Power Up Your Brain

This review is to inform the future readers on what they can look forward to in this book.Overall, "Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment", by David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo was a good book to read. I liked how authors made interconnections with science, religion, evolution, history, and enlightenment throughout the book. It gave me a new perspective on the science, particularly neuroscience and cell biology that I have learned in a school.Readers do not have to have any technical knowledge of the neuroscience to understand and enjoy this book. It is written in an ordinary language with many examples demonstrating the themes of each chapter. Here is one of my favorite stories from the book:when a young man asks to his grandfather, "There are two wolves inside of me. One wants to kill and destroy, and other one wants to make peace and bring beauty. Which one will win, Grandfather?" The Old man answers "Whichever one you feed."This is a nice example to show how a simple choice between negative thinking and positive thinking can gradually lead you to two completely opposite paths.This book starts of as a supernatural religious experiences authors encounter with shamans. At first, for many young readers, it may seem as if the book is going to be about "enlightenment experiences". I felt like giving up on the book after reading the introduction as I was looking for a neuroscience related content. However when the authors made their first link of feminine life energy that is described in many different cultures to mitochondria, physical energy power houses of the cells, I begin to be drawn into the reading. Mitochondria are inherited strictly from mother to all of her children. In this sense, mitochondria can be seen has feminine life force of humans. Until now, I have always viewed science and spirituality to be separate entities. But after reading the introduction and first chapter, for the first time in my life, I was able to see a connection between the science and the spiritual world.Another link they made was with the religious belief that the "soul is eternal and undying" to the "science of energy and matter". Remembering from science course how energy is never created or destroyed but transformed from one form to another. In a similar fashion, after our death, from a science perspective, body decomposes and every particle and energy from our body assimilates into the nature.-----------------StressI also liked how informative stress discussion was. Authors described two types of stresses; acute and chronic by providing examples of each. For example, during Colonial times, legendary pirates of the Caribbean learned that the better way to worn out citizens was by chronic stress produced by the sound of cannons firing than the actual damage caused by cannon balls. HPA (hypothalamus pituitary axis) and stress hormones are described in detail as well. Stress increases the level of cortisol. Studies on rats have shown that elevated level of cortisol increases the effect of free radicals in hippocampus and damages mitochondria. This affects the learning and creativity. Also environmental stressors to the body, which may not be apparent, such as insecticides and pesticides, destroy mitochondrial function and affect some neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, autism and some others.Stress does not only affects us negatively but it also has positive impacts on us when it is acute. For example exercise puts acute stress on muscles and ultimately body's response to this stress results in muscle growth. Also it gives you a sense of accomplishment. Positive emotional experiences protect hippocampus by decreasing the cortisol production. Acute stress may allows us to remember some events as seen in the example of Alberto experience of earthquake.-----------------NeuroplasticityChapters on neuroplasticity explained the brain's ability to create new neural networks to learn, adapt and change. For example, a 58 year old person with severe loss of tissue and damage to the brain seen on MRI, but no deficits whatsoever can be explained by activation of alternative pathways of the brain to regain functionality of the related affected parts of the body. Authors also talked about how attention matters by explaining how positive reinforcement would result in focused attention and it would show profound changes in the brain than people without it; "without focused concentration, brain connections are not made, and memory is not stored." Focused attention can help you change your thoughts, activities, and behaviors to make positive improvements in your life. We also have capacity to direct our attention toward new positive neural connections by "repeating and reinforcing to build new neural pathway".Another exciting story that showed that if you merely image yourself engaging in an activity, you can create the neural connections associated with learning it without actually performing it. For example, Dr. Pascual - Leone's experiment compared changes in brains of individuals who had practiced playing piano physically and individual who had envisioned their fingers moving across the keyboard, both group showed similar changes in brain area activation.Authors discussion on recent discovery of neurogenesis, the ability of the brain to actually grow new neurons was very fascinating. In a sense, neurogenesis is brain's own stem cell therapy. BDNF- brain derived neurotrophic factor - plays an important role in creating new neurons and also in neuroplasticity. It provides protection against mitochondrial toxins such as pesticides. BDNF activation can be achieved by physical exercise, calorie reduction, and intellectual stimulation in terms of problem solving, meditating, and exploring novel environments. Also, other important factors are curcumin, chemical in turmeric, and DHA (docosahexaemoic acid important building block for the membrane that surround the brain cells, which is synthesized from omega-3 fat and alpha linoleic acid) and eating organic food.-----------------DislikesAuthors even include an action plan to improve reader's health through diet, exercise, fasting, and meditation. However, there was one thing I did not like about this book: the way supplements were prescribed to treat many of the conditions presented in various examples and how miraculously they worked. I believe in healthy diet, exercise, meditation, and even fasting but I am little skeptic on taking nutrients for the brain in form of the supplements. I would rather have those nutrients coming from the diet as an alternative mentioned by authors in form of olive oil, coconut oil, turmeric, green tea, fruits and vegetables. Sometimes it felt as if authors were trying to "advertise" these supplements. Also few chapters were little more detailed on supernatural experiences rather than actual neuroscience or making the connections between the two.-----------------Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has given me a new perspective on how neuroscience and spirituality are interconnected to one another. This book has been truly an enlightening experience. I definitely recommend this book to anyone; even if you are on either side of the spectrum: a strong believer of science or spirituality, you will enjoy this book to the fullest as long as you keep an open mind.-----------------Some of my favorite quotes from the book:" Anger interrupts the functioning of your frontal lobes. When frontal lobe shuts down, it is impossible to listen to others.""Stress of changing ecosystem has made ways of inviting wisest and adaptable to survive.""Happiness is a treasure of clear perception that will be eternally yours.""With focused attention you can change your thoughts, change your activities, and change your behaviors to make a positive improvements in your life.""neurons that fire together, wire together."

The title use is nearly a rewritten sentence which once was used about the book by Nietzsche’s: “And thus spoke Zarathustra”, and used here because we by the “Power Up Your Brain” are invited to go wider into the using of our brains, and besides getting deeper into the newest science knowledge about brains. Zarathustra, who lived in India 7,000 years ago, was like Tönpa Shenrab, mentioned in the book, and Buddha, a teacher and a thinker, and as we read in the book these persons had the same kind of ideas, thinking and believing as the shamans. But for persons without knowledge about the shamans, or for example Buddha’s ideas, then the writings in the book concerning the shamanic dimensions maybe can be a bit hard to grip.I only bought the “Power Up Your Brain” coursed by my searching after more new science knowledge concerning the brain, the cells, the nerves, and so on, but not for learning about the shamans, as I already by my interest in historical and cultural ideas have enough knowing about the shamans, Tibet, thinkers, and religions. But concerning new knowing in the connection to the brain I for example in this book for the first time read that the Mitochondria has its own DNA, the mt-DNA, and being totally different from the DNA which we always read and learn about. And I owe around 300 doctor and health books, among other the doctor lexicon: Mosby’s Dictionary, on around 2,500 sides, from 2009, and not even in this one is it mentioned.And it’s also very interesting in the book to read the many rather special patients cases, as for example about the one with the 7 persons who in 1982 ingested street drugs which they thought were similar to heroin, but as a result they later were brought into hospitals with their bodies nearly being like pillar shapes. And it then showed up that the drugs had contained MPTP and they thereby fast had been hit by the Parkinson’s. And thereby the case then resulted in the start of researches for finding the connections behind this result, which then showed up to be that the Parkinson’s came as result of the MPTP destroying Mitochondria’s in part of the brain. After reading this interesting case I immediately ordered the mentioned book by J. W. Langston.Furthermore we for example on the side 118 read the story about a patient who caused by Parkinson’s arrived into the clinic sitting on a wheelchair. But when it then showed up that he also was suffered from Fibromyalgia it was chosen in a vein to give an injection of Glutathione. And as a result then suddenly after 20 minutes the patient rose from the wheelchair and started to walk around in the room. And after by this learning more about the importance of the Glutathione it’s use on other patients was increased, with many good results. And on the side 14 we read about the 74-year-old patient who came, after by his doctors having been diagnosed in having pancreatic Cancer, and not long to live. But by following a program of nutritional supplements, especially containing DHA, as the result of this he after 3 month was totally cured, but his doctors didn’t want to know how this, to them the impossibly, had happened!And starting on the side 136 we read about “Claire” arriving to the clinic when having lump in her breast, which they then by the shaman’s gift get away on the same day. Without doubt this can happen, and has happened, to persons having deep faiths, and of course not are eating too bad food. And as written in the book nearly daily cancer starts, or try to start, in the body, but mostly are stopped by the body’s self-defense. And besides we actually also in the body can have quit a couple of different cancers which in many cases not continue in growing, or start travelling round in the body, unless something are activating them, and which normally first are discovered, by x-ray concerning other problem, or if we are cut open after we have died. And as remark, for example half a year ago, in Danish news, it was told that they over there had constructed a more precise scanner for one of the cancer diseases. By using the previous scanner they each time when discovering such a cancer had to use surgery, but now they can detect if the actual discovered lump is one of the only 1/10 of this cancer type which actually need to be removed.Especially during the last 6 years I have been reading about plenty of curing cases parallel to these we learn about in this book; that is especially concerning fighting cancer by changing to the correct food, and including the missing vitamins, minerals, and so on. And also during these 6 years I in vain have been fighting against the doctors here in Chiang Mai, especially concerning cancer, Parkinson’s and cholesterol. Actually it started as result of the cholesterol results by our blood measures, which for my wife was higher than the hospital allowed. And the fighting, and reading, then increased after my Thai wife 3 years later by was discovering in having breast cancer, actually a bit less than 1/3 Inc. and nothing else. A Thai doctor, only 35 years old, educated in Sweden, told her that if she not in less the one week had both of the breasts removed then she would die. She was scared by the doctor and blindly accepted what he told, even though I and an English doctor both told her that it was totally wrong what the Thai doctor had told. After the surgery, one day when she met to control in the hospital, the same day more than 30 women then were there to surgery for breast cancer, and all of them should have removed both of their breasts. Later we by a Bangkok doctor was told that the doctors in Chiang Mai works very badly.By this book I now own more examples, and proofs, concerning curing sicknesses in healthy was, but of course most of the doctors still only will continue by using surgery and the unhealthy drugs, instead of curing by finding and solving the reason to the sicknesses.In this book I also for the first time read about hyperbaric oxygen, the 100 % oxygen delivered by 1.5 Atmospheres pressure and being given to patients lying in plastic cylinders, as also being used to Alzheimer patients. After this reading I send a message with the telling about this to a doctor in Denmark whose mother who a year ago then was stated in having Alzheimer. Back in 1979 I personally during research, was put on 100 % oxygen, but just a bit over normal air pressure, and only during some minutes, but still I recall the feelings in my brain.Concerning what we in our daily living perceive as supernatural, we in any way for example have read about dogs that have found home again after being lost hundreds or thousands of miles from home. Or about persons waking up in the night and feeling that a family member, miles away, in the same minute die. And concerning the shamans we on the side 129 read that they believe that the world seems real only because we perceive it as such, and besides that the shamans have trained their brain to get into supernatural realms and dimensions. But we also learn how we all have increased in the using of the brains during the history of human development, but that we still can go further by learning from the shamans. But concerning our, sensing and understanding, and how it can be trained, for example I historically recall that after we around 200 years ago finally began understanding that the geometry not always had to fit on the Descartes geometrical coordinate paper, by for example containing more than 180 degrees in triangles on a globe. And then science person and philosophers went further and started speculating in spaces having other dimensions than our daily 3 dimensional space. And it has been written that around 1880 there were a couple of mathematicians who had trained their brains so that they could sense like being in a 4 dimensional space.But in relation to the shamans, and their supernatural skills, where we for example on the side 197 reads about the part of the brain, which a healer feels being in the room, when Albert has it in his basket, and then starts telling the life story of the person from whom it belonged. Here we have a problem with a proof because actually we can’t conclude if the healers telling come from the part of the brain, or by tanks transfer from Alberto, and his knowledge. To us both skills are supernatural but quit different. But here I come to the point, which is that I can’t understand that in the book in this connection we don’t get some remarks about Swedenborg, because by him we historically have some proved supernatural cases, and thereby knowing that we all have more possibilities in our brains, but which ole the shamans, and parallel persons are using.Swedenborg, the Swedish engineer, philosopher, theologian, son of a bishop, lived 1688 – 1772. And among other, for example in 1759, at a party in Gothenburg, he during the eating suddenly could “feel” and “see” that in Stockholm, around 200 miles away, it was starting burning. And he then started telling the other about this, and where it was burning until it finally stopped, two blocks from his own house, as he told. First 4 days later messages came to Gothenburg and telling precisely the same as Swedenborg had told. Besides he for example in 1758, by the Swedish Queen Louisa Ulrica, was asked if he could give her information about her deceased brother, the Prince in Prussia. Next day, after receiving messages when sleeping, he came back, and asked for at room only for these two, and there he told her things so she got pale in her pace, because only she and her brother new what he told. And parallel to what we read in the book, Swedenborg also made a journal of his dreams. Before he changed from working as engineer and turned over into the theologian, he during the years 1714 – 1743 wrote 61 science books, among other about: Algebra, The Magnet, Hydrostatics, Fossils, Inclinations of the Mind, The Infinity, Empirical Psychology, Red Blood, and The Brain. And after this he started to study the Bible and write about it. But as Swedenborg is so exceptional with his many cases, among other the 2 here mentioned, from a time when electrical communications not yet was invented, many books have been written about him, as for example the one by Wilson Van Dusen: “The Presence of Other Worlds”.On the side 2 we read about the Dogon shamans of western Africa who in 1930s told two French anthropologists about the existence of a companion sun to the Sirius star in the Dog Star, which not can be seen with naked eyes. This story I many times during 30 – 40 years also have been reading in many other books, but I recall that around 30 years ago I in a book then read that the shamans earlier by other foreigners had been told the story about the Sirius. But as it’s hard to recall in which of my 230 Feet of books I then read this, I instead went to Google. And in any case I there found that in 1844 the German astronomer Friedrich Bessel deduced an invisible star Sirius B connected to Sirius (thereby called Sirius A). And in 1915 it by a reflector then was detected. So I find that there is the biggest chance, as I was reading 30 – 40 years ago, that the shamans had been told their story by earlier foreigners, which told them this, as the Africans there in their religious connections (the 70 years) uses the Sirius.But concerning common failures, stories moving on from book to book, as for example we read nearly all high school and university mathematical books that it was Leibnitz who invented the Integration, while Newton invented the Differentiation. This even though Newton invented bout of these, naturally of course as it would be a parallel to a person who invent to put numbers together, automatically thereby also would understand to go backward and thereby automatically inventing to subtract. And actually Leibnitz who a few years worked at the German embassy in London was reading the Newton papers which was in circulated for 20 years before Newton first had his book printed. And thereby Leibnitz came first with a book about Integration and Differentiation, without mention Newton, and became famous. And the historical failure was cemented for nearly everybody.On the side 9 we read about brain synergy – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – and as a comparison read about the strength of stainless steel opposite to iron. But for an engineer in many ways this is a bad comparison, as stainless steel and iron, actual cast iron, is enormously different in what they contains, and thereby for what they can be used. By the writing in the book it looks like both stainless steel and cast iron only are made of carbon and iron, but actually this only fits to the cast iron which consist of iron and up to close to 5 % carbon, and nearly nothing else. Opposite to this the stainless steel, sometimes used as springs, normally only contains around 0.1 % carbon, and up to 50 % of other metals mixed with the iron, as for one of them: < 0.15 carbon, 24-26 % Chrome, 19-22 % Nickel, and < 2 % Manganese. Besides parallel to the stainless steel, wrought iron and tool iron also contains much of other metals. So to me it’s a bad comparison which is used in the book, because to me, the brains quality is increased without the replacement of any of its cells with foreign cells, while for the stainless steel in up to half of its content of iron is replaced by other metals.In the chapter “The Gift of Neuroplasticity”, we as an example read about the case of Michael where it shows up that his brain went on in using an alternative pathway so that he again could talk, after the part of the brain for speaking, had been destroyed. Actual among other I also bought this book because I 40 years ago, at the age of 27, then had an accident quit equal to Schumacher’s, which we read about in the news. And when I after 12 days waked up and again being back in “this world”, after then having been 12 days in another now “forgotten world”, and had been talking with friend, which I later was told, but newer have recalled. When I then waked up I only recalled the names of 5 persons, 1 country, 1 city, and 1 street, and had forgotten the 4 languages which I previous new. By MRI scan it showed up that the left side of the brain was destroyed, the part where we store names, words, and thereby languages. I partly have relearned Danish and English, but French and German I newer can relearn, and to learn new languages is totally impossible. Before the accident I was exceptional good in languages and history/names, but after the accident 40 years ago I still am extremely bad in this, even though I yearly read more than 10,000 sides in science and was studying in universities as late as 2002, until we left to Thailand. So opposite to what we read in the book, hard brain training not rebuild the brain.On the side 93 we read that the Curcumin is extremely good in activating the Nrf2 pathway, and how importance in this. And while reading this I started to speculate in how good Curcumin is compared to the Coffee, because in my private lexicon I among other, about Coffee, have written: “Coffee is one of the most powerful Nrf2 activators in nature”. So I went to Google to searching after comparisons between Curcumin and Coffee in their connections to Nrf2, but in vain. I would be good to know because Coffee is not good for everything, so at plus more would help it.Even though I have put in some remarks about what’s written in the book, it has been a delightful book to read, and a book which I especially would like many doctors to read.

A great combination of science and shamanism. The book gives very interesting information about our brain in an understandable way. Also a lot of practical advice!

In Power Up Your Brain, Dr. Perlmutter presents solid information that anyone can understand and use to protect and enhance their cognitive reserve. I've incorporated several steps of the program and noticed significant improvement even though I had been previously following a fairly healthy lifestyle (at least I thought I was). I've bought several copies of this book for friends and family members because the information presented here is so important. I'd also like to mention that the contributions from Dr. Villoldo give this book a metaphysical flair that balances the scientific data. By emphasizing the role of nature and its cycles and the role of nature in healing, this book touches every aspect of one's physical and spiritual journey through life while teaching us the ways of achieving optimal brain function and health. A must read.

Leaving aside the long list of medication, chemicals that do more harm than good both for the brain and the wallet, this is a book packed with information told on everyone's understanding. It offers options for better life choices, including diet, love, and purpose...

A brilliant read! Very helpful.

I loved the practical advice given in here and a theory that marries together neuroscience and traditional shamanic healing and terminology. As someone with PTSD it hadn't occured to me what I needed to physically heal my brain. Probably one of the best random purchases I've ever made.

De aanbevelingen van dr Villoldo zijn praktisch bruikbaar en beloven een revolutie in het zelfhelend vermogen van de mens. Dit boek bevat herhalingen die ook zij opgenomen in "het verlichte brein" van de zelfde auteur.

If you are looking for a way to exercise and power up your brain, the Neuroscience of Enlightenment is what I found a fantastic book to start with.