Exercise and Healthy Brain

How often do you walk into a room and forget why? How often do you get fatigued while driving or reading a book? What about thinking or problem solving after eating? Have you ever wondered why some people can read for hours on end and you get tired after just a few minutes? Brain fog and endurance are a critical part of aging.

To quote one of my mentors, "Aging is just another term for brain degeneration."

Just so we are clear what I mean when I say 'Brain Degeneration' is a decline in brain health. A decline in brain health may be the cause of anemia, dysglycemia, infection, fungal overgrowth, dysbiosis, hormone imbalance, liver detoxification, environmental pollutant exposure, autoimmunity, gastrointestinal permeability, poor blood flow and compromised neurotransmitter activity.

Now for the encouraging side of this article, how to support brain health and optimal health. First and foremost, if you have any questions or hesitations about any part of this article contact our office and ask the question. The dumbest question is the one you do not ask.

One of the most basic solutions to support optimal brain health is exercise! I am NOT recommending go join a gym or workout for 5 days a week for multiple hours a day. NO NO NO!!!

If you are currently on a work out program or have not worked out for a while you will want to start out at 50-60% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). How do you determine your MHR you ask? That's easy:

220 - [age] = MHR

Example: A 40 year old female wants to start a high-intensity workout routine. Her maximum heart rate would be 180. [220 - 40 = 180] I recommend she start out at 50% of her MHR which would be 90 heart beats per minute. After 1 or 2 weeks of this workout routine, move up to 135 bpm. After another week or two, try to progress to the 180 bpm.

How Long Do I Workout?

The duration of high-intensity workout is much lower compared to an endurance workout routine. A 3-minute workout routine will produce phenomenal results for increasing blood flow to the brain. By increasing blood to the brain you are doing ALL of the following:

• Increasing anti-inflammatory hormones
• Increasing anti-inflammatory hormones
• Stimulating endothelial-Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS)
• Stimulating neuronal - NOS
• Diminishing induced - NOS
• Increasing lymphatic drainage
• Decreasing the level of cortisol
• Increase Growth Hormone
• Increase Opioid Release which supports regulatory T-cells
• Improve Insulin Receptor Sensitivity
• Improve immunity
• Increases heart health
• Minimizes normal stress response
• Improve Serotonin --> improves mood
• Improves Dopamine --> improves focus and motivation
• Reduce oxidative stress / inflammation
• Supports nerve growth
• Improve neuronal synapse and communication between neurons

Exercise and High Glucose Issues (Insulin Resistance &/or Diabetics)

Even exercise as little as a 20 minute walk of moderate intensity can improve insulin resistance. However, the more intense the exercise, the greater the impact on insulin receptor signaling. Many patients will see minimal change in their blood glucose levels from only doing mild-to-moderate exercise. These people will need to increase their intensity to notice significant changes in blood glucose control. 

Exercise Intensity Levels

Light
Max. Heart Rate (MHR) is 40% - 55% of MHR.
This level does not induce sweating unless it is a hot, humid day. No noticeable changes in breathing.

Moderate
MHR is 55% - 69%.
Sweating after 10 minutes. Breathing becomes deeper and more frequent. You can carry on a conversation but not sing.

High
MHR is 70% or greater.
Will break a sweat after 3-5 minutes. Breathing is deep and rapid. You can only talk in short phrases.



What Kind of Exercise(s):

Sprints
Push-ups
Mountain climbers
Squats (w/ weight or without)

Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking in the right direction. Of course, being a chiropractor, you have to workout in your level of comfort and stability. If you notice that your muscles are tighter on one side of your body versus the other, you have a chiropractic problem that should be addressed by a chiropractor. Muscles should not hurt when you push on them. This is another discussion for another time.

If you need more ideas on exercise routines, I encourage you to go to www.workoutlabs.com. This is a great website for quick routines that will increase your MHR.

Conclusion:

Do you have cold hands and/or feet? Have you noticed a decline in cognition in the last 5 years? What about the three questions I asked in the beginning of this article? Do you remember the questions? You are only as healthy as your brain is.

Exercising at a high-intensity level will increase blood flow and fire neurons from ear to ear. This will improve insulin receptor sensitivity, quantity of anti-inflammatory promoters, and support neuronal cell growth. Exercise plus healthy diet will result in extraordinary results. Please remember this one critical fact regarding brain health. If you do not use it, you lose it! 

The brain needs three things to survive:
1. Stimulation
2. Oxygen
3. Glucose (blood sugar)

I hope you have enjoyed this article. For more information on this topic or want to discuss the best workout routine for you, please contact our office.

Thyroid - Gut Connection

When was the last time you walked into your doctor’s office and said “I would like my digestive tract assessed because I know my thyroid hormones are out of balance?”

Hippocrates (Image Right) told us 2,000 years ago, “Death begins in the colon.”

How did he know that? 

Did he have like a special antenna that only he could hear or tune into? NO!! He observed the human body and thought logically. When you eat food, it goes in your mouth and down into your gut. Right? (the answer is yes)

What if that salad was not washed right and it still had pesticides on it? What if that steak was improperly cooked and it was infected with E. Coli? I can sit here and write 10,000 what if scenarios but what if you had a properly working digestive system?

Most people don’t, especially those with thyroid issues including hypo- (poor) and hyper- (too much) -thyroidism. All the nutrients, minerals, cofactors, etc. must be digested and absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract. If there is a digestive issue, indigestion, food allergies, diarrhea and/or constipation etc. it means there is an imbalance in the gastrointestinal tract which ultimately causes a loss of stomach acid production, inadequate pH and dysbiosis.

The Thyroid - Gut connection is a very complex an integrated system that should be screened in EVERY thyroid case. The #1 cause worldwide of thyroid hypofunction (hypothyroidism) is iodine deficiency, but it is NOT the #1 cause in the United States. The #1 cause of hypothyroidism in the U.S. is Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroid. (For more information about autoimmune thyroid consult our office)

To support hypothyroidism or regulate an autoimmune thyroid condition like Hashimoto’s, you must address the digestive tract. Gut dysfunctions are the most commonly overlooked health issue in the medical field today (including alternative care).

Healthy Gut = Healthy Thyroid

The thyroid gland is the gas pedal for the body. When the body's metabolism is running slow, more thyroid hormone is produced to speed up metabolism. When the body’s metabolism is on overdrive, the thyroid will diminish the amount of thyroid produced. The body is a reflex machine, constantly trying to maintain homeostasis or equilibrium. In doing this many mechanisms and pathways are cut short or over used. For example, if you eat fried fatty foods 4 days out of the week, your gallbladder will not like you and will become sluggish and make gallstones.

Did you know with a sluggish gallbladder you minimize your body’s ability to clear hormones including estrogen?

FUN FACT:  

When you remove your gallbladder the cystic duct takes over  the storage of bile.

Every cell in the body has a thyroid receptor, even neurons (cells in the brain). Most people are unaware they have a thyroid issue until they start having issues including but not limited too:

- Fatigue / Sluggish

- Thinning of hair

- Loss of the outer ⅓ of eyebrow

- Cold hands and feet, all over

- Dry skin / flaky

- Difficulty losing weight

Summary

The Thyroid - Gut Connection is an invaluable aspect of health that many healthcare providers overlook. The thyroid has a receptor on every cell in the body. The gut digest and absorbs food for every cell in the body. When gastric atrophy occurs, proteins are not properly digested and often become a source of inflammation. With sluggish gallbladder / biliary system the body is not equipped to digest and absorb fats which also affect cholesterol levels, adrenals status, and hormones. The Thyroid - Gut Connection should be assessed on every patient with the above signs and symptoms for preventative health.

For more information on the Thyroid - Gut Connection contact our office through our website Weber Chiropractic or call 916.616.1595.

The Gluten Connection to Disease

Who’s the baseball player below?

It is Henry Lou Gehrig. In case you don’t know who he was, he was an American baseball first baseman who played for 17 seasons in MLB for the New York Yankees (1923-1939).

Do you know who the first athlete was to appear on a Wheaties box? That’s right, Lou Gehrig! In the second half of the 1938 season Gehrig reported physical changes in his game at the midway point. At the end of the season, he said, “I am tired ... I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t get going again.” By the beginning of the 1939 spring training, Gehrig lost his power. At the age of 36 Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).

Enormous amounts of research have looked at the connection of gluten and nerve damage in the brain. 1, 2

In the 1920s, the US government found that animals fed a diet of white flour developed serious neurological diseases and died. Instead of banning this deadly product like they should have, the FDA declared that most white flour products must be "enriched" with iron and a few vitamins to "correct" the problem. Unfortunately, this decision has helped create an even more insidious situation that results in diabetes, heart disease and cancer for millions of people.

Gluten sensitivity

Gluten sensitivity is becoming a raging epidemic today. Gluten sensitivity is not a disease and therefore has no cure. Gluten sensitivity is triggered by eating products containing gluten. The only way to avoid its complications is to stay away from food products containing gluten. The average person who has a gluten sensitivity and eats a source of gluten can set off an inflammatory response that may last up to 8 months. A simple mnemonic for avoiding gluten is B.R.O.W.

Barley - most barley is contaminated via cross-contamination because it is packaged at a gluten containing facility

Rye

Oats

Wheat

There are 35 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten listed in a review in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some of these symptoms are: arthritis, ADHD, depression, anxiety, IBS, lupus, frequent headaches, fatigue, eczema, loss of muscle coordination, osteoporosis, a weakened immune system, fungal overgrowth, organ inflammation, weight loss/weight gain, and malnutrition.

Gluten sensitivity increases your risk for type 1 diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal cancers, brain disorders, autism and thyroid disease.

Gluten evils and woes

Gluten is purposefully put in some products because it increases hunger signals to make you eat more of a product by increasing the ghrelin in the digestive tract to enhance feelings of hunger - leaving you hungry for more of that product. Gluten also interferes with leptin which tells your brain you're full and signals fat to break down. Leptin also normalizes pain sensations in the spinal cord.

• Gluten sensitivity causes inflammation that harms the body tissues by causing an autoimmune response where the immune system ends up attacking the body

• C-reactive proteins rise in response to inflammation; causing cholesterol levels to shoot up and calcium deposits to harden the arteries and blood pressure rise

• Sugar cannot fuel cancer cells by itself. Gluten and the amino acid glutamine have been studied and found to play a critical role in the cancer process.

• Gluten is an excitatory toxin; which agitates and kills neurons which like glutamate (think MSG), accelerates, activates, irritates and damages brain cells. A 2006 study took 131 children with ADHD and removed gluten from their diets and all 131 children were reported to have significant improvements.

• Gluten can be broken down into strange proteins that are a lot like psychedelic drugs. These are opium-like proteins are called gluteomorophins (think Autism and Manic Depressive Disorder).

• With gluten, the N Methyl D Aspartate receptors cause spinal cord neurons to become hyper to touch. Leptin in the spinal cord normalizes pain perception and gluten interferes with that process (think fibromyalgia).

• University of California put people on a "Paleolithic" diet, their blood pressure dropped along with blood insulin levels. Good cholesterol went up and bad cholesterol went down - in just 10 days!

• Gluten sensitivity causes you to miss out on your fat soluble vitamins like vitamin D and K

• Eating gluten has now been related to bone density problems (think osteoporosis)

Solution: STOP EATING GLUTEN!

Gluten affects everyone negatively, some effects are very evident now but most of them are sub-clinical and will not show up for years. When disease does finally manifest, the connection to gluten will be overlooked or denied. Gluten-free is a lifestyle choice for health of body and mind. If we choose a gluten-free lifestyle for obvious health reasons, we are intentionally avoiding trouble both now and in the future.

For more information on Gluten Free check out these websites:

1. Gluten Free and Beyond

2. Celiac Disease and Gluten

3. Gluten Free Speciality Market - Sacramento, CA

Majority of this article was presented in Natural News.

References:

1. Gluten and Motor Neurone Disease (ALS). http://www.naturostudy.org/naturopathy-articles/gluten-motor-neurone-disease-als/

2. White matter lesions suggestive of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis attributed to celiac disease.AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2010 May;31(5):880-1. Epub 2009 Nov 12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19910450

Wind Up the Neuro-Endocrine-Immune System

The body is a remarkable system that should not be taken for granted. I, for one, after continual study of the body for going on 7 years of intense study I am completely in awe of how sensitive yet how strong it is. As some of you know I have been doing some form of martial art for going on twelve years. I could amaze you how small pressure can topple the body and how so little effort could send a man off his/her feet.

Now with that in mind I want to take you to your body's cellular level and show you how sensitive yet how strong it is. The first system to introduce you too that has been called the Final Common Pathway or Stress Pathway helps the body cope with the stress placed upon it whether it be Bacterial, Viral, Fungi, Environmental, and/or Mental Emotional stress to name a few.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) is a neuroendocrine system that regulates the reactions to stress, energy storage, and the immune system.  Cytokines (chemical messengers) act at several levels of the HPA axis to induce the release of cortisol and epinephrine.  Cortisol and epinephrine act to suppress the immune response, thus forming a negative feedback loop.(1) Long-term abuse of this system often leads to Alzheimer’s, Depression and Diabetes to name a few.

Constant activation of the HPA axis (stress-induced) will cause a weakened Neuro-Endocrine-Immune (NEI) system.

The NEI system is your main wiring system between each of the 10 systems in your body. Of the the most important and most easily accessible is the immune system. A break in any 4 barriers (skin, lungs, gut and blood-brain barrier) will increase demand on the immune system.

The immune system protects the body against foreign challenges by its ability to differentiate between the body's own cells and foreign materials. Upon encounter with viruses, bacteria, toxins, or fungi, the immune system recognizes the molecular components of the foreign antigen and a response is activated to appropriately eliminate the antigen from the body. The immune system's response to an antigen can result in disturbances through out the NEI Supersystem at both the initial onset of infection, as well as after chronic exposure.

Bacteria

A large variety of bacteria normally colonize the skin, intestines, and other mucosal sites, and are important for health. Bacterial disease results when harmful bacteria enter the body and grow in normally sterile areas (lungs, bladder, and brain) or overcrowd the beneficial microbiota in areas such as the gut. Acute infections (e.g. Neisseria meningitidis, Salmonella, etc.) can often be easily diagnosed via symptoms, history, and regular lab tests (complete blood count, culture and sensitivity test, X-rays and/or spinal taps). Chronic low-level bacterial infections (e.g. Streptococcus pneumonia, Helicobacter pylori, and Staphylococcus aureus) may not be easily detectable and therefore may result in chronic inflammation.

Many symptoms caused by bacterial disease (fever, muscle ache, and headache) are not directly due to the bacteria, but are a result of the body's immune response and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines that may, in turn, lead to alterations in neuropsychological and endocrine functions. Chronic bacterial infections (e.g. Streptococcus pneumonia, Helicobacter pylori, and Staphylococcus aureus) may be the root cause of chronic pain, inflammation, and disturbances within the neuroendocrine systems that manifest clinically as chronic disease.(1)

Fungi

Fungi are primitive vegetables that are found in the environment, in foods, and within the body (e.g., Candida albicans). Normally, the immune system keeps fungi such asC. albicans in check, but if a person is immunodeficient or their internal environment (microbiota) is disturbed (e.g. as a consequence of antibiotic therapy), opportunistic fungal infections can occur, leading to pathology and even death. Subclinical fungal infection may be detectable via immune perturbation (cytokine responses to fungi), increases in intestinal permeability (IgG responses to foods) and neuroendocrine disruptions (alterations in neurotransmitter levels). (1)

Rhino Virus - common cold

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can only replicate inside the cells of a living organism. Viral infections generally provoke the immune system resulting in activation of the innate and subsequent adaptive immune responses, and concomitant cytokine release. Although most pathogenic viruses are eliminated by this immune response, immune evasion or immunosuppression can result in chronic viral infections. Some chronic viruses may be cytotoxic and result in tissue/organ damage (HBV and HCV), while others may result in chronic symptoms (EBV and CMV). There are over 5000 identified viruses in nature with new ones being discovered on a regular basis.(1)

Viral infections are often difficult to detect, especially in the case of novel or uncharacterized viruses. Nonetheless, the immune response that accompanies viral infections can result in altered cytokine levels that in turn affect neurotransmitter and hormone levels as well. Assessment of NEI Supersystem© parameters may provide a clinical approach to help identify immune activation in patients suffering from unexplained chronic disorders. (1)

Environmental

The environment is a source of constant immune stimulation and over the last century it has become an increasingly complex assortment of industrial, synthetic, and commercially processed compounds. Altogether, this artificial environment has become the basis for our modern life but for some it can be a source of immune challenges.  Immune reactions to metals in our jewelry, pesticide residues on our foods, clothes detergents, or the coloring and preservatives in our foods can be the root cause of a number of health conditions including chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, and psychiatric complaints. Type IV hypersensitivity and cytokine reactions against environmental compounds can alter the body's biochemistry, neural processing, hormone activity and lead to chronic inflammation and disease. (1)

• Metals: implants, dentistry, jewelry, pollution
• Pesticides/ herbicides: food, lawns, occupational exposure
• Household chemicals: detergents, oven cleaners, polishes, air fresheners
• Food additives: food colorings, artificial sweeteners, preservatives
• Food processing ingredients: molds, fungi, modified proteins, modified starches

Mental Stress / Emotions

Emotional stress can have a profound effect on overall health by influencing all aspects of the NEI system. Emotions have been shown to stimulate specific brain regions and affect the release of neurotransmitters and certain hormones as an effect of stress on the body. Individuals with high emotional stress can initially experience a wide variety of symptoms including anxiety, anger, fatigue, low mood, or trouble sleeping. Chronic emotional stress can also influence the immune system and the ability of the body to keep inflammatory responses under control, leading to further imbalances in the NEI system. Emotional factors must be addressed in conjunction with any treatment program to restore balance to the NEI system and for complete symptom resolution.(1)

Conclusion

No matter what we do we will always interact with a stressful situation. The best way to counter stress is allow your body to work naturally and not worry about it. Do you have to think to walk, no your body does it automatically. When you touch a hot plate and jerk your hand away, did you have to think to yourself, “That is hot, pull your hand away quickly!” NO, your body did that automatically due to the intimate connections of the NEI system. Be good to your body, you only have one.

Treat it with monthly maintenance to a chiropractic office (hint hint) and be sure and check its internal biochemistry at least twice a year.

REFERENCES:

1. NeuroScience. https://www.neurorelief.com/index.php?p=cms&cid=109&pid=84