The Good Marriage

I'm quite sure that each and every one of you knows at least one couple (if not many more) whose marriage fell into ruins over the past couple of years.  If you are still married (and happily so, rather than miserably so) then congratulations are in order.  A miserable marriage is nothing to be proud of, but it's amazing how many people will linger in one, without positive change, long past the expiry date.  I don't mean to cause problems, but have you ever stopped to ponder whether your spouse is, in fact, happily married? 

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), nine psychological tasks might just be the prescription you need to make your marriage endure, grow stronger, and be a happy one.  (In order to comply with copyright requirements, I must reproduce the nine points exactly as written by the APA even though there are points I would like to enhance, clarify, or modify.  For instance, the first point speaks of not separating to the point of estrangement.  I would add:  "or isolation, which can happen when one of the partners is controlling or abusive".)  Anyhow, that's just one example.  Perhaps you will self-edit some of the points set out below.

1. Separate emotionally from the family you grew up in; not to the point of estrangment, but enough so that your identity is separate from that of your parents and siblings.

2. Build togetherness based on a shared intimacy and identity, while at the same time set boundaries to protect each partner's autonomy.

3. Establish a rich and pleasurable sexual relationship and  protect it from the intrusions of the workplace and family obligations.

4. For couples with children, embrace the daunting roles of parenthood and absorb the impact of a baby's entrance into the marriage.  Learn to continue the work of protecting the privacy of you and your spouse as a couple. 

5. Confront and master the inevitable crises of life.

6. Maintain the strength of the marital bond in the face of adversity.  The marriage should be a safe haven in which partners are able to express their differences, anger and conflict.

7. Use humour ("u" added to make it Canadian!) and laughter to keep things in perspective and to avoid boredom and isolation.

8. Nuture and comfort each other, satisfying each partner's needs for dependency and offering continuing encouragement and support.

9. Keep alive the early romantic, idealized images of falling in love, while facing the sober realities of the changes wrought by time.

  

D.

"Nine Psychological Tasks for a Good Marriage", American Psychological Association (APA), www.apa.org/helpcenter/marriage.aspx.  The APA's list was compiled with thanks to Judith S. Wallerstein, Ph.D., who is co-author of the book The Good Marriage:  How and Why Love Lasts.

Your Brain on Music

According to an article in Scientific American Mind, "music can activate your brain's reward centres and depress activity in the amygdala, the hub of emotional memory, reducing fear and other negative feelings" (1)

Also reported:  music can treat insomnia, lower blood pressure, soothe patients with dementia, and help premature babies gain weight.  And, soothing classical music can increase the milk yield of dairy cows. (2)

Music training can create a more robust brain. The corpus callosum, which connects the left and right brain hemispheres is bigger in musicians than in nonmusicians.  The motor cortex and cerebellum are also bigger. A big brain - more gray and white matter - is generally a good thing.  As we age, we want to try to maintain (even rebuild) as much brain mass as possible by keeping  it exercised (crosswords and other types of puzzles, reading, chess, and so on) and well-nourished with oxygen and other nutrients in order to stave off mental decline.

Some studies have shown that learning to play a musical instrument increases spatial and math abilities in children.

And, music can enhance our exercise regimens by providing increased feelings of motivation and distraction from fatigue.  It can also increase physical performance, level of alertness, and aid in the release of the feel-good chemicals that improve mood, like endorphins.  As the pleasure centres in our brain are activated by music, our exercise experience becomes more pleasurable.  And when we enjoy an activity, we perceive that time is passing more quickly.

D.

(1) and (2) "Six Ways to Boost Brainpower", Scientific American Mind, February/March 2009, p. 62.

More Notes on Attraction

A couple of weeks ago, my son treated me (with my money!) to a play titled, “The Philanderer”, written by George Bernard Shaw.  The play was very enjoyable: full of wit, charm, humour and provocation.  Shaw is famous for defining love as a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.

One consideration which I hadn’t really turned my mind to concerning the 'chemistry of love and attraction' was something my friend with a Ph.D. in Psychology said in passing quite some time ago:  he said that 'familiarity' is one of the underpinnings of attraction and also of how people actually end up getting together as romantic partners.  It’s not everything, of course, but has been found to be an important underlying consideration that people use in order to determine the attractiveness and desirability of a potential mate.

Let me illustrate the point. In one study, researchers brought together a group of women.  Each of the women was to attend different classes at the University of Pittsburgh.  The women were told not to speak during the lectures; nor could they interact with any of the students.  The number of classes that each woman attended varied: 15, 10, 5 or none.  At the end of the course, students from the class were shown photos of the women and asked what they thought of them.  The women who were judged most attractive were those who had attended class 15 times.  The least attractive women were the ones the students had not seen.  This small study fits within countless others on the “mere exposure” effect:  people like what they are familiar with.  This could be deemed to be quite rational when you think about it, as it usually gives rise to notions of safety.  This could explain the appeal of the ‘girl or boy next door’: safety and attractiveness through ongoing exposure.  It could also be part of the reason why office romances are so prevalent and why friendships often progress to romantic involvement. 

Somewhat related is another study. Researchers had people rate the photographs of classmates in their yearbooks according to how much they liked them and how attractive they felt they were.  They then had strangers rate the photos for attractiveness. The ratings by the strangers did not match the ratings by the classmates.  The ratings of the classmates were swayed by how much they liked each person – supporting the saying that there is more to being good-looking than looking good. 

Another study found that strangers who were smiling were more attractive than those with a neutral expression.

In addition, people tend to be on the lookout for partners who are smart, faithful and kind.  In the largest study ever conducted of human mate preferences, which looked at people from 37 cultures, the most important factor for men and for women was found to be kindness.  Interesting...

D. 

Most of this article was adapted from an article which appeared in a special edition of Discover magazine: The Brain (Fall 2010).  The article, “The Rules of Attraction”, can be found commencing at page 30 of the edition. What I’ve written above is merely a small sampling of what factors may attract us in our desire to mate.  Some factors cannot be clearly defined as they are factors beyond our conscious awareness and basically boil down to:  “I just feel so good when I’m with you”.  

  

Fitness Below the Cranium

I learned a new word today, so it was a good day!  That word is ‘cerebrate’.  It simply means to think, to use the mind, and it comes from the Latin word ‘cerebrum’ which, in Latin, means brain.

We use the word ‘cerebrum’ to refer to the largest part of the human brain. You may also hear the cerebrum referred to as the ‘cerebral cortex’, or simply as the ‘cortex’. 

The cerebral cortex is divided into four sections or lobes.  Most of us have a ‘frontal lobe’, an ‘occipital lobe’, a ‘parietal lobe’ and a ‘temporal lobe’. 

The frontal lobe is involved with reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions and problem solving, expression of personality, and behavior.  The brain’s ‘executive functions’* are mostly found here.

The occipital lobe is involved with visual processing.

The parietal lobe is associated with movement, orientation, recognition, and perception of stimuli.

The temporal lobe is associated with perception, and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory and speech.  

According to a podcast of the CBC Radio 1 show, “Quirks and Quarks”, which I listened to the other day, the best way to increase/preserve the brain’s executive functioning is to take part in some form of aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, dancing, jogging, swimming, or cycling for 30 to 40 minutes, 4 to 5 days per week.  In contrast, activities such as reading, learning a new language, completing crosswords or playing a game of chess, while all very good for enhancing and preserving the brain, utilize only very specific parts of the brain. 

Another advantage of aerobic exercise is that it keeps the heart muscle at a good size, protecting it against atrophy (shrinkage).  Better oxygenation of the brain occurs with a robust heart muscle: a healthy amount of blood can be pumped to the brain along with other vital nutrients, all of which keep brain cells healthy and the brain generally thriving.

I also read another study a couple of months ago that found that people aged 45 to 70 (those in the study group) who walk 40 minutes per day actually increase the size of the brain’s hippocampus which is located in the temporal lobe. This region is tucked just under part of the cortex and is used in order to store and retrieve memories held in the cortex.  The hippocampus actually comes in two sections, one on each side of the head, and isn’t fully formed until about the age of 2.  Events which happen before the age of 2 do not register as conscious memory, though any emotions surrounding the events can be reactivated later, albeit without conscious connection to the event.  For example, a distressing event which provoked fear in a child may cause a person to have fear surrounding something similar which happens later in life, without the person having conscious knowledge of where the fear actually originates from.  Memory of the actual event cannot be retrieved as it wasn’t stored in the first place.

Exercise would enhance the functioning of the other two lobes of the brain as well:  the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe.  It is not hard to imagine that any exercise that involves complex movement could enhance the functioning of the parietal lobe – dance, for instance.  Sports like tennis and squash could enhance the occipital lobe. 

I am sure there are many more aerobic activities to choose from that provide myriad brain benefits.  So, mix it up and keep it interesting!

D.

*In a nutshell, the executive function of the brain involves our higher cognitive functioning.  It enables us to plan, reason and make decisions, to draw on working memory and to execute tasks. Executive function primarily involves the frontal lobe which, as noted above, governs our ability to reason and to plan, certain parts of our speech, our movement and our emotions, as well as our ability to solve problems.

A Few Neurotoxins Among Many

At the outset of this column, I want to make it abundantly clear that Dr. Blaylock's opinions with respect to the deleterious brain effects  caused by the consumption of soy are not views which I support.  Considering the diet of many populations around the world, his views about soy seem absurd -  hard to swallow at the very least - despite the fact that he is a neurosurgeon.  Some studies have shown that an isoflavone present in soy -  genistein - is particularly helpful in preserving cognitive functioning in older people.   Another study, however, showed that genistein is a neurotoxin:  it destroyed brain cells in rats.  (Genistein is also found in fava and coffee beans.)  I don't know who funded any of the studies.  With all of the studies on a wide range of subjects coming out on a weekly basis, one must remember to view each with a critical eye.   

Barely a day passes without something reported in the news, or in scientific journals, about the latest discovery of a neurotoxin.  Seems we are surrounded by these toxins.  They’re in some of our foods, our water supply, and in the devices we use in our homes or to make a living.  It’s enough to drive a person to drink (but, hey, some reports find that alcohol is a neurotoxin even in small amounts, so perhaps that’s not a viable option either!  Other studies, however, tout the wonders of alcohol, especially of red wine, to stave off dementia and heart disease.)

Today, I came across a letter written by a U.S. neurosurgeon by the name of Russell Blaylock.  It was written in response to an earlier letter written by some fellow who allegedly sells soy products and a machine which makes them, who had mounted a response to the negative health findings concerning soy products reported in a book written by Dr. Blaylock.

Anyhow, I thought I might report one of Dr. Blaylock’s opinions about consuming large amounts of soy products – not to be confused with the pure, unprocessed soy bean.  His concern in this regard is with things like tofu, hydrolyzed soy protein, soy beverage, and the like.  To provide you with the real nub of the issue, he argues that the processing of soy beans into soy products enhances glutamate delivery into your bloodstream.  Glutamate is an amino acid which, when free and concentrated, becomes an excitotoxin. (Excitotoxins damage and kill nerve cells.)

But, just in case you’re thinking that you are safer by just eating soy beans, Dr. Blaylock reports further that: “Soybeans and especially their hydrolyzed and processed products, contain high levels of manganese, aluminum and fluoride, all of which are powerful cell toxins, especially for brain cells.  Recent studies have shown that when aluminum is combined with fluoride, which occurs very easily, brain levels of aluminum are doubled. Extensive research connects aluminum in the brain with most of the neurodegenerative diseases. When hydrolyzed as in soy milk, the fluoride and aluminum easily bind, forming neurotoxic fluoroaluminum compounds. The concentration at which this occurs in 0.5 ppm, a very small concentration. Fluoroaluminum compounds interact with G-proteins, which are common cell communication systems, especially in the brain and operate most of the glutamanergic receptors in the brain (glutamate receptors).” (1)

And, Dr. Blaylock further reports that in the year 2000, the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found, in a 25-year study of middle-aged individuals consuming a diet containing tofu, that there is a strong link between eating tofu and brain atrophy and cognitive impairment.  Low brain weight was seen in 12 percent of men consuming the least amount of tofu and in 40 percent of the men consuming the highest amount.  (This is termed a “dose-response affect” and supposedly makes out a stronger case.) (2)

Supposedly, there is also a link between soy and two cancers of the brain.   

Dr. Blaylock is also of the opinion that sugar, in excess, is a risk factor for developing any type of dementia.  He seems to be talking about a high level of sugar in the bloodstream, which occurs when one experiences insulin resistence – a condition in which cells begin to lose their receptivity to the glucose the sugar in our foods is turned into.   Anyway, he goes on to say that eating lots of sweets and carbohydrates increases one’s risk of dementia for the following reasons:

“1. Sugar dramatically increases your metabolism and high rates of metabolism become a major source of free radical production.  Free radicals damage cells thereby impairing their function;

2.  High levels of sugar in the body cause the sugar to react with various critical proteins, including enzymes that repair DNA damage caused by free radicals;  and as noted above,

3.  Continued high sugar consumption leads to insulin resistance.  This condition prevents your cells from absorbing the sugar needed to produce energy” (3) and this, in turn, affects memory as the brain lacks the fuel it requires to keep gray matter healthy.  According to Dr. Blaylock, the worst form of sugar to consume is high fructose corn syrup. (And, according to a report on the CTV National news last weekend, the best form of sugar to consume, in a moderate amount, of course, may be maple sugar/maple syrup as it is full of antioxidants and other nutrients like vitamins and minerals which preserve health.)

This morning I heard, yet again, this time during a discussion about how desperately the cosmetic industry in Canada needs to be better regulated, that lipstick – one of the few cosmetics I wear – contains lead.  Lead, as I am sure you well-know has been proven to be a neurotoxin in one of the highest degrees.  I’m afraid that I haven’t given up my lipstick; nor, have I given up sugar, though I have been trying to cut back as of late for many reasons.  Though I’m not addicted to sugar, I am somewhat addicted to chocolate, which contains sugar, at least the chocolate containing the level of cocoa solids (60 to 70 percent) that I consume.  I‘ve tried the chocolate sweetened with mannitol, though I didn’t like the taste and texture very well, and I’ve read that mannitol is also a neurotoxin, so there really is no winning here, is there?!

Well, the long and the short of it is, that it’s best to not get too stressed about these types of things and to just try to live in some kind of balanced way.  After all, stress overloads the brain with powerful hormones that are intended only for short-term duty in emergencies.  In fact, short term stress can enhance the functioning of the brain.  The cumulative effect of long-term stress overload damages and kills brain cells.  Perhaps I will go into further detail about this at a later date…

In any event, have a great day! Consume some purified water (but not from plastic) and meditate (but not on a PVC mat!)

D.

(1) & (2) “Rebuttal to Seriously Confused Soy Enthusiast”, www.campaignfortruth.com

(3)  The Blaylock Wellness Report, “Save Your Brain: Protect Yourself From the Ravages of Alzheimer’s”, w3.newsmax.com/blaylock

  

Enduring Myth

I saw the movie, “Limitless”, on Saturday night.  One of the characters says something to the effect that it’s common knowledge that we use only 20 percent of our brain.  This piece of information is one of the premises the movie is built on.  It may be understood by most people that we use only a small percentage of the brain; in fact, the widely-circulating myth is that we use only 10 percent of the brain.  Whichever of the two numbers you may subscribe to, the actual truth of the matter is that we use a heck of a lot more than 10 or 20 percent, except perhaps when we are completely relaxed.

According to neurologist, Barry Gordon, at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, the 10 percent myth is so far off the mark, it’s almost laughable.  Dr. Gordon states that the myth’s durability stems from people’s conceptions about their own brains as they “see their own shortcomings as evidence of untapped gray matter. This is a false assumption. What is correct, however, is that at certain moments in anyone's life, such as when we are simply at rest and thinking, we may be using only 10 percent of our brain.” (1)

Most of the brain is active most of the time.  We use virtually every part of the brain. 

The human brain weighs about three pounds and uses 20 percent of the body's fuel or energy.  Generally speaking, it consists of the cerebrum (also termed the cortex) which is the largest portion, the cerebellum and the brain stem.  The cerebrum performs all higher cognitive functions within its various lobes.  The cerebellum controls motor function.  The brain stem governs involuntary functions like breathing.  Most of the energy used by the brain “powers the rapid firing of millions of neurons communicating with each other. Scientists think it is such neuronal firing and connecting that gives rise to all of the brain's higher functions. The rest of its energy is used for controlling other activities - both unconscious activities, such as heart rate, and conscious ones, such as driving a car.” (2)

At any given time all of the brain’s regions are not concurrently firing:  brain imaging technology has shown this to be the case.  Most regions, however, are continually active over a 24-hour period.

According to John Henley, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, over the course of a day we use 100 percent of the brain.  While we sleep, areas such as the frontal cortex, which controls things like higher level thinking and self-awareness, or the somatosensory areas, which help people sense their surroundings, are active.

D.

(1) & (2) “Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains?”, Scientific American Mind, February 2008