Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

The complex relationship between obesity, stress and reward center dysregulation is addressed by emotional brain training (EBT), which integrates stress physiology, attachment theory, neuroplasticity and evolutionary biology. The goal of the method is to decrease allostatic load and modify the brain?s set point to a homeostatic state to favor parasympathetic dominance and reward center regulation. The application of EBT includes a comprehensive program of integrative medicine, including self-regulatory tools, and tools to reconsolidate maladaptive allostatic circuitry that promotes dysregulation. The use of positive emotional plasticity in the treatment of obesity is consistent with the emerging paradigm of treating the brain rather than the stress symptom, a brain fitness lifestyle, and preventive and therapeutic health care.

Biography

Laurel Mellin is an associate professor of family and community medicine and pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She developed the national guidelines for the prevention and treatment of pediatric obesity, and developed emotional brain training (EBT), a neuroscience-based paradigm for integrative medicine for the prevention and treatment of stress-related problems, including obesity. She directs the Institute for Health Solutions, an organization that certifies clinicians in the method.