Relationship Between The Conscious And The Unconscious Minds

Relationship Between The Conscious And The Unconscious Minds:

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,unconscious mind,conscious mind,mind research,amygdala region

The unconscious part of the human brain can see and respond to things that it is not consciously aware that it is seeing. Recently, French and English scientists had volunteers play a simple game while undergoing a brain scan. The subjects held a handgrip while watching a computer screen. They were told to squeeze the handgrip whenever they saw a picture of money on the screen. The more they squeezed the more money they would win.

While some pictures stayed on the screen long enough to be identified, others raced by. Regardless, the image of a British pound caused the volunteers to squeeze harder than they did at the sight of a penny, even when it appeared so quickly that they were not consciously aware of what kind of money they were seeing. The researchers found that the same part of the brain became active whether the response was conscious or unconscious. This is a good example of how the conscious and unconscious are working together.

In another study subjects were shown pictures of human faces while the researchers scanned their brains. In some trials, the subjects chose two words to describe the expressions they saw on each face they viewed. This forced them to consciously reflect on the emotions that they saw. In other trials, subjects chose a name for each face, but no attention was drawn to the emotions that were being expressed.

When the subjects only chose a name for a face that was expressing an emotion, the amygdala region of the brain activated. The amygdala is part of our survival mechanism as it reacts unconsciously to emotional situations. In the subjects who used words to describe the faces, the amygdala remained quiet while an area involved with refection, reasoning, and self-control was activated.

This means that sometimes our unconscious mind will work even more effectively than our conscious mind to assist us in knowing what is going on in the world. At other times our unconscious mind won’t even be aware of what we are doing. The writer of this article felt that when the unconscious mind is not being triggered we have the conscious free will to decide what we want to be doing.
(Reported in Discover, Oct 2008)

Increase Melatonin With Special Blue Light-Blocking Glasses

Flickr Tags: Jerry Teplitz,Melatonin,migraines,IBS pain,mitochondrial DNA,blue light-blocking glasses

Melatonin has been shown to be of value for many things. It can help us sleep better, reduce headache frequency by around 50%, reduce the length of time a migraine lasts, decrease irritable bowel syndrome abdominal pain, lower nighttime blood pressure and protect us from cellular and mitochondrial DNA damage, which can cause cancer.

While all this sounds great, we may not be producing enough melatonin in our bodies to receive these benefits. Melatonin is produced at night and bright lights dramatically reduce the production of melatonin in our bodies. Recent research has discovered a way to stop bright light’s interference with melatonin production – wear blue light-blocking glasses. These glasses filter out just the blue wave length, which is the part of the spectrum that suppresses the production of melatonin.

Canadian researchers exposed volunteers to a bright light for an hour during the middle of the night. The volunteers wore either the blue lenses or gray lenses. The researchers then compared the volunteers’ melatonin levels to their levels on a night with no light exposure. They found that the gray-lenses group had a 46% decline in melatonin, while the blue-lenses group had a slight increase in production. Other reports have found that the blue glasses reduce daytime sleepiness, depression, as well as pain from fibromyalgia. Kids with ADHD also experienced an improvement in symptoms.

So…you might experiment with these special blue light-blocking glasses for a month. If you don’t want to do that but you still want to get the benefits of melatonin, you can take a supplement with 3 mg of melatonin 30 minutes before bedtime.

(Reported in Whitaker Wellness Report, February 2008)

The Importance Of Vitamin B12 To Keep Your Brain Young

Technorati Tags: Jerry Teplitz,Vitamin B12,Vitamin deficiency,Brain atrophy,alzheimer's,vitamin research

About 40% of the US population is deficient in Vitamin B12. Recent research has shown that older people with low levels of Vitamin B12 are at increased risk for brain atrophy or shrinkage. Brain atrophy is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and impaired cognitive function.

This study, involving more than 100 volunteers aged 61 to 87, found that individuals with the lowest Vitamin B12 levels at the start of the study had a greater decrease in brain volume after five years. Those with the lowest levels of B12 had a six-fold greater rate of brain loss.

An important fact to note is that none of the participants were actually deficient in Vitamin B12, though they were in the low level of normal range.

As I said, since 40% of the population is actually deficient, this means the number of older people experiencing brain loss is probably much higher. It also means having a blood test that shows your B12 level is in the ‘normal range’ might not mean that you are at the level for optimum healthy brain functioning.

So…get your Vitamin B12 level checked by your doctor and make sure you aim to keep it at the higher end of the normal range.
(Reported in Neurology 2008)

Got Asthma? Get Checked On How You Use Your Inhaler

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Teplitz,Prevention,Asthma,Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,inhalers

A study reported in Prevention (February 2008) discovered that 33% of patients who use inhalers for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are using them incorrectly.

By having their doctors demonstrate how to use it, the rate of misuse was cut by more than half.

So…if you use an inhaler, don’t assume you’re using it correctly. Get your technique checked out by your doc – see if you deserve the Gold Medal for proper inhalation technique.