The UltraMind Solution (79 page)

I eat white flour and sugar more than twice a week.
I eat fewer than five servings of deeply colored vegetables and fruits a day.
I have chronic colds and infections (cold sores, canker sores, etc.).
I don’t take an antioxidant-containing multivitamin.
I am overweight (BMI more than 25—a BMI chart has been printed in The UltraMind Solution Companion Guide for your convenience).
I have diabetes or heart disease.
I have arthritis or allergies.
* For your convenience, this quiz has been reprinted in The UltraMind Solution Companion Guide . Simply go to www.ultramind.com/guide download the guide, and print out the quiz.

Score one point for each box you checked.

As I have already said, many imbalances can lead to oxidative stress. Everything from nutritional imbalance to environmental toxins can contribute to this problem.

However, there are a few primary biochemical factors that are linked to the mitochondrial destruction that lead to so many brain diseases.

I would like to review a few of these here. These are examples of some of the key elements that push this key system out of balance. There are others. But these examples give a powerful explanation of the relationship between oxidative stress, reduced energy production, and the brain problems that result.

Much of the metabolic mischief that damages our energy-producing system occurs by the overactivation of something called the NMDA receptor
¹⁸
(the site of action for a new Alzheimer’s drug called Namenda).

Think of NMDA as the on and off switch for your cells. All systems in the body have a way of staying in perfect balance. Just like Goldilocks and her porridge—not too hot and not too cold, but just right. In the same way you want to excite your brain cells so they can learn, remember, and focus, but you don’t want to overexcite them so that you become hyperactive and can’t retain any information. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

The balance in the brain is tightly regulated. A little excitement is good. Too much sends the cells into a death spiral. When the NMDA receptor is “excited” it opens a “gate,” flooding cells with too much calcium.
¹⁹
The overload of calcium triggers a cascade of signals that produce free radicals, damage the mitochondria, and ultimately lead to cell death.

Many things—toxic foods such as aspartame and MSG, environmental toxins, infections, allergens, and even psychological stress—can trigger this overexcitement and stimulate the NMDA receptors to open the floodgates, damaging and killing brain cells.

The trick is keeping the balance. Not too much stimulation of the NMDA receptors, not too little.

The wondrous thing about the body is that it has so many systems to maintain balance, like yin and yang. All of them are necessary, but balance is the key. Just think of pH balance, or blood-sugar balance, or sleeping and waking, breathing in and out, the stress response and the relaxation response. Illness occurs when things are out of balance in any of these systems.