Re: NN and brain functioning

[Guest guest]

>

> What other things can I be doing to support and improve brain

> functioning?

>

> Thanks,

> Sol

I posted a folder and file called " Good for the Brain " that has some

info I've collected.

Bob

[Guest guest]

Hi Sol,

Welcome.

If you are having brain fog, it could be that one or another change

you made doesn't agree with your system. NN foods are a large menu,

but not every body can tolerate every single one of them.

Some people react to the glutamate that's formed during fermentation,

so you might want to experiment with removing and adding fermented

veggies.

If you consume bone broths during the day, I'd try using them only in

the evening. I personally get sleepy from bone broths if I use them

in the day, but they are soothing in the evening for me.

Or, if you have ups and downs, perhaps your recent lapse in

concentration is coincidence?

In any case, if you have a family history of Alzheimer's (AD), cod

liver oil (CLO) is a MUST. DHA (which is contained in CLO) deficiency

is correlated with alzheimer's in humans, and in animals

neurodegeneration characteristic of AD can be induced with a

DHA-deficient diet and reversed by adding DHA back into the diet, and

the pathology in the brain is associated by a rapid depletion of DHA

that occurs with the AD-associated gene mutations but not without

them. So definitely take the CLO for protection.

Schizophrenia is also associated with a deficiency of DHA/EPA (in CLO)

and also AA (in animal fats), depending on the subset of schizophrenia

(science is based on correlations and rather murky.) Schizophrenia in

the family and problems concentrating could indicate gluten

intolerance, unfortunately. With your family history it's probably

strongly advised that you get tested for gluten and casein

sensitivity, although Heidi is the one to ask about this.

Welcome aboard, and here's to health and healing!

Chris

[Guest guest]

I'm interested to know if anyone on this list has improved their

ability to focus via Native Nutrition.

I've been serious doing an NN diet for the last month, including lots

of homemade broth, cultured vegetables, soaked grains, etc. and I'm

noticing my concentration is not as sharp as it was long ago. I've had

my ups and downs with concentration. I did serious chelation once upon

a time and got rid of a bunch of brain fog but my ability to retain

details is still not up to par.

<snip>

What other things can I be doing to support and improve brain

functioning?

Thanks,

Sol

I have serious brain fog for the first 30 or so days I started eating this way.

After that time, it gradually began to lift. I believe it was related to some

detoxing my body was doing during the adjustment period.

HTH

Rebekah

[Guest guest]

>-----Original Message-----

>From:

>[mailto: ]On Behalf Of Masterjohn

>

>

>Hi Sol,

>

>Welcome.

More like " welcome back " - Sol is the founder of this list :-)

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

http://www.westonaprice.org

----------------------------

“The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times.” --

Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

<http://www.thincs.org>

----------------------------

[Guest guest]

Hi Sol,

I remember you from the early days of this list!!!!

I'm not over here much anymore these days either but occasionally pop

in to see what's up. Your email caught my attention because I was

working on alzhiemer's with my dad. He had lost parts of his short

term memory and certain other decision making abilities. He got the

diagnosis 2 years ago. We were having some success but he was stubborn

with the foods so it was difficult to keep him on the diet. (My dad

unfortunatley died earlier this summer in an accident.)

From the changes we saw when he was on this diet vs off I think we

could have had marked success.

I used the baby food formula that Sally Fallon has as a basis for his

smoothies with pastured egg yolks. (Also made his ice cream with lots

of egg yolks). And added desicatted liver (he had lost some of his

taste buds so as wierd as it sounds he never noticed).

Then we used the plan in this book.

http://www.lef.org/newshop/items/item33422.html. We used the highest

quality supplements I could get my hands on that weren't soy based.

One reason I used eggs was that finding some non-soy based lecithin

was hard. (but there is one out there). He never seem to react poorly

to eggs so I generously used the best I could get.

Another article I found useful by the author of the above book is

here http://ncof.com/AAeJournal/Issue6/aa_ejournal_alzheimers.htm .

I also did research on the autistic childrens sites to help figure out

what was working with them. This site was very useful but I would run

out of time to follow all that was being exchanged. Some of it is very

relevant and some wasn't.

autism-challenge/

I was also beginning to look at some of the research by Ward Dean and

was planning to take my dad to see him. He's in Pensecola Fla and runs

a small practice still there. I think he will do some phone

consultations. I'm in Atlanta so we had planned to take my dad to see

him wasn't this summer.

http://www.ceri.com/wd.htm

Another source of information is this offshore site. Tracing the

research of some of these authors might be worthwhile.

http://www.antiaging-systems.com/extract/bycategory/neurological.htm

I sure hope this helps. You might have already been through these

resources but if not they I hope they will give you some new ideas.

Many of what I was looking at was the new anti-aging information

coming out of Europe. Some of it's been around a long time but hasn't

ever been used much by doctors here.Of course this was all after I did

all I could with NN diets and high quality fats. It sounds like you've

already done that part well.

(One more thing I was also brixing the berries and as many of the

local veggies as I could. I figured the higher the nutrients we could

get directly from food the better off we were. But that's hard to do

....as most of the food brixes out average to low. Still I had located

the farmers I tried to buy most often from. Suze Fisher put together a

great article for Wise Tradtions on the how tos of this.

http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/nutrient-dense.html )

Take care

Lynn

> I'm interested to know if anyone on this list has improved their

> ability to focus via Native Nutrition.

>

> I've been serious doing an NN diet for the last month, including

lots

> of homemade broth, cultured vegetables, soaked grains, etc. and I'm

> noticing my concentration is not as shrp as it was long ago.

[Guest guest]

On 7/28/05, Suze Fisher <s.fisher22@...> wrote:

> More like " welcome back " - Sol is the founder of this list :-)

Oh! Well than " welcome back, " Sol. I recognized the name from the

archives but figured more than likely it was a different person.

*shrug* Guess not.

Chris

[Guest guest]

On 7/27/05, Sol L <s_lederman@...> wrote:

> What other things can I be doing to support and improve brain

> functioning?

The brain formula from Dr. Schulze is excellent.

http://www.800herbdoc.com/home_1024x768.asp

[Guest guest]

Hi Sol,

I think, given your family's history of diagnosed(?) mental problems,

and the fact that many are associated with gluten intolerance and

similar conditions, you may want to minimize or avoid grains, at

least the ones containing gluten, but perhaps all grains.

I agree with the recommendation about CLO. I've seen that CLO and

magnesium both help people with autism/ADD, etc.

Can you emphasize eggs? They are considered brain food by many. I

think they have helped my DH regain his mental focus--especially once

I got him off the soy patties he was using as a meat substitute.

If you've ever looked into that product called " Focus Factor " , many

of the things it is supposed to contain are available in beef. ;-)

Are you getting plenty of cholesterol? (I love being able to say

that in public!)

Are you avoiding soy?

Are you avoiding industrially-processed vegetable oil? I've seen two

articles from " down under " that pin the blame for Alzheimer's on

vegetable oil...especially soybean oil. It excited me to see that,

because I've suspected that for some time.

Can you tolerate dairy?

Have you reduced your caloric intake? Perhaps undereating is causing

your thyroid to perform at a less than optimal level. Hypothyroidism

can lead to brain fog. If you need more calories, perhaps you can

increase your consumption of protein + fat.

Can you handle natural fat without any problem?

--- In , " Sol L " <s_lederman@y...>

wrote:

> Hi,

>

> I'm interested to know if anyone on this list has improved their

> ability to focus via Native Nutrition.

>

> I've been serious doing an NN diet for the last month, including

lots

> of homemade broth, cultured vegetables, soaked grains, etc. and I'm

> noticing my concentration is not as sharp as it was long ago. I've

had

> my ups and downs with concentration. I did serious chelation once

upon

> a time and got rid of a bunch of brain fog but my ability to retain

> details is still not up to par.

>

> Doing NN (plus digestive enzymes) I notice my digestion is much

> improved, I'm losing weight, my dandruff is pretty much gone, I eat

> much less than I used to and am less hungry, my sugar cravings are

> gone, I no longer have my mid-afternoon desire to nap. Life is good

> and now I want to do what I can to improve my brain functioning.

>

> There's a family history of brain stuff: father died of Alzheimer's,

> mom was somewhat ADD, had serious mental/emotional issues and may

have

> had Parkinson's before she died, one sister is schizophrenic,

another

> sister has problems with mental functioning, a third sister has some

> brain condition she doesn't talk about. I'm fairly ADD. My brother's

> attention isn't always there.

>

> I know that the gut and the brain are connected. I feel that NN is

> helping to heal my gut.

>

> I picked up some Carlson's cod liver oil and will start that

tomorrow.

>

> I'm about to start making water kefir plus coconut water kefir which

> should also help to heal my gut.

>

> What other things can I be doing to support and improve brain

> functioning?

>

> Thanks,

> Sol

[Guest guest]

On 7/29/05, <toyotaokiec@...> wrote:

> Are you avoiding industrially-processed vegetable oil? I've seen two

> articles from " down under " that pin the blame for Alzheimer's on

> vegetable oil...especially soybean oil. It excited me to see that,

> because I've suspected that for some time.

What was their rationale? I suspect that a high-vegetable oil diet

would worsen Alzheimer's disease (AD) and with many other factors may

bring it on, but I've been doing a lot of research on AD and I haven't

seen anything on it but I don't think VO would make or break it. So

far it seems that localized insulin resistance and DHA-depletion,

which are interrelated, are strongly supported contributors, and there

are genetic factors as well. Cholesterol may be preventative, despite

the fact that it is widely blamed for AD on dubious grounds.

Chris

[Guest guest]

,

Thanks for your insightful response. See my comments embedded in your

message.

Sol

> Hi Sol,

>

> I think, given your family's history of diagnosed(?) mental

problems,

> and the fact that many are associated with gluten intolerance and

> similar conditions, you may want to minimize or avoid grains, at

> least the ones containing gluten, but perhaps all grains.

>

I've weaned myself of glutenous grains and dairy.

> I agree with the recommendation about CLO. I've seen that CLO and

> magnesium both help people with autism/ADD, etc.

When I remember to I take epsom salt baths. That should help me to

absorb magnesium.

I'm planning to take 1 TBS of Carlson's CLO each morning. Does that

dose sound right? I know some people are concerned about overdosing on

the stuff. I figure I'm so low in its nutrients that I can go for a

month or two on this dose and then reevaluate. I don't spend much time

in the sun since I'm fair skinned, blond hair, blue eyes and burn

easily.

>

> Can you emphasize eggs? They are considered brain food by many. I

> think they have helped my DH regain his mental focus--especially

once

> I got him off the soy patties he was using as a meat substitute.

>

I've forgotten about eggs. They're going back into my diet starting

tomorrow.

> If you've ever looked into that product called " Focus Factor " , many

> of the things it is supposed to contain are available in beef. ;-)

>

> Are you getting plenty of cholesterol? (I love being able to say

> that in public!)

>

I've not been hungry these past few weeks, especially for cholesterol

rich foods. But, for the sake of my brain, it's time to put eggs, red

meat, and organ meats back in my diet. Fortunately I have some good

sources of real grass-fed beef and lamb and their organs here. I had

been favoring chicken but it's time to favor the red stuff for the

good omega3/6 balance.

> Are you avoiding soy?

I rarely eat soy and haven't in some time. I eat very little processed

foods these days so it's not sneaking too much into my diet.

>

> Are you avoiding industrially-processed vegetable oil? I've seen

two

> articles from " down under " that pin the blame for Alzheimer's on

> vegetable oil...especially soybean oil. It excited me to see that,

> because I've suspected that for some time.

>

I eat virtually no processed foods so I'm not getting any processed

vegetable oils in my diet.

> Can you tolerate dairy?

>

No. I once had a test done for gluten and casein tolerance and tested

poorly for both. I absolutely love raw milk but it puts me to sleep.

So I avoid dairy. I love raw cheese as well but my nutritionist

suggested avoiding dairy for a while.

> Have you reduced your caloric intake? Perhaps undereating is

causing

> your thyroid to perform at a less than optimal level.

Hypothyroidism

> can lead to brain fog. If you need more calories, perhaps you can

> increase your consumption of protein + fat.

>

You may really be onto something here. A couple or so weeks ago I

started not feeling very hungry. This happened within a couple of

weeks of switching to a NN way of eating. So, I cut way back on

calories. During a 16 day period of not being hungry I lost 8 pounds.

Unfortunately, those 8 pounds were likely all or mostly all muscle as

my clothes didn't feel looser and my Tanita body-fat scale (which is

not the most reliable thing) didn't show any loss of body fat.

I had been eating some grain, mostly basmati and a bit of other

non-glutenous grains. Now I've switched to cooked cruciferous veggies

which I blend and add spices to to facilitate digestion.

Also of interest is that around the time I was losing the (muscle

mass) weight I started to develop a cough. It has lingered and

yesterday I saw my Chinese acupuncturist/herbalist and he said it was

bronchitis. I wonder if not giving myself enough calories, especially

saturated fat, put a strain on my immune system as I almost never get

sick.

I do cook with coconut oil and it would probably be good for my

thyroid to get more of it in my diet.

> Can you handle natural fat without any problem?

>

A few weeks ago I would have said no as my liver has been strained,

probably from too much heavy metal chelation followed by too much

liver flushing. Now I'm doing much better. I had some raw ground elk

for dinner (with some homemade sauerkraut and homemade kefir) and took

some digestive enzymes as well and I'm feeling fine - no liver or gall

bladder pain.

>

Thanks very much.

Sol