Regardless of the amount of energy a system has, if there is interference in the system, then there are inherent inefficiencies.  We use multiple different methods to clear the interference caused by emotional trauma, chemical toxins, and chronic infections.

The chemical milieux of the body also has an impact on the function of the nervous system.  Out bodies have amazingly sophisticated systems for maintaining homeostasis, the likes of which today’s technology has no way of coming close to replicating.  These systems can start to decompensate after a certain amount of  destabilizing influences occur.

One of these is chemical toxicity.  Most of us have seen the video of a growing neuron being exposed to mercury and quickly shriveling up and dying, ingeniously set to Peer Gynt Suite No. 1.  If you haven’t, make a note to perform an internet search for “neuron mercury”, you won’t regret it.  Our body uses powerful and efficient detoxification molecules to neutralize and excrete these toxins.  These molecules do take energy, and building blocks to make however, and ultimately our defense mechanisms can be overrun if we are deficient in the necessary nutrition for some reason.

Another common source of biochemical interference is the chronic / subclinical infection.  These are infections that are not addressed, because they don’t have any noticeable signs or symptoms like swelling, redness, and fever.   A good example of a common, true subclinical infection is that of an infection under a tooth which has had a root canal procedure performed on it.  I have referred many patients to their dentist / endodontist after finding an issue with a tooth, confirmed by a cavitation (bone being eaten away by an infection) found on X-ray.  More commonly though, they are overlooked because the patient claims that the symptoms caused by them are “normal”.  For example, the chronic head congestion, headaches, and pressure being caused by allergies, later found to be a fungal sinus infection.  Or alternating constipation and diarrhea caused being “the way it has always been”, later found to be an intestinal parasitic infection.

The problem with these infections is that they wear our systems down by being a constant drain on our immune system, and they require energy and nutrients to keep at bay.  They produce toxins which are inflammatory and short circuit our own biochemistry, and this wears us out.  For example bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is like gas on the fire of inflammation.

By finding and cleaning up intestinal infections and augmenting the detoxification systems of the body, we interrupt the cycle of inflammation and free up resources for the body to use in healing, and maintaining strong neural networks.

When a stressful event happens, the more emotion that is going on in the moment, the more likely it is to get wired into the brain.  For example, if you are petting a dog and that dog turns around and bites you, you might feel feelings of fear, surprise.  The degree to which you feel those feelings might differ based on the size of the dog.  A chihuahua might not cause you to fear for your life, but it might be a different story with a pitbull.  There can also be stimulus generalization, which means that if it was a fluffy white dog, then seeing a man with a fluffy white beard may trigger the same emotional response, even later in life.  This is the basis of PTSD, the more triggers, and the stronger the emotional response to those triggers, the greater the degree of debilitation.  Our inclinations, the things that we tend to like to do, or dislike doing can be influenced by emotions as well, even without our complete awareness in the moment.  For example, a near drowning experience as a child making the act of drinking and swallowing water uncomfortable, therefore they don’t do it and become dehydrated.

Disconnecting the emotional response from its trigger, we can free up energy in the nervous system by allowing people to respond to their lives the way that they want to.  This means more emotional neutrality around habits and lifestyle choices, which makes it much easier to break unwanted destructive habits, and start new functional and pleasurable ones.

If the gastrointestinal system is inflamed, then your brain is inflamed.  This Gut-Brain axis is mediated via the vagus nerve, the 10th cranial nerve, which connects the brainstem with the heart, lungs, and gut.  In mouse studies, when the misfolded alpha-synuclein proteins (which are found in the brains of Patients with Parkinson’s disease) are injected into the gut, they end up in the brain and cause parkinsonian-like conditions in the mice.  When the vagus nerve is severed, this doesn’t happen and the mice don’t ever get movement disorders4.  One way to interpret this is that if you cut your vagus nerve, then you can eat whatever you want! While this would be beneficial in some ways, your nervous system wouldn’t be able to coordinate the functioning of your intestines.  The take home is that what you put in your mouth does have an effect on your nervous system.

Leaky gut, Leaky Brain no more. We remove pathogens from the gut, restore the normal conditions that optimize gut function, repair the lining of the gut, and re-inoculate the gut with beneficial microflora. These upgrades to the gastrointestinal tract both reduce the stress on the brain from excessive inflammation and leakiness of the gut brain barrier

Most (~70%) of the sensory input that the body has to process and deal with comes from the physical body itself. This is called proprioception, and it lets the brain know what is going on with the joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia. When proprioception is distorted by scars, dislocations, tendon tears, and injury patterns the brain’s map of what is going on in the injured area is different than what is actually going on there, which creates a discrepancy. This discrepancy must be accounted for (which takes processing power) in order for the brain to form a central understanding of the condition of the area. Also, when the body is injured, there is an automatic reflex pattern which is set up that doesn’t always go away (depending on what your brain is doing metabolically). Think of what happens when you touch a hot stove. Your muscles react with a withdrawal response before your brain even registers that what you are touching is hot. This is called the crossed-extensor reflex, and it can set up an injury pattern that doesn’t go away. This means your brain is running a pattern in the background as though the injury is still happening.

By clearing interference caused by injuries and scars, we decrease pain, increase range of motion, improve coordination, and make life easier by allowing the nervous system to go through life without having to adapt to all of the ways it has come under threat physically.

Brain-derived Neurotrophic factor is a hormone which stimulates the growth and connectivity of neurons.  It goes without saying that we would want to increase the levels of this hormone by any means right?  You would be right, except that it is metabolically expensive to be growing new brain cells and getting them to connect together.  This is why this module is last.  If you are deficient in B vitamins and your mitochondria aren’t humming along producing ATP, other nootropic interventions won’t have as big of an impact. We can increase BDNF production through living well, doing things like socializing, meditation, fasting, and high intensity interval exercise.  There are also medical interventions that can do it. One of the most profound medical interventions that I have seen for improving the brain is Low Level Laser Therapy or Cold Laser therapy.  The low level / cold refers to the amount of power the laser unit emits, being a level that doesn’t heat tissues.  This is important because it is the wavelength of light that actually has the effect. Red light at 635 nm wavelength improves mitochondrial function by photo-biomodulation, making it easier for mitochondria to produce energy.  This overall can relax muscles, speed healing, repair DNA, reduce inflammation, and restore neuron function.  Laser therapy has also been shown to improve cerebral perfusion, increasing blood flow to the brain.  Increases in BDNF can be measured after exposure to LLLT, and they can reduce beta amyloid plaqueing and tau phosphorylation.  Ill say that again.  The neurofibrillary tangles and plaque formation that are responsibly for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s dementia symptoms are reduced with the use of LLLT over the brain! Another powerful intervention that we have available to us is ketamine therapy.  Ketamine acts on the brain by blocking the NMDA receptor, the same receptor that we mentioned earlier which glutamate binds to to cause nerve cell depolarization and excitatory neurotoxicity.  It also increases BDNF levels, which ultimately helps the brain to do new things.  So the way that I see ketamine treatment is that it is a great reset for the nervous system.  It temporarily stops the over activation of the parts of the nervous system that are over-excited, thereby stopping the momentum of the old way of neural processing.  It then allows the nervous system to grow and build new neural networks, which allows new momentum in a different direction to start.  Both of these actions together make it excellent for treating depression that is caused by chronic stress, PTSD, anxiety, addiction, and even complex regional pain syndromes that are neuropathically produced. The third major intervention that we have available is the NAD+ IV or intramuscular injection.  NAD+ is a derivative of vitamin B3, or Niacin.  NAD+ is one of the molecules that stores energy as it is liberated from the breakdown of sugars and fats.  It is also an enzymatic cofactor of the proteins that repair DNA.  Levels of NAD+ in the body decrease with age, and this can play a role in mitochondrial function, genome stability, and cell survival.

We leverage our modern understanding of light therapy, and stack those effects with medicines which improve our brain’s ability to grow and make new connections.

Just because your brain works a certain way now, doesn’t mean that it has to continue to work that way.  And if nootropics haven’t worked either, you might have not gone deep enough to get to the root of the problem with your cognition.