Reverse Thinking

How to improve your mood with Tyrosine

I received a big post following my first article in the current series on Addictions and it seems there is a high demand for a series like this.

Why? Are addictions to drugs and alcohol a bigger problem than we realise?

Meanwhile, one reader would like to know what people can do about it if they have Dopamine deficiency. Depletions can occur genetically in the brains of some people, although they are more common in habitual drinkers and drug users. However, if you suspect your mood is low, or that some of your cravings are running away with you, or that you could just do with a boost then there is no harm in trying a Tyrosine supplement for a few days.

Typical symptoms include:

• Loss of interest/pleasure in activities
• Chronic boredom
• Lethargy
• Agitation/restlessness
• Poor concentration
• Low mood

In my view Dopamine depletion is sometimes mistaken for Serotonin deficiency, which occurs in clinical depression and I wonder that this subject has not been explored in greater depth in developing treatments for depression.

There is a natural way to boost Dopamine levels and that is to consume Tyrosine, an amino-acid which the body uses to synthesise Dopamine in the brain. It is also helpful to take vitamin B6 with Tyrosine supplements as this enables the body to break down the Tyrosine faster.

Tyrosine is also found in soy, chicken, fish, avocado pear, bananas, milk, cheese, yogurt, nuts, pumpkin seeds and in sesame seeds.

I have worked with several cocaine addicts who have found Tyrosine and Vitamin B6 helpful in reducing cravings and restoring mood levels.

I would be interested in hearing from any readers who have tried Tyrosine supplements, or Tyrosine-rich diets. 

 

How empathy works

As I wrote in a previous article mirror neuron research is now showing us how the brain 'reads' other people. For example, it is now becoming clear that when we watch other peoples' facial expressions those areas of the brain which are populated with mirror neurons show greater activity. Suggesting that we are scanning those facial expressions in order to match the relevant emotions implied by the expressions with our own. Similar findings apply to hand gestures and lip movements, which correlate to other types of non-verbal communication.

Meanwhile, other research (most carried out on monkeys but sometimes on humans) shows that mirror neurons also light up when we are trying to work out the intention behind a behaviour. For example, when a wired-up subject is shown a film of someone picking up a cup from a table the mirror neurons light up, presumably because the individual is trying to work out whether the intention is to drink from the cup or just clear the table.

What is still more interesting is that monkeys (and people) who excel at interpreting facial expressions, emotions, attitudes and intentions have highly-active mirror-neuron systems. Simply because the more you practice the bigger the growth in the mirror-neuron system.

The bottom-line is that most of us are born with a built-in capacity for empathy right from birth. It is not something we learn (although practice improves ability). And this skill underpins many other things that make us uniquely human: social interaction, interpreting spoken communication, compassion, altruism and ethical behaviour. In short, everything we now call emotional intelligence.

Still another example of just how powerful Bodymind is. It is not the intellect - what I call Headmind - which determines what other people are thinking and feeling, or whether we should go in and help them, but the brain. As I have written before, free will has very little to with it.

 

 

 

The brain and addictions

This is the start of a new series on addictions.

Addictions to alcohol, to heroin, to cocaine, to mephedrone, cannabis, ketamine and pain-killers. There are also addictions to (inappropriate) sex, gambling and to junk food. I have worked with all of these over the years and, initially, found them tough to work with. But I have found an approach that is successful, which I will share with my readers in a later article.

But firstly it is important to understand how addictions get established. In the brain.

Three key points to bear in mind before you read on are that addictions are created by a) changes in dopamine levels, b) obsessions created in Headmind in the pre-frontal lobes and c) a loss of emotional connection through Bodymind.

From one point of view - the Bodymind view - the brain is a superbly engineered chemical factory. Chemicals for growth, chemicals for energy creation, chemicals for digestion and metabolism, chemicals for defence against infection, chemicals for tissue repair, chemicals that activate the muscles, and chemicals for emotions, mood, sensation and so on.

Some of these chemicals are simple protein chains called peptides, which act as messengers to other areas in the body such as the immune system, while others are more complex, such as the hormones that lock to particular glands further down from the brain (adrenalin, for example) and the neuro-transmitters (such as dopamine) that work on the central nervous system within the brain itself.

Hold fast to the fact that all chemicals are 'drugs', just as all drugs are chemicals. Meaning, that they influence brain function. In that sense even oxygen is a drug.

Dopamine is an interesting drug because Bodymind uses it to tell you whether or not one course of action will be more satisfying than the alternative. For example, if you are faced with a choice between doing the garden now and watching tv your body might use dopamine to tell you to do the garden now if you have a passion for it or it might tell you to watch tv if one of your favourite films is on. In this connection it is important to bear in mind that dopamine mimics your passion. If your long-term desire is to write good blog articles then you are more likely to write one instead of going to the pub. The important point here is that a dopamine rush will support you when you decide to go for goals that are important to you rather than short-term distractions (but see below for some information on how this can go wrong as addictions develop).

The fact is that some Headmind-based obssessions (or 'cravings' if you will) - particularly those for alcohol, cocaine and heroin - disrupt Bodymind's finely-tuned reward system. 

Using hard drugs like alcohol triggers an explosion in Dopamine levels and when Bodymind notices this it damps down the production of Dopamine in order to restore balance. As Dopamine levels drop below the norm (typically the day after drug abuse) the person experiences tedium, apathy, lethargy and numbness. This, in turn, is interpreted by Headmind as a need to take more of the drug. Which leads to an escalating cycle of abuse-depletion-cravings-increased abuse and increased cravings. In time, this leads to a state in which the individual obtains no relief whatever from the original drug and goes on to try other drug combinations. Which is why many addicts are frequently addicted to two or more drugs at the same time. 

The Brain scans reproduced here illustrate the difference in Dopamine depletion between four groups of addicts and normal controls. The reddish-yellow scans on the left are normal, while the weaker, greenish scans on the right are abnormal, showing up that Dopamine receptor activity is much reduced. In sex and gambling addictions the same phenomenon will appear on a slightly weaker scale.

Although these addictions have a catastrophic effect on the central nervous system they are reversible. Dopamine levels can be restored over a few weeks with abstinence. But to achieve that changes in thinking are required and a re-connection to Bodymind. And I will write about those when I describe the cure.

 

 

Mirror neurons and the brain

Following up on my last post on How the brain mirrors other people, here is an excellent TED talk from V.S. Ramachandran on mirror neurons and what they have revealed, so far, about how human beings actually work.

This looks like turning into a mini-series on mirror neurons on this blog. Next up, I will be writing about mirror neurons and empathy and, after that, there will be a further article about psychopaths.

Thanks to Debbie Hearn for feeding me with the idea for this series.

How the brain mirrors other people

The discovery of mirror neurons in the brain 15 or so years ago has transformed our understanding of how children learn and how adults 'read' other people.

Mirror neurons are groups of nerve cells in the brain that fire if either the person sees someone else doing something and if that person does the same thing. For example, if you observe someone else smile then the mirror neurons will signal; if you smile yourself then those same neurons will also fire. Which implies that your brain is set up to 'mirror' other peoples' behavour so that you can adopt it, understand it, or implement it yourself.

Which tells us a number of other interesting things:

• Firstly, the brain is set up so that it can temporarily adopt the point of view of another person and extract information about what that person is trying and to do and why they are doing it.
• Secondly we now know more about how humans learn. As everybody knows very young children learn by imitation. What we now know is that when children copy adult behaviour their brains automatically encode that behaviour so that they can mimic it within seconds. One reason why children learn so fast. And, also, why new cultural fads - slang, dress styles and gestures like the 'high five' - spread so rapidly amongst adults. 
• Thirdly, it has now become a lot easier to understand how most human beings can read other people so fast. If the brain contains neurons that simulate other peoples' activities: their facial expressions, speech, gestures, movements and emotions then it will only take a split second for the brain to 'read' someone, even when you don't know, consciously, that you are doing it. For example, your Headmind might, superficially, assume that someone you meet for the first time is nice, charming and interested in your welfare. Meanwhile Bodymind, using it's mirror neurons, is taking a deeper assessment. It might notice, for example, that the eyes flicker elsewhere while you are talking, take in that slightly dismissive wave of the hand, that his smile fades away a split-second too short. Within moments your body is coming up with uncomfortable feelings while the conscious mind is carrying on with the conversation in the belief that all is well. 

One weakness of traditional psychology is that it tries to explain how people learnt about other peoples' intentions in terms of logic. Meaning that if the people you meet obeyed social conventions in terms of saying the right things, smiling in the right places, putting their arm around your shoulders, etc, then they might be ok. But Bodymind may know different. Which leads to a conflict between your 'feel' about other people compared  to what you think you may know about them. But because Bodymind uses intuitions rather than words to communicate to you those insights may be over-ridden by Headmind as 'illogical'. To your lasting cost.

This is the first in a short series about mirror neurons. Next up I will be writing about what mirror neurons have to tell us about empathy and love. And, after that, why the inability to access mirror neuron information generates psychopaths.

 

Image by  SashaW 

How rigid are your perceptions?

This image is often used as a test to establish whether or not you are right-brain dominant or left-brain dominant. The theory goes that left-brain people will see the dancer circling anti-clockwise, while right-brain dominant people are the other way about.

Too bad if you are, in fact, left-brain dominant. Not only will you be right-handed but you will also be unemotional, logical, precise, picky about facts, literal-minded, keen on law and order, and stuck in the past. In short, you are most likely a boring man. 

Whereas the right-brain people will be out having fun. They are emotional, creative, intuitive, spontaneous, risk-takers who live in the present and are fond of stories, fantasies, symbols and other products of the imagination. In short, you are either a woman or a creative 'genius'.

But like most myths about the brain there is little truth in the left/right brain split. In fact it is the twentieth century equivalent of phrenology, in which it was thought that having a large bump over your left ear meant that you were less likely to be run over by a tram.

Although it is clear that each side of the brain carries out specific tasks (for example the left brain focuses on detail while the right on the 'big-picture') each side depends on the other in order to function efficiently. When you are looking at a painting you have never seen before, for example, you need both sides to help you appreciate it: the left side will give you information about the shapes, the colours and the borders; while the right will tell you what the picture is about. In the same way the left-brain produces the words you want to say; while the right shows you how to say them. 

The technology we now have, in the form of MRI scanners, shows that, given any kind of task, whether it is emotional, analytical, creative, logical, or something else, many different parts of the brain will be firing while the task is being processed. And not only that Bodymind will, at the same time, be drawing its intelligence from the heart, the nervous system, the blood-stream, the tissues and organs, right down to the cells themselves. Both our logical and our creative ideas are being backed up by an array of emotions, feelings and gut-reactions that let us know whether or not we are on the right track.

The most one can say about the spinning dancer illusion is that it might test for whether or not you have rigid perceptions. If you can't get the dancer to change direction at least once after a few minutes you might need to change your personality.

 

 

 

How the body 'thinks'

Since the Greeks started writing about it intelligence has generally been assumed to be in the head. But one of the great advances last century - thanks to MRI scanners which enable us to look inside the Brain, as well as the neuro-endocrine systems, we have a much more informed picture. Which tells us that intelligence is distributed over the whole body. In fact we are now able to identify several 'brains' throughout the body:

1 The solar plexus (often called the 'second brain') controls the Autonomic nervous system. Which, in turn, governs, heart rate, digestion, muscular function, as well as creating the physical sensations that form the basis of emotion.

2 The endocrine system - which includes the pituitary, pineal, thyroid, pancreas, thymus, adrenal and sexual glands - is controlled by the Hypothalamus. Since each of the glands use hormones to control such diverse functions as energy transfer, metabolism, sleep, growth, protection against infection, and temperature control, we can see that the Hypothalamus is a brain inside the Brain

3 The Immune system itself is another centre of intelligence. There are approximately 2 trillion immune cells in the body. Some of these track invading cells and 'remember' what they look like. Others hunt them down, while others kill them. Meanwhile other cells keep a watchful eye on rogue cells which split away from the rest and become cancerous. Still more cells float up and down to the brain and provide updates on the current state of play.

4. Candace Pert - one of our best writers on this subject - tells us that each and every cell in the body is not only intelligent, but conscious too, in the sense that it can independently make decisions on the communications it sends to other cells. There are approximately 10 trillion cells in the body. Yet each of those cells signals, on average, to at least 10,000 other cells every day. Which means that your body created 10,000,000,000 messages today (that's one hundred thousand trillion pieces of information).

So what does the main brain actually do if most of the 'thinking' is going on either elsewhere in the body or in response to decisions taken by the cells. Mostly it is Headmind stuff. Making up stories about what happened to you after Bodymind took the decision for you. Or analyzing, checking, worrying, doing guilt while living as if Bodymind didn't exist!

But, as I have written before, it is possible to conceive of a headless state of being in which people live, serene, Zen-like existences centred totally on Bodymind intelligence.

Here are some examples of the way in which Bodymind thinking works in practice:

• The body can ‘read’ other people and simulate an emotion that person is having so that you or I can empathize with them. In that way a mother can quickly tell what mood her child is in. This is also the basis for the human quality of compassion for others, even animals. Our intuitions about other people work in a similar way. Using sensory information, the brain picks up signals from the other person’s body language and – using a process that works in less than a tenth of a second – pattern-matches those signals against information stored from past experiences. That is why we can have a gut feeling that someone is not trustworthy within two minutes of meeting her without knowing why. The body is using coded signals to alert us to a potential problem.

• In collaboration with the thinking centers the brain can decide what is important or not important. If something is important to us we might get an adrenalin rush. If it is not we will feel nothing at all. Research into people with damage to the frontal areas of the brain (which decode emotion) show that they are unable to make decisions because they don’t have a good or bad feeling that tells them the right decision to make. Knowing what is important also helps Bodymind conserve energy. We can go without sleep if we are trying to achieve something really important. Conversely, if there is little for us to do, Bodymind can send us to sleep early. Or it could turn on the emotion of boredom to signal that it’s time to do something more interesting.

• The body can strengthen a relationship by releasing hormones connected to love. Sometimes this is automatic, as when a a child is born. Sometimes it comes with time as we learn more about the other person. The emotions of love are, as almost all of us know, powerful and sometimes overwhelming.

• The brain uses sleep time to organize memories from the day just gone. It stores what is important and deletes the rest. It also creates dreaming states in order to work through the emotions that come with different experiences. This is one reason why insomniacs have poor concentration – they are overloaded with undigested experiences.

• Bodymind grounds us to life. It does this firstly through our moods. At any given moment the body is monitoring where we are, who we are with and what we are doing, and providing us with a running commentary on our relationship with the environment. Moods aren’t emotions but they are feeling states which work closely with our thoughts. The most well-known mood is the depressed state, which goes with discouragement and sadness. But others include exhilaration, calm, determination, discontent and the feeling of being ‘under pressure’. Most often, moods are hardly noticeable and form a kind of background hum which is constantly shifting as we go through the flow of the day.

Bodymind uses symptoms of various kinds to warn, guide and protect us from harm. This point is more clearly explained by Reverse Therapy.

• Another way the body grounds us to life is through the sense of awe: we are connected to nature, to the divine, and to life itself by the unspeakable sense that we are serving a purpose higher than ourselves. In that way Bodymind intelligently motivates us to make the best we can of our abilities and to serve others. It fosters your Personal Genius.

Why Chronic Fatigue Syndrome isn't in the mind and yet it is curable too

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2010 AT 01:21PM

Ever since I finished developing the Reverse Therapy method in 2002 I regularly get abusive emails from people who don't want to learn anything about Reverse Therapy, or hear the truth about ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - ie that they are the same problem and have the same solution. My readers might be surprised by the foul-mouthed names I get called. They might be even more surprised by the fact that some of these people have enough energy to spend hours on the internet abusing me.....

Please let me hasten to add that I and my colleagues have, over the last 8 years, worked with thousands of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who a) were seriously ill; b) were open-minded; c) got well by adopting a different approach to the one that many people have been spoon-fed by the medical establishment.

The reason I bring up this subject again is because I have just caught sight of an excellent video which summarises the current state of play on this very difficult subject. It is by Dr Anthony Komaroff, who is also Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

You can catch that video here: CFIDS Talk 

What I like about this item is that Professor Komaroff:

a) sympathises with people who suffer from this terrible illness

b) is extremely learned about the subject

c) is open-minded about the potential causes of the problem

d) makes a number of important points which support Reverse Therapy (which I summarise below):

1. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not 'all in the mind'; it is a neurological illness

2. In CFS the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis is compromised

3. The Sympathetic Nervous System swings from over to under activity

4. Serotonin release (a mood hormone) in the brain changes

5. Yet CFS has little in common with either Depression or Anxiety

6. The Immune system becomes inefficient following continual over-activity

Dr Komaroff also says that although many cases of CFS begin with a viral infection no single virus has ever been identified as the cause of the illness. He also says (as we do in Reverse Therapy) that it may be that prolonged viral problems in CFS are prompted by a breakdown in the Immune system. The same applies to the XMRV retrovirus.

It is clear, also, that there is a genetic component in CFS. Identical twins are far more likely to get this illness than the average and researchers have identified 22 genes that behave differently in CFS, But let's be clear on this: genes don't cause illness on their own. If that were true ALL identical twins would contract the same illnesses in the same way at the same time. Genetics interact with the person's environment in the same way that they are in dialogue with your emotions, your behaviour, your thoughts, your diet, your physical activities and the people you hang out with.

Indeed, the picture I can see emerging from Dr Komaroff's presentation is something like this:

Some people are more at risk of getting CFS than others, in the same way that other people are at risk for heart disease, allergies or breast cancer,

The majority of people with CFS (but not all) suffer from viral problems early on in the illness, although here, I am arguing that this is because the immune system is compromised by the brain disorder known as CFS. It is, however, possible that certain viruses complicate and compound the disorder.

There is now extremely strong evidence that both the emotional and thinking centres in the brain demonstrate abnormal activity, exactly as Reverse Therapy suggests.

The illness is maintained, as I have argued in my books, through interactions between the limbic system, the hypothalamus, the adrenal glands, the sympathetic nervous system, and the immune system.

Dr Komaroff has also stated elsewhere that he believes that therapy - cognitive-behavioural therapy - can be of help in that it teaches sufferers how to change thinking patterns and behaviours that maintain the problem. My only dispute with Dr Komaroff here is that therapy - Reverse Therapy - can go on to teach people how to control the symptoms themselves.

14 facts about the brain

Your body contains at least 60 trillion cells. Yet your brain contains 'only' 60 billion cells, just 0.001% of the total. Proof that the 'mind' isn't just inside your skull.

Each cell carries, on average 7000 connections to other cells. Therefore the number of cell networks in the brain is 42 thousand billion, or 42,000,000000,000 pieces of information your brain can, store.

Yet your brain only weighs 3 pounds and uses just 10-23 watts of energy per day. That is less than the energy in three bananas.

Each year you will lose about 3.3 million brain cells. But that is less than 0.00000006% of the total. And nearly all of it is replaced, right on up until old age.

There is no truth in the myth that we only use 10% of brain power. The entire brain is being used every day, even if some areas of the brain are there only for storage or for back-up functions.

Super memory. The brain is capable of storing 10 trillion bits of information about you and your life experiences. 

The brain can make its own 'heroin'. Endorphins are released in the Hypothalamus after vigorous physical exercise, injury, meditation, laughter and chocolate. Endorphins are up to 19 times stronger than morphine. By contrast, heroin is only 7 times stronger than morphine.

Being happy is good for the brain. Happy states trigger dopamine release, a feel-good chemical. Personal fulfilment increases neuroplasticity, slows down ageing and improves memory.

Why is adolescence so difficult? One main reason is that, between puberty and early adulthood, the brain is being rebuilt. There is massive growth in the pre-frontal cortex (Headmind); connections between cell networks are being hard-wired (making emotional life-lessons more intense); and there is a temporary loss of connection between the brain's emotional centres (the limbic system) and the intellectual centres - which means that teenagers lack the capacity to make good decisions. 

New experiences are vital for improved brain function. Getting out of the rut and going for new horizons increases cell growth, delays ageing and improves cell connectivity. The same goes when you let go of the past and exercise forgiveness.

Binge-eating. Emotional self-neglect can lead to food cravings and over-eating. So-called stress triggers an increase in Cortisol in the blood stream, which stimulates Insulin release. High insulin levels are associated with a craving for sugary foods and foods high in carbohydrates.

Regular sex (at least twice a week) improves daily moods, reduces pain thresholds, cuts the risk of a heart attack, decreases menstrual pain and promotes sleep. This is because enjoyable sex fosters high endorphin release.

Love and sex can be addictive. Falling in love, like sexual infatuation) is similar to taking cocaine: the hypothalamus triggers a cascade of dopamine. One problem is that, once the dopamine wears off, a 'down-mood' sets in, leading to further cravings.

The brain also contains a bonding chemical: Oxytocin. During labour, female brains produce large amounts of oxytocin, which stimulates contractions and smooths the passage of the baby down the birth canal. Oxytocin also creates a primal, intense bond with the child. Adults in love (or during ecstatic sex) also release high levels of oxytocin.

Switching off the chatterbox

Here's an email from a reader who wants to know more about how to switch off from the Internal Chatterbox (sometimes also known as 'The Internal Control Freak' in Reverse Therapy circles).

He writes:

"How do you stop Headmind going on and on at night when you are trying to get some sleep? Many of your blog posts for stopping Headmind recommend to go & do something else, especially something physical & endorphin producing. At night-time I find things like doing the bodyscan most relaxing, although that is not necessarily sleep inducing.

Chatting to people in my head is an obsession that makes me ill. For years I've re-played endless conversations with people in my head, especially when in bed - mostly going over what I actually said, but also going over what I/they might have said and my answers. These  conversations can range from confrontational to light-hearted; from serious to trivial.

This chattering can be quite random. Yet it goes on endlessly, keeping me awake and driving me mad!"

How do I switch it off when I need to go to sleep?"

And here is my answer:

1. If Headmind is overactive at night then it is almost certainly over-active daytime too. You will need to work on slowing Headmind down, or switching off from it regularly, during daylight hours. You can achieve that by utilising breath meditation, Tai Chi, Binaural beats, dance, sensate focusing, or substitutes for any of these. It is no good going through the day staying stuck in Headmind and then hoping it will quieten down later. Rather like training a badly-behaved dog, you have to show Headmind who is Master. Learning to live each day in Awareness of the present moment is also key.

2. If you work at a Headmind-centred job (for example, Information Technology) then you need to balance that with Bodymind-centred activities when you finish work, well before you retire to bed. Sport/gym-work/swimming is ideal for the purpose, as is any kind of handicraft or gardening.

3. Living in Headmind tends to create extra Adrenalin release and Beta brain wave states. Too much Adrenalin makes you fidgety, restless and agitated. It also triggers overwork in the frontal cortex, making it much more likely that you will worry more. A constant state of watchfulness and self-analysis maintains beta waves which, in turn, trigger still more internal chatter. 

If either case is true for you then you need to:

a) Dilute the Adrenalin rush before you get into bed. You could do that by taking a hot bath or using one of the instant stress-busters I recommended in my pre-Xmas post.

b) Slow down your brain wave-states from Beta to Theta. One way to do that is to listen to one of the binaural beat programs I recommend on the right hand side of this blog.

4. Having suffered from an overactive Headmind myself for many years before I got wise to its tricks, I found that you could outwit it by giving it something absorbing to do that is also trivial, boring or complicated. Counting downwards from 501 in increasing intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, and so on is an old favourite. But reading tedious scientific papers on psychology usually does it for me!


Original image by sngyork