ADD And Depression And Chronic Pain, Etc - User Manual For Humans S1 E06 - Dr Ekberg

excited to launch the sixth part six piece of User Manual for Humans and

I'm always amused when people in what's the topic because then in their mind

they're going over and saying well if it's such a topic then I'm interested

but if it's such a topic I'm not and then they really miss the point of

holism because everything that we talk about really is the same thing but we

just use different words and we're approaching it from different directions

but there really is just one topic in holism it's how does the stuff work and

how do we make it work better today we'll talk about ad depression and

chronic pain etc etc because that's that's just the tip of the iceberg

there's so much more that that is part of the same mechanism and what is the

common denominator we'll get to that in a few slides but just some brain basics

we're going to talk about brain cells and we'll go into a little bit more

detail than we have before and bear with me because that lays the foundation so

that you understand the bigger picture as we finish up brain cells are called

neurons they make up 2% of your body mass

but they use 20% of your energy 20% of the blood in the body is sent to the

brain so that means that the brain cells are doing a whole lot of work because

that's the purpose of blood is to provide energy for work so that means

that the brain is actually a very very busy B that the brain cells are doing a

whole lot more work than the average cell and what is the work that they do

they process electrical signals that's what they do and we're going to call

that we're going to put a unit on it millivolts it's a current of electricity

and we'll talk about that in a bit so there's a few concept we'll cover there

resting membrane potential summation and inhibition and facilitation we'll we'll

get to that so don't get scared by the fancy words some more brain basics at

Birth the brain weighs about 340 grams that's 12 ounces and the adult brain

weighs about 1450 grams or 3 pounds so from birth to adulthood the brain

increases in weight four times and yet both have about a hundred billion

neurons they have the same number of brain cells at Birth as we do as adults

so what's the difference well you're born with all the neurons but

as you start learning as you start behaving as you start interacting with

your environment those neurons are trying out your environment by trial and

error making synapses they're sending out

little connections and as they make more and more connections you start making

neural networks and the difference in weight is the synapses okay each brain

cell makes that's on the next slide each neuron makes about 4,000 to 10,000

connections and all of those connections all those wires is what makes the

difference in the weight so when people talk about gray matter they're talking

about the brain cell itself and when they're talking about white matter

they're talking about a white insulation that covers those threats those wires

because we're dealing with the electrical circuitry so we want to make

sure that we have good insulation and that's what the white matter is so if

you think about this now every skill that you have every habit that you have

and everything that you will ever learn were forget is a network of synapses so

as you learn you make new synapses as you as a skill falls out of favor as you

stop doing something you just simply stop reinforcing those synapses and if

you don't use them you lose them but as you acquire new skills it's through

making new synapses and these connections are ever-changing

throughout your life they're always changing you can be 90 years old and you

can still learn new things that's because you can still make new synapses

your brain can change regardless of your age and it does this at any age next

resting membrane potential so here we have to understand something about brain

cells this is an inherent property in brain cells that over on the left side

of the scale it says 50 and 60 those are millivolts so let's say that the

membrane potential the difference in charge between inside and outside of the

cell is 50 millivolts just like a battery and if you get to 55 nothing

will happen but once you get to 60 hypothetically speaking I just picked

that number then everything breaks loose all at once it's an all-or-nothing

response so that cell has an action potential all the gates flood open and

everything happens all at once that's the only way you can get a brain cell to

react before you reach that level of action potential nothing happens so this

is really really important to understand and when you look at the next diagram

number five so this looks a bit complicated but I'll I'll explain it to

you so these are five different cells five

different brain cells a B C D and E in the middle and they all

have different synapses the little strand that looks like a Y there that's

a synapse and the synapse can be inhibit inhibitive or facilitative it means it

can turn something on which means it contributes a plus or it can inhibit

something which means it subtracts and what is it subtract and add to that

resting membrane potential okay so the activity of a brain cell the perception

of a brain cell is determined by other brain cells and remember we have a

hundred billion of these and they each make about four to ten thousand synapses

so can you see that that can get pretty complex by the time you had a few

thousand connections so let's look at this we have cell number e it's resting

membrane potential is 50 millivolts and we know that if something makes it reach

60 then it's going to fire off an action potential before it gets to 60 nothing

happens so we have cell a cell a is an inhibitory cell it sends a -6 charge to

that cell so now that cell is that is at 44

so it's further away from firing so the responsiveness of cell E has been

dampened we look at Selby it adds 5 so now we're on a net minus 1 and we're at

49 so we're still a little bit further away

and then we have cell C which adds and we have cell V which subtracts and then

we have on the left side we have an incoming signal and that represents an

incoming signal from the body so let's say that you stub your toe and that

represents a signal plus 10 now whether this brain cell receives the message

determine is determined by the other brain cells if the sum total adds up to

60 or not it makes sense so this is how the brain creates stability because if a

brain cell is really really close to firing then just about anything is going

to send it off and those are people who are hypersensitive to things okay if the

resting membrane potential is too low then that brain cell is very

unresponsive so that would be a person who is less responsive than they than

they need to be in many regards so the functioning nervous system front

works to automatically find the ideal level but in order for this to happen we

need to use the brain cells and we need to keep these networks active so that's

where chiropractic and exercise and activation of the system comes in

that's why I keep nagging about exercise and about doing things right any

questions so far okay everything's making sense

very good now we get to the really cool stuff as it turns out in order to

provide stability in the body most of the brain output is to turn things off

its inhibitory because otherwise the system would just kind of run rampant

and and get out of control because brain cells are designed to fire so we need to

kind of keep them in check and develop some balance therefore most brain cells

are inhibitory the vast majority so what is it that the brain inhibits and when

we talk about brain we're talking about the cortex that's the outer portion the

stuff that looks like a walnut so the four things that it inhibits and this

sounds like mumbo-jumbo and we'll just run through it and we'll get back to it

there's four forms of inhibition number one is it inhibits anterior flexor

muscles above T 6 that's basically the middle of the body and it turns off

inhibits posterior flexors below T 6 secondly it inhibit

the inhibition and I'll explain that of anterior horn cells three it inhibits

your mi ml that is your stress response forth in inhibits secondary stimuli okay

so that there's kind of outlined so so you can have them in one place

and we'll cover each of them and and why this is some of the coolest stuff that

you have ever seen so the first one inhibition of anterior flexors and

posterior flexor z' this is what allows us to be upright to be biped rather than

quadruped ed and this is one of the most recent developments in in evolution if

you will that humans have a different brain than four-legged animals and that

brain the cortex is more developed and most of that creativity of that cortex

actually goes to regulate how we function as two-legged creatures so

here's how it works if you look at and then this is one of my favorite records

by the way this is Supertramp and they have this illustration that I borrowed

so when when something is bent forward and the arms are turned in and back that

that's a flexible flexor posture if you think about how babies are born they are

if you put a baby down do they lie straight and flat or do they kind of

pull up like a rubber band their legs fall out and they pull up are their arms

really nice and straight or are their arms kind of pulled in right because

they haven't developed these reflexes to that and what happens to older people as

their brain activity decreases then they start getting more crooked and going

back into this posture again okay so what is inhibition of anterior flexors

it basically means that it's the muscles of the shoulder and arm that in order

for them to hang straight and for you to be upright then those need to be turned

on what happens in a stroke when someone has a physical brain lesion that just

kills off a whole bunch of brain cells so they lose that inhibition then that

shoulder will pull in the arm will Bend and the hand will flex this is called a

decorticate means you disconnected the cortex decorticate posture and you can

look at any sort of report on brain trauma and you'll see things like that

so we can look at someone's posture and we can see which part of the brain is is

weaker if someone is standing like this and their hand left hand turns in like

that we know that's the weaker side of their cortex because it doesn't have the

same strength to inhibit those those movements all right if someone also has

has a stroke what you see on the on the posterior portion is we lose the

inhibition of posterior flexors so their foot is going to turn out and they're

going to come and stand like this okay so those those are the little

simple things to that you can look for but basically that inhibition is what

determines our ability to be upright and walk around and this is also why posture

is so important because when you have a stress response that you're

disconnecting the cortex and you're having less inhibition so what do

wrestlers and boxers look like okay they're in a defense mode so they turn

they activate their their flexors by turning off that inhibition so anyone

who's threatened is going to look like this anyone who is at peace will look

like this so that means when people get really

tense they do this so that means when you try to relax when you try to make

your brain work better you can help out by finding a better posture it works

both ways all right next inhibition of the IML

that's a fancy word stands for intermediate lateral cell column and

that is basically where all the cell bodies that give live they give rise to

the sympathetic nervous system so those are the actual physical things that get

rise to a stress response and the brain inhibits those cells so what does that

mean it means that whenever you have a stress

response that's going to kick in automatically to save your life because

you don't have time to think about it whenever something surprises you you go

on full alert immediately but with a high functioning cortex that can quickly

turn off that stress response and balance your body again

the week of rain will not be able to turn that off so quickly so that's why a

lot of people stay in a stressed state for a longer period of time that's when

we run the math testing here the people that have the best functioning brain you

do the math and you have you tell them to relax and they settle right back down

but the the better the brain works the faster you'll turn back off and if it's

not working so well then that stress response just goes on and on and on okay

so there's a reason that we do that stuff

so basically obviously this is hugely important the ability to turn off the

stress response because that's everything we've talked about in

previous sessions all the diseases your healing response to digestion blood

pressure cortisol all those things the the brain ultimately the cortex is what

turns off that stress response okay it's why you to turn it off but first that

the brain has to be strong and functioning and this is huge the wording

is funny inhibition of inhibition of anterior horn cells so what does the

anterior horn cell do that's in your spinal cord there's a place called an

anterior org and in that answer ORN that's the cells that send out signals

to your muscles that determine muscle tone and because you don't want your

muscles to be in a spasm because you want some regulation there's a default

inhibition there's a built-in turn-off in the spinal cord of those of those

cells so when we want to turn on those muscles the basic muscle tone then the

cortex turns off those cells that turn off the motor response so a minus and a

minus becomes a plus essential the brain determines the muscle tone in

your body the cortex is what senses and regulates that basic muscle tone so what

does that mean basically at the simplest level the muscle tone determines your

reaction time so if someone is walking and stumbles if you have a good high

muscle tone you will catch yourself very very quickly if you have a really slow

really low muscle tone and a really slow reaction time your face is going to hit

the floor before you know it and this is why elderly have so many Falls that's

why they're so unstable because their brain reacts so slowly that they don't

know that they're falling because before they're halfway to the ground okay and

I've looked up some statistics from the center of Disease Control and Falls are

the number one cause of injury death in people over 65 there's over 18,000

deaths a year there's 2.2 million Falls going to the

emergency room every year out of those five hundred eighty-one thousand are

hospitalized 40% of those admitted to a hospital or nursing home will never

return to independent living and 25% of them will die within a year so the

18,000 those are the ones that die as an immediate result of the fall but there's

another couple of hundred thousand the die within a year has result of that

fall this is pretty big stuff this is pretty devastating and when is the best

time to to develop your your skills to avoid falling right now or when you're

65 right it's an ongoing process that strength of the brain is something

that we develop and maintain and build over a lifetime and this is where we get

to the real topic of today and this is equally huge inhibition of secondary

stimuli this is the ability to focus because in order for you to listen to me

rather than the Thunder outside do you have to actively spend brain energy

brain calories to block those signals those signals are hitting your nervous

system but you choose hopefully to turn those off and listen to me and that is

the ability to focus the brain has to turn off secondary stimuli in order for

you to do that because otherwise you could never choose what to focus on

everything would get you equally and that's what happens to people with

really bad ad they try to listen and then something happens and their

attention is over here and then it's over here and then it's over here and

then it's with their thoughts and it's out the window and what am I going to do

next and oh I'm supposed to be here the brain does not have that strength to

maintain an inhibition of secondary stimuli

and this holds true for everything else that that we leave in a cover libel will

do this pretty quick here depression is nothing more than a

tendency to think depressing thoughts that sounds real simple I mean it's not

easy once you're in that mode because it's a self-serving loop but that is

really all it is it is about it's a tendency to think depressing thoughts

and your cortex does not have the ability to go in and interrupts that

pattern so depression and literally means depressed brain function that's

what it is and therefore you get depressed emotions and you feel really

bad and you want to kill yourself and so forth same thing with anxiety anxiety

attacks it's a tendency to pick up and in

ability to block anxious thoughts and things that you don't want to pay

attention to focus on at one level it's it's purely the ability of the brain

function the ability of the brain and the second level it's a practice just

like everything else that we have to practice

do you practice depressing thoughts or do you practice happy thoughts because

most people don't realize they have a choice and you do most people think that

they are obligated to focus on what's in front of them and read the news and

listen to people to complain but that's that short term you have a choice and

that's what determines the balance same thing with chronic pain and if you

remember the summation diagram pain is not an absolute thing pain we think that

oh will the pain it hurts in my foot and my brain is perceiving the pain we think

intuitively that's an absolute thing because the pain is so real to us but if

we have enough inhibitory signals inhibitory synapses on the brain cell

perceiving the pain the brain can choose to feel the pain or not and therefore

pain is not a real thing and that's why depressed people get have more pain to

have more chronic pain and people who fibromyalgia same thing anger similar

principle it's an inability to inhibit impulses of anger social norms this is

good one if you think about how we behave in in social environments we we

have we think that oh well it's it's obvious we we all know what appropriate

behavior is but babies they cry in public they scream they have tantrums

they make a scene why because they do not have that they don't have developed

the brain capacity to inhibit those impulses as we get older we develop the

ability to inhibit it and now we know what's inappropriate or not but at the

brain level that is exactly what what what's happening the brain is what

inhibits that and sometimes people with strokes they strike out that portion

that inhibits that and they completely lose their social manners they they're

intelligent they can function in many ways and all of a sudden they start

cursing and yelling in public or at their loved ones often this happens with

with Alzheimer's as well and it's not an absolute thing

it's the brain's ability to inhibit that behavior we all have those impulses but

the brain keeps them in check when things are working

why do teens act so stupid why are they so reckless why do they kill themselves

on the road because the brain is not fully developed the frontal lobe which

inhibits this stuff is not fully developed until age 25 so the 16 year

old it gets the driver's license they do not have a mature brain so when someone

says Oh drive through that red light he thinks that's a good idea occasionally

some some of the more more stupid ones but it's it's an inability to inhibit

that type of behavior and it's an it's an undeveloped sometimes you'll have I

mentioned that with with Alzheimer's or strokes that older people all of a

sudden start losing their social manners they start cursing they start yelling

they start having outburst and it's the brain is too weak to dampen those

impulses starting to get the picture and a lot of what we call aging is nothing

more than a gradually degenerating brain that doesn't have the ability to to

manage and monitor this so let's just run this off and again I appreciate you

coming in here as you see we haven't talked about back pain we haven't talked

about bone out of place putting pressure on a nerve most people who go to a

chiropractor they look up chiropractor in the phone book or on the internet

they look for those things but that's not what kind of practice is about once

you start seeing the bigger picture the last slide I label it back pain smack

pain it's like in the bigger context yes of course if you suffer back pain that's

important but that's such a tiny little piece of what this is about it's about

function is about life quality and it's about joy at all ages so when someone

comes in with pain yes we want to help them feel better but the pain is always

an indicator of something else that isn't working and what is it that's not

working if we understand the body properly we know that the brain

regulates everything in the body so if there's a problem in the body if there's

an imbalance in the body there's always an imbalance in the brain first unless

it's a an acute trauma that we can identify everything else starts in the

brain first so when we fix the pain we make something work better in the brain

but that brain also regulates everything else that we talked about so if we make

the pain go away and we make that work better that means that we increase their

likelihood of not falling we increase the likelihood of not getting high

we've reduced their tendency for EDD and anti-social behavior we increase their

ability for for a joyous life but it doesn't happen in a couple of visits and

I know I was preaching to the choir here but that that's the bigger picture so

again I thank you very much for coming and we hope to see you back next time

and please bring someone that you care about that needs to know this stuff

thank you