Brain Longevity

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http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm?ID=880

Interview With Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. by By: RoderickImmuneSupport.com01-01-1999 It's a fact that while most health-conscious people work out to keep their bodies in shape, they rarely consider doing anything to keep their brains physically fit. "The brain is flesh and blood," says Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. "Because of neglect, people's brains can eventually wear out." Khalsa says that the damage is undetectable at first. But when people hit age fifty, they often realize that their mental powers have slipped. They've run up against what Khalsa dubs the "memory barrier." "The brain has an incredible ability to regain lost power and mental abilities, if you give it a chance. Where there's life, there's hope," he says. Khalsa, a Tucson, Arizona anesthesiologist and acupuncturist, is the author of "Brain Longevity: The Breakthrough Medical Program that Improves Your Mind and Memory," (Warner Books, May 1997). (Please see book review on page tk.) As it happens, Dr. Khalsa is the secretary of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the founder and director of the Tucson, Arizona-based Alzheimer's Prevention Foundation. He specializes in remedying various types of cognitive impairment, including age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) and Alzheimer's Disease. While Alzheimer's occurs due to the death of brain cells and the depletion of the brain's chemical messengers, the neurotransmitters, AAMI causes less damage to the brain. The cause of it is also the depletion of neurotransmitters, but most people with it never develop Alzheimer's. Although someone with AAMI might forget his best friend's phone number, he'll still remember to look it up in the telephone book or ask a mutual friend for the number. The early-stage Alzheimer's patient may be completely baffled about how to solve this problem, as he usually experiences a more "global decline," Khalsa explains. "Many of my middle-aged patients are shocked by the loss of memory and other cognitive functions that they are experiencing," Khalsa says. "People who are in the prime of their lives often hit the "memory barrier," and fear that they've burned out and are getting Alzheimer's." Fortunately for them, Khalsa knows how to help remedy age-related mental decline. "Some of my Alzheimer's patients have even partially restored lost mental abilities." Employing his four-pronged brain longevity program, Khalsa has also helped patients suffering from CFIDS, FM, and other similarly debilitating conditions. "Over the years I've successfully treated chronically ill patients whom other doctors had sentenced as hopeless-- or terminal," he says. Khalsa also reports that he has reversed cognitive dysfunction in people with brain damage due to head injuries. "One patient of mine was a young woman with a severe head injury. She progressed from being almost completely disabled to healing well enough so that she could attend graduate school." Khalsa's brain longevity program involves an individually tailored combination of diet, exercise, meditation and supplements, which sometimes include hormone replacement therapy. "Along with helping CFIDS and FM patients through prescribing an individually tailored complex carbohydrate/low fat/ moderate protein diet," he says, "I might also treat them with supplements that enhance cognitive function such as gingko biloba, a mineral tablet containing vitamin B, vitamin E, Co-enzyme Q10, and others. A customized exercise program plus stress management, meditation and mind/body exercises, are also integral to the program." So are prescription drugs and vitamins, if blood tests indicate that levels of hormones or other vital substances are significantly low. According to Khalsa, the notropic drug piracetam, developed in Belgium, used in Europe yet unapproved by the FDA, is useful for its mild stimulating action, which enhances brain energy without releasing norepinephrine, which can make the user feel speedy. "Piracetam helps patients who have mild to serious memory impairment, dyslexia, and oxygen starvation of the brain," Khalsa notes. "The most unusual and intriguing aspect of piracetam is its apparent ability to better "connect" the two hemispheres of the brain. For reasons that researchers do not fully understand, piracetam seems to improve the function of the corpus callosum, the network of nerve fibers that coordinates the functions of the left and right hemispheres." Because it promotes good communication and cooperation between the two hemispheres, piracetam is appreciated by creative people such as artists and writers, who report that it increases their creativity. "Conceptually this makes sense," Khalsa asserts. Creativity is closely linked to effective coordination of the "logical left brain" and the "emotional right brain." The main key to managing a chronic illness such as chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia, Khalsa maintains, is "getting on a mind/body program, a multi-modal program." Why? Because doing so invariably promotes physical regeneration and the development of self-awareness. Oftentimes, the outcome involves quantum improvements in mental, physical and spiritual well-being. "Herbert Benson MD's clinical research has found that people on a mind/body or complementary medicine program became more healthy and more spiritually developed," Khalsa observes. "They're developed in the sense that they know themselves better and know the "God" within them." It's worth noting that Benson's findings and Khalsa's views on the healing power of spirituality are echoed in medical literature and such recent books as Larry Dossey, MD's "Prayer Is Good Medicine." This bestseller reports medically documented instances where prayer has apparently healed severe acute and chronic illnesses. In addition, Khalsa himself is on a spiritual as well as healing path: he is a Sikh who has studied more than two thousand yogic exercises over the past seventeen years. "The neurons in your brain are hot wired for you to feel healing energy," Khalsa claims. "The cosmic flow of healing energy is there for you to feel if you pray with it, for it, to it." In his treatment of fibromyalgia patients, Khalsa says, "The biggest, most unique challenge for them is to engage in the exercise part of the program. They need to take part fully in the program or they won't reap maximum health benefits. But because they're in pain," he continues, "they avoid it, and I don't blame them." Nevertheless, Khalsa explains, "...researchers believe that fibromyalgia involves a brain chemical imbalance. Therefore, whether the exercise is cardiovascular, yoga or meditation, this can help re-balance endorphins and serotonin, which makes the brain function more effectively." Re-balancing the brain this way often relieves many of "the painful physical and emotional symptoms of the illness, which include insomnia and depression." Most important, "exercise can help fibromyalgia patients enjoy a good night's sleep, which most of them so desperately need." Khalsa has also successfully treated similar debilitating diseases such as polymyositis, a condition where the immune system attacks the muscle cells, and eosinophilic myalgic syndrome. This is a condition where certain white blood cells infiltrate the muscles, causing tremendous pain and an inability for them to contract. In addition to feeling horrible weakness, the patient suffers mental anguish due to memory loss and varying degrees of disorientation. "I once had a patient," Khalsa recalls, "who developed eosinophilic myalgic syndrome after taking tainted tryptophan. She was extremely weak, totally disabled, unable to continue working as a nurse and hospital administrator," he says. "She was experiencing horrific pain, along with brain fog and memory loss, so she was understandably depressed." This patient committed herself to the brain longevity program, however, and began steadily improving after a matter of weeks. A few years later, "This woman has been functioning normally now for years and runs a business out of her house," Khalsa says. "She recently organized and oversaw the building of a new home. She's not debilitated anymore." On top of that, he adds, "She's more self-actualized, she knows herself better and is enjoying life a lot more than she was before her illness. In her case, there was a silver lining to the cloud of her illness." While Khalsa acknowledges that "CFIDS and FM are mysterious in origin and hugely difficult diseases to live with over time," he stresses that there are proven ways to help manage them. While diet, exercise, meditation and health supplements are the pillars of his program, Dr. Khalsa notes that some CFIDS and FM sufferers may be too weak or impoverished to follow his guidelines. These kinds of patients, however, can still benefit from sustained sessions of long, slow, deep breathing. "Even if it's only for five minutes," he says, "careful, deep, measured breathing helps oxygenate the body and increase blood flow to the brain. And even if you're confined to a bed, you can do this several times over the course of a day to exercise your mind and body," he says. "You'll not only feel better physically, but you'll feel a sense of accomplishment because you're doing something really positive and beneficial for yourself." Dr. Khalsa is presently writing his second book, "Feeling Great: The Pain Is Gone, How To Activate Your Body's Natural Healing Force For a New Life Without Pain." His new text includes an array of inspirational patient stories and case histories. If anyone has a CFIDS, fibromyalgia, or other medical story they'd like to submit for possible publication in his book, please send it to Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., 11901 E. Coronado, Tucson, Arizona, 85749. Or transmit it via fax #: (520) 749-2669. Via e-mail, zip it to: drdharma@....