Dr.
Frisch’s E-News
A Publication of Dr. Glenn Frisch
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Dr. Frisch I hope that this Fall finds you health and happy. This is my favorite time of year. The colors, smells and tastes of Fall do make this a special time of year. This issue of ENews was a treat to write! You may notice that it is longer than many of my ENewsletters, but I had a lot to say! This is probably one of the more important Newsletters that I have ever written. The topic of 'Plasticity' is not a new one, but the research data supporting it continues to grow. Neurological Plasticity describes the process of change that we undergo during our lifetime. Some plasticity changes are not in our control, but other changes are definitely able to be altered and even controlled. The ability that each of us has to change how our body neurologically works makes us truly unique animals. Future methods of healthcare will use neurological plasticity to make us healthier, cure disease, and even make us smarter. What I describe in this ENewsletter is just the tip of the iceberg. You may not have heard about plasticity before, but be assured, 20 years from now, everyone will know what it is and how to use plasticity to their benefit. If you doubt this, just think back 20-30 years ago; who ever anticipated the cell phone, internet or even the iPod? As you read the following articles, I would like for you to remember 2 things:
Enjoy this issue of ENews and as always, contact me with any questions that you may have. Take Care, Dr. Frisch |
Your Brain is Plastic!
Our brains aren't really plastic, but they do change with time and age. The changes that the brain goes through during development, and then again during the aging process, is called 'Plasticity'. Brain plasticity has fascinated scientist, and most parents, for generations. From infancy, the brain undergoes many changes. The infant and young child has no information to base thoughts or decisions on, so they continually ask, "Why?", "How come?" ,"Why?", "When?", "Why?", and so on. Once they begin to have a base of knowledge and learning, the questions lessen and they begin to use behavioral patterns and learning to find their own answers The learning that happens from a very early age is due to neurological processes, which are influenced by genetic, environmental, and experiential conditions. To fully understand the importance of this issue of ENews, I am going to give you a very quick lesson in neurology. The picture below is that of a Neuron. A neuron is the basic block of learning. Information signals from the 'outside world' are absorbed into the neuron through many little projections called Dendrites. Dendrites bring information into the cell, the cell process the information, and then sends it to another cell by way of a projection called an Axon. At the end of the axon, some action takes place!
When you start your car, the motor (neuron nucleus) receives a signal from the ignition (dendrite) to fire the engine. The signal is then sent to the transmission (axon) to move the wheels and go somewhere. This nerve process is similar in nearly every nerve in our body. There are billions of neurons in each of us and this signaling process results in experiences and learning! As we grow from infancy, the dendrites in our brain increase in vast numbers and we begin to realize the world around us and start to become a part of it. Our brain undergoes different episodes of plasticity change as we grow. If you wonder why a teenager acts like someone from outer space, this is the reason. His or her brain is undergoing a neurological, developmental change and the number of nuclei, dendrites and axons are changing. This means that teenagers don't receive or process information like they did just a few years earlier. This plasticity change continues until a young person reaches their mid to late 20's. During this time period it is believed that learning and experience set the stage for our future development and change. It is also during this period of neuronal change that scientists suspect addictive behaviors to be stimulated and 'neurologically learned'. This is why treating addictive behaviors involves more than "Just say no!". The process is neurologically wired and treatment must involved brain neurology and processing. I created the Habitack® Smoking Cessation Program for just this reason. Habitack® uses brain neurology to correct the behavior because I realized that smoking was a neurologically-learned and programmed behavior, which was initiated at a young, 'neuron-impressionable' age!! It is also for this reason that we have a quit rate that exceeds 73%.
"Neurons shape our future, but Plasticity allows change at any age!"
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Morphonix, LLC 2007
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Brains Change With Age
As I stated, when a teen reaches his or her mid-to-late 20's, the Plastic Brain begins to become more rigid and stable with less growth, expansion and learning. This just happens to be the same period in which most young people are done with school, getting married and seeking a stable job. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Did the slowing of experiences and learning cause the brain to become more stable or did the brain become less active by design and the more stable lifestyle just seemed like a natural thing to do? This has confused scientists for years, but it is likely a combination of the two. After the teen years, the hemispheres of the brain actually begin to function differently and more efficiently. It is probably because of the learning that an individual has had up to that point in life. The brain now streamlines itself and uses the neurological patterns that it has already developed. As we age, the dendrites that bring information into the neuron actually begin to decrease in number. This is called 'dendritic pruning'. Just as one would prune a bush, the brain prunes the number of intake dendrites because there is not that much new or novel information coming into the brain. This usually happens during the 'working years' when life can get to be boring and mundane. When someone in their 30's, 40's and 50's is asked what's 'new' in their life and they say "Nothing", they might actually know what they are talking about! The feeling of being in an emotional rut and bored with life is likely the result of a pruned brain, which is no longer plastic, accepting new information, and finding ways to use that learned information. While working, if something is not of a beneficial use to the company, it will probably not be incorporated into the workplace. That would be a waste of time. During middle age, the brain takes much the same stance. It uses what is of benefit and disregards that which is neither beneficial to you, your family or future security. The rigidity of brain processing means that, "I have learned this. This is how I do it. This is the result of that action". This type of thinking results in productivity. During the accumulation years of working, this type of processing means that you will be successful at work, be able to provide for your family and look to a successful retirement. If you look to the function of the neuron in the first article, this process is of thinking is exactly how an individual neuron works. What do you think...Chicken or the Egg?
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Brain Loss With Age
This is the point in life where the rubber meets the road. As we reach our 6th decade of life, the brain makes another shift and becomes plastic again! This 'senior shift', however, is significantly different than earlier stages of plasticity. Seniors experience a novel form of brain change that involves the use of both sides (Hemispheres) of the brain at the same time. It is thought that older people are 'wise and sage' because of a lifetime of learning, but that might not actually be the case. The type of brain integration used when both sides are active is fabulous for the recall of events, places and people, as well as storytelling. I think most of us have had the enjoyment of a grandparent's story as a child. The ease at which they recalled events that occurred decades earlier probably surprised most middle-aged listeners because they couldn't do the same thing. The brain is phenomenal at processing information, but with aging, the brain often becomes impaired in four core factors: 1
Current research studies and clinical approaches to aging are gaining better insight into how the brain begins its downward spiral of functioning and measures that can be used to stop and reverse the decline. By introducing new and novel daily stimulation to our seniors, and coupling this with activities that stimulate higher order thinking (e.g.. crossword puzzles), the plasticity that occurs with age can be a positive and long-term change in brain physiology. The phrase, "You're never to old to learn", might actually be very true! Behavioral changes related to brain plasticity in the elderly is only one aspect, however, of altering and improving the aging brain. There are specific regions of the brain that will need to be targeted in future therapies to insure that learning and processing of information happens easily and efficiently. In the past, you have heard me talk extensively on the limbic system, as it relates to hypnotic therapy and brain-body response. Medical research studies are also looking at the limbic system for brain response and learning in the elderly brain. Consolidation of information and a functioning memory seem to be dependant on the bi-directional relationship between the hippocampus (limbic) and the pre-frontal cortex of our brain. 2 The strength of the signaling also appears to have a bearing on how well the information is learned and remembered. This means that the 'exercise' tasks need to be specific and somewhat demanding. A Swedish study (2006) supports this early study and also states that when 'tasks' are coupled with brain processing, the outcomes were better.3 Current research is helping us to realize that aging is not a downward spiral of function, but rather, a time in life when plastic brain changes occur. To realize this and to begin working our brains differently, might just insure that we 'keep' our current level of learning and actually increase aging brain function....how exciting!
1. Mahncke, H., Bronstone, A., Merzenich, M. (2006) Brain plasticity and functional losses in the aged: scientific bases for a novel intervention. Progressive Brain Research. 157:81-109. 2. Laroche, S. Davis, S., Jay, T. (2000) Plasticity at hippocampal to prefrontal cortex synapses: dual roles in working memory and consolidation. Hippocampus. 10 (4): 438-46. 3. Jones, S., Nyberg, L., Sandblom, J., Stigsdotter Neely, A., Ingvar, M., Magnus Peterson, K., Backman, L. (2006). Cognitive and neural plasticity in aging: general and task-specific limitations. Neuroscience Behavioral Review. 30(6): 864-71. |
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Exercise
Affects the Brain’s Ability to Become Plastic We all know that we should exercise on a weekly
basis, but how many people really do it?
The statistics are quite low.
When a society becomes affluent and easier to live in, the members
of that population usually become complacent and unmotivated.
After all, breathing hard and sweating for 30 minutes, 3-4 times a
week, doesn’t seem as enticing as going our for a nice dinner, watching
a movie, etc... People, however, do need to realize the real
importance of exercise. Sure,
exercise will lower your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers, slow the
onset and the progress of degenerative diabetes, all while making you slim
and trim, but there are more benefits from exercise. I think that one of the greatest benefits of exercise
is what it does to the brain. In
our brains, exercise stimulates nerve ‘plasticity’ and it strengthens
how nerve signals fire around the body.1
This benefit doesn’t just
occur while you exercise, but rather, it creates permanent improvement in
nerve and brain function. This fact alone means that our bodies will work better and we
will live longer because of nothing more than exercise! The whole issue of exercising to burn calories and
lose weight is also somewhat simplified in the media. “10 days to a new you.”
“Lose all the weight you want…Guaranteed.”
These comments will sell products to those people wanting a quick
fix, but they are rarely successful on any long-term basis. There is a ‘hidden’
reason why weight-loss and metabolism is such a difficult burden for
many people. Energy
metabolism is actually stimulated and controlled within an organ called
the hippocampus. This little
organelle in your brain is also the seat of short and long-term memory.
Exercise stimulates and helps to contribute to ‘plasticity
changes’ within the hippocampus.2
This means that exercise stimulates your brain to change and
improve nerve synapse firing. It also means that your metabolism
is stimulated naturally and altered because of these brain changes!
Exercise not only helps us to lose weight in the short-term, but
brain changes (plasticity) occur, which insure continued ‘metabolic
burn’, even after exercise is over.
Exercise helps to regulate our brain’s metabolic ‘set point’. This is the reason that I use hypnosis and brain frequency therapy in my Lifestyle and Weight-Control Program. The brain stimulation aids in initiating the metabolic process, as well as activating behavioral measures. The plasticity of the brain allows for change at any age! "…walk, jog, hop, skip, climb, lift, bend, twist, push, pull, swim, swing..."
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The Sleeping Brain
Far too many people attempt to run on too little
sleep. This fact is well
documented. There are
published studies that rate work-related injuries and home trauma due to
fatigue. There are even
published studies of tired drivers causing more crashes and being more
dangerous on the road than drunk drivers.
All this because we refuse to go to bed at a decent time at night!
I have written before that we need to sleep to live longer.
Sleep is a semi-comatose state that allows our brain and body to
shut down to basal levels for an extended period of time.
This means that the physical body lives longer because we sleep. In addition to this, however, sleep has a different
function than just helping us to live longer.
Sleep actually helps us to organize our daily thoughts and to
‘consolidate’ them into long term memories.
This concentration and alteration of memories is a ‘plasticity
process’ and it changes each and every day.
A Harvard Medical School study found that what happens to our daily
thoughts, while we sleep, is a continually changing process1. Our
thoughts and daily recalled memories are organized and reorganized many
times, while we sleep. This
concentration (consolidation) of thoughts and frequent reorganization of
memories is not yet well understood.
There must be reason why we change and reorganize our memories and
it is likely a self-preservation process.
After all, would any mother desire to go through childbirth a
second or third time if she could directly recall the memory and pain of
the first birth? (Just a
thought) “Plasticity of thought means
that each day, literally, can be a new day!” When we deprive ourselves of needed sleep, there is
brain activity and processes that do not operate correctly. A Pennsylvania State University study (2004)2 was able to determine that sleep deprivation affects
the memory storage process. They
were able to determine that rats could be trained to find a hidden
platform (spatial task) in a maze as easily as a visible platform, until
the variable of sleep deprivation was used.
When Total Sleep Deprivation of 6 hours was employed, the rats
could no longer find the hidden platform, even though they had learned how
to do it. This infers that when we sleep, we solidify the memory of both spatial and non-spatial learning. If we do not get enough sleep, we can learn and recall a straight-forward visual cue (like a road sign) and follow it through, but our ability to interpret and use spatial judgment and learning (non-visual) is significantly impaired. “Here’s a Hint…..Go To
Bed!!!!!”
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Eileen's Corner This recipe is compliments of my niece, Kathy Quarnstrom. She always makes the best Pumpkin Bars. I asked her if she would share the recipe and she was kind enough to do so. I hope that you enjoy these as much as I do!
Pumpkin Bars
Have a great month! Eileen
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Chiropractic and Brain Plasticity
If you haven’t been surprised by what you have read
to this point, I guarantee that this statement will surprise you: “Chiropractic care causes
neurological stimulation and plasticity changes within the brain and
nervous system!”1 I have written so often about the neurological
changes, which occur during a single chiropractic thrust, that I am
surprised when patients ask me why Chiropractic care ‘works’.
For a simple review, I will explain it again. The Activator Adjusting Instrument makes specific,
high-speed thrusts to correct an unstable or restricted bony segment.
The bone could be a vertebra or any other bone in the body.
The high-speed thrust stimulates mechanoreceptors to correctly
reposition a bony structure. The
speed of the thrust fires the nerves/neurons, which then,
‘re-educates’ the brain and nervous system as to what body structure
is appropriate. “This neurological ‘learning’ is directly caused by the
Chiropractic Adjustment. what
!” This is the advantage of using a research-supported
method of care. Treating
injuries and trauma is hard enough, why guess at the outcome?
The Activator Adjusting Instrument and Technique provides the
patient a predictable treatment protocol each and every visit. I have covered a lot of information in this
ENewsletter, but I hope that I have been able to make that information
understandable and usable for you. Information
that is not well understood is worthless and will be forgotten quickly.
I hope that you read this ENewsletter again because this is
important information. The
future of healthcare will incorporate both physical and psychological
measures to help a patient ‘fully recover’ from trauma, the effects of
aging, and other disease processes.2 We need to learn and remember that we are not static
beings. We are constantly in
flux and changing as organisms. Chiropractic
continues to establish itself as ‘THE’ treatment of choice for
successful resolution of trauma. Published
research continues to reveal to the rest of the medical communities that
Chiropractic is not a ‘secondary-type’ of care. Chiropractic treatment is so versatile and effective that
even when discussing topics, like brain plasticity and remodeling,
Chiropractic care is appropriate.
“Chiropractic care has never
been a belief system, but rather, it is an effective treatment for
structural and neurological remodeling that helps each of us to recover
from physical and mental trauma!” Dr. Frisch
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