Habits form when brainwaves slow down

Habits may be difficult to change, but now at least we have an insight into how they form.

When a group of neurons fire simultaneously, the activity appears as a brainwave. Different brainwave-frequencies are linked to different tasks in the brain.

Click the picture to read the entire article.

I just finished reading The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner.  It gives a good explanation of why we fear some things more than we should and that causes us to change our habits which puts us in more danger.  His opening example is that following September 11 2001 many people stopped flying and drove cars instead, fearing another air disaster.  We have a gut feeling that flying is unsafe, but car travel is ok.  This gut feeling is wrong, air travel is safer.  In the year from September 11, 2001 to September 11, 2012 there were 1595 more automobile related deaths than in the 5 years before and the 5 years after.  By not flying more people endangered themselves.  We see this with parents who won’t allow their children in a house that has guns in it but they have no problem sending them to a house with a pool.  According to the Center for Disease Control drowning is the second leading cause of death to a child by accidental injury, and guns are so far down the list they are lumped into the ‘other’ category.  Far and away the leading cause is motor vehicle accidents.  We see the same with healthcare, 3 different studies from leading institutions have shown that medical mistakes kill around 100,000 people a year, but often people are afraid of chiropractors and acupuncturists.  If either of those professions had anything close to that record they would be gone by now.
Why do we fear so many things more than we should?  The author goes into a number of reasons.  News constantly gives us examples that remind us to be scared.  If there is not killer in your neighborhood or city, they run a story about the one in another state, if none is there, they can find one in another country.  If we know of an example of something happening then our gut tells us it must be a clear and present danger.  That was true when people lived and died within 5 miles of their birth, and news traveled very slowly, but that is not the case today.  Our gut also uses the ‘Good/Bad’ rule.  If something is good, like a swimming pool, we tend to downgrade our impression of the related danger.  If it is ‘bad’ (nuclear power) then we tend to over estimate the danger of whatever it is.
The bottom line of the book is that we are living in the safest time in history, and due to the mass of information around us we are in fear on a regular basis.  This can have a significant Bad effect on our health.  Fear causes stress hormone changes that can alter brain chemistry, decrease fertility, wipeout immune system function, and lower memory, among other things.  A simple Stress Response Evaluation can help determine if you are being affected or not.  If so life style changes may be in order.  If you are interested in having a Stress Response Evaluation find a local chiropractor with a neuroinfiniti.-

I just finished The Testosterone Syndrome by Eugene Shippen and William Fryer.  It was an interesting book about reversing the aging process in men with an aside on women.  The author’s premise is that low testosterone is the major factor in male aging, such as low sex drive, apathy, aches and pains, weaker muscles, slower healing, prostate cancer, less cognitive function (whereas some would argue that testosterone is the reason we men don’t think very well at times, but I digress), cardiovascular disease, erectile dysfunction, urination problems, headaches, insomnia, depression among other issues.  They make a good case for testing men’s hormone levels, and doing the things to maintain a decent balance.  They also hit on one of the things I think get ignored too much in taking care of men: estrogen levels.  Yes men do have estrogen, and yes it is essential to their health, but not at the levels needed for women’s health.  One thing that non-body builders don’t understand is that testosterone can be converted by the body to estrogen. This is done by enzymes called aromatase.  Sadly, as we age we tend to get less active, this leads to less muscle, and a higher body fat.  Fat cells are one of the big culprits for converting testosterone to estrogen.  They have plenty of aromatase activity.  Too much alcohol also increases men’s estrogen to testosterone ratio, which is not what we want.  Zinc deficiency is also a contributor to the problem, as well as a bunch of other health problems, but more on that later.  Liver issues, drugs, and estrogen from food also can contribute.  
What do we do?  
First, since the liver is in charge of getting rid of the excess estrogen, we should take good care of it.  It is the main detoxification organ, so less useless work makes it better able to do necessary work.  Exposing your self to a plastic, hormone/antibiotic filled garbage diet leaves a lot more work for the liver than a diet of whole natural chemical free food.  This includes all unnecessary drugs including the ever popular statins that everyone seems to be getting a script for.  Since these work by slowing down the liver’s function how well do think that helps your ability to detoxify?  If my cholesterol got to 900 I wouldn’t take statin drugs, I would, however, work my backside off to lower it.  But, again, I digress.  
Second, Exercise!  Having more muscle helps.  Resistance training seems to help increase testosterone.  It also lowers body fat, which helps lower aromatase activity.  It is the best way to get rid of the “need” for statin drugs for most people also.  Exercise also helps the heart, which we all know.  It also helps the brain function, which many people don’t know.  How? By increasing blood to the brain, by stabilizing blood sugar, by hormone releases that increase cognitive function.  It has huge and diverse benefits, and is the one cheapest, most effective thing one can do for heart disease, diabetes, and bunches of other health issues.  If you are not doing it regularly, then Ask your Doctor if getting off your Butt is right for you!  If you have musculoskeletal issues, you may do well to consult your Chiropractor before starting.  
Third a decent vitamin regiment is called for.  Zinc is required for so many things in the body.  It is a major factor in proper digestion, proper pituitary function [the part of the brain that directs the whole hormone balance], prostate and reproductive health, the ability to taste, and lots more.  One sign of zinc deficiency is indigestion.  It seems half the population is on the ‘purple pill’ or some other stomach drug, even newborns for ‘reflux.’  One thing the TV does not tell is that antacids lower your body’s ability to digest and absorb iron, protein, and calcium, among other things.  If you become anemic and don’t get enough protein, and have osteoporosis how good is your life going to be?  Maybe fixing the digestion is a better idea?  Zinc will likely be part of the solution.  
Vitamin C is also one of those things that do everything in the body it seems.  Everyone has heard it helps the immune system [whose job it is to protect us from cancer cells growing in our body,] but it also is a great antioxidant.  It seems to help replenish the other antioxidants.   
B12 and Folic acid are also important B vitamins that help lower homocysteine, which is a better marker of heart issues than cholesterol.  They are also important to red blood cell production.  B6 helps in the pituitary, which is the part of the brain controlling hormones.  Taking a good source of B complex is important.
Vitamin E is another well known antioxidant and all around important to everything vitamin.  It too is essential.
What does all this mean?  If you want to live a long and healthy life, put in good fuel, don’t put in a bunch of chemicals, and move around every day.  If you are just getting started with that, you may want to have a health coach with the heart of a teacher to help you along.  This can be your Chiropractor, Naturopath, Nutritionist, Trainer, Primary Care Provider, or some combination of them on your team.  Make some positive changes to you life every week.

I just finished reading My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor.  It is the true story of a neuroanatomist who had a stroke.  She is aware that she is having the stroke during the process, and while trying to call for help she is also observing how her different brain functions shut down.  As the left side of her brain decreased in function, the right side, which is the creative, timeless side took over.  It is interesting to get the insight from someone who lived to recover fully and who understood the anatomy and physiology of the brain well enough to know what was happening at each stage of the stroke.  She has quite a few insights about stroke recovery, and a list of what to do and not to do for someone recovering from a stroke.  The book is written for the normal people out there, not all in ‘doctor language,’ and I recommend it for anyone who has a loved one who has suffered a stroke.  It is a fairly fast read, but interesting and informative.

Dr. Holmes

Here is Dr. Taylor speaking at the TED conference.

She also talked to Oprah - click here!

I just got back from the Chiropractic Society of Texas annual election meeting and relicensing seminar.  The first 2 days were covered by a speaker I did not previously know named Dr. Dean DePice; he covered a bunch of the science out there that relates to what chiropractic is all about.  Among other things he also reminded us about the Windsor Autopsies done in the early 1900's.  A pathologist set out to prove or disprove chiropractic by looking at the spines of people that had passed away.  He found that in almost all cases the spine was degenerated and causing damage to the nerve that went to the organ that had failed, and caused their death.  He also covered a lot of the recent stuff too, such as the 'impact of positive sagittal balance in adult spinal deformity' which basically says that the more forward someone's head is off the centerline the more health problems they have.  Your Mom was right, posture is important!  Sunday's speaker was Dr. John Maltby, he has been the president of the International Chiropractic Association, and great statesman for chiropractic.  He covered current science and how to document quickly and still be thorough.  Both of them were amazing to hear.  
In the Chiropractic Society we voted to install Dr. Gary Brettman as the president for the upcoming year.  This allows me to retire from that job, having done it for the last two years.  I am happy to pass the torch and know Gary will do a wonderful job!

I just read ACOG (The American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists) Committee Opinion No. 476: Planned home birth.

It starts out:

“Although the Committee on Obstetric Practice believes that hospitals and birthing centers are the safest setting for birth, it respects the right of a woman to make a medically informed decision about delivery. Women inquiring about planned home birth should be informed of its risks and benefits based on recent evidence. Specifically, they should be informed that although the absolute risk may be low, planned home birth is associated with a twofold to threefold increased risk of neonatal death when compared with planned hospital birth.”

If you go to the following link to read the opinion you will find on the right side of the page some links to articles related to the opinion. 

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21252776?dopt=Abstract

The above link is reflective of at least the first three studies.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19720688

It is titled: “Outcomes of Planned Home Birth with Registered Midwife Versus Planned Hospital Birth with Midwife or Physician”

It cites the following statistics:

·         The rate of perinatal death per 1000 births was 0.35 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.00-1.03) in the group of planned home births

·         The rate in the group of planned hospital births was 0.57 (95% CI 0.00-1.43) among women attended by a midwife and 0.64 (95% CI 0.00-1.56) among those attended by a physician

The way I remember math 0.35 is smaller than 0.64, so it seems the data doesn’t agree with their conclusion.  Wow! A committee that renders an opinion by political whim and ignores the data, who would of thought that could happen?

Dr. Holmes