Why brain nutrition could empower our schools
Jenson Hagen
Education reforms need to take into account the early moments of development to set kids on the right course from the start. Reform efforts should not ignore the need to help expecting mothers consume the foods and nutrients that will promote healthy brain development. It’s a matter of preventing this increase in autism, ADHD and depression. It’s also a matter of optimizing the human potential.
Of most importance, provide the guidance as part of the normal school curriculum—not as a whole class, but give it the attention it deserves. The brain makes use of large amounts of fatty acids, especially the omega-3’s. Those would be docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) acid. Yes, I actually know these by heart . . . literally! Whereas palmitic acid found in high concentrations among animal products is neurodegenerative (nicht gut!), Omega-3’s form many of the compounds the brain needs to function and grow. It becomes essential to know these fatty acid chains just as well as the ABC’s. In fact, the best sources of fats are represented by the mnemonic FFOCN. That’s right! The FFOCN healthiest fats are in Fish, Flax, Olive Oil, Canola Oil and Nuts.
What about the herbs Gingko and Gotu Kola just to name a few? Perhaps you call this stuff alternative medicine. I like to call it evolutionary medicine since it fits within the product of 800 million years of mammalian evolution. Ensuring that every growing brain has what it needs should lessen the impact of the mental and behavioral problems plaguing our schools as well as create an overall better tabula rasa upon which to write new memories. It’s about optimizing human potential, and we must embody the notion that mental acuity and displayed behaviors are firmly rooted in neural processes.
Food for thought! We have one of the most powerful resources on nutrition right here in Oregon. NCNM is the oldest naturopath school in the country. Why not access the nutritional expertise at this school to make a DVD or a presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint® that could be available to all the students of Oregon? Let’s try something new this century using all the new knowledge we have about the human body and brain. Let’s teach the next generation of parents what items would support healthy brain activity so the next generation coming to Oregon’s schools will have a dynamic sponge.
Parva scintilla magnam flamam excitat
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7:09 p.m.
May 22, '09
In the video at minute 3:26 the MD mentions a certain heart arrhythmia. It's something I battled with since the age of 23 and left me damn near bed ridden for six months. Once I started taking fish oils, I was able to resume my normal life. I sense the arrhythmia at times, but it's mild at best. I've tried many kinds of supplements, but the one sold at New Season's gives me the greatest benefit since it also includes a fair amount of gamma-linolenic acid, an Omega-6. It's Nature's Way 3-6-9 and it can also be found online through various websites.
May 22, '09
I agree with the science, though some would say its provisional. I think it comes down to if you're a chemist or not, and we tend to buy it.
Anyway, an interesting aside, given the requirements you detail, is that you can't get that on the open savanna in Africa. So, how did we grow our brains? That is the major impetus for the "aquatic ape" hypothesis, though its theoretical elegance is grossly ignored, imho.
I've not seen anything done on looking at neural maturation, vis a vis the hypothesis. It is interesting that our neonatal, unmyelinated (love it when I spell a word right the spell checker doesn't know) cortical neurons allow for a complete, functioning swimming reflex. At about 6 months average, the fatty sheaths begin to cover the afferent neurons, and when the process is complete, at about one year, swimming is accomplished only through voluntary, muscular control, and has to be learned. Most infant drowning deaths occur in that 5-9 month changeover period.
So...how's about, as a way to implement this new education vision, making swimming as accessible to students as softball? Why not start by sucking daycare of infants into the school system and teaching them to swim during that changeover stage, which learning is easy and effective. You extend education to every child, literally, and you start off with health as the focus.
Actually, I can go even further out with how promoting swimming is good education. As primates, there is still a very deep relationship between our balance and our intelligence. Languages still use balance metaphors to connote intelligence. Astronauts will tell you that seeing the earth from space will first make you nauseous, then raise your IQ. I have a pet theory that simply floating leads to greater synthesis and processing of the data we encounter. It's kind of like Gomez Addams hanging upside down when he's thinking about something.
I think Jacques Cousteau put it best. He had always had a dream of flying, a recurring dream. When he learned to dive, he no longer had the dream. Why did we dream so long of flying like the birds? Which brings us to what most will think of this idea. It makes more sense than pep rallies!
9:45 p.m.
May 22, '09
Max,
Omega-3's can be found in a lot of different foods. Next time you go to the grocery store, take notice of the eggs being marketed as high in Omega-3's. The chickens are being fed grains and grasses that contribute to the chicken's having a higher concentration of Omega-3's circling around their bodies. Most foods with fat in them have a variety of fatty acid chains, not just one. So if you had to ask how pray tell did Africans on the Serengeti get their Omega-3's, I would venture to guess Ostrich eggs.
May 22, '09
That's an interesting idea, but I have trouble seeing it as a consistent source, over thousands of years, as opposed to fish. At the rate that the brain grew between Austrolopithecines and hominids (not saying that's a direct line, just using the time scale), you need a lot of omega acids, and you need them consistently, no?
It's not mentioned in the theory, but one of the reasons I like it is that I've always had a major mental block imagining the evolution of bipedal locomotion. Maybe it's seeing the classic sequence on "The Ascent of Man", but those in-between phases bother me. For an adaptation to be passed on, it has to be advantageous. The problem with bipedal locomotion is all those obviously inefficient transitional stages. It smacks of Aristotelian final causality, where the object falls to earth because it seeks it natural final resting place. It's like those intermediate stages are supposed to know they're heading towards something great and muck on through. But that's not how evolution works.
Alternatively, entering the water gives you instant incentive to stand up, and allows for a slow transition, without impacting locomotive efficiency much.
There's also the evidence from the fossil record. There were lots of hominids. If you knew that only one branch would survive, you would never have picked ours. In fact, the remarkable point is that based on robustness and head to head survivability, our branch was arguably the least likely to survive. That's the motivation to take to the water. Then, hiding out in our last resort, we started eating seafood and our brains grew. Makes more sense than, for no apparent reason, we survived. Must have been smart. We always like that hypothesis.
And why is it that the earliest human settlements are always on lakeshores? Why not like planet of the apes and be tree houses? It is also remarkable, having worked in an NICU and a zoo, how much fat human babies have at birth! Many accept that water birthing is more natural for all kinds of unlikely reasons. How about that it's how we evolved? If I'm right about fear of other hominids, water birthing would be a good survival strategy. The only prob. would be the loss of heat. And coincidentally our infants are well insulated.
So, does this mean you don't think swimming instruction could be the wedge issue to reform education?
May 22, '09
Alternatively, entering the water gives you instant incentive to stand up,
It also makes it much easier to stand up!
May 23, '09
Hey, we can save our schools and stimulate Oregon industry by providing Super Blue-Green Algae in cafeteria meals!
May 23, '09
Medicine as we've known it these past few years is "alternative" medicine. Medicine as I and my ancestors have practiced for thousands of years is "traditional" or "evolutionary" medicine.
And if you crumple a leave or two of Klamath Wort - known to whities as ST John's - into the water it will do wonders for your attitude.
May 23, '09
Why brain nutrition could empower our schools
Whether brain nutrition could empower our schools or not is of secondary importance. Of primary importance is what our schools teach - or fail to teach.
What if Elite Colleges Are Promoting a Culture of Selfish, Cutthroat Behavior?
Then, there are the so-called "best and brightest" who Chris Hedges recently explained on Truthdig got us into the Vietnam quagmire. As those of us who have been paying attention have noted there is the recent crop of "best and brightest" that got us into the Iraq quagmire and are in the process of digging more holes in Afghanist-nam and Pakist-nam.
If schools fail to teach history and its relevance, ethics, the great classics of literature, etc., then they are likely to violate the Hippocratic oath and do more harm than good.
May 23, '09
Looks like the links are on the fritz again. This is the link to Elite Colleges Are Promoting a Culture of Selfish, Cutthroat Behavior and We Are All Paying the Price - http://www.alternet.org/story/140202/elite_colleges_are_promoting_a_culture_of_selfish%2C_cutthroat_behavior_and_we_are_all_paying_the_price/
May 24, '09
We have one of the most powerful resources on nutrition right here in Oregon. NCNM is the oldest naturopath school in the country. Why not access the nutritional expertise at this school
With all due respect to the author, some of us have concluded that homeopathy, one of the central elements of naturopathic practice, is--no way to put this mildly--a fraud akin to 19th century snake-oil salesmanship. "Since homeopathic remedies generally contain few to zero pharmacologically active ingredients, they are generally thought to have no effect beyond placebo by mainstream medical practitioners. Modern homeopaths have proposed that water has a memory that allows homeopathic preparations to work without any of the original substance; however, the physics of water are well understood, and no known mechanism permits such a memory."
I'm happy to listen to nutritional expertise, but snake oil sales pitches, not so much.
May 24, '09
Mr Hagen,
You seem to have a well-placed concern about our education system. But the issues you emphasize really does bespeak the self-indulgence in the lack of maturity, balance, and critical thinking that so afflicts us in the NW liberal, progressive (call it whatever is the fashion of the day) community.
I would be quite interested in reading your comments on this:
Pro-Copyright Propaganda Enters US Classrooms http://torrentfreak.com/pro-copyright-propaganda-enters-us-classrooms-090522/
and industry attempts to place propaganda in our schools in an attempt to undermine the scholarly work of Lawrence Lessig.
To lend some additional perspective, you might consider referencing your discussion to efforts by similar, earlier efforts by the Software Publisher's Association in the early-1990s to influence the curricula at higher education institutions, and which they later (1992) attempted to introduce in popular culture through the "Don't Copy That Floppy" campaign and video.
(BTW, How instrumental do you think the Apache Software Foundation, GNU, Linux, and the open source software world as been to your ability to communicate and otherwise realize your goals and ambitions?)
May 24, '09
You might be interested in my recently published book Evolution Rx which looks at how modern medicine can learn from our several million year long history of evolutionary adaptations. Brain growth is just one of the topics covered. Bill Meller MD
10:40 a.m.
May 24, '09
Well, look at the mindset behind letting Coca Cola and other major companies peddle their garbage at our schools . . . because they give money back to the schools???
So we get a kickback for selling off the health of our children one carbonic acid beverage at a time. Schools need to be insulated from corporate interests. From my own experience, because of decreased funding for colleges, corporate donations hang over the faculty at business schools.
I mean they literally hang over the faculty whether from cork boards listing top donors or metal logos bolted to the wall. Screw entrepreneurship I guess. Long live what's relevant for the mega corporation!
May 24, '09
I find it very curious that the body of this post promotes NCNM, and yet the highlighted video is of an MD, not an ND. Perhaps allopaths (MDs) know a bit about nutrition too?