This is a fairly lengthy article detailing the information you need to heal and protect your brain throughout life. For those who just want the supplements, here they are:

Brain Protect Tincture (which is just Wood Betony and Hawthorn berry leaf and flower tincture), 2 droppers full night and morning.

Liver Transition Formula (Dr. Christopher Formula) 4 capsules 2-3 times daily depending on the severity

Lower Bowel Formula (keep your bowels moving 3 times per day, or take the formula as an enema in the mornings [2 mornings in a row, 2x per week] to flush out lower bowel until you have obvious improvement. Enema should be taken with 1/2 ounce of echinacea angustifolia root tincture and 1/2 ounce of valerian root tincture)

Cal Amo (Standard Process Formula) 5 tablets with food every day helps acidify the CSF, which must be acidic to have a healthy brain.

Neurotorphin only if there is an actual mechanical head injury or a very aggressive chemical injury. Take 1 tablet each morning always.

Min Tran helps with proper sleep. Take 8-10 tablets (based on weight) right before bed. Is very helpful for nutrition.

Now, the discussion:

There are four quadrants to the maintenance of brain health throughout life:

1. Stress Management/Healthy, Pleasant Brain Stimulation with Movement

2. Protective Brain Supplements

3. Cholesterol and Circulation

4. Insulin Control and Preventing Aging

We will discuss each of these in turn.

First: Stress Management and Healthy, Pleasant Brain Stimulation

This first point is actually about healing a damaged brain, which many people have. Brain damage can be a traditional impact or even birth trauma. It can also come from chemicals or protracted stress. There are 5 (like the fingers of your hand) key components to healing your brain...plus 1 which really has more to do with the caregiver, but I will mention it as well. These 5 items are specifically designed so that they will heal an injured brain, whether from impact or protracted stress or chemical stress or starvation of the brain (as can occur during pregnancy). It is likely that no brain degeneration occurs ever unless there is a brain injury of some type in the past of that person.

I will give you the 5 and then discuss this section in detail.

1. Avoid refined sweeteners and even organic sugar in very high concentrations.

2. Walk outside. Our brains are actually designed for 12 miles of walking per day, but we find that we can get healing if the patient will walk 15 minutes, 3 times per day OUTSIDE and WITHOUT A CELL PHONE where they can look at their surroundings and enjoy the variety of nature and houses and cars, etc. Normally, this is recommended after meals, though this is not necessary.

3. Avoid screen time. If the brain injury is severe or the person has addictions or a pain syndrome or chronic fatigue, etc, then it is probably important to go completely screen-free. If the condition is milder, the person might get away with just greatly reduced screen time (no movie or television, cell phones only for genuine needs, computer time only for genuine needs, no recreational time on a screen or device at all!!!). Exposure to screens definitely stresses the brain and slows the healing process for that duration. The longer the exposure the worse the problem.

4. Sleep between 11 and 6. This can vary a small amount, but generally it is a good rule to take quite seriously. This is the time frame during which the brain needs sleep if it is to heal. It has to do with the position of the sun and is not very negotiable. If a person has anything serious, he or she should be in bed by 10 and not rise before 6. In the event that the person is not sleeping well, it is still important to lay down, relax physically and direct the brain toward pleasant matters, use the imagination, practice scenarios of pleasantness, accomplishment and delight.

5. Rest (or break and take an outside walk) when exhaustion comes, never work through it! Each of these items is important but perhaps this one is as important as any. When exhaustion approaches, either take an actual rest (NOT in front of a screen of any type) or take a pleasant walk, such as discussed in item number 2.

6, Which is really for the practitioner of the healing arts, is about appropriate stimulation as well. As a chiropractor, when I see someone with an injured brain, one of the most important things I can do is put them on the blocks to unwind (category 1 in SOT) and adjust only the primary subluxation. Then, I put them in a pleasant room in proper resting position and let them rest for 20 minutes. If I was a massage therapist, I would work only one area (which I believed to be the most important one) and then make the rest of the massage gentle and relaxing. This could be applied to nearly every historic hands-on therapy. Just a little to start the body in the direction of healing and adaptability and then allow the body to rest and be at pleasant ease.

If stress reaches high levels, the brain literally breaks down as stress fatigue sets in. Insulin and cortisol will spike together and health will begin rapid decline. To heal the brain and keep it well, requires a shift to the right kind of positive stimulation. The wrong kind of stimulation will damage the brain or prevent it from healing. The body must be used and moved, but never pushed to exhaustion. Sleep must occur during the right times and for at least 7 hours. The important time frame for your brain is from 11 pm to 6 am.

The very best way to deliver healthy stimulation to the brain is to go for walks. Believe it or not some evidence exists that in order for the brain to work at its optimum, you need to walk--outside--12 miles per day! Most people find this a bit daunting, but most people can achieve 15 minutes after each meal of walking outside. Best if this is in nature and your eyes get to look around and take in the depth and intricacy of the environment.

The very WORST thin you can do is sit and look at a screen. This is almost certainly a deal-breaker for healing the brain and makes maintaining a healthy brain much more difficult. Certainly, this must be limited to maintain a healthy brain and it must be replaced with nature walking.

Controlled, intricate movements help revitalize the brain and balance its chemistry. Nothing can be done in the way of brain exercises without involving controlled, intricate movements of the body. The king of this type of exercise is Tai Chi. Many possible movement disciplines may also be very effective but I believe none are as good as Tai Chi. Bagua walking, which is simple enough, also demands tremendous brain control in a positive, liberating way.

One researcher noted that the brain can be trained to function in a far more productive way and be simultaneously healthier and happier by doing the following 5 things:

1. Write down 3 new things each day for which you are grateful

2. Journal in detail one thing in the last 24 hours that was a positive, beneficial thing

3. Exercise each day. This trains your brain that behavior matters

4. Meditation each day. The idea here is to think of nothing, or just one thing, or to direct the thoughts toward a very pleasant, successful journey of thought that allows relaxation. Steps 3 and 4 may be combined in Tai Chi or Bagua Walking. In any event, this heals the modern cultural ADHD from which almost everyone suffers.

5. Do at least one random act of kindness every day. Put a positive thing in another's inbox. Do a random kind thing. If you go to fast food, do something to make the experience healing by paying for the food of the person behind you in the drive through. Stop and see someone or notice something someone needs or would be benefited by and do it!

In addition, it is vital that the bowels move and clean out regularly. Frequently bowels will move but pockets of toxic material remain behind. Bowel herbs, like Dr. Christopher's Lower Bowel formula (or Quick Colon if the condition is more severe) can be used as capsules or in enemas to clear and heal the large intestine from all disease. Naturally, sustainable proper bowel activity requires plenty of robust, raw plant roughage each day.

While drinking water really can be done to excess, it is important to drink instead of seeking stimulating food and drink as a replacement for the kidneys working and the system being flushed out. It works well to drink a pint of clean, pure water (distilled, filtered, pure spring water) at least 4 times per day, for a total of 1/2 gallon.

The next point is ritual. Ritual moves energy and keeps it from becoming blocked. Rise. Worship. Have regular devotional. Connect with God. Pray over food. Worship with neighbors. Participate in spending time cultivating a community of purpose among friends, family and fellows in your belief system. Help each other. Create a traditional community which was formed for the good of each other and to help each other in need, knowing that all of us come into need and all of us are in need for a social and spiritual support structure with deep ritual embedded in it. Ritual alone has a profound healing effect. When it is part of a selfless, loving and faith-filled community, it becomes unconquerable.

Go to! Heal your brain! This is a key step I have missed in the healing process I have worked with in the past. The injured brain cannot enjoy life, live food and cannot really heal. The gut is injured within 3 hours of a brain injury and remains so until the brain is healed. They must be healed concurrently.

Second: Now lets talk about some supplements. There are 5 supplements I feel should be integral to brain maintenance throughout life.

Liver Transition is a Dr. Christopher brand formula developed to meet the health needs of the brain in the modern world. Dr. Christopher's son, David formulated it and it is one of the best formulations ever. This formula is healing and protective to the brain and liver simultaneously. There is as deep of a connection between the liver and brain health as there is between the gut and brain health. This formula is designed for depression but is amazongly healing for the brain.

Brain Protect is perhaps the most protective formula for the brain and cardiovascular system I know of. I have searched for years and I do have several options I like which I use in my practice. This formula is very simple. It is a blend of Wood Betony and Hawthorn berry leaf and flower tincture. Wood Betony is famous for protecting and healing the brain and optimizing its function. It is also a truly mystical herb, attracting choices which are supportive of the brain into the life of anyone who uses it. Hawthorn helps proper fat digestion and protects the vascular system.

Neurotrophin (Standard Process) is specifically for inflammatory damage to the brain. I use it only if there is an actual impact damage to the brain or a severe chemical damage. One tablet each morning always for those cases.

Cal Amo (Standard Process) acidifies kidneys, CSF and immune organs causing them to function normally without exaggerated immune reaction. Take 5-6 with one meal per day.

Min Tran (Standard Process) helps clear neural electrochemistry, allowing the brain to "shut up" when you need to sleep. Dosage is 8-10 (depending on weight) before bed.

Third: Improving Cholesterol and Circulation are about giving the brain the nutrition that it needs. Cayenne pepper can be stirred into water and taken 15 minutes before each meal. This will both improve digestion miraculously, it will also flush the brain with blood.

Now, as far as getting proper circulation to the brain, we must revisit an idea which has been mentioned earlier...

I know it has been addressed elsewhere but I cannot overstate the importance of cleaning the bowel very well, both with bowel herbs as appropriate (some with stimulating herbs like Dr. Christopher's Lower Bowel Formula and some with soothing, healing herbs like slippery elm, marshmallow and licorice root (4, 4 and 1 capsule per day respectively, taken together all at once)) and with enemas, using lower bowel formula and Echinacea tincture. The bowels must heal if you want the brain to heal. If there is pathology in the brain, the bowels have corresponding pathology which started the brain pathology. This is always, always, always true. Brain injuries definitely break down the gut but the difference in the brain healing as it should may very well be the health of the bowel, which is tied inexorably to the health of the brain. Herbs that heal the bowel have an impact on the brain. We want to do brain healing, of course, but we cannot overstate the importance of healing the bowel, clearing out infection, abnormal flora, immune lesions, weak areas, poor lymphatic drainage from sections of the bowel, etc.

After upper digestion has been activated and concurrent with healing the lower bowel, we must get high quality cholesterol into the brain. This is one of the primary protective factors for the brain. We think today--far too often--about cholesterol being too high. This is not, however, a representation of useable cholesterol. We find that these people have problems with inflammation levels being too high and too constant. We think that the cholesterol, which may be used to buffer inflammation, is used up somehow and accumulates in the body without being removed as it should be. This is unrelated to useable cholesterol, however. Cholesterol-lowering drugs do not work nearly as well as a low inflammation and low insulin diet and they also do damage to the production of important cholesterol for the brain, adrenal glands and reproductive hormones. I have found no relationship whatsoever between cholesterol consumption and cholesterol levels in the blood, provided that the person is concurrently lower inflammation and insulin. Indeed, I have found many benefits to supplementing with good quality cholesterol which can be found in fish oil (our cod liver oil product in our store is as good as can be purchased anywhere), runny egg yolks (must be runny so as not to damage important enzymes and carrier proteins) (eggs should be truly free range and fertile for optimal digestion and value), dehydrated organ meats (most people don't like this very much but many of our Standard Process Supplements use raw, dehydrated organ meats and will supply vital nutrients to recovery from modern deficiency in proper cholesterol and vitamin complexes), grass fed, raw organic butter (grass fed in a pinch is acceptable) and grass fed beef. Some people do better than others eating meat so for those who do not wish it, it is best to use the supplements mentioned.

Finally, we need to avoid congesting foods if we want good circulation to the brain. While butter is very helpful, dairy protein is the opposite. It is difficult to digest and it loads up the liver and sedates the endocrine system and reduces circulation to the brain. All processed food, most things found in any packaged food, flour products, corn products, soy products and loads of chemicals are either excito-toxic (specifically harmful to the brain) or pro-inflammatory or congesting. The bottom line is that if we want to stop the trend of modern diseases including the horrors of alzheimer's and cancer, we need to do natural things and eat only whole, mostly raw, organic, naturally-occurring food. We need to chew better, love more, relax better around food, choose higher quality, eat simpler, eat less and trust our bodies more to do what needs done with high quality food in more moderate amounts.

Fourth: Low Insulin Diet for life and preventing aging. The diet under the title: Eating For Life is some detail about eating to lower insulin and lose weight. This is the single most effective program I have seen. It can be done with less raw, live food, but then it would not be so healing and we see a lot more beauty and less saggy skin occurring with those who use the high percentage raw than with those who use more cooked and processed food. I will not repeat the instructions here as they are on this site currently under said topic. What I will do is discuss insulin and cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone which, when released, results also in increased insulin production by necessity. My experience is that in a month or so anyone can eliminate insulin resistance simply by lowering insulin production. As far as I can tell, this does not lead to diabetes, but instead sets up the conditions for diabetes if the other causes for it also appear. As diabetes is discussed elsewhere, we shall stick to the subject at hand.

One way to look at insulin and cortisol is that they are in the business of robbing the future to pay for the present. Stimulating, processed foods--particularly those high in sugar or flour--will increase the production of both. Stressful conditions may set you up to be a bit more resistant to insulin than normal and thereby may cause some people to put on quite a lot of weight. The interesting thing is that if insulin and cortisol are involved, the body will lose minerals and amino acids and building blocks which make up the foundation of long-term health and will build up fat and inflammation and buffers to stimulation in their place. Literally it is a method of spending our fortune in riotous living as the prodigal son did in the bible. For long term health, it is perhaps the most important discussion of the moment to lower insulin by eating more wisely. This is the best gift to children and the best gift to ourselves.