week 9 

10/17/16 - 10/23/16 

Dean Ornish - Your genes are not your fate

How uplifting!! :)

 I'd just like to clarify that we cannot generate new neurons.  Instead, the brain increases size by building new connections. Essentially, all learning and all memories are structural physiological changes in the brain. Those brain exercises really DO work ;) 

Things that INCREASE Brain Mass: chocolate, tea, blueberries, alcohol (moderate), stress management, cannabinoids 

Things that DECREASE Brain Mass: Saturated Fat, Sugar, Nicotine, opiates, cocaine, alcohol (excess), and chronic stress. 

As a future RN, I'd just like to make a quick public announcement that STRESS is more than just an inconvenience. Chronic stress affects every single body system adversely. Anytime our brain sends stress signals, the body releases cortisol.  Increased levels of cortisol have been clearly linked to development and/or worsening of Heart Disease, Diabetes, many types of cancers, clinical depression and and pretty much most other pathologies. The scariest of all is cancer: if someone has multiple risk factors (most of us do: as the statistics currently are that 1 in 3 people is likely to get cancer in their lifetime) being in a constant state of stress Significantly increases the risk of getting cancer. Basically, if your body is walking a tightrope between health and cancer, chronic stress Will push it over the edge...Luckily, there are many resources widely available and easily accessible- gotta love Google! :) 

I recently watched THE MOST perfect documentary series to complement this talk: Predict My Future - the science of us. 

Here's the IMDB summary: Predict My Future reveals the answers to one of life's most fundamental questions; What Makes Us Who We Are? 43 years ago a New Zealand Medical School embarked on a remarkable project - the ultimate Nature/Nurture test. They decided to follow every one of the 1,037 babies born in the city of Dunedin between April 1972 and March 1973 for their entire lives. And they have. Those children have become the 1,000 most studied people in the world. For almost four decades every aspect of their health and development has been monitored - their genes, their growth, their physical well-being, their psychology, their emotional ups and downs, criminal convictions, successes, failures - the lot. The result is the Dunedin Longitudinal Study - the broadest and the most in-depth study of human beings in the world. The project has become the richest and most productive archive of human development - anywhere. It is truly unique - the study has retained an unprecedented 96% of its starting participants. It is re-writing the book on what makes us all human. 'Predict My Future' details the study's findings, and explores what they have to say about all our lives. This series has a global audience and is being screened across Europe, and in Australasia - with additional territories in negotiation.