important thing is always sleep. When people ask me this question, invariably I will say what I tell people that I work with is, if there, if you only had a choice to shift one behavior, I would suggest you shift your sleep. Because in reality, everything starts and ends with your sleep. And the second to that, I would say breath work. Mm. People tell me, well, I breathe so I don't die. And I will say, well, that's breathing, breathing for survival. That's not breathing for living, breathing for survival, and breathing for true living, healthy living are two different things.
Santiago (13m 53s):
The breath work is very easy to learn, and once you implement it is free. So if there are two things would be your breath work, learning to breathe in a specific way, and you can work with a biofeedback coach for that, or you know, or somebody who specializes in breath work. And then the one thing you really need to take care of is your sleep. If you don't sleep well, nothing else works for you.
Brian (14m 17s):
Hey everyone, quick interruption here. If you are looking to gain energy, lose inches around your waist and build strength, well look no further than my book, the Step Ladder System, six Steps to Lifelong Health and Vitality. What you get with the book is my full step-by-step plan and blueprint that I've worked with all my clients with packed into one book. With part one, you're gonna lay the foundation, tackle any common challenges that might come in your way. Part two is my six pillar blueprint, how to set yourself up with a solid plan and know exactly what to do when life throws any curve balls. And lastly, step three are learning to implementation a plan for getting results over the next weeks and beyond.
Brian (15m 0s):
So there you have it. I'll leave a link in the show notes for my step letter system book now back to the podcast. Yeah. And sleep is something we talk so much about. Are there certain, I mean, we talk about like having a sort of a healthy sleep hygiene and, and is there certain things that you try to live by yourself or that you help others do?
Santiago (15m 27s):
Yeah. With sleep, what we find is once we do a brain map and we get to know your vigilance style, meaning how your brain is, is operating when it's supposed to be rested, whether it is doing what it is supposed to do or not doing what it's supposed to. When we, we follow the vigilance model, which is your brain is supposed to do follow specific sequence in the brainwaves when you go to bed. So when people close their eyes, the very first thing we want is for the alpha waves to get big in the back of the brain. If somebody closes their eyes and the alpha waves don't go up in amplitude, that's a red flag. Hmm. A second red flag is if they close their eyes and they start making very slow brainwave activity in the first minute or two of the recording that normally might indicate to us that they might have, there's a high likelihood of a sleep disorder.
Santiago (16m 20s):
And if they have really, really fast beta waves, this is a hypervigilant individual. So the first thing I always teach people is this thing called heart rate variability biofeedback, which is in training your heart and your brain through your breath work, meaning that we can synchronize the activity of your heart and the activity of your brain by teaching you a specific methodology to your breath work. And this works really well. It helps people fall asleep a lot faster and stay asleep for longer. Then we go into the neurofeedback brain training, which means once we find what are the areas of the brain that are not working well during your sleep, And what are the brainwaves that need the fine tuning, then we can go and do that.
Santiago (17m 8s):
And there are some wearables that people can use to help themselves. They don't really replace the training, but once you start a training regime for a few sessions and then you use those wearables, it, it really works well for, for, for most people. I would say in my experience, 80 to 85% of people with, with sleep issues can get them resolved with, with neurofeedback and rather healthy sleep hygiene regime.
Brian (17m 39s):
Yeah. So HRV heart rate variability and feedback with that. As far as like wear wearables, you mentioned, like, is there a certain wearable that you find is good to use for that? Like an AA ring or,
Santiago (17m 57s):
Well, for tracking, I, I like the AA ring. Okay. It's probably my favorite one because they have very solid, solid signs behind it. The research is, is quite solid and robust. And there is this company, I don't know if I can do any product placement here, but there's a company called Mind Alive who, and they design this light and sound machines called Audiovisual and treatment, which I use for myself. So it's, it's a device where you have an encoder that is about the size of a cell phone, some goggles and headphones, and through the headphones you hear bin neuro repeats something that sounds like, and then the flickering lights, and you can program different frequencies and that helps and train your brain to that frequency.
Santiago (18m 46s):
And it works wonders for my sleep. I, I travel with it when I travel around to combat jet lag. I use it here in Singapore to fall asleep. It, it really helps out. Again, it's a, it's an adjunct to the training, but when people get these devices, they really, really, a lot of them really enjoy because it really helps, it really helps strengthen the concept of what we're trying to do.
Brian (19m 14s):
Mind alive is that mind alive? Yes. Yeah. And they have devices, looks like they have a few different types of devices, almost like you wear headphones and glasses. Is that, is that
Santiago (19m 25s):
Yeah, the main one is the headphones and the glasses. The technology is called audiovisual Entrainment. Okay. And again, it's, it's a good adjunct to, to do in neurofeedback and brain mapping. I personally love them for my sleep. You know, I wouldn't, I don't do without them most of the time I, I get to sleep better without them now. But I remember the first time I wore it, you know, I got the, I had the flickering lights and I'm thinking, there's no way I'm gonna fall asleep. And the next thing I know, I'm waking up the next morning I was able to sleep through the night. Mm. And I woke up really refreshed. So from personal experience, I was sold on it. And of course I've done neurofeedback myself to, you know, to to, to work on my sleep.
Santiago (20m 5s):
Now that I really travel around the globe, one of the things I really protect is my circadian rhythms. And I, I'm on, I'm on a lot of supplements working with my, my nutritionist, my functional medicine doctor, and then my personal trainee trainer works on all these fitness regimes with me. So every time I go, I always book a hotel that has a good gym, take my supplements, and I use my artificial entrainment device to get my sleep in line.
Brian (20m 35s):
And, and that mind alive device that you mentioned is that you wore that the whole night, the glasses and the headphones and everything?
Santiago (20m 42s):
Well, you don't have to. It's normally the protocols are between 15 minutes to 90 minutes. So I would fall asleep with that. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I would set it aside and fall back asleep. Okay. So you don't have, you normally wear it for 30 to 80 minutes, so it eases you into the sleep and gets you into a deeper sleep. And sometimes, you know, I go, I sleep through the night and I'll take it out in the morning when I wake up. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and then I sit at a site and I fall back asleep. So it's not something you'll have to work through the night necessarily.
Brian (21m 15s):
I gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting me, you mentioned sleep and then breath work. Yeah. Breathworks also, I think like an underutilized tool. Absolutely. I had on a special, a former special forces soldier. His name's Tim Thomas, and his mission was to help veterans from suicide. And he is trying to impact as many as he can through his breath work exercises. And it was a really interesting interview and he, we did some breath work activities together and, and you can, you know, it's something that's like, you know, you gotta work at it a little bit, but like once you, once you get the hang of it, it, it, it, it can really make a difference.
Santiago (22m 6s):
It does, it does. And as a matter of fact, now that you mentioned that a good friend of mine, Manel Halter, she's in, in the Tampa Bay area, he's a former Green Beret and he works with the soldiers of MacDill Air Force Base, and he helps a lot with PTSD in these populations. He combines high rate variability with what we call photobiomodulation, which is a form of red light therapy. Hmm. And what he will do is, as the so is wearing this helmet me that provides a red light therapy, he will coach them and teach them to do breath work and high rate variability. And they're getting very, very impressive results in terms of PTSD reduction with, with these techniques.
Santiago (22m 51s):
Photobiomodulation is another technique that I really like that I utilize a lot because it also helps people sleep. And I'm finding that it brings indirect benefits for people. Meaning sometimes we'll start the red light therapy for somebody who struggles with A DHD, but they will tell us, you know, since I'm using the helmet for the red light, I have quit smoking. So it's, the smoking cessation is being, is been an indirect game. Or they will say, you know, I don't, I don't create sugars as much, or I just don't, I don't like alcohol anymore. So we're finding that by dampening the inflammation in the brain with this techniques we can help with, with better sleep, but people end up losing weight because they're eating better, they're not craving things as much anymore, and it's easier for them to ease into a, a new nutritional lifestyle because one of the things that are, that hold true is that it's much easier to say to change somebody's religious beliefs than it is to change their diet.
Santiago (23m 54s):
But what I find is that it's normally because the person's brain is not ready to do so. Hmm.
Brian (24m 1s):
Yeah. It's, it's, it's interesting. It's all tied together, right?
Santiago (24m 6s):
It is,
Brian (24m 7s):
You know, you talk about weight loss and things and it's like, you know, I have a, have a, if I have a client that comes in and he is not sleeping well, I mean that right there is just sort of a red flag. You know, that's an, you know, sort of an easy way to put on weight. Obviously if you're not sleeping well, probably, probably is high cortisol, you know, which could lead to weight gain and things like that. But controlling your, your cortisol, especially in the evening and, and your stress levels is all linked to breath and, and everything else we've talked about. So they all go hand in hand.
Santiago (24m 39s):
They go hand in hand. It's impressive. Really. People, people are really impressed that now they're this new persona that people I work with who, who I suggested exercise for, and they just, they just, you know, were afraid. I had the idea of doing that now they're going to the gym regularly and working out because their brain is working better, now they have the energy and they can utilize these resources. It, it is as if they had this and discover power that now they can harness. Hmm. And I mean, I've, I I literally say there's, there's no limits when you train your brain to what you can accomplish. It's just amazing what you can do.
Santiago (25m 20s):
And, and I appreciate you saying that it is underutilized because it really is, to me, brain mapping should be part of every doctor's office. And it should be a standard as getting an EKG or your prostate exam, or your mammogram. Right. It should be part of your annual medical checkup. If schools had this and we scanned students at the beginning of the year and we had a baseline brain scan, once these students start struggling, we can now compare and we know what's going on. And to me, it's, it's still, it's still appalling because what I always say is, if you go to a cardiologist, the first thing, one of the first thing he's gonna do is he's gonna run a KG.
Santiago (26m 2s):
And, you know, if you go to urologists, one of the things he's gonna do once you are, you know, over the age of four zero PRO exam, how come that psychologist and psychiatrist are not scanning brains as a, as a, as a common practice? Doesn't make sense. The, the technology is much more affordable and the science, the data to back it up is there,
Brian (26m 24s):
Yeah, no. And what would you say, how has AI influenced brain mapping?
Santiago (26m 30s):
Well, I do have a love hate relationship with ai, but what I will say is that AI will be a game changer in that it will facilitate how we can process the data and how we look at the brain. It is not replacing the human eye, and I don't think it will do it for feed for, for sometimes for a few years. And they, the AI is dependent on recording a good signal. So I have tested this and I have recorded bad EEGs on purpose, and I have put them through ai and the AI misses on the interpretation altogether time and again.
Santiago (27m 13s):
Wow. But if you get a clean EEG and you run and you put it through some AI platforms, it comes up with some really interesting things, But it misses a lot of stuff. And that's where the professional comes in. So AI is a great tool. It will be a game, it will be of great help, but for now, we still need a human being looking at the data. So the combination of the human who has experience looking at, at brain scans plus the AI is I think the winning combination that most people will benefit from.
Brian (27m 45s):
Yeah. And if people wanna, like start, if people want to use brain mapping, is is do they just have to find someone like obviously someone like yourself that can help sort of interpret it and, And you know, work with them?
Santiago (27m 59s):
Yeah, they always need to find somebody who's board certified. IQCV, the International QEEG certification board is the entity that governs and certifies it. So if, the first thing I would suggest is if you want somebody to do a brain map, go to the IQ CCB website, I qcp do org, and there's a tab where you can say that says find a practitioner. Okay. And you can find somebody, you can do a search by zip code. So find somebody who's board certified.
Brian (28m 33s):
Is it? I is, I'm sorry. Is it IQVC? Cb ccb ccb. Got it, got it, got it. Okay.
Santiago (28m 40s):
So it's an international QEG certification board IQ ccb.org. You can go to the tab where it says, find a practitioner and you will find a listing by country and by C and by zip code in the US you can do a search for 20, 25, 50 miles within a radius for those miles. And they will list the professional experience all their credentials. And those of us were board certified means we have put in the work to learn how to do this ethically. We've been mentor and we are consistently working with each other to keep learning and becoming better at doing this.
Santiago (29m 23s):
Because unfortunately, there are a lot of childhood hands out there who say they do brain mapping, but they use this Mickey Mouse equipment and they, they don't provide access for you. The, the other thing is a, a good, an excellent brain mapper will look at the EEG first. They understand the squeakly lens if they go into the maps, but they don't explain to you the e eeg, they're, they're BSing. And this is very important because we need to protect consumers. There's a lot of, you know, cheap equipment, people buying cheap, cheap equipment and claiming they're doing brain mapping and they're really hard on people.
Brian (30m 3s):
Hmm. And what's like, one thing, maybe you've been doing this for, what, 17 years I think you mentioned. What's like one thing you've changed your mind on from all this?
Santiago (30m 16s):
It's, it's made me more compassionate towards people. I, I think that brain mapping has really changed the way I look at people. It's, you know, as a human being, it's very easy to be judgmental and to pass judgment just on behavior based on behavior. But when I see somebody who has a bad attitude, the way you, you know, if I initially size somebody about anything, they have a bad attitude. Once I look at their brain, I will understand why. And that makes me more, much more flexible and much more compassionate. Mm. It really helped me understand human beings and be more understanding what I want to help people and why people do things.
Santiago (30m 59s):
You know, people normally don't, people are not normally behaving in a poor way or in a nasty way because they want, it's just because they have some underlying stuff, you know, they, they have, they're going through some personal problems and that, of course has an impact in their brain. Now the other thing that I do like about brain mapping is that I understand now that people do lie, but their brain doesn't. And what I mean by that is it helps me work around the walls that people set, because sometimes people don't wanna come across as being vulnerable and they will lie, but all I need to do is look at the brain scan and they know they're lying to me.
Santiago (31m 40s):
And that helps me find a way to not judge them and still lend a helping hand.
Brian (31m 49s):
And so, you know that they're lying because they're like, certain areas light up that counteract what they're saying. Is that,
Santiago (31m 57s):
Or correct? Yeah. A, a very good example is the, the anterior ct, the frontal part of the brain is very active in people who are stubborn or ruing. And you know, I tell them, you know, based on this, I would assume people tell ya they're, you're stubborn. And the first thing they say is, I'm not stubborn. So I would go, well, your brain begs to differ or, you know, the, the insulars right around the, the temples, the insulars are very important in people who are short tempered, they're overactive. And I will say, are you short tempered? Do you get, do you, do you snap sometimes? And they go, no, I don't, you know, and I will go, well, I don't know your brain cells that you might do. And, and so once they know that I, that their brain is telling me something, the two things happen.
Santiago (32m 43s):
They either admit it and they lower their guard or they double down. And you know, when people double down this because they're feeling confronted. So I, I'll drop the issue and I'll just work around it because I don't want people to feel judged. I want people to feel understood.
Brian (33m 0s):
And those signals that, that the brain is telling you, you can, you can fix those.
Santiago (33m 8s):
Well, yeah, I, I, I wouldn't say fix, but we can, what we do with brain training is we will do brain training to stabilize and optimize brain function. Okay. So yeah, there's, it's, it's a dysregulation that we can now regulate. So we fine tune to stabilize and optimize brain activity and the objectives are to mitigate symptoms and hopefully eliminate those symptoms.
Brian (33m 32s):
Hmm. Very interesting. Well, what would you, what tip would you give someone if they're looking to maybe get their body back? This is a question I ask most of my guests, but if they're looking to get their body or their mind back to what it once was, like what type of maybe mental exercises should they do to, to sharpen up?
Santiago (33m 54s):
Well, I would strongly suggest that they get a brain scan. And the reason I suggest that is because the brain scan will help understand why they have been struggling for so long. Because most people who want to get their mind back or their body back struggle with doing So. They will diet, they will exercise and they don't lose the weight or they don't seem to gain the muscle. Right. Well, once we do a brain scan, maybe we can understand why, because maybe your sympathetic branch, your fight or flight is really high, which means your cortisol is dysregulated. Now that we understand that, let's get some metabolic testing as well and see what your cortisol is doing and let's see what kind of supplements we can get you to do.
Santiago (34m 41s):
And let's see what kind of specific mental exercises you can do. Because brain mapping is about personalizing, individualizing the assessment as well as the intervention. And I think that's very important. Many times in fitness or even in mental health, we tend to apply techniques that are one size fits all approach. And that's when sometimes people fail in, in their fitness goals. If we get to know you as an individual and we work get toward you as an individual with your own needs, your, your potential and your struggles, we have a better chance of doing that. So I would say get a brain scan because it does really show you and it will provide you with a roadmap with more clarity, with a much clearer guidance as to how you can get your health back.
Santiago (35m 36s):
And I say this because many times people will have patterns in the brain that they don't know about that require specific care. And that's the reason why things were not changing for them.
Brian (35m 47s):
And when you say a brain scan, you mean brain mapping or a brain
Santiago (35m 51s):
Map? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We call it brain map or a brain scan, yes.
Brian (35m 53s):
Okay. Either or. Gotcha. And then one other thing is you mentioned red light. Is this something you utilize as well?
Santiago (36m 1s):
Yes. Red light therapy is a wonderful tool and we can either do it onsite, but we can also suggest equipment For you. The, the most important thing is that these things need to be prescribed based on your brainwave activity just as supplements. Something that very commonly happens to me is, I will say, we need to explore, they need to supplement with you. When I see a client and the next day they call me and they give me a list of 25 supplements that they bought on Amazon, I will say, wait, wait, hold on. I tell ya, we need supplements. I didn't tell ya, go buy them. Right. Because you, you need to get testing done to see this will work for you. And I, and I understand people do it because they're desperate.
Santiago (36m 41s):
I mean, they, they, they want, they wanna change, they want it fast. So it's a good time to, you know, work with a client and explain to them and, and, and guide them the right way.
Brian (36m 53s):
Hmm. Yeah. I, I have a red light that I use and I love it. Like, I, I use it a lot of times before I go to bed and I just think like, it just, it's like got this calming effect.
Santiago (37m 6s):
It does, it does, it really does wonder. So, and, And you know, there's a lot of affordable equipment that people can buy at home, but again, the point that I want to, to drive here is that they, you should get a scan first so you can get the protocol prescribed for you. Because many times people buy this equipment and they start using it and they will get negative reactions that can happen. You know, they get very bad headaches or migraines or, you know, they start experiencing memory problems because they're not targeting the right frequencies. This is not just plug and play, you know, this is something that you should seriously consider assessing first to get the right protocol for you.
Brian (37m 49s):
Hmm. Assess.
Santiago (37m 51s):
It's like, it's like if I, if I watch a YouTube video on fitness and I go to train myself without getting any assistance, I'm gonna get hurt. That that's probably, it's very likely to happen.
Brian (38m 0s):
Yeah. No, that makes sense. Assess, don't guess. Right.
Santiago (38m 6s):
Assess, don't guess. I like it.
Brian (38m 7s):
Yeah. So, okay. Brain scan IQ ccb.org. What's the best place for people to learn more about you, Santiago?
Santiago (38m 17s):
Well, they can go to my website, Santiago Brand dot com. I am quite active on Instagram as neuro Santiago and I have a YouTube channel, Santiago Bryant. So I'm mostly active on YouTube and, and Instagram. But my website, they can learn more about me. There's videos and pictures and if they're interested in learning about brain mapping or if they wanna hire me for a talk or a workshop, that's, that's where they can find me.
Brian (38m 46s):
Yeah. And I noticed on your web you travel all over, you were in Korea?
Santiago (38m 52s):
I do. I've had the good fortune of doing 28 countries to date.
Brian (38m 56s):
Oh wow.
Santiago (38m 57s):
So Asia, Europe, south America, I'm very privileged to, to get to do what I do. Yes.
Brian (39m 2s):
That's great. Yeah. Well I appreciate you coming on and, and, and sharing all this, this is definitely a change of pace for us on the podcast, so learning about brain mapping and, and how we can benefit our health with that. So yeah. Thanks, thanks so much. I'll put a link in the show notes so people can learn more about you And what you have going on and yeah, go out and get, get a brain scan. Right.
Santiago (39m 25s):
Do please do. And I wanna thank you for the opportunity to, to spread the word because I think it's very important. So I, I appreciate that. I had a great time.
Brian (39m 34s):
My pleasure. Thanks so much ante.
Brian (39m 37s):
Thanks for listening to the show. I know there's thousands of podcasts out there and you chose to listen to mine. I will put a link in the show notes if you want to connect with my guest. And if you are looking for one-on-one consulting with me, I will put a free 15 minute link so you can set up a call to see if you're fit for my six month health breakthrough program. So thanks again, feel free to rate and subscribe. I would love that to help support the podcast. And till next time, have a great rest of the day and I will see you on my next podcast. Thanks so much.
