The brain’s second chance

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 6th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: functional neurology.

It’s an emerging field within the chiropractic realm of healthcare that focuses on rehabilitating the nervous system. Functional neurology is offering some patients hope.

BROWN: WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson brings us this report.

KIM HENDERSON: The sound of the Longbrook brothers playing with Legos is sweet. Especially since the youngest—Noble—couldn’t walk or talk when he was two. He was delayed in almost every way.

Noble’s brother remembers it well.

BROTHER: Well, all day long, he would just, I didn't like it much, because all day long, he would just scooch, scooch, scooch. He wouldn't even crawl.

Emily Longbrook first suspected something was wrong when Noble was about six months old. Her other children were ready to sit up and try solid foods at that age.

EMILY: I got him in the high chair. I'm ready to feed him his sweet potatoes and his avocados. And he did not have the strength to sit in a chair. He slumped.

Noble didn’t babble then either. He couldn’t even be held in the typical way.

EMILY: Usually a baby will clutch with their little legs around your side or hold on with their arms, and he made no attempt. He was like holding an empty sack.

Emily took Noble to see a developmental pediatrician. A speech therapist. A physical therapist. An occupational therapist.

No diagnosis. Then Emily’s mom saw a placard belonging to a functional neurologist.

Functional neurology is a growing healthcare specialty that its practitioners say can fix many kinds of neurological problems, from concussions to post-COVID brain fog.

It uses all kinds of exercises to address imbalances of the nervous system.

AUDIO: [Sound of neuro exercises]

Many people view functional neurology as alternative medicine. Major organizations like the American Academy of Neurology don’t formally endorse the functional neurology model.

But Emily Longbrook and her husband decided to give it a try.

EMILY: I was game to try it. It was better than, you know, $5,000 of testing, genetic testing.

The functional neurologist they visited said the two sides of Noble’s brain weren’t pulling together. He gave them touch therapy assignments to do at home. Touching different parts of the body fires different parts of the brain.

Functional neurology has its skeptics, but the outcome for Noble was remarkable.

EMILY: Three days later he was talking. He was moving. In months, he was running, he was climbing, he was jumping on the trampoline, he was kicking a ball, riding a little bike. The progress was rapid and immediate.

Noble’s improvement got the attention of his grandfather, Kent Freeman. Kent was having neurological issues of his own. In 2017, he began to experience noticeable mental decline—a big problem for someone who travels four nights a week for work.

KENT: There were times when I would get out there, my GPS wouldn't work and I couldn't remember how to get somewhere.

He began to struggle with numbers and spreadsheets too. And the contractual agreements he’d been so good at.

What he used to do in one hour now took four.

Kent’s wife, Daris, says she didn’t know what was happening. But she knew something was wrong.

KENT: I just thought we weren't communicating well. And unfortunately, what I also thought, bless him, is that he just wasn't listening to me, because he wouldn't remember a conversation or or he would do something that was contrary to what we spoke about.

In 2020, Kent finally decided to see a doctor.

KENT: I did the five hour cognitive test. I also did a spinal . . . What's that? That's it. Lumbar puncture. And then I also did the MRI.

Eventually a specialist said Kent had medically-induced brain damage. Maybe it was a side effect of anesthesia administered during his knee replacement surgery. The doctor wasn’t sure.

He prescribed medicine for Kent, and it helped some. Then, two years ago, Kent made an appointment with his grandson’s functional neurologist. Daris says the doctor's words gave them hope.

DARIS: We think we can actually help you get better and get your function back and eliminate the medications, so it's truly your brain doing the work.

Kent’s therapy included a lot of walking. Some of it, right in his house. He’d go down a hall and through the kitchen.

KENT: This is the path that I would actually take, and it would be anywhere from three to five times a day.

But he wasn’t just walking. He was simultaneously doing mind exercises, like saying the alphabet or naming every other month of the year. Functional neurology believes the physical affects the mental. The brain is forming new pathways.

KENT: I would continue to walk and make sure that my arms are swinging up almost as high as my elbows, and make sure it's intentional.

He did breathing exercises.

KENT: Breathe in, and it would be three seconds and then, so now I have to exhale for six seconds.

There were balance exercises. Visual exercises.

Daris was part of the touch therapy.

KENT: Five finger touches. Just slight pressure, enough that he feels it, and it would be upper body, lower body, left side, right side.

Daris says the point is no pattern. Kent’s brain had to think about where the touch occurred.

In time, he began to sense the therapy was working.

KENT: What I would notice is I would be able to talk, but also not have to struggle to find that word that I'm looking for.

Eventually he took a leave of absence from work to focus on his recovery. With Daris’ help, Kent expanded his therapy schedule.

DARIS: Every two hours, every day, all day long. And by the end of the year, he was off of both of his medications. He had his full function back, better than he'd been in eight years.

These days, the Freemans enjoy afternoon visits with their grandkids, including Noble, who’s now four. Today the boys are tussling on the living room rug. A different sort of “touch therapy.”

AUDIO: [Sound of kids wrestling]

Both Noble and Kent continue to see a functional neurologist and do therapy. Daris is as amazed as anyone by what it’s done for them.

DARIS: The brain is the most complex and amazing organ that God made. And to me, functional neurology says we can find a way physically using the body God gave us and created to make the most of that.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.