AN ALERT TO FOLKS BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS!

AN ALERT TO FOLKS BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© June 7, 2012

If you happen to have watched PBS’s “Use Your Brain to Change Your Life,” and thought, “Ho hum, this is another expert throwing a clinker into my fun,” think again. 

You only have to look at the visual of a healthy brain and one of a guy who claims never to have been drunk only having four or five drinks a day after work to know how fragile this sacred organ is. 

The daily drinking man's brain looked like a raisin compared to a healthy brain.  He was also 100 pounds overweight and a candidate for every conceivable illness. 

Dr. Daniel Amen, world-renowned clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain image expert, claims that the brain can be healthy, alive and supple as the body inevitably ages.  It is why writers, composers, artists, artisans, social workers, community activists, the clergy (priests, ministers, rabbis, nuns), and yes, politicians often enjoy long and productive lives.

Looking at the brain as if a raisin, I couldn’t help but think what effect booze, cigarettes, drugs such as marijuana might have on the brain.  Dr. Amen, who admits the cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known, sees it reaching epidemic proportions in the future.  My wonder is there a connection. 

Dr. Amen says people who imbibe since they were young, and think they have won a pass, should think again.  He says the symptoms are unlikely to show up for 30 to 50 years after the indulgence has become routine, then all hell can break loose into assorted health issues. 

He corroborates what I have read elsewhere that a single cigarette a day shortens life and health of the body as well as the brain, and that binge drinking, or having a cocktail after work every day can have negative effects and affects on the brain. 

What was implied was that such self-indulgence even if corrected still carries the damage already done in the brain.  Nature is unforgiving.  Aging is natural, and exercise, and eating healthily, but still drinking as a matter of routine feeling the other behaviors compensate for the excess could prove delusional. 

The brain is the window to the soul and our conception of God as we would or would not see our relationship to the universe.  Dr. Amen is not implying that one should live one’s life without stimulants, but is advocating moderation in all things, as one’s brain is the most precious aspect of being human.

*     *     *