The Good News and the Bad News...

In the field of Neuroscience recently, there is good news and bad news.

The good news, according to Barbara Strauch, ( author of The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain, and the health/medical science editor for The New York Times ) is that at middle age we have the BEST brains of our entire lives. The bad news is that our lifestyle choices are robbing us of it.

Barbara Strauch recently spoke at Stanford University about how changes to the middle aged brain make it the best brain of our entire lives. This may sound counter-intuitive to those of us who can't remember where they put their keys or what they were going to do in the first place. Yes, levels of neurotransmitters are lower and short term memory starts to have problems. However, in cognitive tests, 40-60 year old people did better than their 20 something year old counterparts on the most important functions. In the areas of inductive reasoning and problem solving, social expertise and financial judgments, the middle age brain does much better. In those at middle age, experience has shaped their brains to be better at sizing up situations, people, and making better decisions. Experience counts and most especially in these areas.

Now for the bad news. For most people in America, our lifestyle choices are robbing us of the best brain of our lives.

The American diet has created a nation of overweight people. Over one quarter of the US population can be considered obese according to the CDC. Obesity has recently been linked with brain shrinkage and Dementia. Other recent news indicates that 1 in 10 people suffer from Diabetes in America and that number is predicted to be 1 in 3 by the year 2050. Hypoglycemia has been associated with losses of declarative memory (places people and things), and insulin resistance has been associated with Alzheimer's.

Our sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise has been implicated in both increased diabetes and decreased brain function. According to brain scientist John Medina, exercise increases brain function and learning in every way we know how to measure it. Exercise not only increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, but it has been shown to work as well as SSRI's (Prozac ect.) for depression.

Finally, our stress levels and inability to deal with stress are a major factor in brain degeneration. Stress levels are at all time highs in the US and have been associated with decreased learning along with hippocampal volume (the part of brain responsible for learning). Our Sympathetic Nervous System, or our "fight or flight" system, is designed to quickly aid us in fighting, or fleeing from,a perceived threat (real or otherwise) and then shut down to allow the Parasympathetic system to digest food and heal the body. Our Sympathetic System reacts the same to a deadline at work as it does to a tiger trying to eat us. The problem is that the former situation is much more common, and in today's society these constants stresses keep our Sympathetic System ON constantly. This not only doesn't give the body time to rest and repair itself but degenerates the body as well as the brain.

So what do we do to claim the full promise of our middle aged brains?

Simple;

1. Eat a healthy diet to maintain a healthy body weight and decrease your chances of diabetes. A good general diet with foods low on the glycemic index along with portion control will accomplish both of these tasks.
   
2. Get out and exercise. As little as 30 minutes a day is enough to claim most of the benefits to brain and body. Running, walking and other various exercises (without weights) are all you need.
3. Control your stress. Breathing and mindfulness exercises work great for this. As little as 10-20 minutes a day to start is fine.
   

Taking these simple little steps can make the difference between a healthy middle aged brain and standing in your living room trying to remember what you came in there for.

"SPONTANEOUS THOUGHT IS A HIGHER COGNITIVE FUNCTION" or why my 3rd grade teacher was wrong about me....

I was like any other 3rd grade boy. I spent most of my day engaged in daydreaming about a whole range of things. From why Yoda sounded so much like Kermit the Frog, to new ways to capture and torture the local insect population for my sport and pleasure. But this third grade boy had a problem. My teacher just happened to have grown up with, and was still best friends with, my grandmother. Therefore, I was the recipient of the special attention that comes from a personal connection, a genuine affection and caring for the outcome of my academic career. In my eyes, it meant that I didn't get away with anything.

Anytime I wasn't performing to my perceived academic ability, my grandmother knew about it before I even walked in the door from school that day. My grandmother would then attempt to stimulate my brain by applying a belt to my backside. This generally worked well and served to curtail my classroom 'spontaneous thought' excursions.

Recently, there has been a lot of research into exactly what the brain is doing during these daydreaming sessions. There are generally believed to by 2 types of thought, goal directed thought and spontaneous thought. Goal directed thought is used in active problem solving, such as those math questions like,"if a train left New York traveling to California at 50mph, what is the price of eggs in China?" Goal directed thought is linked with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex. These are executive centers of the brain and the seat of executive function. Spontaneous thought happens when the executive centers quiet down and the "default network" along with areas in the temporal lobe fire up. Default network regions lie largely along the midline of the brain and include, most prominently, the medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices, the precuneus and the posterior parietal lobule. This default network, combined with the areas of the temporal lobe, constitute a significantly larger area of brain real estate than what is active during solving the math word problem.

So when my 3rd grade teacher assumed I was mentally lazy because I daydreamed a lot in her class, she was wrong. I was actually using more of my brain than the girl sitting next to me who always knew the answer to that stupid math word problem.

These areas used in spontaneous thinking are also active in creative problem solving, and the brain will actually dampen other brain activity just prior to the moment of insight. (kinda like blocking out noise so you can think) So the best way to come up with a creative solution to your problem, is to research all your facts, and then go for a walk and daydream.

Now my third grade teacher has long since passed away, but I can still hear her voice in my head calling me back to the task at hand sometimes. I loved her dearly and I'm deeply appreciative of the loving attention she gave me and my academic career. However, in this instance, I was actually doing a good thing by daydreaming in her class. Besides who actually travels to California by train these days?

Christoff, K., Gordon, A. M., Smallwood, J., Smith, R., & Schooler, J. W. (2009). Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (21): 8719-8724

Christoff, K., Gordon, A. & Smith, R. (in press). The role of spontaneous thought in human cognition. In: Neuroscience of Decision Making (Eds: O. Vartanian and D.R. Mandel). Psychology Press.

Christoff, K., Ream, J.M. and Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2004). Cognitive and neural basis of spontaneous thought processes. Cortex, 40: 623-630.

The 'Singularity' of You

A singularity is what physicists call the Big Bang. A point (.) at which time and space and all things therein were one infinitely dense point. You too were once a singularity of one cell before you began to develop into the “you” of today. You may not have been “infinitely dense” until many years later ;-), but you started from a single unit just as the universe did. Right after the Big Bang the universe rapidly expanded and cooled and began to form stars, planets, and galaxies. Right after the “little bang” you grew quickly from one cell to trillions of cells differentiated into different tissues and organs. Consequently, the periodic table of elements which form the compounds that make up your tissues and organs, ultimately came from the after debris of those first stars that formed and then went supernova after the Big Bang.

During the formation of the stars, planets and galaxies, if any one factor of the physics equations that controlled the development of these bodies was off, it would have profoundly effected the development of the universe as we know it. During your development, there are numerous factors that profoundly effect your development as well. Such as the diet, stress, age and overall health of your mother.

Earth itself is a single planet comprised of millions of individual life forms that evolved from the initial star dust elements that happened to comprise it. You are a single organism comprised of over 3 trillion individual cells as well as millions of beneficial flora in your gut that help you to digest food and provide nutrients. Just as you will suffer if you are subjected to toxins and byproducts of industrial production, so to will the earth if we continue to subject it to the byproducts of our comfort. If we can't respect our own bodies enough to take care of them (as shown in our national state of health), how can we ever respect the planet we live on enough to take care of it?

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” ~ Ghandi

I am.....therefore I think....the basis of human consciousness and cognition

Everyone has heard the saying, "I think, therefore I am", also known as, "Cogito ergo sum". This saying, attributed to René Descartes, became a foundational element of Western Philosophy. The simple meaning of the phrase is that if someone is wondering whether or not he exists, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist (because, at the very least, there is an "I" who is doing the thinking).

Modern neuroscience research is turning this idea in reverse. Modern research suggests that a perception of self, in the form of proprioceptive input from the body, is the basis of higher cognitive function.

"In recent years, it has become evident that neuronal rhythmicity and its consequence, ensemble neuronal oscillation and resonance, are deeply related to the emergence of brain functions. Prominent in these studies was the linking of high-frequency oscillations (in the domain of 25-50 Hz) with sensorimotor and cognitive functions."

Brain waves are the readings of electrical activity in the brain. As neurons turn on and off they create electrical activity that can be perceived from electrodes attached to the skull. Most animals earlier on the evolutionary scale have more high frequency components, while mammilian brain waves were shifted toward the lower frequencies.

These brain waves have been implicated in the development of cognitive functions such as visual perceptions, attention, learning and memory. These oscillations support the functions of consciousness.

The basis of these oscillations comes from pacemaker cells in the intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus in the brain. The thalamus is the sensory gateway that processes most sensory information and relays it to the cortex of the brain. The pace of these intralaminar nuclei are set in part by input from the cerebellum and second order dorsal column nuclei transmitting information from slowly adapting receptors. Primarily muscles spindel receptors (from postural muscles) and joint mechanoreceptors from the spine.

In other words the proprioceptive input from the body sets the frequency of brain wave activity and the basis of human cognition.

Therefore it's actually your perception of your own body (conscious and unconscious) which sets the basis for human consciousness and cognition.

If you are not in tune with your body, your mind will suffer and so will you.

Do drug companies have your best interest at heart?

This is an example of how pharmaceutical corporations put profit above lives. Bayer's history is a colorful one. They were originally a division of IG Farben, a company that in World War 2 collaborated with Nazi's to use Jewish slave labor in their factories and produced the Zyclon B gas used in the gas chambers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Farben#World_War_II

Bayer's anti-cholesterol drug, Baycol (also known as Lipobay and cerivastatin), has deadly side effects. The Food and Drug Administration received reports of 31 US deaths due to rhabdomyolysis, a potentially fatal adverse muscle reaction that results in muscle cell breakdown and release of the contents of muscle cells in the bloodstream. Symptoms include muscle pain, weakness, fever, nausea, and vomiting. Bayer admitted that the drug might have killed 52 people already worldwide, with another 1,100 potentially crippled. Although Bayer voluntarily recalled the drug after a large number of deaths, Germany's health minister, on 25 August 2001, accused Bayer of sitting on research documenting Baycol's lethal side-effects for nearly two months before the government in Berlin was informed.' A number of individual and class action law suits have been filed, including one in Pennsylvania which cited 480 cases of Baycol-related illnesses. The number of Baycol related deaths has risen to almost 100

In October 2001, Bayer was taken to court after 24 children in the remote Andean village of Tauccamarca were killed and 18 severely poisoned when they drank a powdered milk substitute that had been contaminated with methyl parathion. The white powder that resembles powdered milk and has no strong chemical odor was packaged in small plastic bags that provide no protection to users and give no indication of the danger of the product within. The bags were labelled in Spanish only, and carried drawings of healthy carrots and potatoes but no pictograms indicating danger or toxicity.

Think about this the next time you take an aspirin.

Welcome

Welcome to the new "Health Food" for Thought format. I will periodically make posts here about things that are on my mind. Topics will include Health and Wellness issues I think you may be interested in. You can subscribe to the RSS feed below to know when I update or I'll put a link to here in the other monthly newsletter that I send out.

As many of you know, I am currently studying for a Chiropractic Diplomate degree in Neurology from ACNB, through The Carrick Institute. In chiropractic, there are many specialty or diplomate degrees that you can get. From orthopedics, radiology, to pediatrics and wellness. ACNB has the only degree fully accredited by the National Commission for Certification Agencies (NCCA), and the accreditation body of the National Organization from Competency Assurance (NOCA). Therefore many of my posts here will have a slant toward what I am learning at the time.

The following is a video of Dr. John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, of a lecture he gave at Google explaining Neuroplasticity (the basis of what we do) and some interesting things from his book. If you have any questions about topics presented here, please email me at healing@drgary.net

This should give you a basic understanding. I will build upon these topics as we go along.

Brain Food