Pain and Your Brain

“Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment.” ~ Will Rogers

No one wants pain. It can stop you dead in your tracks!

That ache in your shoulder, the pain in your back, or a constant headache are more than simple annoyances. In fact, pain, especially chronic pain, is a major problem that can steal your zest for life.

Chronic pain, or even temporary pain, quickly depletes our brain and body of essential neurotransmitters as it strives to produce endorphins to dull the pain. Chronic pain can also lead to depression and other serious problems.  

Most standard pain treatments have drawbacks and overuse can lead to addiction, intestinal bleeding, and kidney failure. 

Injections and surgeries only add to the burden. 

A New Approach to Pain

Having a quick and easy pain solution can be invaluable in many ways. And there's a new pain relief kid on the block. Q Relief helps calm frayed nerve endings and stimulates production of nerve-blocking chemicals that can put out the pain fire.

Q Relief is a potent, reliable combination of herbal extracts and key pain-modulating amino acids that can be used as needed for pain ranging from mild to acute to chronic pain relief. Q Relief utilizes our cutting-edge sublingual spray delivery system for quick absorption and fast and effective pain relief. 

• Helps relieve mild, acute and chronic pain
• Reduces pain responses in peripheral nerves and brain
• Stimulates the production of nerve-blocking chemicals
• Calms inflammation

What’s in Q Relief?

GABA: (gamma-aminobutyric): An amino acid with a track record of treating both pain and anxiety.

Boswellia: Derived from the Frankincense herb, boswellia inhibits inflammation and reduces associated pain.

Cucurmin: Derived from the herb turmeric and known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Devil’s Claw: A fascinating herb shown to have significant pain relieving properties comparable to anti-inflammatory medications.

Skullcap: Used for centuries for its calming and pain-relieving effects on both 
the nerves and the brain.

White Willow Bark: Contains salicin, an anti-inflammatory substance related to salicylic acid in aspirin but does not cause intestinal bleeding.

Recommended Use:  Shake gently, spray directly into month and swallow. 
8 to 16 sprays per day as needed.




Source: https://strongbrain365.myqsciences.com/Products

EXCITING LOCAL RESEARCH NEWS: ASU TO STUDY LOSS OF SMELL AND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE CONNECTION

Loss of smell is thought to be a precursor to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's. Yet this condition is poorly understood. 

But it was just announced on September 23, 2015 that the National Science Foundation has awarded Arizona State University and three partner institutions a 3-year, $3.6 million grant to study how a healthy brain creates memories of odors and what happens when affected by disease. 

This grant is one of three provided nationally, and ASU will be partnered with Harvard University, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and California Institute of Technology. 

According to Brian Smith, professor and neuroscientist with the ASU School of Life Sciences, "The opportunity . . .  to advance an understanding of how the brain represents odors. Reaching this understanding will have a broad impact in biomedicine and agriculture, as well as engineering applications."

While previous studies used synthetic odors, this research will use natural odors from honey bees and fruit flies to better understand how natural odors occur and how an organism must detect them against complex backgrounds. It hopes to link the physical structure of an odor environment to how the brain works, and could reveal new information about the neurological circuits behind our sense of smell.

This research not only has great potential in understanding and preventing these destructive cognitive disorders, it may also assist in the engineering of devices that can sniff out cancer.

SOIL DEPLETION AND MENTAL HEALTH

Most people believe mental health illness is rare and that it will never affect them. Yet, they usually have a family member or friend who suffers from depression, anxiety, ADD, OCD, PTSD, autism, bipolar, or memory loss from dementia/Alzheimer's--and it often includes anger and rage. They may also believe medication is the only solution, however, a growing body of evidence is beginning to point to one common denominator in almost all disorders. 

SURPRISING FACTS 

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) 2001 study, "approximately 25% of Americans, or about one in four over the age of 18, are diagnosed with a mental disorder per year; 8 million people suffer from depression annually; and about 12 million children under the age of 18 have mental disorders. Even worse, suicide is the third leading cause of death for those
5-24 years old and the 6th leading cause of death for 5-15 years old." (1)

Additionally, one in four veterans exposed to heavy combat binge-drink at least once a week, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and it is reported that 22 veterans commit suicide every day.

These are unacceptable statistics. Why has the incidence of mental illness skyrocketed over the years?

SOIL DEPLETION

Coincidentally, at the 1992 WHO Summit it was reported that 85% of North America topsoil was depleted, deteriorating the nutrition of our food supply at a rapid rate. 

And according to Pimental and Young, "the changes inflicted on soil by human-induced erosion over many years are significant and have resulted in valuable land becoming unproductive." (2)

The implications are clear. The food we set on our table at each meal no longer provides the nutrition our bodies require.

NUTRITION OF THE BRAIN

Less known is the fact that the brain comprises 2% of our body weight/mass yet it demands 40-50% of our nutrition and energy intake. If we don't feed our body the nutrients it needs, our brain cannot perform properly.

IMPORTANCE OF MICRONUTRIENTS

Take a look at this short 17" important TEDx Talk discussing the link between micronutrients and brain health presented by Julia Rucklidge (PhD, CPsych, FNZPsS, MNZCCP) - Professor, Researcher, and Director of Clinical Psychology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. 

Surprisingly Dramatic Role of Nutrition in Mental Health

(click image to view video)

Now you know the truth. Without micronutrient supplementation it is impossible to have a well-functioning brain, and the scene is set for mental health issues to set in. 

If you are ready to build a stronger brain, start taking a high quality micronutrient supplement, like EmpowerPlusTM Q96, that contains 31 bioavailable nutrients specifically targeted for the brain TODAY! 

Take steps now so you can Love Your Life 
and think Better, Faster & Clearer!

(1)  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20369/
(2)  Pimental, D., Harvey, C., Resosudarmo, P., Sinclair, K., Kurz, D., McNair, M., Crist, S.,
      Sphpritz, L., Fitton, L., Saffouri, R. and Blair, R.: 1995, 'Enviornmental and economic
      costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits', Science 267, 1117-1123.
      Young, A.: 1998, Land Resources: Now and for the Future, Cambridge, Cambridge
      University Press.


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EXCITING RESEARCH SUGGESTS NEW HOPE FOR ALZHEIMER’S AND PTSD

The time window for the brain to develop optimal connections is relatively short-lived and usually occurs prior to adulthood.

However, according to a study published in Science Translational Medicine, it appears neuroplasticity can be restarted in the visual cortex. Blocking the activity of a single protein resulted in growth of new neural synapses.

BRAIN PLASTICITY USE IT OR LOSE IT - NEW HOPE

“There is a lot of interest in the ‘critical period’ of development when the brain is plastic and undergoes a lot of changes and learning,” said Christiaan Levelt, who studies the biology of visual plasticity at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam. “This study shows that, in an adult animal you can re-open this critical period window and get enhanced plasticity.”

“At its heart, this is about understanding why it gets harder to learn new things as we get older and whether this is something that we can reverse if we knew the right molecules to target, by either adding them back or by suppressing them,” said study author David Bochner.

Bochner, his Stanford advisor Carla Shatz, and their colleagues took a different approach. Previous research discovered that paired-immunoglobulin–like receptor B (PirB) protein–works to halt the plasticity of the visual cortex.

In this study, researchers disrupted PirB function—either genetically or biochemically—and saw new, functional synapses form, demonstrating that even when PirB is inhibited in a short, one-week time frame, new neuron connections, and recovery from lazy eye, is possible in an adult mouse.

"What is really surprising was the creation of new synapses in the adult brain. We didn't expect to see such a start result," said Shatz. 

                                                                              

In mammals, the visual system fully develops after birth when the visual cortex of the brain learns to process input from the eyes. If vision in one eye is diminished, the other eye makes stronger neuronal connections in a larger portion of the visual cortex while the neurons relaying information from the poor-seeing eye all but shut down, a condition called amblyopia, or lazy eye.

“This is an example of the use-it-or-lose-it principle,” said Shatz. The condition can be repaired during a critical period of development—up to about four weeks after birth in mice and age six in humans—by closing the good eye and allowing the impaired one to work on its own.

Levelt notes that understanding and reactivating the capacity for brain plasticity throughout life could help treat victims of brain trauma or those with neurodevelopment disorders. Elizabeth Quinlan, who studies amblyopia and synaptic plasticity in the adult visual system at the University of Maryland, agrees.

“Reactivated plasticity could be harnessed to promote recovery of damaged sensory input, and to promote learning in disabled and healthy brains,” she said. “PirB is a potential target for therapeutic interventions in humans, especially if antagonists of PirB are developed that could cross the blood brain barrier, and be targeted to specific cortical regions or synapses.”

Shatz would next like to measure eyesight in the mice with amblyopia depleted of PirB to directly understand the extent of the recovery of visual function and whether acutely eliminating PirB can have a lasting effect on neuronal plasticity. The team would also like to one day develop a pill version of the PirB inhibitor, Shatz said.

The lab has also shown that mice without PirB are partly resistant to memory loss in an Alzheimer’s model. “This suggests that maybe the same drug for vision loss could also work for Alzheimer’s disease,” Shatz said. “No one yet knows how to tap into the brain’s inherent ability to make connections, but it’s something exciting to try to understand.”

Source:  Neural Plasticity Research

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