We are ‘surrounded by sugar’ – 80% of the foods in your supermarket contain sugar. The excessive intake of highly processed sugary products is contributing to a national crisis where approximately one in three children and two out of three adults are estimated to be suffering from obesity. Other factors that impact these statistics include sedentary lifestyles and overall poor dietary choices or options for healthy foods.

If you are a regular reader here, you know how we’ve often stressed the importance of vitamin D! Our practice is emphatic about its role in immune health and keeping our vitamin D levels above 60 ng/mL – and ideally, between 80-100 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter). Unfortunately, many of us simply don’t get enough of this nutrient on a daily basis, what with our indoor lifestyles or use of protective sunscreen when we are outdoors. ​

That’s right, we’re encouraging you to consider enjoying (some caveats apply) one of so many people’s favorite treats and know that you could be doing something positive for your brain.
 
Having recently read the findings from the COSMOS study, we were motivated - maybe a bit selfishly since we love chocolate - to explore the subject of cocoa products and whether these could also help our neurological processes. 

I wanted to share with you information from a recent piece I read in The Washington Post. Once the valedictorian of her high school class and then thriving college student in Maryland, a young woman in the aftermath of a traumatic event developed severe neuropsychiatric symptoms and became “locked in her own state of psychosis.” ​

We have often highlighted in our blogs the pro-inflammatory impacts of consuming too much sugar (virtually every disease including neurological conditions has inflammation at its core). And we’ve also written about the detriments of using aspartame (also known by its popular brand name Equal, among others) to replace that sugar in your coffee or other beverages. 

With more than 6 million individuals in the U.S. who are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, there is an overwhelming urgency to identify treatments that can be of real help in slowing the progression of symptoms. But it’s equally important to understand that some therapies may not only be less than effective, they could have negative impacts as one evidence-based review revealed. 

Being mindful of our dietary choices means understanding how certain foods and additives can impact our overall health and our neurological wellness too. So, when considering what foods are best options for your particular needs, it’s critical to read nutritional labels and understand the significance of the numbers. ​

We have often discussed the impact of chemical toxins that negatively affect our health and that of our environment. 

We know that our dietary choices can have an impact on general health and brain wellness – you’ve likely heard us talk about avoiding the Standard American Diet (SAD) that includes processed foods, sugar (which we know increases inflammation that can lead to autoimmune neurological disease), and options that are high in sodium and unhealthy fats. ​

Imagine this scenario for a moment. Your house is on fire, but it seems confined to just one room. Would you wait to call the fire department? Of course not!  You would immediately take action to save your home. 

Often described as shooting, stabbing, or throbbing sensations, neuropathic pain or neuropathy has many origins and manifestations. It typically can happen if your nervous system becomes damaged or is not functioning properly, whether due to trauma or disease. You may experience pain emanating from any of the various levels of the nervous system, such as the peripheral nerves, the spinal cord and the brain.1

A new report more clearly substantiates the need to treat obesity as a serious health condition impacting the current and future wellbeing of children. Previous trends in childhood obesity should have alarmed parents and physicians alike – but this latest retrospective cohort study conducted by Kaiser Permanente of Southern California (KPSC) of over 200,000 young patients’ electronic health records identified significant increases in body mass index (BMI) occurring between March 2020 and January 2021.1

News about probiotics and the potential therapeutic effect in neurodegenerative disease…a novel review of 17 preclinical and clinical models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) that investigated the effect on several mechanisms have noted what appear to be positive benefits associated with probiotic therapy.1

Could what we eat today impact our neurological health in the future? News from a prospective examination of the associations between flavonoids and cognitive function offers even more reasons to follow a healthy diet for the benefit of our brains!