Breakthrough Book: Grain Brain
by Dr. Daniel Perlmutter, M.D.

When I read books, studies, and articles, I usually ask some searching questions?
My wellness instructor Dr. James Chestnut taught us to ask, “Where’s that printed, can I get a copy?” When we get a copy, we go past the summary and look at the study.
We also try to find the undelying “mechanism” or process. For instance, the Zone books by Dr. Barry Sears suggested that if you eat carbohydrates (sugar) you should consume good fats and oils with them. We know from human physiology that the small intestine sends a signal to the stomach to slow down when is senses fat in the food (cholecystokinin.) Makes sense.
The various ideas spelled out in Grain Brain are backed by a lot of published research. When we go to the reference material, the studies appear to be well chosen and well designed.
In a 2013 article from FoodNavigator-USA that is critical of The Grain Brain, a Dr. Julie Miller-Jones, Ph.D. criticized the book for being unscientific, but offers no specific studies that counter her assertions. She appears to say that our current dietary recommendations are just fine but doesn’t explain why obesity is exploding, mental disorders including early dementia are on the rise. Taking a look at Dr. Miller-Jones resume, one might conclude that she is writing with a careful eye toward who butters her bread. She is involved with The Healthy Grains Institute. Hey pass me that basket of dinner rolls, Dr. Miller-Jones.

Click here for link to Dr. Perlmutter’s blog.

 

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The Brain That Changes Itself

Reading about brain science can be fascinating and fun!
For years the doctrine of neuroscientists has been that the brain is a machine: break a part and you lose that function permanently. But more and more evidence is turning up to show that the brain can rewire itself, even in the face of catastrophic trauma: essentially, the functions of the brain can be strengthened just like a weak muscle. Scientists have taught a woman with damaged inner ears, who for five years had had “a sense of perpetual falling,” to regain her sense of balance with a sensor on her tongue, and a stroke victim to recover the ability to walk although 97% of the nerves from the cerebral cortex to the spine were destroyed. With detailed case studies reminiscent of Oliver Sachs, combined with extensive interviews with lead researchers, Doidge, a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at Columbia and the University of Toronto, slowly turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down. He is, perhaps, overenthusiastic about the possibilities, believing that this new science can fix every neurological problem, from learning disabilities to blindness. But Doidge writes interestingly and engagingly about some of the least understood marvels of the brain