Two studies published in the past six months reveal a disturbing finding: glyphosate-based herbicides such as Roundup® appear to suppress the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, leading to the overgrowth of extremely pathogenic bacteria.
Less Sleep, More Weight? | To regenerate your body correctly, you need certain conditions. You need sleep. You require sleep like food. And if you don’t sleep, you’ll require more food. And you might not be that able to stop yourself from eating.
Latest Buzz
It's important to stay up-to-date on the rapidly expanding body of knowledge about brain health and fitness. Every day there are new developments and something new you can apply to rejuvenate YOUR brain.
In this category, you'll get all the best new ideas and our expert perspective about brain health and fitness, all in one place.
Recommending a Drug with No Benefits | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.30.13
Although medical practice has a sheen of being ‘evidence-based’, you don’t have to look to far to find a lot of what we do as doctors to be either untested or proven ineffective. Here's a good example.
THE REST OF THE STORY: This article talks about a research review where the authors recommend the use of the cholesterol-reducing drug ezetimibe despite no evidence that it is effective. The conflicts of interest disclosure of this review notes: Binh An Phan is a speaker for Abbott. Thomas Dayspring consults for Abbott, GSK, Health Diagnostic Labs, Kowa Company, Eli Lilly, Merck, Genentech, The Roche Group, Genzyme, and Omthera. And so on. Unfortunately, these kinds of relationships are not uncommon. Would you trust these people to be unbiased?
FDA May Drop Effectiveness Test for Alzheimer’s Drugs | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.28.13
The timing of the FDA proposal is clearly intended to give drug companies a lucrative market monopoly for unproven but vastly expensive products created to take advantage of the widespread fear of developing Alzheimer’s.
AND MORE: The uneven playing field for synthetic patentable medications and natural supplements and food in the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer's is presented well here. Big money -- billions of dollars -- is needed to be profitable in the system that currently exists. This tilts the odds for disease treatment heavily towards pharmaceutical medications and away from natural means.
TV Ads for Statins Drive Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.23.13
The US is one of only two countries, the other being New Zealand, that allows drugs to be advertised on TV, and it’s not difficult to understand why nearly every other country has given such ads the boot.
MORAL: Indoctrination is happening here which is exactly why other countries forbid drug advertising. As this article states, "Aside from their inherently misleading nature, and the fact that they dramatically increase drug prices, direct-to-consumer drug ads like those on TV often plant a seed in your mind that you may be sick. Drug companies are masters at disease mongering -- inventing non-existent diseases and exaggerating minor ones, with the end result making you rush to your doctor to request their drug solutions. It also misleads people into thinking drugs are the only option for every ill."
Psychodiabetes: Sugar on the Brain | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.21.13
Our ancient ancestors ate only about 22 teaspoons of sugar a year. Today's Americans consume an average of 52 teaspoons of added sugar per day! New research also shows that our national sweet tooth is leading to "brain decay," a condition that I refer to as "psychodiabetes."
LESSON: Excerpted from this article: "Many studies link inflammation -- fueled by sugar, a poor diet, obesity, and our increasingly unhealthy lifestyle -- to a host of chronic illnesses, from heart attacks and strokes to Type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and even cancer. In fact, some experts even theorize that this fiery process may be the root cause of all non-communicable disease." Great article!
The Absurd Costs of American Health Care | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.19.13
The United States has the highest infant mortality rate among high income countries, and ranks dead last in terms of life expectancy among 17 affluent nations. You could say wanton greed is killing this nation ...
TAKEAWAY: This is territory we've covered before, but it bears repeating because it's so important. What can you do about this absurd situation? Doing whatever you can to prevent profit from ruling the major health care industries -- insurance, pharmaceutical and medicine -- is one thing. But the best thing is to be pro-active about your own health care. This means preventing the diseases and conditions that US health care has gotten rich on. And this means learning about being healthy from reputable people who do not make money from the mainstream health care system, then actually doing what you learn.
Xanax and Other Benzodiazepines Linked to Dementia Risk | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.16.13
Though a direct cause-and-effect link has yet to be established, this research revealed a strong association between years-long use of prescription drugs for anxiety and insomnia and dementia risk.
OUR TAKE: The dangerous overuse and overprescription of prescription medications is well-documented. This is another example that seems to have a more direct effect on our cognitive functioning.
How Your Environment Hacks Your Genes | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.14.13
A new guide to epigenetics just got published that blows the doors off conventional thinking around upgrading yourself. There is no longer any doubt that you can use your environment to literally hack your genes.
MORAL: What this means is that your personal environment -- the one you create for yourself with thousands of decisions about where you work and live, what you eat, and every other aspect of your life -- affect you more than you ever imagined.
The Sleazy Story of Cereal’s Success | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.12.13
Today, the cereal industry continues to make adjustments that amount to fresh coats of paint smoothed over a condemned building. None of it really matters when the foundational elements are the same substance that the term empty calories was invented to describe.
OUR TAKE: The story of the cereal industry is analogous to the overall processed food industry. And it's not pretty. The success of processed foods has little to do with health and everything to do with satisfying "needs" created by the manufacturers.
How Medical Ripoffs Threaten Your Health Security | Best Ideas for Brain Health 3.09.13
Much of the medical research published is deeply influenced and severely tainted by tremendous conflicts of interest and profit-driven motives. This is just one reason why Americans spend twice as much on health care per capita than any other nation on the planet, yet still rank dead last in terms of quality of care among industrialized countries. Excellent article!
OUR TAKE: Not only are medical costs totally out of control, but the rationale for the expenses is distorted. So much money is spent by consumers on tests and treatments that are worthless or dangerous, yet the mainstream health care complex claims that this is the best and only logical kind of health care. Could it be that there is a lot of powerful self-interest at work?