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Is Excessive Weight Aging Your Brain?

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Obesity and Brain Health

There is no question – obesity has negative effects on health, overall. Most of us know this already. But maybe less known is its role in brain health. Science continues to conduct research studies to measure the impact of elevated weight on brain function.

It is normal for us to think about the brain and its well-being when it may be after a traumatic brain injury – or repeated impacts arising from contact sports. Indeed, these events have been linked to chronic problems in brain function; other factors seem to just make sense on the disease continuum – from high blood pressure to the increasing prevalence rate of Alzheimer’s disease, the latter being exacerbated by lifestyle habits that are omnipresent in our daily lives. This can include a long list, such as harmful diet, excess alcohol consumption, and chronic sleep deprivation. We commonly think about these disorders once symptoms arise. however, the underlying neuropathology has been present for years – even decades – prior to any symptomatic onset.

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Enhancing Support for Brain Functions with Supplements and Nutraceuticals

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Enhancing Support for Brain Functions

Note: the nutraceuticals and supplements discussed in this post is not intended to be understood as an endorsement of their usage. Any changes to intake in the form of supplementation should be discussed with a physician prior to use.

As a Certified Brain Fitness Coach, the need to expand your knowledge of nutraceuticals cannot be overlooked. Often credited with serving to support optimal cellular functioning, nutraceuticals play an important role in ensuring your clients have the foundational building blocks that allow them (and their physical form) to continually produce neurotransmitters and co-factors at levels essential to supporting optimal brain health.

Aging occurs when cellular death from reactive oxygen species occurs at a faster rate than cellular growth. What is interesting is the science that allows us to see the brain as the most metabolically active organ in the body, causing it to generate a large amount of reactive oxygen species in the process. The brain is also quite vulnerable to oxidative stress; these reactive oxygen species often get neutralized by the brain’s natural antioxidant systems in a healthy individual.

These systems operate efficiently for most of our lives but in an aging individual, the reactive oxygen species are often in excess of the antioxidant capacity…resulting in cellular aging. The solution is to incorporate nutritional solutions to support the brain’s antioxidant capacity.

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The Relationship Between Your Gut and Brain Health

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Science is gradually discovering the secret of gut feeling, as researchers have started to understand gut functioning better. Our Gut not only feeds the body and the brain (through absorption of nutrients), but it also has more neurons than the spinal cord.

The gut produces more serotonin and other similar neuropeptides than the brain or any other organs. Studies show that more than a trillion microbes reside in our body, weighing few kilograms, and the majority of them are in the gut. It seems that the role of gut is more than merely providing nutrients through digestion.

Whether you specialize in nutrition, health, and wellness, sleep science, or brain fitness and function, understanding how our gut health affects the other aspects of our body and mind, and being able to relay that knowledge to your clients in a clear and succinct format so that they can improve gut health. [Read more…]

The Link Between Sleep and Depression

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Sleep is a basic need of every human being. But the fact is your survival literally depends on your ability to sleep. Cortisol, a hormone released during stress has a very powerful influence on sleep and waking in an individual. Cortisol interacts with our circadian rhythms and sleep cycles.

What is Cortisol?

It is a stress hormone produced by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). HPA includes the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland. For the production of cortisol, the hypothalamus sends signals to the pituitary gland which in turn releases a substance known as corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH). CRH sends another hormone into your bloodstream that is adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).  ACTH travels through blood and cues the adrenal glands to produce cortisol. It is a complex and sensitive feedback loop and it has a profound effect on our body, mind, and sleep.

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Harnessing Your Brain’s Power to Achieve Your Goals

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Harnessing Your Brain’s Power to Achieve Your Goals

The reality: we are only a thought away from significant change. Experiencing wellbeing can be dialed in at the level of our brain. Thoughts create emotions and emotions color our every life experience. Emotions are what give our life meaning. The unpleasant ones inspire us to take on challenges; the pleasant ones bring us peace and happiness.

Let’s look at how to take our thoughts and train our brains into how to use these thoughts productively. We do this by shifting the thoughts that no longer serve us as needed; this allows us to successfully achieve our goals. In order to understand this, we have to acknowledge the work of theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. One of his most famous quotes states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.

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What’s Unique About Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?

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What’s Unique About Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy to help people with mood disorders, traumatic brain injury, eating disorders, and substance abuse.

DBT was originally intended to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), but it has been adapted to treat other mental health conditions. It can help people who have difficulty with emotional regulation or are exhibiting self-destructive behaviors (eating disorders and substance use disorders).

[Read more…]

The Effects of Nature and Our Environment on Brain Waves and Health

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The Effects of Nature and Our Environment on Brain Waves and Health

Our brain waves are normally in beta which is between 14 to 40 hertz; however, when we are in a state of deep relaxation we can connect the brainwave frequency of the earth which is 7.83 hertz also known as the Schumann Resonance.

Not every client has access to open nature, but when possible, it is a best practice to spend time in nature so that we can slow down our brainwave frequency toward the theta state, which can have profound therapeutic implications on our health.

Taking in nature has a rejuvenating effect. It can literally help to relax us; the earth has much potential to teach us these lessons in such a simple, pure form. Intuitively, this is why we are often guided to be in nature as a way to relax the body.

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Hydration and its Impact on Brain Function

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Hydration and its Impact on Brain Function

Humans can survive without food for several weeks but without water, life would end in three to five days. Our brain is comprised of approximately 75% water. That fact, alone, tells us how critical hydration is to the brain and body.

While we often think of food and nutrients as critical to life (they are), water is even more so. The average person can live only three to five days without water. Most can survive about three weeks without food.

Now that we’ve established water is important, let’s look at how it impacts you.

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What is the Relaxation Response?

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What is the Relaxation Response?

The counterpart to the fight-or-flight response, the relaxation response, occurs when the body is no longer in perceived danger, and the autonomic nervous system functioning returns to normal. As a form of meditation, the relaxation response tends to be well received by those with busy minds.

Physician Herbert Benson was a pioneer in studying the physiological changes that occurred during meditation techniques. Benson can be largely credited for demystifying meditation and helping to bring it into the mainstream, by renaming meditation the “Relaxation Response.”

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Benefits of Diaphragmatic Breathing

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What is Diaphragmatic Breathing?

The diaphragm is a large, dome-shaped muscle located at the base of the lungs. Diaphragmatic breathing is a form of breathwork that allows for the expansion of the lungs and greater oxygenation of the system. It is also referred to as lower body breathing, and is the natural form of breathing that we all did when we were children. Unfortunately, we often grow out of this natural state of breathing and create a habit of upper body breathing – or chest breathing – which keeps us in a state of hyper-vigilance or fight or flight.

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