But fears of a Big Brother future where governments monitor which citizens show up at political rallies, bosses keep track of how many hours an employee sits at their desk, and jealous spouses demand an accounting of every delayed errand hounded VeriChip Corp. since they first announced plans to begin implanting RFID chips in humans in 2001.

A tremendous backlash from privacy advocates, cautious government regulators, and ordinary people who found the idea of microchips under their skin just plain creepy held up widespread adoption of the chip and led to rapid turnovers of corporate management at VeriChip’s Florida offices.

“This just simply goes way too far outside the realm of what we believe in as a society,” said Randall Marshall, of the American Civil Liberties Union back when the VeriChip human trials were first announced.

But society has changed since 9/11, citizens of most countries have now bargained away some privacy for more security. And VeriChip Corp has learned from past mistakes - like proposing a GPS tracking system to go with their chip, an idea that was greeted with horror.

The American Food and Drug Association has given VeriChip a complete green light and every day more people are being injected with the tiny 12mm microchip now sporting the current, more benign sounding title “The VeriMed Patient Identification System.”

It seems like VeriChip Corporation has finally gotten it right and the net result is that, more and more, human beings may end up on the Net - tagged by radio waves that will allow authorized people to access their records with the same way we now track our packages from the FedEx website.

And even the most diehard privacy pundits can’t argue with its success. Even with a relatively small number of early adopters, the VeriMed microchip has already managed to help save at least two lives in its first six months of use.

After a terrible car accident during a high speed chase, New Jersey police officer Sgt. William Koretsky was brought into Hackensack University Medical Center with head, neck and back injuries.

Chasing down a criminal, Koretsky hit a steel pole dead on going 40 miles per hour without wearing a seat belt and slammed into the steering wheel after the airbags in his police car failed.

But the danger didn’t end with the crash. Koretsky has diabetes.

Thankfully, Hackensack University Medical Center is one of the 110 hospitals that have committed to using the VeriChip technology and after doctors scanned the unconscious cop, they discovered the VeriMed microchip and were able to see that he was diabetic.

Koretsky credits the microchip with saving his life and VeriChip Corporation points to his experience as a perfect case study.

Here is how it worked. Months earlier Koretsky visited a local doctor after agreeing to take part in the VeriChip trial. The chip is so small that it is injected just like a shot of medicine.

“It takes just a few seconds and there are no sutures required, just a Band-Aid,” explained Allison Tomek, VP of Corporate Communications at Applied Digital Solutions, the parent company of VeriChip Corporation.

The tiny pill-shaped gadget holds an antenna and micro-chip encased in silicone to prevent rejection by the body and is slicked with a substance called Bio-Bond that forms a cocoon of scar tissue in the body that keeps the chip from moving around.

The VeriMed microchip uses no batteries but lies asleep until scanned by the necessary reader. The chip is then charged by the energy of the scan, wakes up and begins transmitting a sixteen digit number by radio waves.

When the doctors about to treat Sgt. Koretsky after his car crash got the number by holding the scanner six inches above his arm, they went online to the database setup by VeriChip Corporation, logged in with their password, and entered Koretsky’s 16 digit ID.

Instantly Bill Koretsky’s complete medical records, insurance information, and medications list were available and could be printed out for hospital staff. Doctors saw Koretsky was diabetic and began giving him the necessary medicine to prevent him from slipping into a coma.

VeriChip Corporation imagines a world where every doctor’s visit is that easy.

Anyone who has seen a loved one seriously injured knows how frustrating hospital Emergency Rooms can be. It goes against every instinct to sit their rattling off lists of allergy medicines and verifying insurance when someone your care about is in pain.

With the VeriMed microchip checking into the hospital would be as easy as checking out at the grocery store. And that is what is fueling its ever more rapid adoption by the elderly who find themselves well out ahead of their grandkids in this particular technological frontier.

“I think someone has to take the first steps and it has got to be done,” said Suzan Shipper, 57, who had her 84 year-old husband suffering from Alzheimer’s disease chipped and decided to be implanted herself, too.

The Shippers are taking part in a two year trial tracking users’ and doctors’ experiences with the RFID chip. The trial is being sponsored by Alzheimer’s Community Care, a local South Florida non-profit that provides services for dementia patients and their families.

“The families think it is great,” says Mary Barns, CEO of Alzheimer’s Community Care. “They feel for the first time there is a better protection out there for their safety.”

That’s definitely what motivated Suzan Shipper who is counting on the chip to help return her husband to her Palm Beach, Florida home if they get separated and he is unable to remember where they live or even his name.

“How often in the paper do you see that someone wanders away?” asks Mrs. Shipper. “It happens all the time. My friend got a call that her mother was out at 4am knocking on neighbors’ doors trying to get in.”

It gives Suzan Shipper a sense of peace knowing that she’ll never again have to fearfully call hospitals and police stations the way she once did when her husband once got confused and took of on his electric scooter with her car keys, leaving her stranded and he lost for half a day.

“If they scan his arm they can pull his address and phone number up on the computer,” says Shipper with visible relief. “And they can also print out his medications with no mistakes in communication.”

When told about how the VeriMed microchip works the healthy 57 year-old decided it was a good idea for her, too. “I got a chip because I could get hit by a truck and they could pull up my records and see I’m allergic to latex.”

Suzan says people who are worried about getting chipped have got it wrong. “There is absolutely no pain at all, you don’t feel it going in,” she says. “The dentist is much worse.”

And privacy concerns? “The database only contains what I want,” answers Shipper. “I just keep our medical records, insurance, stuff like that on it. And I can change that whenever I want from any computer.”

Mary Barns says all one hundred of her Alzheimer Community Cares patients are reporting similar good feelings about the microchip in their bodies or the body of their loved ones.

Barns adds that the technology has already helped in at least one emergency situation. “In St. Lucy county one of our caregivers brought their spouse to the hospital after they stopped breathing. But the caregiver was in such a heightened emotional state they couldn’t talk. The VeriMed chip allowed the hospital to get all the necessary medical records and rescue the patient.”

With the implant procedure free and the only requirement being a mandatory two years subscription to VeriChip’s medical database at a cost of $9.95 a month, many taking part in the study feel it is some of the best money they are spending on healthcare.

But all these health benefits may come with a few health risks, too. A series of animal studies dating to the mid-1990’s, indicates a greater than normal risk of cancer in animals implanted with an RFID chip.

“There’s no way in the world, having read this information, that I would have one of those chips implanted in my skin, or in one of my family members,” said Dr. Robert Benezra, head of the Cancer Biology Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York in comments to the Associated Press.

Some in the medical community are asking why the FDA would approve a technology for human use if it seems it could lead to illness.

The anti-VeriChip internet website WeThePeopleWillNotBeChipped.com is even running a campaign spoofing the famous “Got Milk?” ads, asking “Want Cancer? Get VeriChip.”

And the blogosphere erupted with recriminations when a possible conflict of interest was found concerning the VeriChip’s approval for human use.

At the time of the FDA’s approval, Tommy Thompson led the Department of Health and Human Services which exercises oversight of the FDA. Two weeks after the implantable microchip’s approval on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his post. Within five months in the civilian sector, Thompson became a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock options.

Thompson says he had no personal relationship with the company as the VeriChip was being evaluated, nor did he play any role in FDA’s approval process.

As for Applied Digital, they vigorously denounce concerns over their product, pointing to several other medical studies that conclude RFID chips are safe in animals, the fact that the FDA is standing by its approval, and an impressive 15 year record of implanting their chips into millions of animals with no red flags by veterinarians that there is a health risk to pets.

Despite the concerns of a few, it may be too late to hold back the tide of humans being implanted with Radio Frequency ID devices.

RFID is literally everywhere: last year alone, 500 million RFID chips were shipped to the U.S. military and companies like Wal-Mart for use in inventory tracking. Tolls on highways and bridges are increasingly charged automatically through RFID, the latest US Passports contain one of the chips, and even your pet may be one of the six million who have been chipped since 1991 in Applied Digital’s “Home Again” Program, their original business.

VeriChip Corp. even helped during Hurricane Katrina, making the job of coroners infinitely easier by implanting flood victims corpses’ with their RFID chip for free, so that bodies could be easily tracked and returned to loved ones once they stepped forward.

In a world where RFID has proven so useful, it may seem foolish not to extend the benefits of the radio web to people.

But there is one thing all sides of the implant controversy can agree on – being chipped needs to remain voluntary.

Wisconsin passed legislation this summer banning mandatory chipping. And Ohio is following suit, after a Cincinnati company told workers they’d have to be implanted to access a data center.

VeriChip Corp. says they quite agree. “The overall standards of our company,” says Allison Tomek, “is that VeriMed is a voluntary procedure.”

- The End -
By Lance Laytner
Copyright 2008
Meritum Media

Now drug companies are scrambling to get their hands on the patent and rush the drug to market.

And Maria Rupnick may go down in history as the woman who won the war on fat – a war that claims the lives of several million people each year due to obesity related diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

The drugs are called angiogenesis inhibitors and they work by killing off the blood vessels that feed tumors. Unlike radiation and chemotherapy, they do not have the negative side-effects of nausea or hair loss.

But this miracle medicine is proving even more effective at fighting fat than battling cancer.

“I didn’t go into this to find a cure for obesity,” explains Dr. Rupnick, “Fat just looked like the best way to study whether or not blood vessels control normal tissue just like they control tumors.”

Fat and cancer share a unique property – both need a lot of blood to keep growing. To get it, they form tubes called blood vessels that hook into veins and arteries.

“They sprout,” says Rupnick, “like new branches on a tree.”

This process of forming new blood vessels is called ‘angiogenesis’ and angiogenesis inhibitors interfere with it in a number of ways depending on the particular drug.

If you stop the tumors from growing new blood vessels by using angiogenesis inhibitors, then the cancer can no longer grow or spread.

Maria Rupnick wanted to know if the drugs would have the same effect on fat. “If there is angiogenesis in fat growth, then if you stop the angiogenesis you should stop the fat growth.”

To test her theory, Rupnick recruited hundreds of super fat mice. Each are the rodent equivalent of a Sumo Wrestler, weighing more than three times the weight of a normal mouse.

The mice belong to a particular strain called OBOB. “They are a normal mouse that lacks the hormone lepton,” explains Rupnick. “Lepton tells the brain, ‘I’m full.’

These animals don’t have that so they eat and eat. They end up being furry balls of fat with a tail.”

When Dr. Rupnick and her team began giving the fat mice the angiogenesis inhibitors, they expected the animals would stop gaining weight.

“We not only saw that,” recalls Rupnick, “but they lost a tremendous amount of weight! They were losing 1/60th of their body weight every day. They quickly went from their obese weight of more than 75 grams to the weight of their normal counterparts at 25 grams.”

What is that in human terms? “So if someone were 75 kilograms, he would lose 1.5 kilograms a day!” says the excited scientist.

“Depending on the angiogenesis inhibitor, they lost more or less. Taken off the drug, they would regain the weight. We did that over and over again.”

At first the researchers were worried that the drugs were poisoning the animals and that was why they were losing so much weight.

“But the animals were fine,” says Rupnick. “OBOB mice are usually sedentary, but these guys actually became active like their normal counter-parts.”

“So I spoke to experts in the obesity field and they didn’t buy it,” remembers Rupnick. “I received pretty harsh criticism. I was even told by one very prominent person that they had seen many young scientist’s careers crash and burn by doing things just like this.”

“A lot of whether or not you make it or break it in science depends on the decisions you make at a given crossroads and how far ahead you can see. And there is such a fine line between persistence and stubbornness.”

“It was a frightening decision to keep going, because I didn’t have an explanation for what was happening. And the paper got rejected so many times I lost count. And the grants got rejected.”

Despite the opposition and lack of funding, Maria Rupnick decided she couldn’t ignore the amazing results. The obesity epidemic was too serious to pass up an opportunity to help.

“I initially wanted to go into research because you could potentially help thousands of people, in a hospital you only help one at a time.” Dr. Rupnick felt this was her chance and redoubled her efforts to prove her work.

“We spent a lot of time trying to make sure the animals weren’t sick,” says Rupnick. “We had veterinarians check them and the animals were fine.”

“But a pharmacologist and toxicologist told me I could never 100% prove they weren’t being poisoned. I went home depressed and watched Law and Order on television. The attorneys were having a hard time proving their case. Then one said, ‘Well, if we can’t prove that this person committed the crime. Than we have to prove who really did it.’”

“It was an ‘AHAA moment’ for me. I had spent months trying to disprove toxicity. What I should have done instead was figure out what was causing the weight loss. If it is a normal, what is it?”

After months of searching, Dr. Maria Rupnick found the missing piece of the puzzle. It turns out that it was something that stares us in the face every time we put on a bathing suit and check to see if we look fat.

Fat is special.

Explains Rupnick, “if you eat ten pizzas, you’ll gain weight. Even if your weight has been stable forever. And if after ten years you suddenly don’t have access to food, your fat tissue is going to shrink.”

We’ve all experienced putting on a few pounds during the Holidays or struggling to lose ten pounds for that vacation to the beach, so we take it for granted. But, biologically speaking, this is very unique. Your heart doesn’t get bigger or smaller depending on what you eat.

“The blood vessels in fat tissue must specialize to accommodate that ability to grow and shrink,” says Rupnick. And that was the key.

Like many people, blood vessels become less adaptable as they get older. Your heart won’t grow or shrink because its blood vessels are too old and rigid.

But fat is the Peter Pan of the body, it never quite grows up. “The blood vessels that supply fat tissue never fully mature,” explains Rupnick. “That keeps them readily able to grow or shrink as you need.”

But this eternal youth has a price. “The payback is they are vulnerable to angiogenesis inhibitors.” That was the missing link, the reason the fat was melting away.

As its blood vessels die off, the fat cell is forced to get rid of bulky fat to survive –Like sailors on a sinking ship who start throwing everything overboard to stay afloat.

This discovery goes way beyond helping people lose fat, it will also help angiogenesis inhibitors beat cancer.

Chemotherapy and radiation kill cancer by destroying everything around it, including healthy tissue. It is like a nuclear bomb. The big advantage of angiogenesis inhibitors is they only attack the cancer, like a smart missile.

But, despite their promise, the results have been mixed. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved one angiogenesis inhibitor called Avastin, but many others have been held up by mixed results in clinical trials.

Dr. Rupnick’s findings are the missing link. Angiogenesis inhibitors can be made more effective by first using drugs that de-mature the blood vessels in the tumors making them more vulnerable.

The opposite can make fighting fat even easier. Maria Rupnick discovered that if she gave the mice drugs to age the blood vessels in their fat, then the mice became frozen at whatever weight they were. “They just stabilized out,” says Rupnick, “the animals couldn’t gain weight or lose weight.”

Now Rupnick and her team are developing a two step fat fighting system. First they melt away excess fat with angiogenesis inhibitors, then they lock the new weight in with drugs that mature the blood vessels within the fat.

Imagine safely losing 30 pounds in a week and then taking a pill along with your daily vitamins that will guarantee that you will never gain it back. It will be a revolution in how we deal with fat.

“The problem we had in treating obesity is that we didn’t understand it,” says Rupnick. “We blamed it on the patient.”

Doctors would never tell someone with diabetes, “just be more disciplined.” But that is exactly what many fat people are told. “Obesity is a deregulation of body weight just like diabetes is a deregulation of blood sugar,” says Rupnick. “It is a disease.”

And now being fat may have a cure.

When asked when we might see these drugs on the market, Dr. Rupnick said it was too early to say. “Obesity being the epidemic that it is, the FDA wants to push it towards clinical trials as fast as possible. But, I think it is too dangerous to even speculate.”

The fact that the drugs have already been approved for treating cancer will go a long way in speeding up the process. It is possible we might begin seeing ‘fat melting’ medicines available world-wide in the very near future.

But there are still questions to be answered. “There is a huge difference between a mouse and a man. Right now we can say that we can make mice look pretty good,” says Maria Rupnick. “We don’t have any indications yet that it won’t translate to humans, but the place where you always get into trouble in science and medicine is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Still, I would say it is hopeful.”

If the drugs end up fulfilling their promise we may be entering a Fat Free millennium. Since the 1930’s most industrialized countries have been fortifying milk and bread with nutrients. This century may eventually see the same being done with the ‘anti-fat drugs’ being developed by Maria Rupnick.

“The only way you can get a drug from the lab to the bedside is to have a drug company pay for it. There is no other way to fund, develop, or market these things.

Because of that reason, it may end up going in that direction and I can’t control that.”

But the idea disturbs her. “Obesity is a disease, and I want this to be a treatment for a disease,” says Rupnick, “not to lose 5 pounds for the little black dress on Saturday.”

“If your objective is to eat poorly, and not exercise, and just take the pill a couple of days before you want to go out; I couldn’t be more opposed to that. Because the drug itself may be safe, but what you’re really doing is abusing yourself. This is not supposed to allow you to eat ten thousand hamburgers.”

But despite Doctor Rupnick’s reservations, her drugs may end up being used in precisely that way.

- The End -
Lance Laytner
Meritum Media
Copyright 2008

click on photos for LIGHTBOX

THESE TWO MICE WERE ONCE ALMOST IDENTICAL. AFTER JUST

DOCTOR MARIA RUPNICK MAY GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE

THIS FAT MOUSE MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE. OBESITY CAUSES A NUMBER OF HEALTH PROBLEMS INCLUDING HEART DISEASE AND DIABETES. THE RESEARCH BEING DONE ON THIS MOUSE MAY SPELL THE END OF OBESITY AND A NEW ERA OF IMPROVED HEALTH. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

OUR BODIES WERE SIMPLY NOT BUILT FOR THE KIND OF OVEREATING THAT IS POSSIBLE IN OUR MODERN WORLD. THE RESULT IS 'GLOBESITY,' A WORLD-WIDE EPIDEMIC OF FAT RELATED DISEASES. PHOTO BY RON LAYTNER EDIT INTERNATIONAL

IF ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS PROVE AS SUCCESSFUL ON HUMANS AS THEY HAVE ON THESE MICE, THE CHOICE BETWEEN FAT AND THIN MAY BE AS EASY AS TAKING A PILL WITH YOUR VITAMINS. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

HUNDREDS OF MICE HAVE BEEN TESTED BY DR. RUPNICK AND OTHER LABS AND THE RESULTS ARE IRREFUTIBLE - ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS WORK BETTER THAN COULD HAVE BEEN IMAGINED. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

WHEN RUPNICK FIRST STARTED WEIGHING THE MICE AFTER GIVING THEM THE DRUGS, SHE WAS SHOCKED. THE MICE WERE LOSING MORE THAN 1/60th OF THEIR BODY WEIGHT EACH DAY. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

EVERY PHASE OF HER WORK IS CAREFULLY DOCUMENTED BY MARIA RUPNICK, A TOP AMERICAN SCIENTIST WHO EARNED A MEDICAL DOCTORATE FROM HARVARD AND A PHD FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY IN PHYSIOLOGY, CELL BIOLOGY, AND MATHEMATICAL MODELING. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

HERE A CLUSTER OF FAT CELLS IS SHOWN WITH THE HELP OF A HIGH POWERED ELECTRON MICROSCOPE. THE TENDRILS THAT LOOK LIKE YELLOW VINES ARE BLOOD VESSELS. ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS KILL THEM CAUSING THE FAT CELLS TO SHRINK AND EVENTUALLY DIE. PHOTO BY SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

LIKE A PROUD PARENT, MARIA RUPNICK SHOWS OFF THE MICE THAT MAY CHANGE THE FUTURE OF WEIGHT LOSS. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER MERITUM MEDIA

The world’s leading champion of Brain Music Therapy is Dr. Galina Mindlin, a 20 year veteran of psychiatry with a medical degree and two doctorate degrees: one in neurophysiology and another in neuropsychology.

Before going into medicine, Dr. Mindlin studied the arts while growing up in Moscow. When she began learning about the human brain, she was amazed to see patterns reminiscent of music.

“Music and brain waves are actually very similar,” says Dr. Mindlin, “both are a combination of different frequencies and patterns.”

Mindlin was intrigued when former Moscow colleague Yakov Levine created a computer program that could convert raw brain waves into music.

“What could be more soothing than the sound of your own brain?” asks Mindlin. “At a subconscious level you recognize these rhythms.”

Like an infant soothed by the familiar sound of its mother’s heart-beat, listening to music that matches our own unique brain waves creates a tremendously calming effect.

“It is a form of bio-feedback,” explains Mindlin. A part of our brain recognizes the pattern as its own and like a tuning fork the brain falls into the same rhythm.

That is why Dr. Mindlin’s patients are guided into a deep, calm state of relaxation while their brain waves are being recorded in her Manhattan office. Brain Music Therapy captures that peaceful state and allows the listener to instantly shrug off anxiety whenever they hear their “brain music.”

It is essentially pure relaxation captured in the form of music.

Recording the brain waves is easy and comfortable. A specially designed mesh cap that looks like a black rubber spider web is placed over your head. It feels sort of like a shower cap.

The cap positions tiny cups over certain areas of the skull. The cups are filled with gel that oozes down to your scalp. The gel picks up activity coming from your brain. Electrodes placed in the top of the gel carry those signals to a laptop computer that records your brain waves.

This simple EEG (electroencephalogram) recording can be done at Dr. Mindlin’s office or at any properly equipped hospital.

Mindlin dims the lights and guides you through a series of relaxation exercises. I was told to think of a place where I felt calm and happy and decided on a cabin in the woods next to a soothing, bubbling river where I once spent a peaceful vacation.

After about 20 minutes, enough had been recorded. The file was to be sent to Moscow and there turned into music by a sophisticated computer program. I would get a CD in a few weeks with my own personal brain music.

The whole process start to finish takes about 45 minutes including filling out a brief psychological questionnaire that helps determine how Dr. Mindlin will direct you to use the Brain Music. The price of the treatment is $550 dollars, far less expensive than any other guided therapy for insomnia, anxiety, or depression.

Every Brain Music CD contains two “songs” – the Relaxation File, and the Activating File. Says Dr. Mindlin, “The Relaxing File helps you sleep and with stress. The Activating File boosts energy, concentration, and productivity.”

Once you receive your CD, treatment is as easy as slipping on a pair of headphones. I personally experienced an absolute end of my insomnia and noticeably less fatigue in only a few days, but Dr. Mindlin says that it may take up to three weeks for some patients to notice a change.

“It is medicine in the form of music,” explains Mindlin in a soothing Russian accent. “You usually take it every day, but it depends on your unique brain architecture.”

When my CD arrived, I was eager to hear what songs my brain might sing. I sat back with my eyes closed to hear the rhythm of my mind.

Out of the headphones came a soothing symphony that sounded like classical piano music with an Asian motif – maybe sushi, karate and Japanese study have left their mark.

“Our brain waves are even more personal than a fingerprint,” Mindlin says, “no two sound alike.”

As I listened, I wondered if the Brain Music of famous people might some day be popular – what would Einstein’s brain have sounded like? What about rock stars or classical musicians, would their minds create more beautiful melodies?

Whether or not it sounds good is really beside the point according to Dr. Mindlin. The power of the music is that it corresponds to YOUR mental states.

“When my colleagues first noticed the effects of Brain Music we weren’t sure what was going on,” says Mindlin. “Since ancient times, music has been used for healing.” Was this just another example?

Apparently not, a series of rigorous double-blind scientific studies conducted by its Russian discoverers proved that the full power of Brain Music only works for the listener whose brain created it.

Listening to someone else’s Brain Music does no more good than listening to normal music. But, hearing your own Brain Music provides almost magical benefits.

Approximately 1 in 8 people suffer from insomnia in most developed countries. While one or two nights without sleep is a minor inconvenience, weeks or months of sleep deprivation can become debilitating.

For long-term sufferers, the continual fatigue is imprisoning. But Brain Music is a prison break.

“After 4 nights listening to my Brain Music, I had my first night of sleep in over a year,” reports Lynda Erkiletian, 47, whose insomnia was totally cured. “It quiets the mind, you stop thinking about things that keep you up.”

“This completely changed my life,” she reports. “In addition to allowing me to sleep, it put me in a peaceful frame of mind. It helped get me back on track.”

For over a year after the sudden loss of her closest friend to breast cancer, Lynda tossed and turned every night.

Sleeplessness was destroying her life, but as a single mother of four, she was afraid to take sleeping pills. “One of my concerns about taking [sleep] medication was that I would get into such a deep sleep that I wouldn’t be able to hear my children if they needed me. With Brain Music Therapy I don’t have to be concerned about being hung over from medication if there is an emergency.”

“It is safe, it is natural, and it is healthy,” agrees Dr. Mindlin. “It causes no side-effects at all.”

One of my patients is a young woman with General Anxiety Disorder,” shares Galina Mindlin. “She didn’t want to be on any medications because she very much wanted to get pregnant. Brain Music Therapy helped her anxiety and allowed her to avoid medications.”

Doctor Mindlin claims Brain Music Therapy is perfect for frayed nerves. “Patients use it after arguing with their spouse, boss, or teenage kid,” says Mindlin. “I have moms who love it. When the children scream they just slip on the headphones and relax.”

“I was willing to try anything because I suffer from anxiety,” says Vance Harmond, a 71 year-old Manhattan business owner, “I don’t like to take too much medication and the Brain Music Therapy helped me a great deal.”

“I also work with executives from Fortune 500 Companies,” reports Mindlin. “They accomplish more in a shorter time to meet deadlines.”

And Brain Music works for even severe anxiety. “I treat a few people who have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from 9-11,” reveals Dr. Mindlin. “They have less flashbacks and less anxiety.”

Brain Music Therapy also heightens creativity. “Dancers and actors use a combination of the Relaxing File then Activating File to focus for performance.”

According to Dr. Galina Mindlin, Brain Music even chases away the blues. “It helps people fighting depression and Bipolar Disorder;” great news for the hundreds of millions around the world.

Many antidepressants have troubling side-effects including loss of sexual desire, weight gain, anxiety, and addiction. But, Brain Music “causes no side-effects or addiction. Brainwaves are natural and belong to us.”

But what if you are too relaxed, falling asleep on the job or staggering from one cup of coffee to the next?

“One of my patients is the manager of a coffee shop who stopped drinking coffee because his Activating File works better. But he doesn’t tell his customers about me,” says Dr. Mindlin with a smile.

Unlike too much coffee or tea, it doesn’t leave you jittery and wired – just naturally awake and alert as if you had a full night sleep.

I find listening to my own my three minute Activating File wakes me up more than three cups of coffee. In fact, it helped me write this article.

For many of us, falling asleep on the job is only a minor inconvenience. But for soldiers it can mean the difference between life and death.

“I also work with several military officers,” reveals Galina Mindlin. “They use it to wake up on short notice, sleep in shifts, or stay awake for long missions.”

And, of course, in the world of professional sports where milliseconds can mean the difference between victory and defeat “people are always looking for a safe advantage.” says Dr. Mindlin. “A Canadian study showed athletes performing much better after listening.”

In today’s fast paced world it, seems like athletes are not the only ones constantly running. “It shouldn’t be like this,” says Dr. Galina Mindlin, “so many people stressed out in this competitive environment. I see this as a great opportunity to help people.”

And thousands agree. Due to the overwhelming demand for the treatment, Galina Mindlin is now training other doctors and psychiatrists in Brain Music Therapy and is looking for partners within the U.S. and around the world. In the meantime, Dr. Mindlin makes house calls with her equipment.

When asked what is the best feature of Brain Music Therapy, Mindlin answers that it quickly helps you tap into the healing power we all already possess.

This is the same kind of mental control that Buddhist monks spend a life time cultivating, but Brain Music Therapy takes out most of the work.

“To use meditation to the full extent, you really need to practice for years and years. Brain Music Therapy doesn’t require any special training,” says Dr. Galina Mindlin, “there is no effort.”

“We all have busy lives now, from corporate managers to moms navigating car pools. This is the treatment for modern society.”

- The End -
By Lance Laytner
Copyright Meritum Media

click on photos for LIGHTBOX

Each of our brains is constantly creating a symphony. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Like an infant soothed by the familiar sound of its mother’s heart-beat, listening to music that matches our own unique brain waves creates a tremendously calming effect. PHOTO BY RON LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Brain Music therapy begins with a modified electroencephalogram (EEG) which records our own unique brain rhythm. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Doctor Galina Mindlin is the foremost American practioner of Brain Music Therapy. A veteran psychiatrist with two doctorate degrees, she believes that the treatment is ideal because it is clinically proven and has no side effects. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Dr. Mindlin

Before going into medicine, Dr. Mindlin studied the arts while growing up in Moscow. When she began learning about the human brain, she was amazed to see patterns reminiscent of music.“Music and brain waves are actually very similar,” says Dr. Mindlin, “both are a combination of different frequencies and patterns.” PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

With a laptop and some suprisingly portable equipment, Dr. Mindlin can record brain waves to create music almost anywhere. Mindlin is also in the process of trainning other psychiatrists in America and abroad to perform the procedure. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

After recording your brain waves, the data is sent to a special lab in Moscow that runs it through a special computer program that converts your brain waves into music. The file is shipped back to you and treatment is as easy as slipping on a pair of headphones. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

Gazing into the future, Dr. Mindlin envisions a time when Brain Music Therapy becomes a common part of overall health strategy. “It is safe, it is natural, and it is healthy,

I personally found Brain Music Therapy remarkably effective. My work often throws off my sleep schedule and I often struggle with both exhaustion and insomnia. With Brain Music Therapy my sleep troubles vanished and, as a bonus, it helped my back pain, as well. PHOTO FROM MERITUM MEDIA

According to both clinical studies and individual reviews, Brain Music Therapy provides almost magical benefits giving relief for insomnia, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For many, this safe and inexpensive treatment is providing hope for the first time in years. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA

A specially designed mesh cap positions tiny cups over certain areas of the skull. The cups are filled with gel that oozes down to your scalp. The gel picks up activity coming from your brain. Electrodes placed in the top of the gel carry those signals to a laptop computer that records your brain waves. PHOTO BY LANCE LAYTNER, MERITUM MEDIA