Wow! I just spent last weekend at a long and intense seminar on Brain Neuro-degeneration – that means dying brain cells. The presenter said that I will have killed off at least 108,000 brain cells forever by the time the seminar was over if I were an average Joe. Talk about a complex subject! 15 hours of neurology, hormone physiology, neuro-transmitter feedback loops, and brain toxicology. The bottom line is that everything causing pain and suffering in the body is also causing permanent damage to the brain. This damage in turn causes a host of other problems in the body. It is all about the brain.
Our health begins and ends in the brain. Everything in our life involves our brain. Our ability to like ice cream, finding our way home after work, being able to tie our shoes, even standing up without falling down. Every tiny aspect of our life comes down to and depends on the health of our brain. Yet most of us take our brain health completely for granted. Unless we are close to someone with Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s, or Epilepsy, or has brain damage, we just don’t think about how our life would be different with brain disease. The scary reality I learned this last weekend is that every one of us is developing brain damage right now.
I am not talking about some unnoticeable level of damage either. I am talking about changes that significantly affect our lives. It starts showing up as little things like not remembering names or forgetting where we put the car keys. It also shows up as things like high blood pressure, anxiety attacks, poor energy, or everybody’s favorite – constipation. Maybe it progresses to poor balance, difficulty focusing (brain fog), depression, or hormone disorders. Life just does not feel as good anymore as the brain gets more damaged.
What causes this terrible problem…in a word – inflammation. When we have inflammation anywhere in the body, it releases things called cytokines that move into the brain and cause brain inflammation. The problem is that inflammation in the brain goes crazy and kills brain cells. What is more, once it gets going it keeps going without stopping – long after the initial cause is gone. The worst culprits are blood sugar imbalances, emotional/life stress, gut inflammation, anemia, infections, and food/toxin reactions.
Each year the level of damage builds up. It makes it easier for us to develop body aches and pains. It causes old injuries to flare up for no cause. It slows down healing. It actually creates a stress response in our body so we over react to things that never used to bother us. It throws our hormones out of balance. It seriously messes with us. I see this stuff every day in practice. The complaints people come in to see me with often come on for no reason. Now I have the reason… brain inflammation.
One of the points the lecturer made over and over was how critical it was for us to get a handle on our daily stress levels to slow down this brain damage. His biggest suggestion was to take a day off every week. He was talking about one whole day each week without our ego running the show. A day of rest, a day with absolutely no work, no plans, no goals, no agendas, no “shoulds”, or “have to’s”. This is a day completely to yourself to do whatever pleases you in the moment. He deals with very tough and often very serious cases and has found taking this day off to often be the difference between success and failure with patients. If they won’t take the day off, they don’t get better. This is a day to yourself without having to deal with anybody else, not family, not friends, not anybody. Interactions with other people are the source of most of our life stress. Turn off the cell phone and relax.
Thanksgiving was originally a day of rest, but one filled with supportive family connection. This kind of connection helps heal the brain. The Sabbath was also intended to be a day of rest in which absolutely no work was to be done, not even cooking. This is still practiced in some cultures. We have gotten so obsessed with our plans in life that we have stopped relaxing and letting in our connection to life. Everything is goal oriented and push, push, push. Well it is killing our brains and slowly killing our lives. Hippie, tree-hugger types told us this back in the 60’s and early 70’s. But the allure of the big screen TV and SUV’s drowned them out. Spirituality began here but lost it when it became a high pressure weekend seminar. Even simple meditation practices to feel “one with life” have turned into opportunities to heal cancer and improve our golf game.
Our brain needs time off from striving and goal oriented thinking. It needs to get fired up with simple appreciation for being alive. It needs alone time without having to “do our work” or “process stuff”. It really needs to stop taking everything so seriously. A healthy brain has a balance between doing and feeling. Goal oriented behavior avoids feeling because it distracts us and invariably pulls us off course. Neurological science has been discovering for the last 20 or so years that this stress lifestyle is burning our brains out. Yes, even positive stress burns us.
So, a day of rest. Are you willing to take a step toward improving your life? Are you willing to commit to your health and to your future with a functioning brain? Without your brain working well nothing you achieve in your life will matter to you. How well does the millionaire corporate CEO enjoy life when he has Alzheimer’s? One day a week without stress. It is a novel concept. Can it be done?
This is just one little step toward slowing down the progressive brain damage we are all experiencing. I learned about a lot more. If you would like to take a simple pencil and paper test to measure your current state of brain health, ask for the NTAF (neurotransmitter assessment form) the next time you are in the office. Your brain health is your future.
Because Ellen and I were so impressed with the importance of this information, we have decided to bring the essence of this information into the office as a new form of treatment – The Guided Stress Relief Program. We are still in the formative stages with this program. We have a lot of tools and toys already on hand to work with stress. We just need to weave them into a comprehensive program – one that covers all the different aspects of stress reduction as well as healing from the damages of stress. I will probably devote some of my next newsletter to stress.