Toxins affect your brain and all of your health

Toxins are fine particles that can enter your bloodstream and damage your brain in a variety of ways including cerebrovascular damage, brain nerve damage and brain tumours. Toxins can cause underlying factors such as cellular breakdown, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and autonomic dysfunction. Toxins can also cause inflammation, oxidative stress, infection, and allergies.

Exposure to natural or manmade toxic substances can alter the normal activity of your nervous system. It can disrupt or even kill neurons. These are the key cells that transmit and process signals in your brain and other parts of the nervous system.

Where do they come from?

Toxins can enter your body through exposure to substances in chemotherapy, radiation treatment, drug therapies and organ transplants. Also, heavy metals such as lead and mercury, certain foods and food additives, pesticides, industrial and/or cleaning solvents, cosmetics and artificial or man-made perfumes. There are many more ways toxins can enter your body. Too numerous to list here.

Symptoms of exposure

Symptoms can appear immediately or later when the toxin is out of sight. Some of the symptoms that you may experience include insomnia, short-term memory loss, problems speaking or functioning properly, lack of mental clarity, decline in intellect. Also, you may suffer increased headaches or migraines, have decreased concentration, and experience behavioural or psychological changes.

The health of your brain

Enzymes are molecules that speed up the rate of all chemical reactions inside your cells. Toxins poison these enzymes, making them less effective. Toxins in your body will displace minerals resulting in your bones being weaker. When toxins displace the calcium in your bones with a twofold effect. Your skeleton will be weaker and there is a risk of increased toxin release when you start losing bone cells. For women this happens during menopause.

The toxins being released by the loss of bone will then circulate throughout the body and ultimately, they will affect your brain. They will increase inflammation and brain cell loss in your elderly years.

What do toxins do?

Toxins can damage organs like the brain through something called B4. This is a breach of the blood-brain barrier and an example is like when chlorine binds onto the thyroid receptor sites. This forms what’s called a neo-epitope. This will make your immune system produce antibodies to the chlorine thyroid neo-epitope to fight it. This type of action can also damage DNA. When this happens, it increases the rate of aging and cellular degeneration.

Many commonly used pesticides, phthalates, improperly detoxified estrogens, and products that contain benzene can also damage your DNA. Toxins also modify the way your genes express themselves. Your genes switch on and off to adapt to changes in your bodies and the outer environment. Many toxins will activate or suppress your genes in undesirable ways.

The results of this are health problems in your brain such as depression and dementia. As well as effects that can span for generations. Toxins can also cause anxiety, interfere with hormones and cause other imbalances. Toxins such as BPA can also induce, inhibit, and mimic hormones.

So, what action can I take?

There are a number of studies done on these topics and if you are inclined you can go and read them. The job of a naturopath or natural therapist is to research such topics and to apply them to clients that present with unusual physical symptoms, psychological and emotional symptoms and stresses that many others may put in the ‘too hard’ basket. This clinic specialises in assisting you to get to the root of your toxaemia and getting healthier. Toxins can also impair your body’s ability to detoxify. We can also help you with that as well as to reduce the toxins you are exposed to and give your body a regular detox. Contact us today to find out how we can help.

How to keep your brain strong and healthy

We focus so much attention on keeping our body fit and healthy, that sometimes we forget that our brain needs attention also. There are many things you can do that will help your brain to adapt and change with the times. 

Be sure to enrich your environment by keeping your brain active. Be part of a learning environment that offers you plenty of opportunity for focus, novelty and is a good challenge. These types of environments can stimulate positive changes in your brain. It’s more important during childhood and adolescence but even adults get rewards from this type of stimulation.

Ways to keep your brain active

There are many things that you can do to challenge your brain and keep your mind sharp. Read, create art, travel to explore new places, learn a new language or learn how to play an instrument. Interrupt this with plenty of rest to let your brain recover.

Sleep

Sleep has a very important role in dendritic growth in your brain. Dendrites are the growths at the end of neurons that help transmit information from one neuron to the next. If you strengthen these connections, it will help encourage greater brain plasticity. Sleep also has important effects on your physical and mental health. Make sleep and rest just as important as anything else.

If you need help improving your sleep, try practicing good sleep hygiene. This means developing a consistent sleep schedule and creating an environment that contributes to good sleep. Our clinic can assist with these. Set up a session with one of our sleep specialists today.

Exercise

Regular exercise is also important for your brain’s health. Physical activity has many benefits such as preventing neuron loss in key areas of the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain involved in memory and other functions. Sleep also plays a role in new neuron formation in this same area. Exercise boosts brain plasticity, functional connectivity, and the basal ganglia, which is the part of your brain responsible for motor control and learning.

Playing games

Games aren't just for kids. By playing board, card, video, and other games it can help to improve your brain's neuroplasticity.  

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is when you completely immerse your mind in the present moment, without ruminating over the past or contemplating the future. The key is being aware of the sights, sounds, and sensations around you.  

There are some medical conditions that tend to limit or hinder your brains plasticity. Some of these are epilepsy, cerebral palsy, tuberous sclerosis, and Fragile X syndrome. However there are also natural ways and some medications that can assist you if you have any of these conditions.

The bottom line is that it is important to remember to not only look after your body, but to also look after your brain. This will help keep it sharp and healthy.

What is Neuroplasticity and why is it important?

Your brain has the ability to adapt and change through your experiences. This is called Neuroplasticity. This term is an overall term that means your brain can adapt, change, reorganize, or grow new neural networks. This includes functional changes due to brain damage or structural changes due to learning. Your brain is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons. Your brain's neuroplasticity allows it to reorganize many pathways, create new connections, and, in some cases, even create new neurons.

Types of neuroplasticity

There are two main types of neuroplasticity, these are functional plasticity which is your brain's ability to move functions from a damaged area of the brain to other undamaged areas. The other is structural plasticity which is your brain's ability to actually change its physical structure as a result of learning.

How Neuroplasticity Works

When you are born and in the first few years of your life your brain is rapidly growing. At birth, every neuron in the cerebral cortex has an estimated 2,500 synapses, or small gaps between neurons where nerve impulses are relayed. By the time you are three, this number has grown to 15,000 synapses per neuron.

However, as an adult your brain only has about half that number of synapses. This is because as you gain new experiences, some connections are strengthened and others are eliminated. This process is called synaptic pruning. By developing these new connections and removing the weaker ones, your brain can adapt to your changing environment.

What does neuroplasticity do for your brain?

There are many things neuroplasticity does for your brain. It allows your brain to adapt to changes and this change helps promote improvements that can boost brain fitness, give you the ability to learn new things, to enhance existing cognitive capabilities and help with the recovery from strokes and traumatic brain injuries. It also strengthens areas where function is lost or has declined.

Characteristics of Neuroplasticity

Your age and environment play an important role in what the neuroplasticity looks like. While plasticity happens throughout your lifetime, there are certain types of changes that are more predominant at specific ages. Your brain changes a lot during your early years. It grows, matures and organises itself during these years. Your young brain would be more sensitive and responsive to experiences than your much older brain. However, adult brains are still capable of adaptation. Your genetics can influence neuroplasticity as well, as the interaction between the environment and your genetics plays a role in shaping your brain's plasticity.

Limitations of Neuroplasticity

You should be aware that the brain is not infinitely changeable. There are certain areas of your brain that are largely responsible for certain actions. These are areas that control movement, language, speech, and cognition. If you damage any of these areas it can result in deficits in those areas. Some recovery may be possible but other areas of the brain simply cannot fully take over these functions when they are affected by the damage.

What to do to improve your brain and life

It is very handy to know that your brain can change, learn and grow into new ways of doing things. This means you are in control of your learnt behaviours to some degree and can be very empowering. This is why it is important to feed your brain lots of positive information. Right now, you and the world have been through a hard time recovering from much misinformation and major historic events that threw us into a spin. Don’t buy into the negativity around you as it will lead to you being miserable and hibernate. Let’s stay positive and get our lives back on track to ‘normal’. This is important not only for yourself but for your family, career and peace of mind. Don’t fill your mind with negative garbage, endless webinars on doom and gloom for people and the planet. Be informed by all means but don’t dwell on it as it will lead you down a path of depression and anxiety. Read positive self-improvement books, meditate, socialise, eat good food, go on holiday and spend time with people you love. This is the best food for not only your brain but for your mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing also.