Your wonderful brain – the command centre and the interpreter of all the information from the world outside your body, taking information from your sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing and assembling it into messages to create your reality and then store it as memories. All of this while controlling your every thought, emotion and coordinating every movement, breath, heartbeat, and action you take in this world. All despite being only 1.3kg. If your body was a business, your brain would be one busy CEO!
It wasn’t until the 4th century BC that Hippocrates hypothesised the importance of the brain, with Aristotle believing that the brain was merely a cooling mechanism for the blood. From ancient Egypt onwards, the heart was viewed as the seat of intelligence, the notion which has stayed with us in sayings such as ‘remembering by heart’. Over thousands of years the reverse became known to be true, with modern day neuroscience now the centre of research for this mysterious organ.
Your brain, along with your spinal cord, make up your central nervous system, with nerves coming off this to control every function in your body. Protected within the skull, your brain is composed of 60% fat, uses 20% of the oxygen in your body, has 100 billion neurons, and 100,000 miles of blood vessels. The brain is divided into three main parts:
- The Cerebrum – the largest part of the brain associated with higher functions such as thought and action
- The Cerebellum – responsible for the regulation and coordination of movement and balance
- The Brainstem – responsible for all the basic life functions, such as breathing, heartbeat and blood pressure.
The brain and the spinal cord are then covered by three layers of protective tissue called meninges. Within the brain are hollow, fluid filled cavities called ventricles that produce cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) flowing around the brain and spinal cord.
It was long believed that despite all of its magnificent functions, the brain was fixed and unchangeable. Once damaged, or having learnt dysfunctional patterns, that there was no way to influence these. However, a newer part of science has found that the brain is in fact ‘plastic’ – no, not made out of Tupperware! The plasticity of the brain refers to the fact that your brain is constantly evolving and has the ability to change – learn and unlearn functions. Neuroplasticity means that the brain can constantly forge new (or conversely, weaken) neural connections.
‘Just like riding a bike’ is a phrase that we use to describe something that should come as second nature, a pathway built in our brain that means we no longer have to think, we just do. However, do you remember learning to ride a bike? The process was long and often frustrating with a few scraped knees in between, but one day in what seemed like a moment, you were cycling and it became a skill for life.
In the TED video “The Backwards Brain Bicycle: Un-Doing Understanding” engineers created a backwards bike. This sounds simple, but after a lifetime of riding a regular bike it took almost 8 months before the new neural pathway in the brains of the subjects were forged to learn this skill. Your brain grows, changes, and modifies itself as new things are learned and new processes are undergone.
When a chiropractor finds an area of dysfunctional in the spine – a vertebral subluxation – it is then adjusted in order to restore the healthy function of the spine and nervous system. When there is dysfunction in the nervous system, the message from the brain to the body is affected – just like trying to make a phone call in an area with poor reception, the message gets through, just not as clearly or easily. The message back to the brain is then affected, and the loop continues, changing how the brain is interacting with your environment.
Dr Heidi Haavik, a chiropractor and PhD trained neurophysiologist has studied the changes that occur in the brain when chiropractors adjust the spine. The latest study has given us further evidence that adjusting the spine creates changes in brain function. An adjustment changes the prefrontal cortex – the area of the brain that is like the conductor for the body. This can explain how other chiropractic research has shown improvements in sensorimotor function, better joint position sense, and improved muscle strength. Your brain is constantly learning, and chiropractic can help forge these positive neural connections!
Did you know that your brain is so clever it can fill in gaps for you?
“It dseno’t metatr in waht oredr the lrttees in a wrod are, the olny tihng taht is iproamtnt is the frsit and lsat ltetres are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it.”
Your brain is constantly putting pieces of the puzzle together to form your reality. How intelligent!
Finally, the brain in your head isn’t your only brain. There is a ‘second brain’ in your intestines that contains 100 million neurons. Gut bacteria are responsible for over 30 neurotransmitters, including serotonin – the ‘happy molecule’. The Gut-Brain axis shows us the importance of looking after our gut health in order to have a happy, healthy brain.
Tips for a healthy brain:
- Mental Stimulation – Increasing brain activity stimulates new brain cells. Challenge yourself with brain exercises regularly, and start by trying those provided over the page!
- Meditate – A study from UCLA found that long term meditators had better preserved brains as they aged than non-meditators
- Exercise – Using muscles helps your mind! It increases oxygen flow to your brain, lowers your blood pressure, and helps to reduce mental stress
- Improve your diet and restore gut health – Scientists found that students who avoided preservatives, additives, artificial flavours and dyes in their foods performed 14% better in IQ tests than those who consumed these products. Consuming healthy fats feeds your brain (remember, its 60% fat), while low fat diets can starve your brain.
- Get enough sleep – Sleep is important restoration time for the brain! It is important for storing memories, helping mental reasoning, problem solving, and supporting attention to detail.
- Get Adjusted! – Research is showing that chiropractic adjustments improve your brains ability to adapt, process and react to new information.
Today and everyday be thankful for your amazingly intelligent brain and body!
Emily
