A Brain Owner's Manual

There are many components to health. I cannot stress enough the importance of a whole systems approach rather than a symptom treating approach. Whole systems approach means that you have investigated the functioning of all of your physiological systems, and have come up with solutions for optimizing and supporting those systems. For our purposes, here is a general guide specifically for brain function only.

One thing that everyone can agree upon is the importance of exercise. The impact of exercise on your overall health can be profound. Exercise re-sensitizes insulin receptors and stabilizes blood sugar which is a great help to the brain. My favorite type is slow strength training, it makes a lot of sense physiologically (see links for a local gym).

Proper nutrition is another extremely important key to health, and one that we can control. It is important to identify and eliminate food allergies that can impair both immune system and brain function (esp. gluten). We have found laboratory testing of food allergies not to be sufficiently reliable, with too many false positives (foods reported as allergic that your body is tolerating) and false negatives (allergic foods not accurately reported). The elimination-provocation method remains the "gold standard" for food allergy or intolerance detection.

I hope that everyone gets the vitamins they need, but for the brain the B vitamins are especially important. It's difficult to function well without them and a B deficiency can cause terrible depression. Sometimes taking B's either sublingually (under the tongue) or by injection is necessary because for many people absorption when taken orally is difficult or hampered. I recommend a liposomal sublingual spray.

Because the brain is made of fat, saturated fat is valuable fuel for your brain. We strongly advocate cooking with tropical oils (coconut and palm oil), and getting lots of uncooked olive oil (we don't recommend cooking with olive oil because we want to avoid heating and or burning which create free radicals and trans fatty acids). There is a lot of conflicting information out there about oils so it is very important to consider the source. Low fat diets are outdated and cause problems. Eating fat doesn't produce fat, eating glycemic things (sugar) produces fat. Cooking with and consuming lower fat oils (like canola) is one of the worst things you can do to your body, it is highly aging, it is not helpful for heart health as has been publicized. My hope is that everyone is supplementing with omega 3 fatty acids. There are many companies that make high quality fish oil products. I recommend Apex Energetcs, Metagenics, Nordic Naturals, or Pharmax. It's important to find a properly made fish oil.

It is difficult for anything to function properly if the central nervous system is compromised. For a structural approach to brain and CNS health I strongly recommend The Bio Cranial System, in fact I think it's so helpful to the work we're doing here that I have worked out a way for you to go have a free trial! I highly suggest that you take advantage of my offer and schedule a session. For more information on The Bio Cranial System see www.biocranial.com. For a local practitioner see www.lapislight.com.

I suggest that each client have their neurotransmitters checked and optimized and will almost always do that within the first few sessions. Please click to download our Neurotransmitter Assessment Questionnaire. I also suggest that each client have their endocrine function checked by someone qualified to do so (see www.lapislight.com ).

For an overall health reference (including the brain) see www.lapislight.com and www.mercola.com.