Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George See book keywords and concepts |
AD is a brain disease ?Brain aging is variable
We will learn that Alzheimer's is not a specific brain disease. It can not be diagnosed definitively in life or death nor does it have one basic defining pathological feature. Alzheimer's disease as a term for brain aging is a misnomer that militarizes our understanding of our bodies, causes us to denigrate and exclude those with the "disease," and also does grave injustice to Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who, despite never really believing that the condition he observed in his first patient, Auguste D. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D. See book keywords and concepts |
I also image the brain of a patient who has to sleep at least twelve hours or more a night, a condition called hypersomnia that suggests underlying brain disease. I'll talk more about hypersomnia later in this chapter.
Blood Disorders
Rarely, certain malignancies of the blood can result in feelings of fatigue, even though a complete blood count shows no abnormalities. Two tests that can identify some of these malignancies are a serum protein electrophoresis, or SPEP, and an Immunoelectrophoresis, or IEP. |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton See book keywords and concepts |
If you consider that a sizable 25 percent of the thousands of chemicals released into our environment are known neurotoxins (nerve-poisoning chemicals) and that our children are increasingly being bombarded with these development-damaging toxins, this increase in brain disease starts to make sense. If you put this together with the fact that our brains are being starved of the nutrients they need, it should come as no surprise that all sorts of brain diseases are on the increase. |
Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts |
| Parkinson's disease, the second most common degenerative brain disease (after Alzheimer's), affects 1 million Americans and typically begins between the ages of 50 and 79- It occurs when neurons, or nerve cells, that control movement start to die off for unknown reasons. The result is a shortage of the brain-signaling chemical dopamine, which triggers the muscles that allow fluid body movements, such as lifting an arm or walking. The decline in dopamine levels leads to tremor, slowness of movement, stiffness of the limbs and trunk, difficulty walking and lack of facial expression. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D. See book keywords and concepts |
Slowly the pendulum of medical opinion has swung to the other extreme: although there is no specific diagnostic test for schizophrenia, the illness is thought to be due to a disease of the brain, and patients with schizophrenia of long duration are known to develop evidence of chronic brain disease in the form of loss of brain tissue, or atrophy. Using advanced computer techniques, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are developing methods to add up these defects to an actual diagnosis. Even migraine headaches are a syndrome. |
James Dowd and Diane Stafford See book keywords and concepts |
In short, current evidence suggests that a lack of vitamin D, dietary magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids makes it more likely that you'll have degenerative brain disease and that it will progress.
So increase your vitamin D for a better brain!
Lowering Your Risk
The recommendations in the Vitamin D Cure are expected to almost eliminate seasonal affective disorder. A growing amount of information also suggests that fortification of vitamin D and diet combined with exercise will substantially lower your risk of depression and chronic pain, especially pain due to bone and joint disease. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D. See book keywords and concepts |
It can relieve the patient of fears that he or she has a progressive brain disease like Alzheimer's. Importantly, patients with brain fog rarely have problems with intelligence and with the ability to memorize; in contrast, these are the major issues in Alzheimer's.
So neuropsychological testing is a useful tool to assess the complaint of brain fog. In our work on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), we have found patients to have problems processing complex information. Finding such a problem can be useful in substantiating insurance or disability claims. |
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D. See book keywords and concepts |
We do not choose a level at which 20 percent of our children will develop lead-induced brain disease from lead in the water. We choose a level that ensures the safety of everyone. So why is the policy so different when it comes to levels of cholesterol in the blood?
The answer lies in a complex blend of culture, habit, taste, real-politik, and other factors—including, frankly, a somewhat condescending attitude among medical experts toward the lay public. Let's look at the facts. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea See book keywords and concepts |
According to the NIMH, schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. It accounts for about 25% of all first admissions to mental hospitals, and 50—60% of persons occupying beds in those hospitals at any given time. Approximately 1% of the U.S. population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime. People with the disease often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms leave sufferers fearful and withdrawn. |
| This definition, which considers schizophrenia as a "brain disease" is strongly influenced by the medical model. Nonetheless, it seems straightforward, as does it array of symptoms—which should lead to reliable diagnosis.
Were the world only that simple.
In 1973, a psychologist from Stanford University published an unique experiment. Under his direction, eight normal people admitted themselves into psychiatric hospitals. Their symptom was that they were hearing voices. It was a phony complaint, but one which was diagnosed each time as schizophrenia. |
Bill Sardi See book keywords and concepts |
Believe it or not, nicotine is being considered as therapy for brain disease. Nicotine can improve working memory function, learning, and attention. [Psychopharmacology 184: 523-39, 2006] Nicotine is also being considered as treatment for brain disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. [Expert Opinion Investigational Drugs 8: 747-60, 1999]
The tobacco industry has somehow created the idea that nicotine is the chief cancer-causing agent in cigarettes. This is misleading. Nicotine is actually the habit-forming component of tobacco. |
Ray D. Strand See book keywords and concepts |
The little boy in the movie, Lorenzo, had a brain disease similar to David's. While watching the movie, David was astounded to discover that the most important part of Lorenzo's treatment, the one that actually seemed to hinder his decline, was grape-seed oil. David realized that his own use of grape-seed extract could be a major factor in his marked improvement. He decided at that moment to start taking more of it. He soon learned that the extract is a very potent antioxidant, which the fluid around the brain can easily absorb. |
Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George See book keywords and concepts |
He suspected that senile dementia could be brought on by the thickening of the blood vessels of the brain—a condition called atheriosclerosis—and published an article, "Dementia Senilis and brain disease Based on Atheromatous Vessel Disease," in the Monthly Journal of Psychiatry, 1898.
Nearly a year into Auguste D.'s illness, Dr. Alzheimer reviewed her hospital admission sheet, which would remain hidden away for the next ninety years. |
| Brain aging is variable
We will learn that Alzheimer's is not a specific brain disease. It can not be diagnosed definitively in life or death nor does it have one basic defining pathological feature. Alzheimer's disease as a term for brain aging is a misnomer that militarizes our understanding of our bodies, causes us to denigrate and exclude those with the "disease," and also does grave injustice to Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who, despite never really believing that the condition he observed in his first patient, Auguste D. |
| It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease characterized by the irreversible death of brain cells. This gradual but poorly understood degeneration leads to shrinkage and atrophy in certain regions of the brain, a decrease in certain neurotransmitters, notably acetylcholine, and an alteration of the synaptic connections between cells that enable us to learn and retain memories.
The overall result of these losses is a variable mental decline that affects the ability to remember recent events, learn new things, and multitask. Doctors don't know what causes the process. |
J. Douglas Bremner See book keywords and concepts |
Sedentary lifestyle (people who exercise regularly, but not late at night, sleep better and more deeply than those who don't) Menopause Pain
Medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS, lung disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and degenerative brain disease. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald See book keywords and concepts |
But even if schizophrenia were a brain disease, it would not make sense to add further brain damage and dysfunction by administering neuroleptics."
At the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Illinois, named after the late Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, who worked with thousands of schizophrenic patients, practitioners individualize all therapies. After determining a patient's biochemical subtype, the following supplements may be administered in varying doses: omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, manganese, vitamin C, glycine, tryptophan, histidine, and tyrosine. |
Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George See book keywords and concepts |
Courtesy of the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease: Unraveling the Mystery) biopsy, a diagnostic sampling of brain disease, while the patient is still alive. For obvious safety reasons, and since it rarely leads to any therapeutic intervention, the latter procedure is rarely performed.
I rarely recommend brain biopsies in my practice. |
Dr. Timothy Scott See book keywords and concepts |
It has been argued that this is proof that schizophrenia is a brain disease that damages the brain thus causing schizophrenia. But, once again, the cause and effect issues have been mixed up. Thanks to the macaque monkey experiments, we have proof that brain shrinkage results from taking these drugs.
If the monkeys were sufficiently stressed, the chemical changes caused by the stress would also damage and shrink their brains. There is an abundance of research on seriously stressed individuals (and rats) experiencing a decrease in brain size. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts |
Recently, an FDA advisory panel voted to recommend that a dangerous prescription drug Tysabri, which was withdrawn from the market a year ago due to its promoting of a deadly brain disease, should now be put back on the market.
But here's the really shocking part: The justification for this decision to reinstate a drug with known deadly side effects is based on the idea that patients should now weigh the risks of dangerous drugs and decide for themselves whether the risks outweigh the benefits, if any.
Stop the music for a minute. |
Jay Joseph See book keywords and concepts |
For a critique of brain disease theories of depression, see
Lynch, 2004. when (subsequently non-replicated) schizophrenia and bipolar disorder "gene findings" were announced by separate research teams.1
The Fruitless Search for Schizophrenia Genes
The latter part of 2002 witnessed the beginning of influential genetic researchers declaring victory in the schizophrenia gene hunt. According to psychiatric investigator C. |
John E. Sarno, M.D. See book keywords and concepts |
It would appear that modern psychiatry has regressed back to the nineteenth century, when the predominant view of mental disorders was that they were either hereditary or due to brain disease. Freud had not yet introduced the idea that psychology, not physiology, was the important factor in mental disorders. So pervasive was the conventional view, however, that even Freud had trouble disavowing it. |
Byron J. Richards, CCN See book keywords and concepts |
Exposure to lead, methyl mercury, and aluminum are known to cause developmental issues in children and brain disease in the elderly.724
Alzheimer's is predicted to be a major health epidemic as the baby-boomer population ages. The cost to society will be staggering. There will be no easy cure for Alzheimer's. Worldwide pollution must be curtailed as a priority; otherwise, any person who is overweight and/or genetically at risk is likely to get Alzheimer's.
ARTHRITIS
Excess amounts of leptin increase the amount of immune cells that attack joints, otherwise referred to as rheumatoid arthritis. |
Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton See book keywords and concepts |
By lowering your future exposure to chemicals you will not only minimize any further damage, but also reduce your chances of developing another chemical-related brain disease.
You can never start too soon in avoiding brain-damaging toxins as the earlier appropriate treatment is started, the less likely that early problems, such as memory loss, will end up progressing into a permanent disease such as dementia. Even if diseases have already developed, by knowing what makes things worse it is sometimes possible to slow down disease progression and even alleviate certain devastating symptoms. |
| Parkinson's disease is a neuro-degenerative disorder, or wasting brain disease. Two hundred years ago it was very rare, but now it is the second most common neuro-degenerative disorder, affecting 1 percent of people over sixty years old. For some reason, nerve cells that produce the neurotransmitter known as dopamine start dying in the part of the brain that controls movement, known as the substantia nigra. As the number of nerve cells decreases, so does the ability of the remaining nerves to make sufficient amounts of dopamine. |
Mike Adams See book keywords and concepts |
In Bad Taste: The MSG Symptom Complex
Even if the MSG / Alzheimer's link exists, what is not well understood is the mechanism by which MSG promotes this degenerative brain disease. The best guess is that strokes or other events compromise the blood-brain barrier and allow MSG and other excitotoxins to enter the brain and subsequently damage brain cells:
It may be that as these Parkinson's patients age and develop small strokes, hypertension, or other diseases of the brain, their blood-brain barrier becomes more porous, allowing excitotoxins in the blood to enter. |
Kelly Patricia O'Meara See book keywords and concepts |
It is not surprising that the premier psychiatric organization would find that the flawed studies provide scientifically rigorous information, as these are the same deep thinkers that push the fraud of psychiatric brain disease.
Although the Post reporters devoted three sentences in the article to the contrarian's side, or "critics" view, of the studies, the bulk of the 900-word news article is devoted to the results of the now admittedly flawed studies. |
| But while one federal government agency plays fast and loose with what constitutes "disease," the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), offers no confirmation of the "brain disease" for any childhood psychiatric diagnoses. For example, the CDC website offers categories for review, including "Childhood Diseases." One need only peruse the list of childhood diseases listed by the CDC to notice that not a single psychiatric diagnosis is listed. |
| In other words, rather than continue to regurgitate the lie of the psycho-pharma brain disease, what would the nation's mind-altering drug use be had the press repeatedly reported that there is no science to support even a single psychiatric mental illness is caused by an objective confirmable abnormality in the brain? A good clue can be found in the following news article which demonstrates that if the American people are given all the information, they will act accordingly. |
| As has been well-established, the premier psychiatric association routinely spouts the brain disease line and rarely, if ever, is forced to prove its claims. In fact, as in the case of the Cruise-Lauer interview, for example, the standard operating procedure of the psychiatric community is to personally attack the messenger rather than responsibly, through scientific proof, respond to the message. |