The UltraMind Solution: Heal the Body, Heal the Brain
The UltraMind Solution: Heal the Body, Heal the Brain
Have you ever wondered why we are experiencing an epidemic of broken brains?
- Why autism rates have increased from 3 in 10,000 to 1 in 166 children within the last 10 years?
- Why ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), a condition virtually unknown 25 years ago, now affects 8.7% of children between the ages of 8 and 15?
- Why psychiatric disorders, like depression and anxiety, now affect 26% of adults and more than 20% of children in the U.S.?
- Why the use of antidepressants has tripled in the last decade?
- Why projections estimate Alzheimer’s disease will be the fate of 50% of people over age 85 by 2050?
In his revolutionary new book, The UltraMind Solution, Dr. Mark Hyman offers not just an explanation validated by hundreds of recent peer-reviewed medical studies, but a solution for this invisible epidemic that now affects 1.1 billion people worldwide and will cripple one in four among us during our lifetime.
So, what’s causing our “broken brains”?
Essentially two things-our modern diet and environment-both of which are loaded with brain-toxic compounds, including:
- Brain-toxic foods, such as high-fructose corn syrup and trans/hydrogenated fats
- Excessive consumption of sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine
- Additives and toxins in our foods (more than 3,500 can be added to food; more than 3,000 are in our homes)
- Toxic chemicals (more than 80,000 have been introduced since 1990; 500 have been tested for safety)
- Heavy metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium
- Over-the-counter and prescription medications, which interfere with the body’s use or production of several compounds essential for brain health (e.g., coenzyme Q10, B vitamins, glutathione)
- Mycotoxins, which, according to a number of very current studies, cause severe symptoms of brain damage in 70%, and autonomic nervous system abnormalities in 100% of patients living with them.
- Sleep deprivation
- Sedentary lifestyle, which lowers brain repair mechanisms (e.g., IGF-1 and brain-derived neurotropic factor)
- Chronic stress, which chronically elevates the “stress hormone,” cortisol
What’s the UltraMind Solution? Heal the Body, Heal the Brain
First, as the discussion of current research in Part I makes clear: the brain is not disconnected from the rest of the body. Dr. Hyman sums it up saying: “the barrier between the body and the brain is no iron curtain. It is more like cheesecloth.”
What this means is that brain disorders are not only in the brain. Their root cause (s), and therefore their cure, is to be found in finding and treating imbalances in the rest of the body-in the body’s seven key systems. Restoring balance to these core systems restores health, both in the body and the brain.
Dr. Hyman marshals these seven key systems as the Seven Keys to UltraWellness. They are:
- Optimize nutrition
- Balance your hormones
- Cool off inflammation
- Fix your digestion
- Enhance detoxification
- Boost energy metabolism
- Calm your mind
Each chapter in Part II of The UltraMind Solution is a tour through one of these seven core systems. Each opens with a quiz to help the reader identify where he or she is out of balance. Not only is nutrition a key factor in restoring balance in each of the 7 key systems, but Optimize Nutrition (Key #1) not only tops the list but the page count, with more than double the number of pages allocated to any of the other key systems.
This chapter opens with the statement: “Optimal nutrition is the most important factor in keeping your brain healthy.” And then provides a detailed, yet easy to understand, discussion of the role of the essential fats, key amino acids (from protein), carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals for brain health.
Part III outlines a “Six-Week Basic Brain-Boosting Program for Everyone,” the first component of which is a whole foods diet because-as we believe at The WHF, and the opening sentence in this section states-”The most powerful tool you have to change your brain and your health is your fork.”
Why? Because, as Dr. Hyman explains, “the foods our bodies evolved eating-fresh, unadulterated, slow-burning, high-fiber, vitamin- and mineral-rich, omega-3 plentiful, and phytonutrient-dense foods” can treat and prevent most chronic illnesses. A whole foods approach to eating is “a one-stop shopping method for dealing with everything.”
The Six-Week UltraMind Solution is based on the following principles-the same principles that provide the foundation for the healthy way of eating espoused by The WHF:
Eat:
- Whole, real, fresh, organic unprocessed food.
- Lots of fruit and vegetables full of colorful phytonutrients.
- Foods with plenty of fiber.
- Foods containing omega-3 fats.
Avoid foods and food components that have been shown to cause brain damage, including:
- Sugars
- Toxic fats (e.g., trans or hydrogenated fats;fried foods, fat substitutes)
- Food additives and chemicals (if it has a label, don’t eat it)
- Toxin-rich foods (red meat , organ meats; large predatory fish (which contain mercury); conventionally grown fruits and vegetables with the highest toxin load )
- Addictions (caffeine, alcohol)
- Foods to which you may be allergic (gluten and dairy products are the most common)
Follow these guidelines and, Dr. Hyman confirms, “you are doing 90% of what you need to do to stay healthy and heal your brain. The rest are small refinements and details.” These are discussed in Part IV, where you learn how to customize the UltraMind Solution to correct the unique imbalances identified through the quizzes in Part II.
Dr. Hyman provides numerous examples of patients with a wide variety of apparently disparate brain disorders, ranging from autism to depression to eating disorders to addictions to ADHD to dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease-all of whom experienced not just a lessening of symptoms, but full recovery of health as a result of his identifying and removing “the bad stuff” (their dietary and environmental toxins) and providing “the good stuff” (primarily a whole foods diet, exercise and adequate sleep).
If you or someone you love suffers from a brain disorder, The UltraMind Solution will provide you not only with an understanding of how to restore mental health naturally, without drugs or psychotherapy, but the means to individualize a step-by-step self-care plan that will enable you to fix your “broken brain.”
If your goal is to experience and maintain an “UltraMind”-one with excellent focus and memory, and a mood that is calm, confident, in control and good spirits-then The UltraMind Solution offers a whole foods nutrition approach to brain health you can rely on for the rest of your life.
For more information, visit http://www.ultramindsolutionbook.com/whfoods