Neuroplasticity Intervention, Amygdala and Insula Retraining (AIR), Significantly Improves Overall Health and Functioning Across Various Chronic Conditions

Abstract

Chronic conditions, sometimes referred to as functional somatic disorders, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), and more recently, long COVID (LC), affect millions of people worldwide. Yet, after decades of research and testing, the etiology and treatment for many of these diseases is still unclear. Recently, a consortium of clinicians and researchers have proposed that while many different chronic conditions exist, the root cause of each may be a similar brain-body connection, as the brain responds to perceived biological threats and transmits danger signals to the body that manifest as somatic symptoms. This hypothesis suggests that treating chronic conditions requires an approach that addresses the neural networks involved. One such method, known as Amygdala and Insula Retraining (AIR), otherwise known as The Gupta Program, has shown promise in recent years for treating such conditions, including ME/CFS, FM, and LC. The present study aimed to demonstrate that AIR could be an effective approach for numerous other chronic illnesses (e.g., Lyme disease, mold illness, mast cell activation syndrome [MCAS]) and others. This novel and exploratory research examined self-reported health and functioning levels before and after using AIR. A series of paired-sample t tests with Bonferroni correction demonstrated that after 3+ months of using AIR (the minimum recommended time for the intervention), participants experienced a significant increase in overall health and functioning for 14 of 16 conditions tested (P < .001 for all but one, which was P = .001) and approached significance for the remaining two conditions (P = .039 and P = .005). Of the 14 signficant findings, 11 had a large effect size and three had a medium effect size. Naturally, this study has limitations. It was a cross-sectional design with a small convenience sample and self-reported data. Future research with larger samples and randomized controlled trials is needed to provide further evidence of AIR's effectiveness. Nonetheless, these preliminary findings suggest that AIR is a viable method for improving the health of people suffering from chronic conditions, and clinicians and researchers might consider incorporating AIR into their protocols for these patients.