In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long ago that our ideas of health-centered around humors and spirits and mysticism. We didn’t even know that cells existed until 1665 when they were discovered by the natural philosopher (which is basically what they called scientists back then) Robert Hooke. Even then, we didn’t really know what cells were or understand how they functioned. Hooke thought that cells were non-biological boxes with… something ‘living’ inside them. He thought that cells replicated through spontaneous generation.
It wasn’t for another half a decade that we would discover bacteria. Think about that. Humans have been walking the earth for an estimated 6 million years. We have only known about bacteria for 352 of those years. If we do some quick math, we find out that we (humanity) have known about bacteria for approximate .0058% of our existence as a species. That is not very long at all.
Since the discovery cells, and subsequently bacteria, we have learned a lot about how the world and the human body function. Unfortunately, we still don’t know enough. Even for what we do know, it seems that proper treatments are always lagging behind knowledge. It wasn’t that long ago that we lost a president to bloodletting. Yes, that is right. Bloodletting. That president’s name? George Washington.
The most mind-blowing thing about all of this is how incredibly far we have come in the last few hundred years. We have learned more and progressed more during that period of time than the previous 5,999,648 years combined. We would apply some percentage based math to this, but the results might actually blow your mind. Much too dangerous.
This type of exponential advancement is projected to continue unabated as we look into the future. And there is exactly where we look here at Health Horizon.
Just in case we have any newer visitors on the blog today, we want to take a quick moment before we dive into things in earnest to review out mission here at Health Horizon.
“Our mission is to cast our eyes to the cutting edges of advancement in the fields of health, wellness, and medicine. Our mission is to remain open-minded, curious, AND skeptical of what we know, what we think we know, and what we learn on a daily basis. Our mission is to turn knowledge into action so that we can help ourselves, and those around us, lead healthier, happier lives”
We wrote that mission many years ago. Although in retrospect, it sounds a little… unnecessarily highfalutin, we still stand with the message at the core of those words. Society moves fast these days! It’s important to keep up. Especially if you are interested in improving your life. New tools, methods, and ideas for accomplishing that appear each and every day.
These tools, methods, and ideas have come in many forms over the years. Consider, for instance, how dramatically the thinking around dieting, nutrition, and health has changed over the course of years.
For an example of this, we need to look no further than the dietary staple of health-conscious people everywhere – the egg. Once we explain, you will see how closely this ties into what we will be talking about later today, the docu-series Broken Brain.
Personally, I loved eggs growing up. I would have eaten them for three meals a day if I was given the option. Unfortunately, I was explicitly denied that option by my parents. Why? It’s simple. Back then, (we are talking about the mid-90s) most people thought that eating too many eggs was bad for you.
Now, it’s a fact that eggs are one of the most cholesterol dense foods consumed in the traditional American diet. One whole egg contains about 211 mg of cholesterol. And, elevated cholesterol levels are linked to all kinds of nasty health issues such as heart disease and stroke.
For a very long time we thought that that best way to manage cholesterol levels was to limit the intake of dietary cholesterol. It makes sense, right? More cholesterol consumed = more cholesterol in the body. Primarily, this was the result of a 1961 recommendation made by the American Heart Association to limit the consumption of dietary cholesterol.
The American Heart Association made that recommendation, egg consumption all across America dropped off significantly, and time went on. Then something happened. The Health Horizon kept moving and we learned more about how that human body functions.
As it turns out, dietary cholesterol has very little to do with blood cholesterol. You see, the human body is a pretty amazing thing. Conveniently, we are equipped with an organ (the liver) which is specifically designed to produce and manage cholesterol (which we do actually need to survive). If we eat more cholesterol, the liver lowers its own production of cholesterol. If we eat less cholesterol, the liver kicks production into high gear. Consuming massive amounts of dietary cholesterol will have very little effect on your blood cholesterol levels. The body keeps itself in balance.
Now, it’s a fact that eggs are one of the most cholesterol dense foods consumed in the traditional American diet. One whole egg contains about 211 mg of cholesterol. And, elevated cholesterol levels are linked to all kinds of nasty health issues such as heart disease and stroke.
For a very long time we thought that that best way to manage cholesterol levels was to limit the intake of dietary cholesterol. It makes sense, right? More cholesterol consumed = more cholesterol in the body. Primarily, this was the result of a 1961 recommendation made by the American Heart Association to limit the consumption of dietary cholesterol.
The American Heart Association made that recommenda-tion, egg consumption all across America dropped off sig-nificantly, and time went on. Then something happened. The Health Horizon kept moving and we learned more about how that human body functions.
As it turns out, dietary cholesterol has very little to do with blood cholesterol. You see, the human body is a pretty amazing thing. Conveniently, we are equipped with an organ (the liver) which is specifically designed to produce and manage cholesterol (which we do actually need to survive). If we eat more cholesterol, the liver lowers its own production of cholesterol. If we eat less cholesterol, the liver kicks production into high gear. Consuming massive amounts of dietary cholesterol will have very little effect on your blood cholesterol levels. The body keeps itself in balance.
There is a moral to this story and it is one rooted in bitterness – I really should have been allowed to eat more eggs as a kid.
And then, there is a more universal moral – what we think we know about something is often just a piece of the truth.
This is particularly true when it comes to our knowledge about health and the human body. This sort of… haziness is amplified by the fact that our way of life, the things we interact with, what we consume, what we are surrounded by, are all changing at an extraordinarily rapid rate.
The life of the average American in 2017 looks very different than the life of the average American back in 1966. Now, most of these changes and advancements are positive things. However, this is causing major issues as well. In some cases, we are being stricken by epidemics.
Today, we want to talk just such an epidemic, and it is one that is truly worrying. In fact, it is one that you very well may be suffering from.
Today, we want to talk about the epidemic of Broken Brains. We will also discuss the game-changing docu-series which is shedding light on this issue, the eponymous Broken Brain documentary
As always, we are keeping our eyes open to see what is coming on the Health Horizon. Mental health has become an increasingly prevalent issue in our society. It is an issue that needs to be addressed, for the good of the individuals suffering from mental health issues and the good of society as a whole.
On its own, the personal impact of these conditions is devastating. In the aggregate, this epidemic costs us over $80 billion per year. This is the epidemic of broken brains. What’s worse, is that it extends beyond these specific psychiatric maladies. If you suffer from chronic fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, or if you feel dull, disconnected, and slow or you have mood swings, you too may have a broken brain.
For years, these symptoms and conditions have existed. The primary issue has been that they show up in radically different ways in types of different people. These issues, these broken brains have always seemed like they were disconnected, separate problems. As it turns out, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
As we have learned more about health, we have discovered a very important detail. The health of your body affects they health of your brain. For decades and decades, we have always thought of these as separate systems. However, inflammations and imbalance in the bodies key systems have a direct effect on the brain.
As the host of Broken Brain, Dr. Hyman is uniquely qualified. Not only is he a practicing functional medicine physician, the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, founder and director of the Ultra Wellness Center, Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Functional Medicine, a 10 time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the world’s leading experts in brain health, he is also a brain health patient and someone who has suffered from broken brain.
Watching the docu-series, you quickly come to understand that Dr. Hyman knows exactly what you are going through in your own life. He knows what it feels like to have physicians shuffle you around from one diagnosis to another; from ADHD to depression to anxiety to whatever else is around the corner. He knows what it feels like to be prescribed medication after medication without ever have someone addressing the root causes of your conditions. He knows how hopeless it feels when physicians are labeling you without actually giving you a roadmap towards recovery.
He knows because he has been there. He has been there and he has recovered. He has seen epidemic of broken brains that is crippling our world, and he wants to do something about it.
Your body is affecting your brain. Is a groundbreaking docuseries that will radically transform the ways in which you think about brain health.
At its core, Broken Brain is a docu-series address the root causes of our biggest brain challenges, as well as ways that we can heal from these illnesses and optimize our brain function.
One of these primary vectors for healing is the concept of neuroplasticity. The idea of neuroplasticity is something that is sitting squarely on the Health Horizon. Previously, medical professionals thought that brain performance peaked sometime around the age of 25. After that, brain performance started to slowly, slowly deteriorate in a gradual journey downhill. The conventional wisdom went, “the brain you have is the brain you have”.
Throw that conventional wisdom out the window because it couldn’t be further from the truth. As it turns out, our brains maintain the ability to change, grow, and adapt all throughout our lives. Simple things like eating a healthy diet or read can promote neuroplasticity. The brain is not a machine. It is an organ, a biological, reactive thing. Everything we do, everything we eat, how we sleep and think, our entire bodies including our core systems act together in a complicated symphony along with our biology, genetics and environment to shape the health of our brain.
This concept not only helps to explain how the epidemic of broken brains brain, but it also provides us with a roadmap toward recovery.
In the docu-series, Dr. Hyman has brought together top brain experts from all around the world, gathering their knowledge and sharing their expertise with viewers. Not only does Broken Brain provider viewers with the tools they need to fix their broken brains, it includes top hacks and tips for achieving your best brain, so it can also help anyone become sharper, quicker, more attentive and more focused.
Wrapping things up, we just want to say that the Broken Brain docu-series is one of the most groundbreaking things we have seen on the health horizon in recent years. We could not recommend it more.
To learn more about the epidemic of broken brains that has been sweeping our world, and to learn how to improve your brain function and heal your broken brain, click HERE to watch the entire docu-series.
We guarantee you will be hooked from the first moment on.
Christmas is around the corner and most of us are racking our brains on the perfect gifts to get for our loved ones. Why not consider a smart health watch? This is a good old watch with added tech features, particularly sensors, to monitor one’s physiological functions. Health watches measure daily steps, heart rate, blood…
Public health, as described by C.E.A Winslow, is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, communities, and individuals. Today, the public health topics and public health conversations really do acknowledge what Winslow was onto something back in 1920. That is, health…
Be it at the coffee shop, the workplace or the yoga studio, health watches seem to be on everyone’s wrist. And rightfully so as these nifty devices are not only stylish in a futuristic sort of way, they are also useful in collecting and storing personal health data. Be that as it may, like any…
Health care is constantly evolving and rightfully so as new discoveries on diseases and their etiological factors continue to be unearthed. In addition, man’s definition for good health care is also constantly evolving. Today, cutting-edge technology creates innovations in the field of medicine are geared towards making service delivery more efficient or improving the…
In the history of mankind, there has never been a better time to work on thyself than the here and now. This is because there are endless resources, many of which are available for free, that can help you improve yourself and by extension, your life. As none of us is perfect, self-improvement is…