The Brain

     The human brain is the control center for our body.  And cause and effect is what control is all about.

     The brain monitors the state of our body at any given moment by sampling chemicals in the form of nutrients and hormones in our blood stream and receiving nerve impulses sent to it by our various organs.  Brain cells contain "receptors" for sampling nutrients and hormones and react on that information by either producing messenger hormones that turn on or off certain functions in the body or by using nerves to stimulate those changes more directly.  The brain also requires the neurotransmitters dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA and serotonin to support our physical, cognitive and emotional functions.

     My first introduction to this topic was a very good book called The Edge by Dr. Braverman. It covered the four major areas of the brain, the role of each neurotransmitters and their effect on our personalities and moods.  It turns out that each of us has a dominate neurotransmitter that effects our personality in very different ways.  You can have any of the four as your dominate neurotransmitter.  If you have a deficiency in one or more of these neurotransmitters then there are specific diseases associated with that deficiency.  Not just mental illnesses, but physical diseases we would not normally associate with the brain.  Most of these are common degenerative diseases that result from long term deficiencies.  This is quite remarkable, but maybe it should not be unexpected.  You don't need to actually know all the various diseases and why they occur.  It is enough to know how to avoid them and that turns out to be rather simple.

    To get right to the point, we need to make sure our brains neurotransmitters are present in sufficient quantities.  The neurotransmitters are created out of amino acids which are the building blocks of protein.  We get amino acids by digesting protein.  So what can go wrong?  Three things.  We may not get enough protein, the protein may not contain enough of the right amino acids, or we may not be able to digest enough protein even if we eat enough of the right kind.

     As you get older, your ability to digest protein and break it down into amino acids declines until you can (indeed, I'd say, will) become deficient in amino acids and, thereby, neurotransmitters in the brain.  My solution is to drink whey protein shakes which can be thought of as pre-digested protein and to eat whole eggs.  For most people, the whey protein shakes will be enough, but I was also very deficient in acetylcholine which can be had in larger quantities from eggs than whey.  Now, before you go out and buy some awful tasting stuff off the grocery store shelf, let me say that body builders have been drinking whey shakes for decades and there are some honestly good tasting whey powders available.  You might try looking at BodyBuilding.com as a place to start.  I like the ones made by CytoSport.

     Neurotransmitters are only part of the story, an important part, but only part.  The other part is that the brain must receive the correct signals from the body.  Most of those signals come from our hormone systems, so if a hormone system is dysfunctional due to disease or diet, the brain cannot do its job.  There are no easy answers here like whey shakes.

    In my case, being diabetic, insulin and related hormones is a problem.  Serotonin is a problem - less than 5% of serotonin is used in the brain, the other 95% is in the gut and has a function similar to insulin with respect to sugar metabolism.  Testosterone is a problem.  You can have normal testosterone but still be deficient because the testosterone is being rendered biologically inactive.  Adrenal related hormones were and are still deficient, but not as bad as they had been.  All of these hormone problems make a person (male or female) fat!

     I'll discuss each of these hormones and hormone families in their own separate sections.  The important thing to remember from this section is that you cannot solve hormone problems if your brain is not properly nourished.  So, start with the brain before working on the hormones.  One month of adding whey to your diet should have your brain functioning in good order.  You should feel better, be more alert and your memory should be greatly improved.  After that, further improvements will be gained as your hormones come into proper balance and function.