The Neuro-Protective Lifestyle

Get ready for the next generation of “smart drugs” to flood the anti-aging arena. With a rapidly aging baby-boomer population, the demand for bleeding-edge cogniceuticals will dominate the psychoneuropharmacology market for the next several decades.

A cogniceutical includes any substance that improves cognition (brain function) by augmenting memory, learning and attention.

The ideal neuroprotective formula would both minimize neuronal damage and stimulate neuronal function. Since neuroinflammation represents the final common pathway for neuronal damage, a naturally occurring anti-inflammatory is essential.

Excess dietary arachidonic† acid triggers a biochemical cascade resulting in increased levels of the pro-inflammatory leukotrienes. The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), catalyzes the reaction. The leukotriene inflammatory cascade is like a nuclear strike to both the cardiovascular and central nervous system and is the subject of intense research for that reason. Enter the 10,000 year old Boswellia plant. Well known in Ayurvedic medicine, the boswellia plant has been used for centuries as an anti-inflammatory agent and now we know why! An extract of the boswellia plant known as AKBA (3-O-acetyl-11 keto-ß-boswellic acid), selectively inhibits the 5-lipoxygenase enzyme. Unlike other boswellic acids that only partially inhibit 5-LOX, AKBA binds directly to 5-LOX making a metabolic road-block and halting the onslaught of inflammatory traffic (metaphorically speaking of course).

A generous supply of neurochemicals to feed the cholinergic neurotransmitter system of the brain is the second cogniceutical of choice. Nothing does that better than CDP-choline (also known as cytidine 5’-diphosphate choline). CDP-choline is unique in that it is a neuro-nucleotide. In the lab, cytidine is cleverly bonded to choline to create a truly remarkable cognitive enhancer. A daily dose of CDP-choline enables the brain to ramp-up acetylcholine synthesis. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter responsible for short-term memory, learning and synaptic plasticity (think rewiring your brain).

Unfortunately, as fast as acetylcholine is produced, acetylcholine esterase gets busy breaking it down if it lingers just a little too long in the synaptic gap. Most drugs for neurodegenerative diseases (think Alzheimer’s), target acetylcholine esterase and exploit the potential of having acetylcholine linger a nanosecond longer thereby enhancing cognition. Most drugs also carry some pretty intolerable side effects like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Fortunately, naturally occurring acetylcholine esterase inhibitors exist. Huperzine A is an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor extracted from Huperzia serrata (Icelandic clubmoss). To date, Huperzine A is considered the most potent short term memory enhancer available without a prescription.

Factoring in what we know about neurophysiology and extrapolating from previously published studies, a well balanced cogniceutical formulation should look something like the following:

Boswellic acid 375 - 500 mg per day - antiinflammatory, neuroprotective
CDP-choline 250 - 500 mg per day - increases acetylcholine levels boosting memory
Huperzine A 25 - 50 mcg per day - acetylcholine esterase inhibitor, enhances CDP-choline

Cogniceuticals can’t change everything, but in this new neurosociety you’re going to want to stick with what works. But hey, don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself and tell me what you think (pun intended).

† sources of dietary arachidonic acid include meat and dairy products something that we consume far too much of in this part of the world. It’s all about balance. Consider balancing omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acid intake for mood stabilization and improved cognition.

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The brain is an electromagnetic powerhouse. Just to keep the “lights on” requires twenty percent of all the calories you consume. Start doing advanced math or even sudoku and the cost goes way up. Fortunately we can measure this tremendous energy output in the form of electromagnetic wave activity. The EEG (electroencephalogram) has been around since 1875 but is just now coming into its own thanks to better filtering software. EEG topography, neurofeedback and more recently the “MEG” (magnetoencephalogram) provide even greater detail of our neuronal landscape.

The electromagnetic waves generated by the brain and revealed by EEG are divided into five main categories based on amplitude and frequency. They are the same regardless of culture, gender or country of origin.

Here are some classic brainwave patterns:

BETA - 12-30 cycles per second - active conversation, logical thinking (sudoku puzzling)

ALPHA - 8-12 cycles per second - restful alertness, quiet focus, hypnosis

THETA - 4-7 cycles per second - day dreaming, creativity, insight meditation, out of body experiences, mystical experiences.

DELTA - 1.5-4 or less cycles per second - deep dreamless sleep

GAMMA - 26-100 cycles per second - perception, neural synchrony, consciousness

By combining fMRI with our understanding of brain wave activity, researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have produced convincing neuroimaging evidence that meditators grow bigger brains. Measurements of cortical thickness confirm it. But how is this possible? How is the brain able to “pick itself up by its own bootstraps”, so-to-speak?

neural networks are established with repeated behavior patterns
say it again
neural networks are established with repeated behavior patterns
say it again…you get the idea.

We’ve known it all along. Every culture, every world religion teaches it:

“as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 23:7

“all that we are is the result of what we have thought” Buddha 563 BC - 483 BC

“unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” Titus 1:15

Jon Kabat-Zinn, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts established the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine to this very end.

In short, like the blog says, “forget what you’ve heard-you CAN change your brain!”

Developed in 1979, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, has been featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS documentary Healing and The Mind, on NBC Dateline, on ABC’s Chronicle and in various national print media and is the subject of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s best selling book, Full Catastrophe Living and Saki Santorelli’s book, Heal Thy Self. Since its inception, more than 17,000 people have completed our eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program and learned how to use their innate resources and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and illness. The central focus of the Clinic is intensive training in mindfulness meditation and its integration into the challenges/adventures of everyday life.

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The central nervous system and the brain in particular are considered “immunologically privileged” sites. Brain function is so important from a survival standpoint that it is essentially “immune” to its own immune system. No immune response to a foreign antigen in the brain, means no inflammatory response and no tissue rejection.

While receiving a “brain tissue” transplant may not turn your crank, thanks to the phenomenon of immune privilege it may soon be your best bet at treating accelerated brain aging and other neurodegenerative diseases. Until recently, survival rates for transplanted neural tissue have been dismal. Rates of less than 10% are considered the norm. Listen up aging baby-boomers, rates are even lower if the host happens to be “middle-aged” and above.

Now for the “berry” good news! Previous studies confirmed that the polpyphenols found for example in the lowbush blueberry (vaccinium augustifolium), dramatically increase survival rates of developing neurons in vitro.

Now a recent in vivo (read rat study) study confirms it.

The lucky rats received a fetal hippocampal tissue transplant to the anterior chamber of the eye (the eye is another immunologically privileged site), plus a diet enriched with the lowly lowbush blueberry. The unlucky rats got the knife but no berries. Final hippocampal graft size increased dramatically in the polyphenol-rich blueberry diet fed rats and not-so-much in the other.

Conclusion? In the future, if your doctor recommends a brain transplant, stock up on blueberries. Remember though, prevention is better than cure.

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