Brain Circuits
Finding Hidden Allergies & Hormonal Imbalances
Recently, on the recommendation of a patient (thank you Rhonda) I have been reading a book entitled, The Edge Effect, by Eric Braverman, MD. The book focuses on the importance of neurotransmitters and their overall effect on general health and chronic illness. I have known of the importance of these brain-balancing chemicals for some time, but the book got me thinking about them more as primary imbalances, rather than secondary imbalances (those that would correct themselves once more important things were fixed). So I began looking for neurotransmitter problems in patients with hormonal, digestive and emotional complaints. As a result I have made some very interesting discoveries.

The first is the discovery of four reflex circuits on the head. A circuit is made up of two distinct points that must be touched lightly at the same time. Each circuit has correlated well to a deficiency in one of the four main neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, choline and GABA. Serotonin for instance, is made from the amino acid tryptophan (the one that is high in turkey and makes you sleepy).

The second is two sets of reflex circuits that relate to hidden allergies. Hidden allergies are those that do not show up with a standard muscle test, even when the food is tested over a specific organ. The allergy only shows up as a disruption of one of the two sets of reflex circuits. This discovery made a tremendous amount of sense to me because I would often correct a patient’s imbalance to a food only to have it reemerge months later. Now, if the food disrupts the reflex circuit, I check to see if one of the four neurotransmitters fixes the problem. They almost always do. Most of the time the one that helps the allergy the most is tryptophan or its building block called 5-HTP.

One or more of the four reflex circuits show up consistently in women with hormonal imbalances and in patients with general emotional imbalances such as depression or anxiety. For instance, I just saw a patient who was suffering from general anxiety and insomnia. I checked the four head reflex circuits and all of them were positive (weakened a strong
muscle). Not surprisingly, the neurotransmitter that fixed this imbalance was dopamine. Dopamine is considered the voltage enhancer for the brain – giving the brain more power for daily processing. Often, I will find one neurotransmitter that is too high in total amount and one that is very low. Past experience has shown me that the balance or ratio between opposite functioning nutrients is more important than the total amount of those nutrients, which is why you cannot simply buy a supplement that has a bunch of everything in it. Doing so will not fix the imbalance and will probably make the problem worse.

In fact, in the patient above who needed dopamine, serotonin actually weakened him. He had too much serotonin.

Before writing this article, I tested around 200 patients with these new brain circuits. Of those that had a positive test (a strong muscle went weak) there has been a 100% correlation between the specific circuit and the NT needed to correct the circuit. Consequently, I am now comfortable describing them to you here.

To review, the four primary neurotransmitters are as follows:

1.Acetylcholine
2.Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
3.Serotonin
4.Dopamine

Each of these four NT’s has a powerful effect on many aspects of health. If they are too high or too low, major symptoms may and often do result. Next month I will discuss the symptoms of either a deficiency or an excess of each of the NT’s, especially 5-HTP’s relationship to food allergies. Below are the circuits:

    Acetylcholine    GABA        Serotonin            Dopamine









When these points are touched simultaneously and a strong muscle weakens, then it is called a positive test. To correct the circuit, the neurotransmitters can be given or one of its precursors (building blocks). Here are the most common treatments for a positive circuit:

Positive CircuitSubstance Required to Correct
  Acetylcholine   Choline, Phosphatidylcholine, Citicoline
  GABA      GABA
  Serotonin         5-HTP, Tryptophan, B12
  Dopamine Tyrosine


Simply correcting the circuits may be all that is needed or there may be much more depending upon the overall health state of the patient. Please review some key points about neurotransmitters:

  • When you need them, you need them. If the patient has a great number of complaints I will generally follow my normal protocol before supplying NT’s. That is because, NT imbalances may correct on their own once other things are corrected as well. However, some patients only get better once the NT imbalance is fixed. Therefore, I check them each visit for the need for NT’s and supply them immediately if symptoms are not resolving quickly.
  • Most don’t need them for very long. Because of there great importance to overall brain and body function, when present, the body utilizes these chemical rapidly to balance itself. They should be checked regularly to ensure that they are still required. Often, the patient will let the doctor know when the NT’s are no longer working because they will experience a noticeable change in how they feel (from good to bad).
  • 5-HTP and Tyrosine are the most commonly needed NT’s. A strong need for tyrosine is present when a patient weakens exclusively from 5-HTP. The same is true for a strong need for tyrosine – the patient will weaken to 5-HTP. I have not found this correlation with GABA or Choline.
  • Less is more. If two or more brain circuits are positive and each is corrected by its corresponding NT, I check to see if just one NT will correct all of the positive circuits. If so, I only give that NT…not two or more. NT’s tend to be hierarchical, so if you give the one the body needs the most, the other(s) will generally correct on their own at the same time.
  • Questionnaires don’t always work. Most questionnaires designed to help a patient discover which NT is most needed, are not accurate. Too often patients fit into more than one category.  The reason why this is confusing is because too much NT tends to cause the symptoms it is designed to correct. For instance, those with mild to moderate depression are generally prescribed medications that tend to increase their serotonin levels. However, too much serotonin also causes depression.

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