The Brain in Love: 12 Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life (31 page)

In treating substance abuse, it is important to recognize and treat any underlying cause of the problem, such as unrecognized depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, or ADD. New medications have been developed that have been found helpful in alleviating withdrawal symptoms and decreasing cravings for the substances. Psychotherapy and support groups are often helpful.

Drugs and alcohol are a nightmare for brain function.

Toxic Exposure

Toxic exposure hurts the brain. Many substances have the potential to be brain toxic and most people have no clue. Many medications, much caffeine, nicotine, and environmental toxins, such as pesticides, paint fumes, hair-coloring chemicals, and nail polish, can hurt your brain. Understanding the sources of brain poisons can help you avoid them.

Many medications are brain toxic. From a psychiatric standpoint, I was taught to use a class of antianxiety medications called benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, Ativan, and Valium, to treat patients with intense feelings of anxiety and panic. As soon as I started performing SPECT studies, I saw that these medications
were often toxic to brain function. Scan after scan on these medications showed an overall diminished or dehydrated pattern of activity, just as there is with drug abuse. It didn’t take long for me to stop using these medications and look for other ways to heal anxiety and panic. In much the same way, painkillers often showed brain toxicity on scans: Vicodin, Darvon, Percodan, OxyContin, and others caused overall decreased brain activity. No wonder they help pain, they make people feel numb all over. Of course, this doesn’t mean that these medications are never indicated. Many people would rather die than live with chronic pain. It does mean, however, that we should look for alternatives to painkillers for chronic pain that also numb the brain.

Nicotine prematurely ages the brain. Nicotine, found in cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and nicotine patches, tablets, and gum, causes blood vessels to lessen blood flow to vital organs. We know smokers have more problems with impotence; it is bad to have low blood flow to sexual organs. Nicotine constricts blood flow to the skin, making smokers look prematurely older than they are. Nicotine also constricts blood flow to the brain, eventually causing overall lowered activity and depriving the brain of the nutrients it needs.

High amounts of caffeine can also be trouble. Caffeine constricts blood flow to the brain and many other organs. A little caffeine a day is not a problem, but more than a cup or two can be trouble. Caffeine does three bad things to the brain. First, brain-imaging studies have shown that caffeine constricts blood flow to the brain. Since blood is critical in bringing nutrients to cells and taking away toxic waste products, anything that diminishes blood flow to an organ causes premature aging. Second, caffeine blocks a chemical called adenosine and fools us into believing we need less sleep. Less sleep also causes overall lower blood flow to the brain. In addition, caffeine is a diuretic. The brain is 80 percent water. Anything that dehydrates you has a negative impact on brain function. As little caffeine as possible is a good rule if you want to respect and nurture your brain.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation hurts the brain. People who get less than seven hours of sleep a night have lower activity in the temporal lobes of the brain, the part of the brain involved in learning and memory. Shift workers, those suffering from jet lag, teens who have their sleep schedules off-kilter from school schedules, and those suffering from sleep apnea are all at risk for poorer brain function. Those who are sleep deprived score poorer on memory and math tests, have lower grades in school, and are at much greater risks for driving accidents. Sleep deprivation is also associated with depression and attention deficit disorders. Recently, sleep apnea (snoring loudly, holding breath when sleeping, and tiredness during the day) has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. This is due to the direct effect of a lack of oxygen damaging the brain. Work to sleep at least seven to eight hours a night. Practice good sleep habits, such as avoiding much caffeine or nicotine; staying away from alcohol as a sleep aide, as it will wear off and cause you to wake up in the middle of the night; and avoiding exercise before bed; and learn relaxation techniques to calm your mind.

Helping your partner get enough sleep is an effective form of foreplay. Helping with the children, work, house chores, or other things that interfere with sleep is likely to help your partner sleep better and be more available to you.

Untreated Mental Illnesses

As in the case of Roseanne earlier in the chapter, being plagued with depression, anxiety, distractibility, impulsivity, mood swings, or obsessions is not very sexy. Having an untreated psychiatric problem can ruin your chances for great love. Many people never seek help for their mental or emotional problems because they do not recognize them or think they can control them. All aspects of sexuality may be affected by the distress of mental illness. In both men and women, people who were depressed had
half the sexual arousal than their normal counterparts did. Mental illness is very common, almost the norm. According to the U.S. Epidemiological Catchment Area Study, 49 percent of the U.S. population will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives, with anxiety, depression, attention deficit disorders, and substance abuse being the most common. If you suffer from emotional or behavior problems, get the help.

Poor Diets

The increase in fast-food diets and poor nutrition is directly responsible for the rise in mental illness over the past fifty years. Studies have linked attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and schizophrenia to junk food and the absence of essential fats, vitamins, and minerals in industrialized diets. These illnesses have a direct impact on sexual and relationship health. Rates of depression have been shown to be higher in countries with low intakes of fish, for example. Lack of folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, and the amino acid tryptophan are thought to play an important role in the illness. Deficiencies of essential fats and antioxidant vitamins are also thought to be a contributory factor in schizophrenia.

Helpful Brain Behaviors

Protect Your Brain

Protecting the brain from injury is the first step to optimizing its function. Your brain is the consistency of tofu and it is housed in a really hard skull. Wear a seat belt in a car and always wear a helmet when you ride a bicycle, motorcycle, or go snowboarding.

Limit Brain Toxins

As mentioned above, current research has shown that many chemicals are toxic to brain function. Alcohol, drugs of abuse, nicotine,
much caffeine, and many medications decrease blood flow to the brain. When blood flow is decreased, the brain cannot work efficiently. Avoid these toxic substances.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep deprivation decreases brain activity and limits access to learning, memory, and concentration. A recent brain-imaging study showed that people who consistently slept less than seven hours had overall less brain activity. Getting enough sleep is essential to brain function.

Counteract Stress

Scientists have only recently discovered how stress negatively affects brain function. Stress hormones have been shown in animals to be directly toxic to memory centers. Brain cells can die with prolonged stress. Managing stress effectively through meditation, relaxation, and exercise is essential to good brain function.

Eat Right to Think Right

The fuel you feed the brain has a profound effect on how it functions. Lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids (large cold-water fish, such as tuna and salmon, walnuts, Brazil nuts, olive oil, and canola oil) are essential to brain function. Research has shown that fish consumption is associated with the prevention of cognitive decline as people age.

Daily multiple vitamins
. With our poor diet, many Americans are overweight but nutrient poor. The American Medical Association recommends we all take a 100 percent multiple vitamin everyday. Your brain needs it.

Daily high-quality fish oil
. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential to brain health. Low levels of this nutrient have been associated with
depression, ADD, dementia, and even suicide. Fish oil has been found to be helpful for hearts, joints, skin, and brain. Take 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams a day.

Kill the ANTs That Invade Your Brain

The quality of your thoughts also impacts brain function. Happy, hopeful, positive thoughts are associated with improved brain function, while negativity (I call these bad thoughts ANTs, automatic negative thoughts) turns off certain cerebral centers. Positive thinking is not just good for you, it helps make your brain work better. List five things you are grateful for today.

Work Your Brain

Your brain is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more you can use it. Every time you learn something new, your brain makes a new connection. Learning enhances blood flow and activity in the brain. If you go for long periods without learning something new, you start to lose some of the connections in the brain and you begin to struggle more with memory and learning. Strive to learn something new every day, even if it is just for a short period of time.

Exercise for Your Brain

People who physically exercise on a regular basis have better memories with age, they have better blood flow to the brain, and many cerebral processes are enhanced. The best kind of exercise improves the pump force of your heart (cardiovascular exercise).

It has been known for many years that sex was good exercise, but until now nobody had made a scientific study of the caloric content of different sexual activities. An anonymous source on the Internet listed, tongue in cheek, the following results.

Develop a “concert state” for your brain

Optimal performance is best achieved when a “concert state” exists in the brain. By “concert state” I mean “a relaxed body with a sharp, clear mind,” much as you would experience at an exhilarating symphony. Achieving this state requires the ability to relax and focus. Ten minutes of slow, deep breathing is usually enough to develop this state.

Coordinate Your Brain

Recently, it was learned that the cerebellum, a structure at the back, bottom part of the brain, is involved not only with physical coordination but also with processing speed and thought coordination, or how quickly you can integrate new thoughts. Doing coordination exercises helps the brain overall work smarter and faster. One exercise shown in scientific studies to help is juggling. People who learned how to juggle three balls for a minute straight enhanced brain function.

Make Love for Your Brain

As discussed in Lesson Two, making love on a regular basis improved mood, memory, and overall health. One study showed
that it decreased the risk of heart attack and stroke by 50 percent. Hold the medicine, give me love.

Do Not Let E-mail Control Your Life

A recent study showed that constantly checking e-mails and phone messages actually lowered IQ by ten points, more than double the loss in IQ of cannabis users. E-mail can be addictive, as one is always waiting for the next good e-mail to hit, like waiting for the next blackjack in the card game twenty-one. The anticipation of something good keeps us checking something routine. It also distracts us from staying focused on the person or task at hand. Limit your time on e-mail.