It Takes Just 90 Seconds To Clear The Negative From Your Brain/Body
In the book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. shares her experience of having a blood vessel rupture in her brain, losing all of her left hemisphere functions and the journey returning to life again. One of the most powerful and intriguing things she says is when something happens to you that you react negatively to, i.e. anger, an accident or health emergency, it sets off a 90-second chemical process within the brain and the body.

Let’s look at getting angry, for example. Someone cuts you off in traffic, which automatically triggers a reaction in your limbic system, the emotional part of the brain. This limbic reaction causes an electro-chemical response in your body and adrenaline is secreted. Your physiological response to this angry reaction is to want to fight or flee.

Now here’s the interesting part: Within 90 seconds from the initial triggering event, your body has cleared the chemical component, the adrenaline, that triggered the angry response, out of your body and your automatic response is over. So, why are you still fuming about the long-gone guy who cut your car off?

If you remain angry after those first 90 seconds, it’s because you have chosen to let that anger response continue to run. As Dr. Jill says, after the initial 90 seconds you have the ability to choose to look at the triggering event in a different way. You can choose to continue to be angry or you can choose not to continue in anger.

So…let me ask you this: after 90 seconds, what choices are you making?

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While Stress Creates Fat In Our Bodies,
There May Be A Way Out 
Chronic stress causes the body to create fat deposits around our stomach area. Scientists reported in Nature Medicine that mice that are experiencing stress activate a hormone, neuropeptide Y, which leads to fat accumulation. This study sheds some light on why we may gain weight when we are under stress. Scientists are now beginning to study how to turn off this hormonal response. Stay tuned for more information.

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Going Overseas To Seek Medical Treatment
The number of Americans going overseas to receive medical procedures has been growing dramatically, to over 500,000 in 2006. It’s being driven by cost savings as well as the increase in the quality of treatment now available in other countries. As an example, a hip replacement surgery could run $40,000 to $60,000 in the US. In a hospital in India the treatment, including travel expenses, might be as low as $15,000.

In countries like Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and India, you can find English-speaking, Western-trained physicians and dentists practicing in state-of-the-art hospitals. Further, you get to recover and vacation in an exotic location.

Some sources for information on hospitals are:

The Joint Commission International which evaluates and accredits health care facilities abroad. www.jointcommissioninternational.com.  Also, look for the book Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Tourism, by Josef Woodman.

Health travel agencies can plan both the medical and vacation parts of your trip. For more information see www.medjourneys.com, www.medretreat.com, or www.planethospital.com.

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Exercise Produces New Brain Neurons
In a landmark study neuroscientists from the Salk Institute found that mice that ran a maze became smarter than mice that did not run the maze. While alive, the mice were injected with a chemical that incorporates itself into actively dividing cells. During autopsies on the mice after this chemical reaction took place, the scientists found, to their astonishment, that right up until death, the mice were creating new neurons. In effect their brains were regenerating themselves (which is called neurogenesis).  While all the mice showed the production of new neurons in their brains, the athletic mice that had run the maze had produced two to three times as many new neurons.

The scientists discovered that the same thing was happening in the human brain. Brain tissue from deceased cancer patients also showed new neurons growing in the brain. Since this discovery, scientists have theorized that exercise speeds up the process of neurogenesis in our brains. The part of the brain involved in growing these new neurons (the hippocampus) usually shrinks as we age. People who exercised one hour, four days a week, almost doubled blood flow to the hippocampus. In another study, the size of several areas of the brain showed significant growth after exercising for one hour three times a week.

Even kids show similar improvements from exercise (and what have we eliminated from most school curriculums – exercise).

The scientists also theorize that this increase in blood flow and neuron growth may prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia from striking older adults. So… anybody for some aerobic exercise?

(Reported by Gretchen Reynolds in the New York Times, August 19, 2007)

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Skip The Drugs For Your Hyperactive Kids
A five-year study of 135 preschool students with symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reported in School Psychology Review August 2007, found that non-drug interventions work effectively to prevent behavioral and academic problems in infants. The interventions emphasized positive support in the home and at school resulting in a 17% decrease in aggression and a 21% improvement in social skills at home. At school, aggression decreased 28% and social skills improved 28%. The kids’ literacy skills increased up to three times their starting level.

The lead author of the study, George DuPaul, Ph.D., said that while medications for ADHD may treat symptoms, they do not improve the children’s academic and social skills the way behavioral interventions may.

From the research that I’ve seen, all they need to add to this to get even better results are the Brain Gym^® movement exercises. To read a summary of the Brain Gym research and its power to help kids and adults reach their full potential, go to www.teplitz.com/switched-main.htm and click on the Brain Gym research button or go to www.BrainGym.org.

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Elderly Using Video Games To Exercise And Have Fun!
Nintendo has developed a video game system called Wii that requires players to move their bodies to control the on-screen action. Players hold the game controls and go through the swinging motions of bowling, golf, tennis and even boxing. It’s now being used for physical rehabilitation. As an example, swinging the arms help stroke victims improve their range of motion. Managing the video control panel could hone fine-motor skills in arthritis patients. Standing to swing the control panel could help joint-replacement patients regain balance. Since physical rehab is hard and painful, this Wii system certainly adds the magic word – fun!

The system is already being used in facilities in Norfolk, Virginia, Raleigh, North Carolina and Alberta, Canada. A retirement center in Chicago recently held a Wii bowling tournament to keep residents active, alert and entertained. I predict Wii will become a standard feature in hospitals and long-term care facilities. So…bowling anyone?

(Reported by Elizabeth Simpson, The Virginian-Pilot, August 22, 2007)

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The result is a work force that is more positive, effective, focused, energized and more productive. He is an author of four books and has been interviewed on over 200 radio stations. He speaks and consults in the areas of Stress Management, Management and Leadership Training, Sales Development and Brain Integration.  

Dr. Teplitz' dynamic, educational and entertaining keynotes and seminars have a long-term impact on performance enhancement and productivity. For more detailed information on Dr. Teplitz' programs, to read a free monthly article, or to find the monthly Teplitz Email Reports visit https://teplitz.com/ezine.htm