Brain Health
Brain dysfunction is the #1 reason why people fail to reach their goals. Coaching my clients to better brain health to address underlying dysfunction is one of the important keys to their success. Brain health is critical to overall health and success in life, yet so many people live with brain problems or are at great risk for developing them in the future. Dr. Daniel Amen’s Brain Health Coaching and Dr. Kristen Willeumier, Neuroscientist and author, Biohack your Brain are some of the tools used at Happy Whole You to help you transform your brain.
Dr. Kristen Willeumier has three tips to improve your brain
- Grow new brain cells. Our brain contains about 100 billion neurons, or brain cells, which are some of the longest-living cells in the body. When you create healthy new cells, you improve your neural capacity to activate, connect and respond to all the information your brain processes and receives.
- Increase blood flow. While our brain takes up 2 percent of our total body weight, it requires 15 to 20% of the total body’s blood supply. The brain uses 3 times as much oxygen compared to your muscles. Blood is the only way to get oxygen to the brain. Blood is the brain’s only source of glucose, use for fuel for brain cells. The brain can’t store it like your muscles. 40-60% body’s total blood glucose is used for the brain. If you are not getting enough blood, you are starving your cerebral tissue. Blood also carries other nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fats, and electrolytes. If you reduce nutrients and blood supply by a fraction, decrease details, decision making, concentration, etc. Rinse away the tissue of metabolic waste that builds up over time, includes amyloid-beta protein; a protein that becomes toxins in the brain and can cause Alzheimer’s disease
- Calm Sympathetic nervous system. Chronic stress is terrible news for your neurons. If your stress levels are elevated for too long, your brain can’t engage in neurogenesis and even worse can start killing cells.
9 Principles to Change Your Brain and Change Your Life
1. Your brain is involved in everything you do.
2. When your brain works right, you work right. When your brain has trouble, you are likely to have trouble in your life.
3. The brain is the most complex organ in the universe! Behavior choices accelerate or decelerate brain function. There are at least 14 warning signs your brain is in trouble.
4. The brain is very soft, and the skull is very hard. Traumatic brain injuries can adversely affect one’s life. Brain injuries are a major cause of psychiatric illness, substance abuse, homelessness, behavior problems, and suicide.
5. Many other things hurt the brain, including obesity and diabetes, drugs and alcohol, a poor diet, insomnia, sleep apnea, emotional trauma, chronic stress, and many more.
6. Many things help the brain, including mental workouts and physical activity, a healthy diet, adequate sleep, good nutrition, a healthy weight, managing stress, appropriate anxiety, managing automatic negative thoughts, and many more.
7. All mental health disorders have multiple types – they are not single or simple disorders; thus, treatment is not a one-size-fits-all paradigm.
8. Brain imaging is an essential tool to help people who are suffering. Without looking at an individual’s brain’s physiology, you cannot know the underlying cause of symptoms. As Dr. Amen says, “How do you know if you don’t look?”
9. You can change your brain and change your life with the right interventions. The wrong interventions hurt clients.
Take this free quiz from Dr. Amen to see what type of brain you have and some of the best ways to supplement your brain.