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“You need your other body parts to be functioning well, like your heart and gut, for a healthy brain. And as they also help to regulate our moods, it's thought they each have a mini-brain, too.”
— Mickie Kent
Since the dawn of time, nature has been working hard, engineering everyone and everything to the highest standards on Earth, and what affects one, affects all. This is true not only of the macro, but the micro universe, too - namely the inner workings of your own body. Our physical, mental and behavioural changes are all wired together in complex, sophisticated and subtle ways.
For instance, just being outside in the fresh air, or factors such as the time of day can influence whether we think better, focus more, or are more imaginative - or even have better sex. There are clocks throughout the body and a "master clock" in the brain, keeping the body in sync with the world around it - to make people sleepy at night for example. We are profoundly influenced by the workings of our body clock (which drive our circadian rhythms), controlling our physiology and our brains. Less sleep, even by only an hour, can greatly reduce our brain power. Similarly interconnected, what's unhealthy for your body is also unhealthy for your mouth, heart, internal organs, gut and brain.
In the previous part of this mini-series on boosting the brain, we have talked about brain boosting foods. Well, the foods the experts claim are good for the brain are also good for the heart, and when the heart is healthy, it supplies the brain with a constant supply of oxygen, resulting in peak performance. On the other hand, if the oxygen supply to the brain is impaired because blood vessels are clogged, then cognitive performance can be hindered. So heart-healthy foods are good for the brain, and keep it in peak performance, and in one sense, therefore, the heart really does rule the mind!
And while in the first two parts of this series - filled with tips to boost our brain's performance and longevity - we have focused on the brain itself, it's also true, however, that the brain is part of a team of organs that must work together harmoniously to give you the best quality of life. Our brain may be our most precious and delicate organ, but it isn't an island unto itself. Liver function can affect memory loss, a weak heart will affect your brain, and how much blood gets to it, while a poor digestive system - as we shall see - can affect your brain, and mood, in a myriad of ways.
The heart and the gut are now both believed to have mini-minds of their own, and so when we talk about listening to your heart, or going with your gut - it seems we're not just using poetic licence. People that get intuitive "good" or "bad" feelings about some things will go on gut instinct to invariably find they made the right decision for them.
Often these sorts of people have a strong connection to self, because they communicate regularly and trust their inner voice, or intuition. To achieve this, we need a healthy mind that can connect clearly to our core, and rational emotions to build up enough trust to listen when it speaks. This "voice" is unique to us, and we attach that element of uniqueness to our brain, too. We believe it either defines who we are, or is at least a conduit for the consciousness that defines us - or expression of the universe, or source, or whatever you choose to label the core of existence.
Call it what you will: an inner voice, intuition, coming from the heart, or that gut feeling - it's informing you to your truth. Pay attention to the signs during constructive rest - listen to to your gut, to your heart, to how you're interfacing with the outside world, because it's only with that sort of awareness your transformation will start to begin. Boosting our brain is a fundamental step towards this, and as studies are showing, what happens below our brains affects what happens in them.
We've already looked at how food and what we eat affects our thinking in the previous parts to this series. But how that food is digested, and the system we have for that, is equally important. In this final part, we shall look at how gut health is linked to brain health.
A healthy gut makes a healthy brain.
Scientists know that more than 70% of your immune system is located right in your gut. A poorly functioning digestive tract means you can get and stay sick - so it's not just about what you eat, but how that food is digested in your system. Your gut is one of the most critical links in the chain of the health of your entire body. If your gut isn't functioning properly, then you're not digesting and absorbing nutrients and in the long run, you're going to run into some serious health issues.
What is the gut?A "gut feeling" or a "gut reaction" to something is a description of a sense you have about it without knowing why. This probably comes from the fact that many people experience their emotions in their stomach or gut area. Think about where you would physically feel a "gut feeling". Research has shown that the network of neurons lining our guts is so extensive that is has now been nicknamed our "second brain" or "other brain." This gut "brain" doesn't think for us, but it does play a key role in certain diseases and communicates with the brain in our skulls.
Our "second brain" is known as the enteric nervous system. It is a collection of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract. Its role is to manage every aspect of digestion in all the organs of the gastrointestinal tract, including the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon. It uses over 100 million neurons and some of the same chemicals things that can be found in your "other" brain, including neurotransmitters and neuropeptides.
Within your gastrointestinal tract, there is intestinal microflora or microbiota. This complex ecosystem contains over 400 bacterial species. Small amounts can be found in your stomach and small intestines, but the majority is found in your colon. The intestinal microflora aid in digestion, synthesize vitamins and nutrients, metabolize some medications, support the development and functioning of the gut, and enhance the immune system.
Our digestive system normally has what we would call "good" bacteria and "bad" bacteria. Maintaining the correct balance between the "good" bacteria and the "bad" bacteria is necessary for optimal health.
Improve your digestion naturally.
We know that our digestive tract needs a healthy balance between the good and bad bacteria, so what gets in the way of this? Things like medications, diet, diseases, and your environment can upset that balance. It looks like our lifestyle is both the problem and the solution. Poor food choices, emotional stress, lack of sleep, antibiotic overuse, other drugs, and environmental influences can all shift the balance in favour of the bad bacteria.
When the digestive tract is healthy, it filters out and eliminates things that can damage it, such as harmful bacteria, toxins, chemicals, and other waste products. On the flip side, it takes in the things that our body needs (nutrients from food and water) and absorbs and helps deliver them to the cells where they are needed.
The idea is not to kill off all of the bad bacteria. Our body does have a need for the bad ones and the good ones. The problem is when the balance is shifted to have more bad than good. An imbalance has been associated with diarrhoea, urinary tract infections, muscle pain, and fatigue. Nutritionists believe that probiotics protect us by the role that they play in our digestive tract, while also helping by its impact on our immune system.
Our immune system is our protection against germs. When it doesn't function properly, we can suffer from allergic reactions, autoimmune disorders, and infections. By maintaining the correct balance from birth, the hope would be to prevent such ailments. Our immune system can benefit any time that balanced is restored, so experts say it's never too late.
Probiotics benefit brain activity.
Probiotics are showing up in foods, beverages, and supplements, and have been defined as "live micro-organisms, which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host." Simply put, probiotics (from two Greek words meaning pro-life) are friendly or good bacteria. Most people think of antibiotics and antibacterial products when you mention bacteria. Both of those kill bacteria, so why would you want to consume anything that has live bacteria in it? It's all about balance.
You have to ask yourself: Is your body able to handle this on its own or do you need to start including probiotics in your diet? Thus it's not just about healthier food choices, but smarter ones. It's about listening to your body, too - it's unique, and so the food you feed it must be of the type that will not just sustain you, but bring balance as well.
New research is showing us that our health and disease resistance depends on having a healthy gut ecology. After all, the majority of our immune system lives in our gastrointestinal tract - and relies upon a flourishing population of beneficial bacteria.
A word to the unwiseOur modern world teaches us that bugs, microbes and dirt are "icky". We have been conditioned to make our surroundings ever more sterile, like the conditions inside the space station.
But life doesn't thrive in a vacuum – or in sterile surroundings.
I'm reminded of the visit I made with my partner to his parents in Scotland years ago. One rainy afternoon we stopped in at a famous whisky distillery in the Highlands. Their onsite shop's entry hall was long and narrow and its carpet was wet and dirty from the foot traffic.
To my disbelief, a tiny toddler was crawling around in the muck as his mother sat nearby in conversation with a cup of coffee.
As we passed the child, my partner mumbled to me: “That's disgusting. Can you believe that?”
After we got our drinks, my partner was determined to say something to the mother on my way out. "It's very dirty down there. Your baby could get sick."
"It's okay," the young mother said with a thick accent. “It's very good for his immune system.”
I realised in an instant that she was absolutely right – and that the generations of wisdom from her “old world” roots had been transplanted in her. I could see my partner's mother nodding wisely like a sage.
"I could've told you that had you asked me," she said. "What do you think you played in as a child? We had a saying around our house, God made dirt and dirt don't hurt."
More than foolish, we felt like aliens, but were our grandparents smart to let us play in the mud?
Doing some research on this, I discovered that in June 2010, researchers at The Sage Colleges presented findings showing certain types of bacteria commonly found in dirt that made mice "smarter".
The mice given Mycobacterium vaccae performed better in maze tests and showed fewer signs of anxiety and higher levels of serotonin in the fore-brain, the area that takes care of higher-order thinking.
The bacteria seem to promote the growth of neurons as well. This doesn't mean that we should all go out and start shovelling dirt in our mouths: You can actually ingest it by doing yard work, gardening and even by simply taking a walk through the woods.
Boost your brain to boost your life.It could also be why being out in nature can enhance our mood. Reconnecting with our natural environment is thought to have many health benefits.
We know that city living can really affect our physical health, particularly through the release of stress hormones and exercising less, but it can affect our mental health and well-being, and undermine it, too.
Getting a little dirty by taking walk in the forest, or catching a lungful of sea air and getting sand between our toes is believed by many to be good for our overall well-being.
We humans are very proud of our individuality, and of our cleanliness as creatures, so it might come as a bit of a shock to discover that each one of us is, in fact, a complex community - not just of ourselves, but also of a large and active microbe population. There are ten times as many microbes in our bodies than we have cells, 100 trillion in all. Our bodies are like entire ecosystems, with territories like our scalp or our armpit as different from each other as a savannah and tropical rainforest are on the face of the Earth.
And despite what your mother told you when taking a bath, the most barren regions for microbes is behind the ear, with only 15 species. Not only is the skin teeming with bacteria, but also fungus, and the richest site of the human body for fungus is the heel, which is home to about 80 different fungi. There are bout 1.4 kilos of microbes that live in our gut alone. That's about the same weight as our brain. With the discovery that we have these menageries living on us, the natural question to ask is what are our personal ecosystems, or microbiomes as they are known, doing for us?
Well, it seems that the microbes in our gut could have a significant effect, and not just on our health. Pioneers in this extraordinary new world of the microbiome are making us change how we think about ourselves. In terms if cells, only 10% of you, is you. The other 90% are microbes that live on you, and within you. And it's these gut bacteria that may be crucial to our health.
In the last few years, it has been learnt that more and more diseases are linked to a disturbance of the gut microbes, and so diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease, colon cancer, and even things like autism, are being linked more and more to changes in the gut bacteria. Previously, it was thought that the problem lay in defects in our own genome, or environmental conditions that caused this, but the role of the bacteria in the gut has been revealed by some intriguing discoveries made about the gut microbiome.
There seems to be three major types, irrespective of where you live. Someone in London, for example, could have the same gut type as someone in Istanbul, or someone in New York. It turns out gut bacteria might be less to do with the environment, and much more to do with what you eat. That's because your diet's not only feeding you, it's feeding your microbes, too. So different strains will dominate depending on what you feed them. And they impact your health - even influencing your food cravings for processed food and refined sugars.
Be good to your gutHere's how:
Avoid sugar and other refined carbohydrates. These trigger unhealthy changes in your gut flora that can weaken your immune system and upset your metabolism.
Eat foods that are as “clean” as possible. Purchase foods that are organically-raised and free from antibiotics, hormones, pollutants, and other contaminants. Eat them as close to their natural state as possible.
Avoid anti-bacterial household products. These kill the good bugs along with the bad ones. So do antibiotics. Take them only when your illness truly calls for them. Follow your doctor's instructions exactly.
Eat foods that contain prebiotics and probiotics. Both can improve gut health by increasing your population of beneficial bacteria.
Prebiotics are food ingredients that stimulate the growth and/or activity of bacteria in the digestive system in beneficial ways. The top 10 prebiotic foods include: Raw chicory root, raw Jerusalem artichoke, raw dandelion greens, raw garlic, raw leek, raw onion, cooked onion, raw asparagus, raw wheat bran, cooked whole wheat flour, and raw banana.
Eat these 5 foods to beat bloating.
Probiotics are living cultures of “good” bacteria. Food sources of probiotics include fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir, miso, sauerkraut, pickles, tempeh, kimchi and kombucha tea. Fermented foods are packed with beneficial bacteria, and you can also prepare your own home made fermented foods.
One of my favorite books on preparing your own homemade fermented foods is "Real Food Fermentation" by Alex Lewin. Now you can always have a small crock of sauerkraut, spicy kimchi, or pickled beets fermenting on your kitchen counter-top. And be sure to check out Alex's "fermented Carolina-style slaw" on page 79. Yum!
Another great source of fermented food recipes - and old-style traditional foods in general - is the website Nourished Kitchen. Jenny's recipes are terrific!
For help in choosing gut-healthy yoghurt, unfortunately, not all yoghurt is created equal. While it is true that probiotics are used when turning milk in to yoghurt, many natural occurring bacteria in milk are killed off during the pasteurisation process. Luckily, there are some yoghurt out there that are labelled with live, or active, bacteria that have not been heat-treated.
Strive for Greek yoghurt or home-made yoghurt made from raw milk. Click here for a handy guide to selecting the Greek yoghurt that's right for you. And for instructions to make your own inexpensive, delicious, healthful yoghurt, see this article.
Experts also recommend taking a probiotics supplement daily. Ask your medical practitioner for advice.
Researchers in this field are increasingly seeing links between gut type and disease. It has been theorised that in a decade, doctors will not only be taking a blood sample for analysis, but also a faecal sample and thus detect other diseases that couldn't be detected before.
Boost your brain to boost your mood
As scientists probe ever deeper into the relationship between our gut microbes and our health, even more fascinating is the news that they can affect our behaviour, too. Neuroscientists have discovered that the presence of certain microbes in the gut can actually alter mood.
Simple tricks to boost your mood.
Obviously, how we frame things can really determine the way we feel about it. But while we try to see the bright side of things as opposed to the negative, eating well and a healthy digestive system will help to boost our brain, and our mood as well. Brooding too much on negative events is the biggest predictor of depression and anxiety, and the upside to an optimistic outlook is that it will motivate you to take on just about anything - especially sticking to a healthy lifestyle.
Self-reflection can be a good thing, psychologists say, but it can be dangerous when introspection goes awry and thoughts get stuck on repeat, playing over and over in the mind to sabotage your daily life. We almost seem to "jinx" ourselves, but we can put a stop to this, however. Taking action against negativity is a brain booster in itself.
Case being, researchers have discovered that people's elevated concerns after "tempting fate" can actually be eliminated if they engage in a ritual that involves exerting force away from themselves. They found that engaging in the physical action can help eradicate a vivid mental image of the negative event, by literally pushing it away, making it less likely to happen - so it seems bad luck really can be reversed by knocking on wood.
Read about the deep roots of superstition.
And getting trapped in negativity is like being caught in a jinx - but it is one we need to break out of for the sake of our brains. As already mentioned, rumination and self-blame have long been accepted by health professionals as part of the problems that can lead to depression and anxiety - the two most common mental health problems in the UK, according to the Mental Health Foundation.
The human mind is an extremely complex machine and it's generally accepted there is no single cause for depression and anxiety by professionals in the field. But some factors have more impact than others. Traumatic life events, such as abuse or childhood bullying, cause the most stress, followed by family history, income and education. Next comes relationship status and social inclusion. Tied up in all this is our physical health, and digestive health.
Although I would never advocate a "witch doctor" approach to mental health, when it comes to the brain, it IS all connected; some believe even the mood with which you eat your food affects the benefits you get from it. Eating food you don't enjoy, or sitting down to dine in a bad mood, however nutritious it is, may not benefit you if you don't approach your diet in the right mindset. The mood at the dinner table as you eat your dinner could have an adverse affect on the digestion of that food, too. If you argue whilst eating, the food is literally believed to turn to poison in your body. So, it's not just what you eat, but how you think that could well be influential, too!
Shield yourself with the right foods.
There is also evidence to suggest that what we digest in our mother's womb, and what our mother's moods are, help to form our brains. Children whose mothers are depressed during pregnancy have a small increased risk of depression in adulthood, according to a UK study.
Although there may be little we can do about that in hindsight, it shows that what we consume is very important. Bad digestion affects us physically as well as mentally. This goes for the way you eat as well. For instance, in a recent study, two factors were strong predictors of weight gain. The first, no surprise, was how much people ate. The second? How quickly they ate. Speedy eaters in the study who typically noshed until they felt full were 3 times more likely to be overweight than people who ate at a more leisurely pace. Speed demons also consistently consume more calories overall.
Eating too quickly can affect your digestive system adversely, too, and some would say good eating is really about utilising those life lessons our elders told us - never to fight at the table, to chew our food properly, and to eat our greens. Moreover, cooking your own food or opting for home remedies when you feel a little down is also said to help your body digest properly. Simply put, we have to learn to listen to our gut is telling us, just as much as our thoughts and our heart.
Listen to your gut
It seems counter-intuitive that your gut would have anything to do with your brain, but one of the key signalling pathways is the vagus nerve, which is basically the main communicator from the intestines up to the brain. It has been shown that this is very important to how bacteria in the gut signal to the brain and modulate brain chemistry, physiology, and behaviour.
Essentially the bacteria are producing chemicals, or they're structured in such a way that it activates the vagus nerve, and that communicates with the brain and manifests itself as some sort of mood. Tests have shown that fresh microbes introduced to the guts of rodents can reduce stress, and in ten years from now the potential is that we could have a bacterial-based product for treating stress-related psychiatric disorders.
So, whether we'll be using microbes as a diagnostic tool, or taking microbes as a form of medicine, there's no doubt it's a mutually beneficial relationship. What we're getting with this microbe research is the first glimpse at the mechanism behind it all. It seems these invisible creatures have a much bigger influence on our health, than we ever thought. We have only just realised exactly how interdependent and symbiotic the relationship is between ourselves and the bacteria that we're host to.
Scientists are saying that all the research so far on this is just a prelude, and the technology is advancing so rapidly that researchers are hoping going to unlock the answers to greater, more in-depth questions. Scientists are waning, however, that it isn't as easy as eating a yoghurt to cure your depression, and that food advertisers who have leapt on this kind of thing to encircle their processed products with a "health-halo" have ruined the science behind it. But eating less meat, and more whole vegetables could add more diversity to the bacteria in your gut for protection against disease, for example.
There is also the evidence that we pick up most of our microbiome at birth from the mother's birth canal, and then in the first few years of life. Once you are five or six years of age, then your gut flora stays with you, until you have impact on your flora, like taking antibiotics, for example, or get diarrhoea, and you flush your intestines out, and then what gets repopulated might be unbalanced, and that can cause things like Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome. There's also a connection with diabetes, and researchers in this field say there is a myriad of different non-infectious diseases associated with microbiota.
Lots of research shows that an unhealthy gut contributes to obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, autism, depression, and chronic fatigue. The gut biome (intestinal bacteria), your diet, and the gut lining determine gut health. Modern lifestyle factors like the overuse of antibiotics, and diets high in processed, preserved, and histamine producing foods (i.e. most conventional yoghurt), all contribute to an unhealthy gut biome. To repair an unhealthy gut and decrease histamine intolerance you need to eat an anti-inflammation diet, minimising histamine producing bacteria and maximising histamine degrading bacteria.
For some, following such a diet can be too restrictive, and relies heavily on supplement pills and products - which can be seen as processed in themselves - or just too expensive for us to follow. According to some health psychologist, such diets are causing more harm than good. The information I provide here therefore advocates we eat sensibly, in moderation, and above all not to eat less, but more nutritiously.
Top 7 nutrients needed to live better.
We depend on natural systems for our health, wealth and abundance. These systems evolved over millennia, creating an exquisite ecological balance that ensured our perpetuity. But when these natural systems are disrupted, ill health and calamity often result. We see this in our infertile topsoil, in our polluted oceans, in the atmospheric changes that now better us - and in our own internal ecosystem.
Some believe that - with the exception of those traditional cultures which strived to live in harmony with nature - man has been an "invader" on this planet, upsetting the natural balance with practically every semi-conscious footstep. In a recent issue of the science journal Nature, writer Lauren Gravitz observed that lately, we humans "have been messing with the delicate balance between our flora and ourselves".
Top 10 ways to naturally improve digestion.
For example, eating sweets may bring us back to a time in our lives when we had no worries, but what it really does is lock us into a vicious cycle of addiction. Processed food has replaced more traditional fare, and we eat larger and larger portions of foods laden with refined carbohydrates, toxic fats, hormones, antibiotics, chemical preservatives, and pollutants. We wash our hands and our homes with antibacterial soap. We misuse antibiotic medications. As a result, our microbiota (population of microbes) and our immune systems are out of whack, bacteria are developing antibiotic resistance, and people are suffering intractable infections such as Clostridium difficile. If our immune system is compromised, it will affect what we can and can't eat, too.
The human body is all connected, so you can't take care of one part of it without benefiting some other part. For instance, it's no secret that physical exercise is important for good health, for both the body and the brain. Simply increasing your blood flow kicks up the oxygen and glucose levels in the brain.
As we've seen in the previous parts to this mini-series, the coordination it takes to perform exercises also gives the brain a workout, especially if you're trying something new. Moreover it's believed exercise can be as good as pills. Physical activity rivalled some heart drugs and outperformed stroke medicine in a study published by the British Medical Journal. Exercise also means you're battling a sedentary lifestyle or one lacking mental stimuli.
Click here to read 10 top tips on how to keep your brain fit in the image above.Food is also important. As we have already seen, there are many foods that have been associated with cognitive function and brain health, including fish oil, eggs, protein and dark green vegetables. Coffee is said to boost mental performance. Green tea, herbal tea and nuts are also good "brain food". Combining foods is also advised for boosting brain power. Thus, eating right, getting the required amount of sleep and exercises, both mental and physical, are the keys to improving memory and overall brain function.
However, because the brain is also unique, you need to take into account your own moods, attitude and gut health when making life adjustments. This is why we should bear in mind that most articles we read on nutrition are not addressing anyone's personal situation, and you should rely on all such for informational purposes only. Some diets labelled bulletproof end up being so restrictive and expensive they are likely to kill - if not impoverish - you. Others suggest it is better to change your eating habits instead, and simply restricting your calorific intake for a day or two out of seven might benefit not only your body, but your brain. It is always advisable to consult with your own physician before acting on any recommendations contained in any health articles you read.
There is no one-size-fits all cure.
It is beneficial to know the connection between your ill emotions and your bodily symptoms of illness, because the ill thoughts that create ill emotions and ill relationships must be identified. Then you must be open to feedback from yourself - or a professional such as a doctor or psychologist who can recognise in you what you cannot see in yourself.
Boost your brain with support
Advice and observations from any professional worth their salt will not be a criticism of you. They do represent, however, professional experience of the issues at hand, and you must trust that there is something valuable for you to learn. If you are resistant and not open to feedback, you'll miss valuable lessons for altering your life.
I read many emails from my readership which goes along the lines of, "I wish my [life coach, therapist, etc.] would not lecture me! I enjoy your blog so much Mickie, because you don't lecture!" However, as I point out often in correspondences, I do lecture sometimes! It's the nature of the beast. But I do it because I care enough about you to be honest with you (as will the professionals to whom you have entrusted your care). Do not be offended by feedback when it is given to you for your learning.
Of course, your coach must be able to listen more than talk. Short simple questions keep you focused on finding the best answer, leading you to real self-discovery. Once you see they are your own answers, you can easily embrace your discoveries. Soon you will be living following your own plans because they are truly your plans.
Coaches who discuss their own successes and failures excessively can be annoying and counter-productive. You are not really that interested in your coach's life experiences and you don't want to be compared to anyone, except to yourself. Furthermore, your coach must not make moral judgements about what you share. If you feel you were bad or wrong, then despair can creep into your mind and doubts about your ability to succeed can arise. However, if your coach can use the terms "working" and "not working" for your behaviours, you will feel accountability and avoid shame.
I started this blog to archive advice on achieving healthy minds and bodies which will make you an open receptacle to connecting with your twin flame. Physical care, mental well-being and the health of our body, harmonised in a healthy soul is the true divination for love.
I am no expert, just an amateur researcher blogging for the betterment and self-improvement of myself, and the more I learn, the less I know, and the more sure I am that I know nothing. But I am growing, and improving, and I am sure that the process of learning is equally as important as what is being taught.
You an always tell an expert because they have a finer definition of "knowing" something than most people, and the humility that comes from becoming an expert: The more you know, the more you know what you don't know.
It's always good to look for inspiration from those with experience and knowledge, and we all have our personal gurus to go to - in any profession. But professionals can get it wrong, and our uniqueness and individuality will mean that the answers we seek will ultimately be revealed by ourselves, to ourselves.
30 pieces of wisdom from Charles Dickens.
Some say it is too late for us to repair the widespread damage we have wrought. Perhaps - but that's no reason not to try. If we all work together, there is a future waiting for us. Case in point, a 10-year, billion pound neuroscience project, which aims to revolutionise our understanding of the human brain will hopefully helps us understand what makes the human brain unique, the basic mechanisms behind cognition and behaviour, how to objectively diagnose brain diseases, and to build new technologies inspired by how the brain works.
The scientists involved say this Human Brain Project can be viewed as the neuroscience equivalent of the Human Genome Project, which involved thousands of scientists around the world working together to sequence our entire genetic code. That took more than a decade and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
But even if we don't achieve the ultimate goal to map the entire human brain, any progress made is certain to yield major benefits for medicine, computing and for society. One such example is the discovery of the first chemical to prevent the death of brain tissue in a neurodegenerative disease, which has been hailed as an exciting and historic moment in medical research. More work is needed to develop a drug that could be taken by patients, but scientists say a resulting medicine could treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases by pinpointing the exact genes involved.
These are just a few examples of a huge catalogue of advancements our era is witnessing. New discoveries are being made all the time - implants that can tap into the power of brainwaves, developing robotics to become an increasing part of our lives, and new energies being researched in laboratories all across the globe. It's an exciting time, but it's also one that requires us to be more responsible than ever before.
We need to start thinking how we are using our natural resources, and the new technologies available to us, not only to conserve them, but to conserve our own health, as well. For instance, pollutants in the air we breathe have been classed as a leading environmental cause of cancer by the World Health Organization. It said the evidence was clear they cause lung cancer.
But the advice is that there is a lot we can do as individuals to lower our chances of developing the disease such as being more physically active and adopting a healthier diet. Research also suggests that such comprehensive lifestyle changes - reducing stress, improving diet and moderate exercise - may increase the length of telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that control cell ageing.
Read about ways to live to 100.
Balancing our lifestyle with a more harmonious outlook means we can do more to bring responsible conservation to our modern lifestyles, with the aim to detox our toxic habits. Modern, urban life is a minefield of toxic chemicals and health-sapping pollutants that can cause serious, long-term health damage if not carefully avoided or at least properly and regularly mitigated. Along with the usual warnings over wasting food and energy resources, experts say people need to think about their broadband, too, in the same way as other utilities such as water and electricity - it's a commodity that can go to waste if we're not careful. How these technologies could potentially affect our brainwaves is also an issue we need to consider, and possibly limit their usage, especially during our "downtime" before we go to sleep.
And even if this is our 11th hour, nature is waiting to help us as long as we realise that we are not apart from the natural world. We are part of it its ecosystem. We humans and our gut microbiota are intimately connected. Humans and bacteria have evolved together for mutual reward and coexistence.
But now, our inhumane modern lifestyle is tearing us apart - and making us both sick. We need to remember we are an entire planet of big hearts, great talents - but also huge problems and deep disappointments. We are beauty and beast, and we can't exist in isolation. Nature runs in harmony and all living things are an important part of the ecosystem. And as we can take on board the wisdom of previous generations, there is also the wisdom we can take from long-living nations, to help us lead a long and happy life in an ever increasingly urbanised society.
For a start, we need to eat like the Japanese and the Italians: cut down on animal fats and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables while keeping an eye on portion sizes and alcohol consumption. Like the Australians, we can all take a bit more responsibility for our own health - making sure we go for regular check-ups and routine screenings for serious illnesses. And finally, cultivating the mental attitude of the Swedes by joining groups and societies, taking an interest in our neighbourhoods, maintaining social contacts, volunteering and avoiding making work the be all and end all of life. But the best advice in any language is that you realise you are a unique machine, and must take an active interest in listening to your body, and what it's saying to you. Put your heart and soul into living and improving your life.
The positive aspect of this means that we have the power to change our lives. The way we think and deal with things CAN be changed. It's a learning curve, and when it comes to our own personal improvement, we need to a build up our experience and intuitive trust with some trial and error. As we learn and grow, remember that moderation is the key.
Balance is important as we aim to harmonise the energies in our lives. We must all actively seek for our own wisdom, and we must remember that all guidance - outside of a trusted medical practitioner - is really a guidance to wisdom, and not wisdom itself. Parallels with others can often lead the way, but we need to trust in our decisions that have the right outcomes for us, and realise that these may not work for everybody else.
So ask yourself, how are you boosting your immune system? What are you doing to strengthen your natural immunity? Which foods and supplements do you rely on? Are you exercising, and getting some fresh air out in nature?
Be prepared to answer those questions with love, and you'll already be halfway there. Act on what works for you for the rest. Pretty soon you'll discover you have boosted your brain, your body and every aspect of your life with a harmonious energy that speaks with the vibrancy of love - grounded in the very source that powers life itself.
Read more in this series: -1 -2 -3
Yours in love,
