Cause and Effect: How to protect your brain against degeneration

By Gary Null

Recent studies suggest that by the year 2050, approximately 30 percent of people living in industrialized countries will be sixty-five years of age or older. That means that there will be an increase in neurodegenerative disorders that may cause considerable cognitive and physical impairment and shortened life span. And when we see someone like Bill Clinton with a coronary triple bypass operation, we must question how is it that none of his doctors noticed his health condition until it reached such a critical stage. The truth is that his health was allowed to deteriorate because the best doctors in America did not pay attention to his health until he had overt signs of heart failure. No one paid attention to Ronald Reagan until he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The same goes for Charlton Heston, Michael J. Fox, and Janet Reno, celebrities who have made us familiar with the diseases that have afflicted them. But never once did anyone ever say, "Could it have been anything that they did or didn't do that caused them to become sick?" Instead we all assumed they were doomed to their fates by their genes.

What I want to say to you about this is something crucial to the paradigm shift that I am proposing: our genes can only be as healthful as the medium in which we allow them to exist.

I speak with hundreds of people yearly about these concerns, and the one thing I've learned is that the greatest concern for most of the aging baby boomers is not so much the threat of heart disease, cancer, or even diabetes (which all have medical treatments of some kind). Rather, what people fear most is the loss of mental acuity. In particular, they fear that Alzheimer's, dementia, and Parkinson's are in their not too distant futures. As they age, they see a loss in their cognitive function which is the loss in their ability to memorize and recognize. And they fear these early signs are sentences of doom.

Few people ask, "What is the cause of these age-related cognitive dysfunctions?" Were they to genuinely consider such a question, they would find the following causes: chronic inflammation, which damages both central and cerebral blood vessels; bad diet, which leads to nutritional deficiencies; hormone deficiencies; impaired breathing, which leads to decreased oxygen to the brain and impaired circulation; a deficiency in essential fatty acids (EFAs), which every brain cell requires; free radical damage; the adverse effects from prescription medicine; and damage from environmental pollution.

With an intelligent game plan, however, the baby boomers need not live in fear of mental decline. These conditions can be prevented and reversed with lifestyle modifications. It's an exercise in simple cause and effect.

For more information on Brain Health, have a look at Gary's acclaimed film, Mind Power.