Nutrition and the Brain

I spent today in one of the most stimulating seminars I've been to in years: Food for Thought: How Nutrients Affect Mental Health and the Brain. I can't remember the last time I was so excited about information. Each time we approached a break, I found myself disappointed because it would bring a temporary stop to the presenter's sharing his overwhelming wealth of important knowledge.

The presentation was by Dr. Nick Hall, Ph.D. in psychoneuroimmunology (a field that didn't exist when he started his research) from the University of South Florida and was sponsored by the Institute for Brain Potential. Dr. Hall is a kindred spirit. He gets it; he really gets it. He is vice-president of Watertribe, a group of ultra-marathoners, adventure racers and otherwise insane people who push their bodies to the limit a few times a year and train for those limits the rest of the time--and a group of people who understand what nutrition contributes to that effort. He researches nutrition's effects on neurotransmitters and hormones and acquires his data in real life scenarios with real life people (in addition to tons of lab rats). He works with FBI agents in training, ultra-marathoners, professional athletes, corporations and tons of others to maximize academic, sports and high stress performance. I wanted to take him home and pick his brain. I wanted to absorb all that he had to offer. Part of me is afraid that as he competes in the 1000+ mile Everglade challenge coming up soon something might happen to him before I can hear him speak again. Amazing, simply amazing. Obviously, the day was filled with way too much information to share here, but I do want to give you the nuggets and some links that you might find interesting. The thoughts do not flow well, so please forgive the lack of a continual concept.

The 3 psychologic variables that most greatly influence our ability to weather adversity are
1. Our maintaining a sense of control--including of our emotions and the emotions of others
2. Being able to predict an outcome (which is directly related to fear which stimulates pro-inflammatory chemicals in the body known as cytokines. Interestingly, anger is considered the emotion that more greatly stimulates cortisol and the fight or flight response).
3. Optimism.

Glutamate is the amino acid/compound responsible for the hedonistic response to food via a receptor on the tongue, but the pleasure of food is also associated with experience and experience is directly related to an image we create in our brains. And associated experiment is to go to one's favorite restaurant and get one's absolute favorite dish to go. Take that dish in the to go containers to a fast food restaurant, choose a seat either near the restaurant or near a crowded corner, and eat it with the plastic utensils provided. It will not taste the same nor will it provide the same pleasurable sensations (related to the mesocorticolymbic system). A problem that lies with this is that when we do not receive the anticipated pleasure response, we are programmed to go back for more until we reach the sought after amount of pleasure. Therefore, the better the food and the entire experience, the less you require to reach your pleasure threshold (sound familiar). Interestingly, parmesan cheese and anchovies are high in glutamate...

Galanin is a peptide in the brain that stimulates a craving for fat. The more you eat, the more galanin you produce and then the more you eat. It's on what is called a "negative feedback loop." It and some other peptides that govern appetite and eating, all of which are stimulated by fat intake, are opiod agonists which means they give one a similar feeling as opiod pain relievers like morphine. or heroine. Galanin also increases dopamine (a pleasure providing neurotransmitter) production.

Contrarily to previous thoughts, short bursts of stress actually stimulate the immune system. It's the long, chronic stressors that suppress it.

Sleep deprivation decreases judgement but not performance.

Working memory/executive function=the ability to keep large amounts of data in mind long enough to function (as in navigating with directions that have been given to you). It is affected by actual stress on the body and on perceived stress on the body and is impaired by cold stress. Tyrosine is protective of working memory as is glucose. They learned via a study of soldiers on the front lines in the middle east that 150mg/kg taken 30 minutes before a memory task increased memory retention. Glucose shortly before increased memory acquisition. Part of this has to do with tyrosine's being a precursor to the stress hormones norepinephrine and epinephrine which is part of why we remember so many details of positive or negative trauma in our lives. This is also part of the basis of post traumatic stress syndrome. He and his staff use this concept at their facility at Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa in order to train Fortune 500 company executives new company information most effectively. They actually have an obstacle and ropes course where they take clients to do one slightly scary obstacle at a time. Between obstacles, they give a lecture. The norepi increase makes them retain the information more effectively. Since norepi's half-life is about 50 minutes, it's just the perfect amount of time for a good lecture. They then go through another obstacle to boost it again before the next bolus of information. Brilliant!

Serotonin below a certain level leads to insomnia. Stress induced displacement of aggression is a result of decreased serotonin.

Sleep deprivation on avearage leads to a 20% increase in caloric intake over 24 hours.

It takes two full weeks to reset a circadian rhythm.

Chocolate contains a chemical which binds to endorphin receptors. beta-endorphine decreases during the time preceding ovulation and at other times during a female's cycle.

The model of stress in their experiments is induced restraint....hmmmmm.

Being able to taste sweetness blunts all of the stress hormones. Needs only be the taste so it can be artificial sweetness and not glucose induced.

Remember how predictability is one of our ways to deal with stress? That contributes to our seeking of comfort foods. They are familiar/predictable.

Another cause of decreased serotonin (a cause of depression) is a decrease in the enzyme that converts tryptophan into serotonin. Interferon-alpha blocks this enzyme and is created in states of high inflammation.

Long elevations of the stress hormone cortisol leads to a decrease in the hypocampus's (the part of the brain that allows us to access other parts of the brain and also which controls many of our hormone responses to things) ability to take in glucose. Because it begins to have difficulty taking in its sole source of energy, it becomes less effective. This becoming less effective is thought to be part of what happens in Alzheimer's dementia. The current thought is that the memories are actually all still intact. The problem is now thought to lie in the hypocampus's inability to access those memories. Scientists also suspect now that the damage is done in people's 20's and 30's but only expresses itself as people reach their later years. Beta-amyoloid proteins and tau proteins (neurofibratory tangles) were once thought to be the cause of AD, but now the theory is that it is those only when they are associated with poor vascular health. Choline in the 2nd half of pregnancy and the toddler years seems to be protective against AD. Since the hippocampus specializes in spacial memory, exercising that encourages the maintainance and rebuilding of hippocampus neurons.

Omega-3's combat stress's decreasing the length of telomeres on DNA thus increasing expected life span.

Yellow #5 is one of the most common culprits in ADHD, so is manganese which is found in soy. What do huge numbers of non-breastfeeding mothers give there babies?....

The 3 books I bought while I was there:Mind-Body Interactions and Disease and Psychoneuroimmunological Aspects of Health and Disease, I know What to Do, So Why Don't I Do It?, and Training Your Brain to Adopt Healthful Habits: Mastering the Five Brain Challenges (no good links there)....and my reading list gets even longer. :)

Ok, WHEW! That's a few of the best bits. I hope you enjoy them! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Balancing Drive with Journey

My personality is one of constant unrest, a continual need to accomplish a task well and get on to the next thing.That concept of working long and hard, sacrificing for the end game, is an easy one for me, and I think there is value to being able to do that.

The yin to that yang is that ability to slow down and enjoy the journey, to see the value of being where you in this minute so as not to miss it in your quest for the next one.

These concepts seem to be diametrically opposed, but in truth are two sides of the same coin that should be reconciled in order to find peace. This reconciliation has become one of my fixations of late...

Randomness

Still pondering my purpose in the world, my passion to engage it. Random thoughts to that end:

Work has been interesting of late. One of the biggest sources of negativity got fired & life has become so much easier most of the time. Now just one more source to convert to optimism.

Teaching/family communication seems to be a strong suit--especially with regard to end of life issues....How odd that I feel I am my best talking with people about death...

"Spitballing" my identity in terms of who I am fundamentally--independent of anyone or anything around me:
Writer
Artist
Nurturer
Healer
Counsellor
Athlete
...feel free to add to this list. Terms some might consider negative welcomed in the interest of growth & self-reflection.

Chili..With A Little Bit Extra

I'm pretty sure everyone has a favorite chili recipe handed down from hunting fathers, doting grandmothers or spicey moms. I know I do. Chili is one of my favorite things in the world to eat, and I can make a mean batch. A couple of years ago my recipe for chili included lots of ketchup and even a little brown sugar to offset the heat and spice of the peppers. The ketchup and sugar gave it this great texture and depth of flavor that I had a lot of trouble duplicating when I began to make the recipe healthier. For a several months I simply made the chili and missed the old flavor with its sweet undertone. Since I always make a huge batch and freeze some, when I would heat up a bowl, I would add a couple of large handfuls of spinach to up the nutrient ante while I was at it. Finally one day, I decided to use my blender and add the spinach in the beginning, and then there was this head of cauliflower in the fridge heading to bad that I didn't want to go to waste. I decided to throw it in the blender and add it, too. I'll be darned if those two veggies, blended and thrown into the pot didn't add that depth I had been missing!...and gave me a great way to add some veggies at the same time.

The venison that my buddy bagged for me this hunting season didn't hurt either.

The Green Eyed Monster

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality . Wake Up and Live!
--Bob Marley

Somewhere along my way, I found this creature in my soul--this woman who wanted what someone else had. There was a time when she began to smother me, to take away the joy I had in what I had. She told me that what I had was not enough. I wasn't tall enough, thin enough, smart enough, successful enough. Nothing was enough. I was not enough.

I could be happy for my friends as they accomplished things but certain accomplishments seemed only to punctuate my own inadequacies, or at least the ones that I perceived. Others' weight loss was one of those things. Friends seemed to be able to simply say they were planning on losing weight and POOF! five pounds instantly evaporated from their asses. Meanwhile, I had to fight for every half pound that I lost.

With time, though, I have come to understand that everyone has their own battles and their own victories. While I might look at someone else and think about how unfair it is that they are dropping weight like stones, they might very well be looking at me and wishing their husband looked at them the way that mine looks at me or that they could live as freely as I do. Their journey is not mine. My journey is not theirs. This epiphany came to me quite a while back.

The natural progression of enlightenment from there took a little longer. If my journey is different from another's, why would I expect the points along the way to be similar? Why would I expect the obstacles to be the same? For some reason I did, and at times I still do. Tonight for instance, I noticed that a good friend is really making progress with her weight loss despite the chips and beer and bread and...well, I can't even really tell you what she's actually giving up. My first instinct was to be jealous of her. Her weight loss pace is about 50 times faster than mine despite her being fifteen years older, perimenopausal, and not that chunky to begin with. But her path is not mine. Mine is not hers, so I'll just be thankful for mine. I can only truly be happy for mine when I am not looking at the scenery lining another's.

Now it's me smothering the monster.

What a busy week this week! Four BUSY nights at work, week one of mentoring with LE, a 4 hour webinar, baby showers, dinners with friends and all the other "stuff" that is life.

Despite the busy-ness, I was able to keep up with the forums pretty well, and already this group of lean eaters is started to coalesce. They are a bright, strong group of women who are going to be quite inspiring, and I get the impression from some of the other mentors that the other group is the same way. What fun this year is going to be!

Today's thoughts have been about self-imposed limits and the following of guidelines. How many times do we not try something or not start something because we don't think we can do it? What could we accomplish if we started anyway and gave it hell? How many times do we give up because someone says we don't have the right credentials? What could we do if we proved to others credentials aren't always something we can put on a piece of paper or in an email? Certainly life sometimes isn't fair. Often it's not a fairytale, but more often than not, we defeat ourselves before the game even starts. I'm just as guilty of this as the next gal...or I have been in the past. But times...they are a-changin'.

Luna helps me pay attention to the webinar:

Plan. Execute. Adjust.

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I suppose I have officially weathered yet another holiday season since I head back to work tomorrow after two weeks away. I got to go home to TN for several days, our first Christmas without my dad. Christmas is typically a quagmire of guilt for me, filled with "should haves," and "if only I were mores..." but this year I gave myself permission to simply show up and be satisfied with that. And it was enough. I did my best to sit in the moments and appreciate and be thankful for them, to breathe and not pay too much attention to the elephant who was not in the room while honoring him in my own way.

I ate a few too many things that weren't planned over the last couple of weeks. In retrospect, I went into those weeks without a definite plan of action. Not the wisest move ever...but I'll count it as not having been an entire loss as long as I come away having learned a lesson. That lesson is to "Plan the dive. Dive the plan." I would never get in the water without a plan, so why does it somehow make sense to me to approach a day without a plan?

Plan. Plan. Plan. Execute. Execute. Execute. Adjust as needed.