Understanding Brain Health

Did you know your nerves are these really cool message transport systems? They work in scales of thousandths of seconds (milliseconds). The brain is a trillion nerve cells working together.

Your brain (nerves) needs 3 things to stay healthy:

1. Oxygen- remember we can go weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without oxygen.

2. Glucose- sugar is the brain's favorite food. There have even been some recent research articles that suggest the brain may be able to produce insulin. Talk about really wanting that sugar.

3. Activation- the old "use it or lose it" is really true. The coolest part is that 90% of the signals into the brain (activation of nerve pathways) comes from "midline"- eyes, nose, ears, and SPINE.

So how do you activate the most nerves? By doing the largest variety of things that you can. Do crossword puzzles, do picture puzzles, listen to music (new stuff, too not just familiar songs), and MOVE.

Move arms and legs and most importantly your backbone! Spend 8 minutes on a wobble chair daily. Do 3 minutes of neck traction. Make sure the joints of the neck are moving properly by getting adjusted. In the spine, the closer you get to the head the higher the concentration of nerve endings.

Not sure if your backbone is moving correctly? Call me or stop by.