Brain food

One cannot think well, love well or sleep well if one has not dined well."  Virginia Woolfe

With the holidays fully upon us (fa la la la), and having just finished turkey feasts with all the fixings and still working on the leftovers, I thought now would be a great time to talk about food.  When it comes to your brain, you literally are what you eat.  Your grocery list can have a direct impact on whether you effectively cross things off of your to-do list.

Your brain is the biggest energy hog in your body.  While, on average, it represents only 2% of the body's weight, although I know we all can think of some people where it is obviously much less, it uses about 20% of the energy produced by the body.  Studies show that a person can be as much as 200% more productive just by making better eating choices.  That is pretty powerful stuff! You can promote quicker thinking, better memory and concentration and improved balance and coordination, sharper senses, and the activation of your feel good hormones just by what you put on your plate.

On the flip side, it is equally important to realize that certain foods can also diminish your brain power and  help to make you the dullest knife in the drawer. I don't know about you, but I want no help in that department.  With holiday food and festivities at every turn from now until after the new year, I'll go ahead and be a kill joy and concentrate on the bad things first. Let me add a little to the guilt. 

A list of the worst brain foods would include:  alcohol, artificial food colorings, artificial sweeteners, sugars and corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, and nicotine. Basically, what is bad for your heart is not going to help your brain either.

You brain runs pretty much on blood sugar, using as much as 20% of the carbohydrates you ingest.  It performs best on a steady supply. Simple carbohydrates - processed flour and sugary foods - cause wild fluctuations in this.  The blood sugar roller coaster is just plain not good for any part of your body.  So while that chocolate covered, cream filled doughnut may taste sinfully delicious, it is doing much more than making your pants tighter.

Since my brain injury, I have quit smoking and do not drink. I have become the obnoxious ex-smoker who gets offended when anyone pollutes "my" air.  How dare they?  While I do miss the way red wine would just slide down my throat and give me a big, warm hug all over, I don't want to chance canceling out all the other good things I am doing in my life. So, as a general rule, I do not indulge.

I have also cleaned up my daily diet immensely eating things like rice milk, flax seed and lots of nuts, fresh fruits and veggies and other good things.  I also do not eat any diet foods or artificial sweeteners.  Stevia is a natural artificial sweetener that can be found at any grocery store.  I know, don't I just make you sick?  It took a brain injury to make me do these things.  Believe me, I know it is not easy to do with less motivation.  But, then, I am jumping ahead to next week's blog.

Now, I am not advocating that we all give up every indulgent pleasure and become boring, abstainers from almost everything.  I did have a little bit of each dessert after the Thanksgiving meal thank you very much.  I believe that totally denying yourself only sets you up for failure and makes life very colorless.  I make healthy choices every day on a regular basis as a general rule and allow myself to indulge when I think the occasion calls for it.  That works for me.  You have to find what works for you.

I would encourage you to start by doing something manageable and small for you.  It might be changing your sweetener or limiting yourself to one cup of coffee a day.  I know my Dad cut out the sodas in his daily diet and lost weight and noticed that he feels much better.  The point is do something. You can do it. Look at your life and diet.  What can you change or eliminate?  Try it for a couple of days and see what changes you notice in your energy levels, your thinking,your moods or whatever.

I would love to hear what you are doing and any differences you perceive.  Now, go enjoy those leftovers!

 

Giving Thanks Can Actually Change Your Brain

Since the upcoming week includes Thanksgiving, I feel compelled to offer some of my priceless wisdom about that.  It may be easy to feel gratitude and thankfulness on such a cozy occasion surrounded by family and friends and maybe a herb roasted turkey, some yummy sweet potato and pecan concoction, a sinful pumpkin pie and lots of other stuff you really don't need, but are gonna indulge in anyway.  You can light some candles in the center of the table and say a few words of thanks before digging in, and feel absolutely blessed with such abundance. 

Or maybe not. It can be pure hell, and it can be just something you endure, hating every minute and counting the seconds for it to be behind you for another year.  There is that one annoying relative that won't shut up incessantly babbling about something you could care less about.  Yawn.  There is also that one friend of a relative that has breath so bad you imagine it melting your face like plastic.  Yeech.

It really is up to you as to how you experience the day no matter who is there, how toxic their breath may be or how inane their conversation topics.  You can intentionally focus your thoughts and attention on the good or the bad. It is your choice with a Thanksgiving get together or anything in your life.  This type of choice in any situation literally effects you physically and can change your brain and your life with regular repititon. 

Emotions evoked by your thoughts cause cellular reactions in your body which then are transformed into physical reality. Norepinephrine is an example of a chemical that flows in your blood stream when you are in a pleasant state of mind.  Norepinephrine and other "happy" chemicals lock into the cellular receptors in your body.  When viruses or "bad" chemicals look for a place to enter your cells and hook on they cannot because the receptor sites are filled with "happy" chemicals.  Thus making you feel better and your immune system stronger.  That is a really simplified explanation, but you get it, right?

Artists and athletes vizualize their performances before the events.  It has been scientifically proven that the brain cannot tell the difference between this mental practice and the actual event.  It chemically responds and fires the same as if the thing was really occurring.  That is very powerful stuff.  Herein lies your ability to actually change your brain and your reality.  What you repeatedly think about is actually changing your brain. Be careful what you think about.

For example, I just went to court AGAIN this last week.  Uugh!  Unfortunately, I am a regular. This time it was to address some visitation issues.  Because I tried to kill myself and had a resulting brain injury, the visitations with my kids were ordered to be supervised by the courts.  I also was under court order not to drive the kids.  The restrictions were warranted and in the best interest of the kids at the time they were originated. That was two and a half years ago.  A lot has changed since then.  I have been trying to get to court for over a year and a half to get them revised.  Our legal system is infuriating and ridiculous. 

I followed the court order down to the letter on supervision for a year.  I did not drive the kids until I took the NC on road driving test and passed.  Yes, like when I was 16.  Only, I passed the first time this go around.  However, I relaxed it a little on my own for the last year and a half just complying with telephone supervision.

The judge is not going to announce her decision until December 5th.  For the Thanksgiving holiday visitation she ordered that the restrictions are still to be in place full force and are to be followed around the clock.  Initially, I was extremely hurt and insulted to the point I was ready to tell my X just not to send the kids.  To comply now seems totally ludicrous to me and the restrictions competely change the dynamics of my relationship with the kids. 

That was the "old Debbie" reacting out of ego.  But giving the news some time to sit with my changed brain and new way of thinking, I soon began to see a larger picture and a different way to respond.  I can focus on the limitations of the visit or I can focus on the fact that I get to hug my kids and be with them for a couple of days.  It is my choice.  I can choose to experience it as a visit with the kids with the grandparents around a lot or I can choose to not even have the kids come and experience it as incredibly painful and senseless.  Hence, creating my own struggle.  It is totally up to me. I can't change the restrictions, but I can change the way I think about them and choose my experience. 

Making this kind of choice repeatedly actually changes the pathways in your brain.  It is like a sled going down a hill. The first time, it has to plow through the rough snow.  After many times, there is a well worn path. It becomes the default.  Mine is not virgin snow, but as evidenced by my initial reaction, the grass isn't showing through yet on the path. I am getting there.  

How you experience Thanksgiving and something as everyday as the toilet overflowing is completely up to you.  Either can be whatever you make of it.  I am gonna choose to make most of my experiences not so bad....even the toilet overflowing.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Blessings to you.

The start of it

In June of 2007, I swallowed a colorful assortment of over 90 pills and tried to kill myself. Needless to say, it wasn’t a successful attempt, but it did put me in the hospital for two weeks and leave me with a serious brain injury changing my entire life. It is not clear whether the cause of my global brain injury, technically termed encephalopathy, was the result of all the drugs going completely through my body or my heart stopping multiple times or the 107 degree fever or the hours of seizures. Right afterwards, I would say that by my own honest definition I was mentally handicapped.



I had tremendous trouble remembering anything short term or long term. I asked my Dad on the way home from the rehab center I went to after the hospital in all seriouness "I have a house?"  I am sure he thought, "This is bad."

My speech was very slurred and hard to understand. My thinking processes were impaired and very slow. I couldn’t sleep for any length of time at all. I even had trouble controlling my bladder and eating without biting my cheek or tongue. My hands had a constant tremor, and I did not know what to do with them when I walked. The best I can liken it to is being drunk. I literally had to struggle to maintain some level of coherent consciousness for any period of time.


Over the next year, I was driving and living on my own, but I had lost custody of my kids and they rightfully went to live out of state with their Dad. It was all I could do just to take care of me. I slept fitfully for as much as 16 hours a day, but never felt really rested as it was not deep, contiguous sleep.

I would go to put up laundry and get lost in my drawers or closet for hours. "Where did all these clothes come from?" I would wonder to myself. 

A good day for me was one in which I had emptied the dishwasher and that took a ridiculously long time. The world terrified me. Going to the grocery store required me to muster my bravery. Every interaction with people would send my heart racing and leave me mentally exhausted. My speech had improved somewhat, but I still got the sideways glances and people whispering “How much has she had to drink today?”


Western medicine had nothing to offer me, and after three months of occupational and speech therapy, they basically told me to go home and cross my fingers. As I became more aware, I did my own research and assembled my own therapy regime. I have incorporated neurofeedback, acupuncture, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, cranio sacral massage, hyercapnia or “bag breathing,” my own respiratory therapy with a device called a power lung, energetic healing, meditation, visualization, cardiovascular exercise,cross lateral movement, supplements and more.


It has been an incredible and painstakingly slow recovery process and journey.   In addition to the things above, I spent hours every day doing computer programs and exercises on online websites to increase my processing speed, brain function, and memory.  I carried a Nintendo DS with me everywhere and played a game called Brain Age.  I breathed into a plastic bag every 15 minutes when awake and not in public. I also did daily cardiovascular exercise to oxgynate my brain.  I still do and am in the best shape of my life.

I crawled daily.  Yes.  On my hands and knees like a baby.  Still do, but not every day.  It is great for making familiar  pathways for signals to travel across the hippocamus as is any cross lateral movement.

The point is that I found out there is a great deal I could do on my own, and did it.  There was no easy or standard rehabilitation for my injury.  It was unique, and I had to educate myself and draw from many other areas.  No doctor told me all this stuff.  I had to find it on my own and have the discipline to do it.  You can too. Whether it is a brain injury, a stroke, alzheimers, autism, age related decline, cerebal palsy, obssesive compulsivity, ADD/ADHD, depresssion...whatever....you can do something about it.  You can improve your brain.

The estaslidshed medical community will most likely not tell you about any of this as is considered "aternative."  I will here.  Stay tuned.