By turning inward with great curiosity and passion, we will not only pioneer new understandings of the human brain, we will discover that all of our answers are tucked deep inside our brain’s folds and grooves.
Now that you know about the five critical domains of brain health, it’s time to take those practical suggestions and tips and implement brain health in all areas of your life. Remember that the five major components of the lifestyle are socialization, physical activity, mental stimulation, spirituality, and nutrition. In these areas, there are definitely proactive steps you can take, backed by a growing body of research, to promote brain health.
The fascinating fact about brain health is that we already know what kinds of environments are likely to promote brain health; we simply need to reorient our surrounding. Research tells us that an environment that is enriched and provides novel and complex stimuli increases our potential for brain health by building brain reserve. This brain reserve is thought to help delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, which helps to underscore the importance of a proactive and lifelong pursuit of brain health, as we all want to maintain our memories and life stories.
I have proposed implementation of a brain health lifestyle by first establishing brain health as a priority and desired cultural shift. Regardless of the setting or environment, such as school, workplace, and home, among others, the first step that must occur is both conceptual and informational. For those interested in your own brain health, it is critical that you become educated on the basics of your brain, how it operates, and how a proactive lifestyle can promote the health of your brain. This text articulates my brain health lifestyle as a tangible example of a proactive approach to brain health. There needs to be a belief that persons within the environment can engage in and benefit from activities and a general lifestyle that promote brain health.
For every entity that is interested in creating a brain-healthy culture, distinct individuals emerge who are quite eager to learn and lead the movement to brain health. I refer to these persons as “brain health ambassadors,” and they become the core staff within the existing environment to foster and promote the change. Working closely with the brain health ambassadors, I can help to keep a strategic focus and direction for the team as the culture takes small but persistent steps toward brain health.
It is tempting to try and discuss the brain in technical terms and to try and advance predictions of brain function that are highly theoretical. I generally believe the mystery of the human brain will be unlocked in basic and simplistic terms, with ideas that have a home more in the wisdom taught us by past generations than a university laboratory. We may be surprised to discover that the human brain can be best understood and shaped using simplistic approaches, and it is this simplistic beauty that makes the human brain truly remarkable. I think there is both complexity and parsimony in the human brain, which probably is the essence of its brilliance.
We have learned some basic truths about the human brain that can help us to dream about the brain of tomorrow. These truths include the following:
• The human brain is the most complicated and sophisticated system ever designed in the history of our universe.
• We do not understand much about the human brain, and we consistently underestimate its sheer capacity and power.
• The human brain has plasticity and can be shaped by environment across the life span.
• The human brain can develop new brain cells in the hippocampus and olfactory system. Interestingly, these two regions of the brain are close to one another, and we can all appreciate how memories that form in the hippocampus can have a trigger from a sense of smell. The same process of environmental stimulation that can lead to new brain-cell development in the hippocampus likely affects the olfactory neural networks.
• The brain can be stimulated for health at any age.
• The human brain responds favorably to enriched environments where the stimuli are novel and complex.
• A proactive and lifelong brain health lifestyle builds brain reserve important to delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
This understanding of the human brain is relatively new and is significantly different from our traditional understanding of our brain as a rigid, fixed, and essentially degrading system from birth. We used to be entrenched in the idea of a “critical period of brain development” that was fixed, and thus ended, in childhood. Plasticity was not considered an established fact for humans even though rodent brains evinced plasticity more than fifty years ago. It is true that much has been learned about the human brain in the past forty to fifty years, and the next fifty years will provide us with an even greater understanding of this critical part of our being.
Consider how the human species has evolved from a primitive being unable to communicate to an upright and mobile animal capable of many languages. We have moved from hunter-gatherer to astronaut. We used to rely on a telephone with one line, and now we have the ability to send e-mail or text messages across the planet in seconds. Air travel, space exploration, and discoveries under our oceans have provided us the ability to live more efficiently and more productively. Most significant is our ability to generate, acquire, and process more information today than at any other time in our history. All one has to do is look up an idea to realize how much information exists today. With all these advances, the rapid explosion of information, and the ongoing upgrades to technology, we must pause and reflect upon how such creation occurs. It is the human brain that permits such advancement, and it is the brain that responds to such advancements. It is a systematic dance that originates in the brain and returns to the brain in the form of a new technology or piece of information. It is from this interplay that the human brain grows, becomes more sophisticated, and enriches the human race.
What does all this mean for the future of our species, for the structure and function of our brain, and for improving the human condition? As a curious animal, the human being will continue to ask questions and to seek answers. We will improve our species by becoming more technologically advanced, more informed, and more capable of addressing those things that threaten our existence. Our brains will continue to grow, probably with increased cortical mass and an even larger frontal lobe. We will continue to develop new windows into the structure and function of the human brain that will provide us with a better understanding of how the brain works.
The future of the human brain is fascinating to consider. I believe the next decade will provide us insights into the power of the human brain that will yield a new frontier for new forms of communication, control of energy outside the body, and a new form of understanding as to how to manage and perhaps reverse illness inside the body. This appreciation of the brain as a brilliant and dynamic system of energy and the strategic exploration to tap and utilize this energy are what I call “neural energies.” Our ability to utilize this power of our brain will advance our species in unprecedented ways.
The United States military is already conducting research on how soldiers on the front line can communicate with other soldiers mentally, without opening the mouth. Case studies have described persons paralyzed with no ability to speak or move who maintain communication skills in the form of electrical energy. That is, these individuals have been taught to use their thoughts to create electrical energy that is transmitted across electrodes placed on the skull and into a computer in which a cursor moves over particular letters to form a sentence. I recently read a report on the relationship between deep meditation and slowing of HIV. Plenty of studies exist on the relationship between prayer and positive outcomes in surgery, positive attitude and successful outcomes with a particular illness, and even a relationship between humor and positive health. We do not understand how placebo works, but we do know that most studies will yield a 25 percent positive outcome for patients placed in a placebo group. Placebo might actually be a misunderstood form of treatment.
Such findings exist today, and though we cannot explain them very well, they seem to underscore the power of the mind to manage or manipulate the body. Sports psychology is a growing field of expertise, as the world’s best athletes recognize the value in visualization, relaxation, focus, and mentally creating success for physical performance. Indeed, an argument can be made that the difference between the greatest athletes and other professional athletes is their mental discipline and ability to focus at the highest level. Their brains do not get distracted, and anxiety does not alter their physical performance. Otherwise, there is very little difference between professional athletes when comparing physical attributes or performance mechanics.
The future pioneers of the human brain will explore neural energies and how the electrical forces from such energies can control matter within and outside the body. This has enormous potential value for health care, as it can unleash completely noninvasive methods to treat disorders throughout the body. It also has enormous value for communication and will potentially enable immediate interaction between any two or more people on the planet. Neural energies could transform the body within and enable interpersonal interaction in almost real time. Neural energies may shape our species for many years.
Perhaps as new methodologies emerge to explore and unleash the powers of the human brain, we will discover new talents and remedies to our most pressing needs. We may learn how our neural energy can routinely regulate our bodies to homeostasis with balanced levels of sugar and blood pressure. Cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, mental illness, and substance abuse may indeed be found in a piece of bark deep in the Amazon Jungle. The cure may just as reasonably be found in the deep gyri of one brain of the billions of brains on our planet. Remember, it only takes one brain for something to be considered real or possible. I have a fundamental belief that the human brain contains the answers to our greatest difficulties, our most challenging questions. The brain is simply too brilliant to not provide us the roadmaps to different solutions, to make life on Earth a better experience, and to wipe disabling diseases from our existence. The brain contains the mathematical wizardry necessary to create the twenty-second-century world and to appreciate deeply complex things such as time and aging itself. The brain seeks pleasure, and its most elegant processing occurs when it is stimulated using multiple sensory pathways simultaneously. The brain also contains answers so that all people of different backgrounds with different sets of beliefs can appreciate more fully we are one species with more similarity than difference.
Our future holds significant promise for an entirely new understanding of the human brain. As we develop more sophisticated means of exploring the human brain, we will begin to close the gap between what we now believe about the human brain and what is real. We continue to underestimate the power of the brain because we do not understand it well enough. There is a basic human tendency to be cautious and dubious, but I believe we should be aggressive and bold with regard to the potential of the human brain. The future will provide us with more insight and a deeper appreciation for how brilliant the brain is. We will also learn how to use our brains in new and highly efficient ways and to adapt to life circumstances in ways that increase our health and longevity. Perhaps we will also discover within our brain the deep sense of spirituality that has existed in humans since the beginning of time. We may even find that the complexities, questions, and answers on the origin of our universe are the same for the brain. Can something so brilliant be random?
Until such exploration yields some of these insights, we need to begin the process of learning about our own brain. From a basic understanding of your brain, you can understand why a proactive lifestyle is critical. Personalizing the message of this book will enable you to engage in a brain health lifestyle across your entire life span, which is desirable because the goal of maintaining access to your life story is so meaningful. It is important to try and reflect on the many brilliant things you do every day, the experiences of life, and the social interactions your brain permits you to experience. We are truly blessed to have such a complicated and miraculous system within our skull. We are also so fortunate to have the ability to shape our brains, which means we have some control over the integrity and indeed the health of our brain. This is truly a wonderful opportunity for each of us to engage in the proactive path toward brain health. You have been encoding experiences most of your life, and your brain has placed them systematically into a long-term storage for your use. I refer to this as your autobiography, your life story, the most precious gift you have. It is critical that you maintain access to your life story so you can share it with your next great generation, the little ones in your life. Get started on your journey toward brain health today. You have much to share!
Brain health is a critically important and interesting frontier that has captured the focus of the nation and the world. It is now up to those of us on the front lines of schools, libraries, homes, and corporations to introduce and implement brain health. Everyone who works to learn about their brain and to make lifestyle changes to promote their own brain health will benefit. While change is typically not easy, such lifestyle alterations can be fun and personally relevant. It is time for all of us to begin a proactive approach to protecting our life stories so that we can share them with our next great generation of little ones!
Good luck with your own journey to better brain health!