Parenting

Nourish the Brain and Prevent Anxiety, Rage, and Depression
This material appears courtesy of The Christian Broadcasting Network, by Terry Dorian

The brain needs food -- whole food. The food most adults and children in America now consume has been processed, devitalized and filled with additives. And to further complicate matters, many adults and children have physically degenerated to the extent that they lack the enzymes necessary to fully digest any cooked food. Processed, devitalized, chemically laden foods are dangerous for two reasons: (1) they fail to give us the nutrients our bodies need in order to function properly and (2) they contain toxic substances that cause chemical imbalances in the brain. The result is that we have become a nation of physically weakened and diseased people -- the world leaders in degenerative disease. As a culture we try to answer the problem of physical degeneration with prescription drugs.

The fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. is prescription drugs. These deaths are not caused by patients consuming the "wrong prescriptions" or by drug overdoses. Rather, the "side effects" of these synthetic substances are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. The pharmaceutical industry drives conventional medicine and we as a people have responded by accepting prescription drugs as the answer to symptomatic relief. Most people in the United States do not consider it their personal responsibility to learn to walk in wellness. The vast majority of people in the U.S. do not know how to find a physician who understands how to recommend dietary and lifestyle changes that will reverse degenerative disease.

We now have a nation of school-age children whose brains don't work right. They are anxious, enraged, depressed, and/or hyperactive. Physicians prescribe the drug Ritalin as a means of controlling the behavioral problems of four million school children. Before we drug children, we need to consider the possible physiological reasons for destructive thoughts and emotions.

How does the brain control the body?
The Oxford Dictionary defines neurotransmitter is this way: a chemical substance released from a nerve fiber that effects the transfer of an impulse to another nerve or muscle. These nerve impulses are electro-chemical in nature. The brain communicates, if you will, in an electro-chemical language. While there are about 40 different neurotransmitters, only a few impact our mental and emotional states. GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) inhibits the excitatory neurotransmitters. It is those excitatory neurotransmitters that stimulate the firing of nerve cells and deliver anxiety related messages. In order for the brain to work optimally both kinds of neurotransmitters (the inhibitory and excitatory) need to work properly -- balance is essential. By "work" we mean maintaining the ability to be reasonable and rational.

Although no one has a full understanding of how the brain works, we do know that stress, toxins, and missing micronutrients deplete the brain of GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) and other inhibitory neurotransmitters and cause a chemical imbalance in the brain and body. When the brain is out of balance - fear, anxiety, rage, and pain decrease our ability to reason.

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