This is the final pillar of a six-part series on brain health from Deborah Schrameck, NC, PT, of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute. For previous articles click here. My final pillar on brain health is “stimulation,” more commonly known as “use it or lose it.” In the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Desert Health, the article Alzheimer’s… Read more »
Brain Health
This is the fifth of a six-part series on brain health from Deborah Schrameck, NC, PT, of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute. Preceding articles may be found here. In the last few years of my grandmother’s life she complained that food “just didn’t taste good” and that she really wasn’t hungry. This is a common complaint… Read more »
Fifty percent of Americans will have dementia by age 85. This is a growing epidemic. Cognitive decline starts much earlier. We now know the causes: too much sugar and other carbs in our diet and an unhealthy lifestyle with too much stress, not enough exercise, not enough sleep and a lack of the right brain… Read more »
This is the fourth of a six-part series on brain health from Deborah Schrameck, NC, PT, of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute. Preceding articles may be found here. Do you try to get a full night of sleep, but still get up in the morning feeling exhausted? Do you find your energy drags in the afternoon… Read more »
This is the third of a six-part series on brain health from Deborah Schrameck, NC, PT, of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute. Additional articles can be found here. Do you have people you gravitate towards or a place you go when you have had a stressful day? Nan was always that person and place for me.… Read more »
This is the second of a six-part series on brain health from Deborah Schrameck, NC, PT, of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute. Additional articles can be found here. Nan, my grandmother, understood what worked to keep her brain young and healthy. She never had a driver’s license and she made sure she walked, gardened and even danced… Read more »
Last month, brain health was top of mind at the annual Institute for Functional Medicine conference. It was discussed that, while it has been a generally accepted scientific fact that the human brain is incapable of growing new brain cells, we now know that brain cells do continue to grow throughout one’s lifetime with the… Read more »
Pillar One: Social Interactions Have you watched, or are you caring for, someone you love suffering from declining brain function, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease? Watching my grandmother, better known to all as “Nan,” decline to the point where she didn’t recognize me was heartbreaking and motivating. Loss of our brain health and function is a… Read more »
Brain metastasis, when cancer cells spread to the brain from primary tumors in other organs in the body, is often regarded with hopelessness. However, new advances in diagnosis and treatment are changing that opinion. Brain metastasis occurs in up to 50% of patients with cancer. As new systemic treatments prolong life, brain metastases become more… Read more »
The New Year is often accompanied by aspirations of self-improvement. For some that means making better nutrition choices and for others that means getting into shape, moving more – fitness. An oft heard expression involves how long these changes might last before we revert back to the same old – what’s familiar and comfortable. Why… Read more »
Since 2012, medical researchers at Duke University’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center have been studying the utility of what was formerly a major threat to the public as the new treatment modality for one of today’s scariest killers. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common primary brain tumor. Radiation and genetic predisposition are thought to… Read more »
Humans are funny. More often than not, it takes a dive in the wrong direction to make us consider doing something to prevent that fall in the first place. Science seems to follow the same bell curve. As problems or statistics start to rise, researchers (who are human by the way) increase their efforts to… Read more »
Recent media attention has been paid to the serious risk of traumatic brain injury in National Football League players. An upcoming film featuring Will Smith portrays the dramatic revelations of Dr. Bennet Omalu, who researched brain injuries in professional football players and documented evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a debilitating condition with… Read more »
Concussion and traumatic brain injury (TBI) prevention is an increasingly prevalent topic, especially with the current rise in incidence. Thankfully, new research is constantly being done to improve safety in the leading causes of TBI including falls, motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and contact sports. Primary prevention strategies include proper safety equipment and fall prevention methods.… Read more »
Pharmacological intervention has traditionally been the first-line treatment for individuals with neurocognitive disorders, but the benefits of medications currently on the market are generally minimal and/or temporary. In recent years, however, numerous scientific studies have shown that various types of behavioral and cognitive interventions may slow the progression of degenerative neurocognitive disorders. For one, the… Read more »
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) cause over 1 million emergency room visits per year in the United States and over 50,000 deaths annually. The number of TBI incidents is increasing and affects all ages. According to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), falls cause 55% of TBI for children under the age of 14 and 81%… Read more »
More than 60 million Americans report that they have experienced some form of insomnia in the past year, and sleepless nights are responsible for a little over 250 million lost days of productivity annually. In seeking solutions to this widespread problem, science has recently shifted its focus toward brain chemistry. According to Ronald C. Kessler,… Read more »
It has taken us over 200 years to discover and prove that gluten, introduced late into the human diet, can – and is – producing disease. Gluten, the protein in wheat, normally associated with gastrointestinal problems, is now clearly linked to dysfunction of the brain along with other systems of the body. It is eye… Read more »
What makes us unique individuals? If we reduce the human equation to our simplest feature, most of us would say our brain, and our ability to think. So it’s no wonder that we are concerned about keeping our brain in tip-top shape throughout our lives! There are six pillars of brain health: healthy diet, mental… Read more »
Every year in the United States, roughly two million individuals sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Approximately 60,000 of these patients die, and the remainder proceed through life with various disabilities. Unfortunately, many of the brain-injured individuals, including a significant number of athletes and soldiers today, live a life of despair and decline in function. TBI… Read more »
