It’s Brain Injury Awareness Month in the USA so here’s a Brain Health Video of my speech about concussions. The research about attaining brain health and concussions is showing that it’s actually a bad idea to stay home and do nothing. Complete rest has been shown to make symptoms worse as well as it might even prolong symptoms. For the thousands who are still suffering from post concussion syndrome this is not good news.
Here’s my brain health video where I talk about what needs to be done:
I follow a very important new trend in medicine which espouses that your psychological health is directly tied to your physical health. This is important. The evidence has always been around us that this is true. When you get angry your heart rate goes up, so does your blood pressure. You’ve just turned on the Sympathetic Nervous System. When you calm down, your Parasympathetic Nervous System is taking over. You get a different set of biochemicals flooding your brain and your body.
As an aside, did you know that around 50% of heart attacks are due to something else? There’s no hint of clogged arteries. So think about that.
Getting back to the brain, when a state of stress – defined simply as prolonged state of unhappiness – becomes a habitual state of being, that’s when you run into trouble. Brain health is contingent upon your emotional state. The brain is in fact a very emotional organ due to the so-called limbic part of the brain.
The hippocampus is a part of the brain that deals with emotions, memory and learning. It’s also where NEW brain cells are created. So when your brain gets flooded with a stress hormone called cortisol, the neurons get excited and fire off continuously. If they fire long enough, they begin to DIE off. A unhealthy hippocampus also won’t create too many new cells so you get hit with a double whammy – the brain actually starts to SHRINK.
The only way to brain health, then is to release the negativity in your life and start thinking better thoughts thereby feeling better too. Classical Chinese Medicine understands that mind-body-spirit connection extremely well. When you find a doctor who practices this kind of medicine and you follow their instructions to live a happier calmer life, you will achieve both a healthy brain and a healthy body because you’ve changed.
If you want things to change, then you have change by making the changes that are necessary for you to be successful and healthy again. It requires higher self-confidence. It’s in your mind and it’s in your brain. Your mind influences your brain, not the other way around. What’s in your mind? Your thoughts, your attitudes, your personality.
Here’s to your brain health and happy Brain Injury Month in the USA! May we soon not have to remember!
Dr. Joanny Liu, TCMD, RAc, P.Eng. Dr Joanny Liu “Best Selling Author and founder of Extraordinary Sports Medicine, where we help athletes reverse injury, get back in the game they love and improve their quality of life.” Best selling book at: Heal Your Concussion: How to Quickly and Effectively Get Back in the Game Remember, we’ve got two books about healing concussions in Amazon: Knock OUT Concussions, Heal Your Concussion: 21 Days to Brain Health, and Dr. Joanny’s new book, Heal Your Concussion: How to Quickly and Effectively Get Back in the Game is NOW live on Amazon!