Smart Bomb

This week (16/01/2012) the Neurological Alliance warned that the National Health Service (NHS) were facing a ‘neurological time-bomb’ following a fairly damning report by the National Audit Office that showed that the services surrounding neurological care were severely lacking across the board. (1)

Although it’s not a choice situation, the NHS can’t really bear the burden for the current state of play. As I’ve shown before most disease is not an overnight occurrence, it generally develops over decades.

Neurological disease is only now coming to the forefront because we have become pretty adept at patching people up sufficiently after they’ve developed non-neurological diseases such as circulatory disease and cancer which enables them to live long enough to allow the brain to degenerate to a point where maladies such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s become evident.

As with all disease, the answer lies not in cure but prevention. By the time your brain is damaged to the point of clearly evident symptoms (15-20% reduction in neuronal mass), the best modern medicine can do is offer palliative care to provide symptomatic relief, as there are insufficient neurons to maintain proper brain, or indeed whole body, function. The symptoms may show slight improvement for a while as the remaining neurons are coerced into working harder to compensate, but once the rot has set in, it is unfortunately an inevitable decline until, hopefully, a quick death relieves them of the suffering.

Brain degeneration (and the associated loss of neurons) begins in our 20’s and declines by roughly 5% per decade. So it usually takes about 40 years until it becomes so pronounced that the disease is overtly obvious. If you have genetic markers for certain types of disease such as Alzheimer’s this can happen four times faster, with each decade seeing a 20% loss of neuronal mass, so some poor souls will reach the cut-off point in their mid-thirties.

Although this seems like a doom and gloom scenario, it is actually far from it.  The first step in any situation however, is to identify and admit that there is one. If like a lot of people you dismiss early symptoms such as regular forgetfulness or a slightly shaky hand by disregarding them merely as products of tiredness or stress, then by the time you do admit there is a problem, it’s too late.

Let’s put it out there, all of us, from the age of 25 years onwards are suffering from a gradual process of brain damage. Now, whether that reaches the point of no return in our 40’s or 80’s, or whether it manifests as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or another debilitating condition, is determined by our individual genetics and our environment.

It doesn’t have to be this way though.

The current science in neurobiology has provided strategies that can not only limit the damage, but if you begin early enough, can actually repair the damage, and regain the lost neuronal mass. If that wasn’t good enough news, using this new science can increase the functioning and processing power of your brain. In fact, without any other change using a simple protocol of specific nutrients has been shown to increase brain speed by 25% in as little as 4 weeks. This is without any other intervention such as brain training or using specialised neurologically designed physical exercise.*

To prevent the accumulation of damage to your brain you need to adopt a few key strategies. I have been covering some of the key sources of damage in my series of articles on ageing, so if you need a primer, check in the archives for these writings.

Remember, to prevent disease you can’t wait until you begin to notice the symptoms, by then it’s too late, with a lot of conditions your first symptom is usually your last. The best time to invest in tomorrow is today.

*If you are interested in improving the functioning of your brain, get in touch for the various programs we offer.

References

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16581674 (Accessed 18th Jan 2012)