First Person: Cynde Margritz, CEO of Peak Neurofitness, 52, Alexandria

December, 2014 edition
Interview by Amanda Long

I had a head injury as a kid. I was 5, standing on concrete steps, and another girl grabbed my ankles and pulled my feet out from under me. I whacked my head. When I came to, I didn’t want to leave school. I loved school so much that I didn’t want to go to the hospital.

My mother took me. They whacked my knee, said my reflexes were fine and sent me home. I’ve learned since that anytime the brain is injured it can go into an anxious state. By the time I was in second grade, I had severe anxiety, almost agoraphobia. I would only go to school if the neighbor boy would hold my hand in class.

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) December 18, 2013

Cynde Margritz suffered a head injury when she was five. As an after-effect, she fought severe anxiety and ADD to varying degrees for nearly 40 years. Her story is told by freelancer Amanda Long in the Washington Post Magazine:

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May 23, 2014
Alison Stark

(WJLA) - It looks like this patient, who suffers from vertigo and what he calls "mental cloudiness," is playing a video game.

In a sense, he is - but he's using only his brain.

Cynde Magritz first discovered neurofeedback when she was a scientist at NASA, where it was used for pilot training. She managed preflight operations for the neurolab mission on the shuttle.

Simply put, she says it's a technique that builds mental "muscle," pinpointing where your brain is performing at its peak and providing reinforcement.

18-Feb-2015

Ghosh T, Jahan M, Singh AR. The efficacy of electroencephalogram neurofeedback training in cognition, anxiety, and depression in alcohol dependence syndrome: A case study. Ind Psychiatry J [serial online] 2014 [cited 2015 Mar 24 ];23:166-170 
Available from: http://www.industrialpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2014/23/2/166/151705 

Electroencephalogram (EEG) neurofeedback's efficacy in reducing the symptoms of patients with alcohol dependence syndrome is well-documented in previous literature. Here, a case is being described who presented with alcohol dependence syndrome was given EEG neurofeedback training. After 10 sessions of EEG neurofeedback training program, a significant reduction was found in the cognitive deficits, anxiety, and depression of the patient. Furthermore, noticeable improvement was found in his memory and neurological functioning. He also showed a significant reduction in his alcohol intake on follow-up.

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How I … Became a Brain Coach
Peak Neurofitness LLC shows you exactly why you're stressed or anxious

Feb 14, 2014, 12:44pm EST
Chloe Johnson

Cynde Margritz fell and pounded her head on concrete pavement at 5 years old, knocking herself out cold. Nearly 50 years later, she’s emerged with a business idea based on her ensuing hardships with brain performance. The former NASA Spacelab program manager is ready to share her wisdom at Peak Neurofitness with other executives who share the same anxiety and concentration hindrances she did.

Daniel J Levitin
Sunday 18 January 2015, 03.30 EST
Our brains are busier than ever before. We’re assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumour, all posing as information. Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting. At the same time, we are all doing more. Thirty years ago, travel agents made our airline and rail reservations, salespeople helped us find what we were looking for in shops, and professional typists or secretaries helped busy people with their correspondence. Now we do most of those things ourselves. We are doing the jobs of 10 different people while still trying to keep up with our lives, our children and parents, our friends, our careers, our hobbies, and our favourite TV shows.

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City College of New York
December 15, 2014

A strong connection between burnout and depression has been suggested by a psychologist. In a study of more than 5,500 school teachers to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorders in workers with burnout, 90% of the subjects identified as burned out met diagnostic criteria for depression.

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between improved memory and the use of neurofeedback

Imperial College London
22-Jan-2003

The results announced in the International Journal of Psychophysiology this month show a link between neurofeedback training and improved memory in a 40 person trial.

Dr David Vernon, from Imperial College London at the Charing Cross hospital says: "Previous research has indicated that neurofeedback can be used to help treat a number of conditions including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, epilepsy and alcoholism by training particular aspects of brain activity, but this is the first time we have shown a link between the use of neurofeedback, and improvements in memory."

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