The UltraMind Solution: Key #6 Boost Energy Metabolism

Hello, this is Dr. Mark Hyman. Welcome back to my series of blogs on my new book, the UltraMind Solution. Now, who wants more energy? Who feels like their brain and maybe the rest of you is losing energy? You know, we need it, we want it, we lose it, and we try to get it back until finally we can't make energy anymore. That's called death. Now, most of us don't think much about where energy comes from or why we sometimes have more of it or less of it or how it might affect our brain or even the whole process of aging. But in fact, everything we've explored in the other six keys of the Ultramind influences our health directly through our energy. You see, enough energy means a happy, healthy, focused, and sharp brain. And a lack of energy means slowed mental function, autism, and mood disorders like depression and even things like Parkinson's and dementia. So how do we get energy? Well, we take oxygen from the air we breathe and the food we eat and we burn it in the little energy factories in our cells called mitochondria. They keep us energetic and alive and as we get older, we get fewer of them and they don't work so well and we run out of energy. But now we know how to prevent that energy drain. First, we have to know that those little energy factories are very sensitive to insult and injury from any kind of stress. That's toxins, allergens, infections, our junk food diet that has no antioxidants which protect those little energy factories. In other words, if we can get the other six keys to an ultra mind and balance, your mitochondria and those energy factories will be happy. And the loss of energy that shows up in all the problems of our brain, fatigue, brain fog, depression, autism and more will get better. I have seen this over and over and research shows that the poor little brains of autistic children are very low on energy because all sorts of toxins, infections and immune stress deplete the energy. The good news is that you can get yourself a metabolic tune-up. I mean, who doesn't want a metabolic tune-up or a tune-up? To give you this tune-up, I use special neuro-nutrients to help your cells make more energy so here's what you can use besides getting the other six keys to an ultramind imbalance: Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, Coenzyme Q10, D-Ribose, NADH, and B-complex vitamins including Niacin and Riboflavin. We need support for our energy systems. We all need a metabolic tune-up because our energy is something we lose with age but it can be lost because of anything that triggers more free radicals and and oxidative stress or damage to our mitochondria. Even as we're learning how mitochondrial injury is a final common pathway in so many neurologic and psychiatric disorders, fortunately we are also learning how to protect and defend ourselves against that injury. See getting a metabolic tune-up is not only possible, but it's also necessary for most of us. But thankfully by eating a plant-based diet, reducing our toxic exposures, Supplementing with mitochondrial protective nutrients and antioxidant compounds, we can restore and protect our energy metabolism to optimal function. All right, now I'd like to change directions a little. I'd like to talk to you about the role of therapy and medication in the UltraMind Solution. Isn't psychotherapy or behavioral therapy helpful for improving your brain and mood function? Or finding meaning and purpose of your heart and soul? And what about a spiritual life or becoming a whole person? Well, these can be essential parts of gaining an UltraMind. But let me tell you something. It's a lot harder to work through old mental patterns or connect with your soul if you're poisoned with mercury, or suffering from a vitamin D or B12 deficiency, or struggling against a thyroid gland that isn't working, or your brain is inflamed by a virus or a reaction to something you're eating. So my recommendation is to heal your broken brain by fixing your body first. Then you'll find it a lot easier to get the help you need with psychotherapy or find it easier to connect with your heart and soul when you're not fighting through brain fog. Now let's talk for a minute about medication. As a former emergency room physician, I recognize that extreme times call for extreme measures. I use and support the intelligent, appropriate use of medication, including psychiatric medications or psychotropic medications when they're needed. And they can often be helpful as a bridge for recovery from all the stresses and toxins that affect our brain and mind. Now, it can take months or years to rebuild the damage that has occurred over a lifetime by using the UltraMind Solution, although most people see remarkable results in six weeks. In extreme cases, the damage may be so deep that full recovery is impossible, but by combining medication with the tools of the UltraMind Solution, you can get your life back. Working with an experienced psychopharmacologist who welcomes the integration of nutrition, supplements, exercise and mind-body therapies is sometimes a necessary step to recovering a whole life. Now, many times medications can be reduced or eliminated after applying the principles found in the UltraMind Solution. But I would caution you that psychotropic medications offer only partial solutions often packaged with a lot of side effects. So, tread intelligently, expect bumps on the road and seek to find the causes of your suffering, which may be found in the stories of your life, on your plate, in your lifestyle, or in your toxic environment. You will rarely find a single solution to your problems in a prescription bottle. If you need to, use medication without guilt, just as you would use any other tool to rebuild your life. And don't be afraid to put it down when you've rebuilt your health in your world. Next, I want to remind you that you can get a free sneak preview of my new book, the Ultramind Solution at www.ultramind.com. In my next blog, I'm going to teach you how to calm your mind. We will look at how the mind influences the body. You've learned so far all the ways in which the body affects the mind, but remember, the communication is bi-directional, top down and bottom up. The body affects the mind and the mind affects the body. so thoughts, beliefs, feelings, attitudes and life traumas can all trigger damage to your brain. This brain damage occurs because stress itself causes depletion of the nutrients from the body, changes our hormones, stress causes inflammation, damages your gut and has direct toxic effects and actually increases oxidative stress. Wow! All that just from negative thoughts. So as you've learned so far, if you change your body you will change your mind. And in the next blog, you will learn that if you change your mind, you will also change your body.