Microcirculation and Nutrients to Fuel Your Brain Health and Vitality

By Dr. Chris D. Meletis, Naturopathic Physician

 Your brain is comprised of 100 billion brain cells or neurons and each second you lose at least 1 of these priceless cells.

 This is 86,400 neurons daily. However, if your brain is stressed, undernourished of nutrients or oxygen, or otherwise challenged - then you can be losing 2 to 5 times this number of neurons (or more) each second, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of these remarkable brain cells each and every day. At 300,000 per day, this is 9 million lost per month, or over 100 million per year.  Helping protect your brain from premature accelerated aging is a personal choice and responsibility that each of us must make for ourselves. Your brain weighs only 2% of your total body weight, yet it demands 20% of the oxygen from each beat of your heart!

Therefore it is not surprising that whenever the brain gets either too little oxygen and or insufficient nutrients, then your very own person computer begins to seize up and you’ll begin to experience a decline in your mental clarity, focus and ability to perform routine tasks or to cope with daily stress.

This information should be your wake-up call to take action.

Once again cardiovascular disease or reduced circulation has a major role in this aspect of your mental and physical health. Maintaining optimal microcirculation to your brain to fuel, nourish, regenerate and retain your living brain cells is absolutely vital to your mental cognitive skills, including memory, alertness, concentration and ability to focus.  Unfortunately as we age our arteries and capillaries become narrowed, while our blood often becomes thicker and our red blood cells can become larger.  The combination of narrow passages and larger red blood cells and thicker blood can reduce the flow and therefore the effectiveness of your nourishing and cleansing circulation to all your vital organs including your brain. When this occurs, your organs simply do not receive the optimal or even sufficient amount of nutrients and oxygen to fuel and regenerate these cells, or cleanse them of carbon dioxide and other metabolic waste and environmental toxins.

Indeed protecting and enhancing the health of your blood vessels can have a direct effect on both your mental and physical well-being. Not only does the scientific medical literature support this, so does clinical practice. Today as I write this article, I had the privilege of working with an 83 year-old gentleman that had memory loss that is readily track able to poor blood flow to his brain.  He is on multiple cardiac medications and his once “lush garden” of creativity, passion for life, ability to interact with loved ones and command of daily functions all residing in his brain is rapidly withering on the vine. Unless we properly support the 60 to 240 trillion connections between our brain cells, our thought processes begin to short-circuit.

So what can a person do?

First, talk to your physician about introducing microcirculation enhancing and protecting supplements to your diet, such as medicinal mushrooms that have been shown in thousands of independent studies to provide excellent support. Personally I recommend a combination of LingZhi (Reishi), Cordyceps, YunZhi, and Maitake that when combined with a good multivitamin, proper diet and regular exercise are a good investment in both your short and long term health. By implementing this first step you are helping assure that you have the ability to help cleanse and deliver nutrients and oxygen critical to your brain, as well as other vital organs and joints.

Second, take note of the recent research that has reported in the medical literature that three key nutrients when added to a healthy diet and lifestyle show great promise when it comes to helping peak and more importantly maintain your ability to think, remember and literally be you. These nutrients are alpha lipoic acid (ALA), acetyl-l-carnitine (ALC) and grape seed extract (GSE).  ALA and ALC have been shown to help support healthy neurological function, improve mental clarity and even assist with dementia. In an independent study, researchers also found that ALA and ALC together had the profound effect of helping to restore deteriorating mitochondria in aging cells, to reduce the amount of oxidants they release and assist in the conversion of carbohydrates and stored fat to vital energy.

Grape Seed Extract (GSE) research has discovered that it serves as a potent anti-oxidant and can help slow free radical damage to the brain and augment innate function. The brain is particularly susceptible to free radical damage and requires an especially high level of antioxidant protection, due to the fact that it has more than double the fat content compared to other high oxygen demand tissue such as muscle. Oxygen molecules are the number one free radical source in the human body and fat is highly susceptible to free radical damage called lipid peroxidation.  Thus the 20% oxygen demand of the brain (10 times greater than other tissues in the body) and high fat content requires a much higher need for antioxidants.

Now in order for these nutrients to have their full effect, your internal arteries and capillaries need to be open to delivery them to the target tissues that include your brain and nerves throughout your body.  You can help improve your circulation through regular exercise and the use of NanoPro passive circulation supports. Often my patients will use a NanoPro pillow with the intent of augmenting blood flow to their neck and heads while they sleep with the goal of helping delivery critical nutrients like ALA, ALC and GSE to the tissues during the night time restoration process. Patients have reported that resting and nourishing at the same time passively by sleeping on a NanoPro pillow has helped with memory, dreaming and feeling more refreshed after sleep. 

Combining improved microcirculation to enhance strategic nutritional intake to the brain and nervous system can yield big dividends in your current and long-term mental health and vitality.

For more detailed information about LingZhi, YunZhi, Cordyceps, Maitake and Grape Seed Extract as found Vital Chi Anti-Aging Formulation, click here. To Order Vital Chi, click here.

For more detailed information about Alpha Lipoic Acid, Acetyl-L-Carnitine plus other Amino Acids, B Vitamins and hydrating minerals as found Vital XP Life Performance Energy Drink, click here. To Order Vital XP, click here.

For more detailed information about NanoPro Pillows, click here. To Order a NanoPro Pillow, click here.

 ©2005, Vital Age International, Inc.

These statements have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or illness.