Week 10: Protect Your Brain

I apologize for getting the chapters out of order and promise to get back on track with the chapter on Befriending Your Body next week.

This week, Dr. Hanson reminds us to protect our brains by avoiding toxins, minimizing inflammation, getting regular exercise, and learning to relax.

Relaxation activates the parasympathetic nervous system which literally helps you release through its control of sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation, urination, digestion, and defecation.

Stress and trauma damage the brain and make it more sensitive and reactive to additional stress and trauma. The stress hormone cortisol affects the size and function of certain areas of the brain and can affect stress sensitivity, learning and memory, and emotion regulation.

Dr. Hanson obviously is centered on mindfulness and relaxation, but there is one additional aspect to protecting one's brain (over and above what I mentioned last week): traumatic brain injury prevention.

According to the CDC there are over 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the US annually with over 30% of injury-related deaths being caused by TBI. Children ages 0-4, adolescents ages 15-19, and adults over age 65 are most likely to sustain TBI, with adults age 75 and over having the highest rate of hospitalization and death. Falls in the home are the primary cause of injury for the very young and the very old, with high risk sports and activities being more of a problem for adolescents and young adults.

Sports of all sorts require head protection: football, hockey, downhill skiing, bicycling, skateboarding, boxing. Wear a helmet. Make your kids wear their helmets. Make it non-negotiable. Its cool to wear a helmet, not so cool to have a traumatic brain injury and the permanent disability that might result.

Similarly with motorized activities: snowmobiles, motorcycles, car racing. Wear a helmet. Wear your seat belt too.

Lastly, gun safety is another public health issue, with gun and shooting accidents being one of the top ten causes of death for children (other than newborns and infants). Make sure guns are securely stored, and that children have no unsupervised access to weapons. Get gun safety training.

Be safe. Protect your brain.