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Basic InformationLatest NewsEven a Little Light in Your Bedroom Could Harm HealthWant Respect at Work? Ditch the EmojisAs Clocks Spring Forward, Keep Sleep on TrackSleep Experts Call for End to Twice-a-Year Time ChangesHigh Anxiety: Poll Finds Americans Stressed by Inflation, WarAHA News: Ready to 'Spring Forward'? Ease Into the Time Change With These 9 Health TipsSome Americans Gained Better Habits During Pandemic, Poll FindsStressed Out by Ukraine News? 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Here's What You're Doing Right - and WrongPandemic Worsening Americans' Already Terrible Sleep, Poll Finds​AHA News: Fine-Tune Your Health With These 5 Music IdeasAHA News: Healthy Living Could Offset Genetics and Add Years Free of Heart DiseaseCould Everyday Plastics Help Make You Fat?Take These Winter Workout Tips to HeartStay Safe When Winter Storms Cut Your PowerAHA News: Sound the Fiber Alarm! Most of Us Need More of It in Our DietExtra 10 Minutes of Daily Activity Could Save 110,000 U.S. Lives AnnuallyWinter Blues? It Could Be SADOrdering Groceries Online? Good Luck Finding Nutrition InfoBinge-Watching Could Raise Your Blood Clot RiskDon't Snow Shovel Your Way to a Heart AttackCelebrities' Social Media Promotes Junk Food, Often for FreeZoom Meeting Anxiety Doesn't Strike EveryoneDid Adding Calorie Counts to Restaurant Menus Make Meals Healthier?AHA News: Here's to a Fresh Start With Whatever You Do in '22Do You Have 'COVID-somnia'? 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Guillotiners Ahead! - Identifying and Protecting Yourself From Expediency-Driven Guillotiners4 Steps to ForgivenessForgiveEnjoy the Little ThingsAn Interview with Margaret Moore, B.S., M.B.A., on Organize Your Mind, Organize Your LifeCultivating Everyday Spiritual ExperiencesMinimize Painful ExperiencesConscientiousness and a Happier, Longer LifeTraining the Self-Care HabitFriends And MarriageRelax, You've ArrivedHow to Be Emotionally Aware - No Cat Ears RequiredHappiness, Sandwiches and George CarlinPeeling the Onion—Uncovering Our Wounds in TherapyHugging is Good MedicineHold Wants LightlySelf-Advocacy vs. Hypochondria: Where Do We Draw the Line?Trust Yourself and Take Some Baby StepsA Unified Theory of Happiness: Interview with Andrea Polard Psy.D.Why Support is Important for Dealing with Food, Weight + Body Image Issues Let It GoRule-Bound Adjustment is Deadening - Rule-Flexible Adaptiveness is EnliveningRest Your Weary HeadInclining Your Mind to Happiness: Just 5 ThingsThe Importance of Family Pets, Grieving the Loss of my Best Friend, Bonnie Exercise: Building the "Can Do" MuscleOur Obsession with "More"When Does Vicarious Trauma (VT) Become a Sign of Codependency? - Part IIGenerativity as a Path to WellnessWhy You Just Can't Stop Texting and DrivingGift YourselfWhen Does Vicarious Trauma (VT) Become a Sign of Codependency? - Part ICultivating Resilience before Mental Health Problems BeginA Mindful and Compassionate Approach to Anger in RelationshipsThe Essence of Healing, Governing, Service, Judgment and ContributionCreate Peace in YourselfThe Protective Effect of Having a Purpose in LifeEnjoy NowAre Mental Health Apps the New Generation of Self-Help Books?The Downside of ExpectationsIs Hating Someone Because They are Different a Mental Illness?Find What's SacredThich Nhat Hanh Shares Some Good NewsComplacency, Apathy and Resignation Be Banished and TransformedSuccessfully Negotiating the Crisis-Trauma, Grief-Transition Passage: Six Emo-Existential Questions The Benefits of Self-Questioning Part OneClean Air = Clear Thinking (Or How Pollution Undermines Cognitive Health)Having Trouble Exercising? 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The Seven Options Available For You In Any SituationBe Grateful for the Good and Graceful During the BadIn Challenging Times, No More “Inner Child”: Boldly Bring Your Inner ChutzpahPay AttentionThree Components of a Commitment: A Universal ToolWhen Calmness is a Trigger for Fear and How to Change itRetraining Your Brain Toward Greater FreedomThe Grammar of Committed Action: Speaking That Brings Forth BeingThe Strength and Stamina of Your Willpower Make a Valentine's ResolutionAn Interview with Gerti Schoen on The Gentle SelfThe Secret Ingredient to Making Change StickBe BenevolentWhen is Compassion Idiotic?Inspiring Power and Partnership: An Interactive and Interdependent PerspectiveCatch A "Wild Pitch?" You Must Be Kidding!Breaking Bad Habits Using The Now EffectDon't Beat Yourself UpAre Reasons Complete Nonsense? A Three-Minute Course Admit Fault and Move OnPositivity in Relationships is ContagiousA Simple Life Lesson for Us All: The Late Shirley LevineAn Interview with Brenda Knight on The Gratitude Power WorkbookPut Yourself on Your Priority ListCan You Live Without the Internet?It's Shocking How Little People Settle For, How Much They Put Up With and How Much Better They Deserve5 Tips on How to Keep New Years' ResolutionsElisha Goldstein’s Top 10 2011 Mental Help PostsBe the BodyA Tip for Happiness: Turn Routine into WonderHoliday Blues and Depression Single and Alone for the Holidays? 6 Strategies for Surviving and Even Thriving the Holidays AloneWithdraw Attention, Interest and Feeding Unhappy Thoughts,and Natural Happiness Arises and BlossomsBack to BasicsKnowledge is an Obstacle to KnowledgeEnjoy Every Last SandwichThe Impact of Exercise on Your Mental HealthSee the Good in OthersThis Thanksgiving Try the Mindful Gratitude PracticeWant a Healthier Life? 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The Answer is YesThe Architecture of All Change ProcessesSee Beings, Not BodiesDrop Tart ToneThe Top Seven Sources of Stress and Their RemediesLower the PressureReceive GenerosityBasics of Living: Breathing, Standing, Walking and Sitting: Safeguards of Well Being and Listening WithinAn Acronym that Guides us to Mental HealthBalancing Joining and Separation Keeping It Real — Do You Get It?You Can Feel Safer: Is There Really a Tiger in Those Bushes?Your Primary Spiritual Relationship - Love for YourselfAn Interview with Lama Tsering Everest21 Ways To Turn Ill Will to Good WillGROKKED: Being Seen, Heard and Known For Who You AreA Phrase to Save Your DayHow Did Humans Become Empathetic?Am I Normal?Dreams: More Than Fantasies and WishesThe Wolf of Hate7 Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Posts You Might Find InterestingSelf-Responsibility/Self-Accountability Qualifies You as an AdultTaking in The GoodAcknowledgment Transcends Pride and HumilityAltruism: The Power of Social MediaHealthy FriendshipCan you Improve Life Satisfaction by Changing Your Focus?Video Blog: Confidence3 Steps to Say Goodbye to Old Beliefs that Keep You StuckThe Brain in a Bucket Developing An Inner Meter on Manipulation — A Critical Life SkillFacebook: A Cold Hard LookLife: Bringing Back the Missing Puzzle PiecesWhy Do Smart and Successful People Do Dumb and Self-Sabotaging Things?What's Your 500 Year Plan for Humanity's Mental Health?My Beef with the "Secret"Beliefs, Roles and Stories Can Be Useful At Times or Create Suffering: Recognition, Disillusionment, Disidentification & Surrender is Freedom Itself Want to Make Change? 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by Gary L. Wenk Oxford University Press, 2010 Review by Shelly Marshall on May 18th 2011 
Why did witches once think they could fly? Why is it so hard to give up smoking? Why do muscles contract? Why do patients with Alzheimers have trouble paying attention to things that might harm them? And how did Coca Cola really get its name?
These might be questions that you didn't know you wanted answered, but once into Wenk's book, you will be answering all kinds of questions you didn't know you asked. This book is a delightful introduction to basic neuroscience, plant biology, and how drugs affect your brain which in turn affects your thinking and behaver.
Chapter One is the introduction and begins with a basic 101 lesson : anything you consume affects the way you think and feel. The brain contains over 100 known neuro-chemicals (and there are probably as many left to discover), and how substances, whether food, medicine or recreational drugs, influence the chemicals in your brain. The book is not a boring list of formulas and foreign words but rather an entertaining brief on what's happening in your noggin. And even if you do not understand everything the author writes (yes its complicated), you will leave with a few tidbits of knowledge that are sure to impress your friends.
Gary Wenk explains that plants produce the chemicals that affect our brains. The chemicals we call drugs. But drugs are not good or bad. They are nutrients, aka chemicals, nothing more or less. Yet, the author points out, plants produce chemicals that affect our brain only because we share an evolutionarily history. Because we evolved together, we have the ability to produce similar chemicals that inter react with each other from one celled amoebas to insects, plants, animals and homo sapien. However, in a Star Trek scenario, the chemicals that kill us (like venom from a cobra), probably would not kill a Martian because his neuro-transmitters evolved elsewhere and the venom most likely could not react with his bodily system.
Fat soluble "drugs" (remember that drugs are nutrients) enter the brain quickly like vitamins A, D, E, and K as well as coffee and nicotine, also fat soluble. Sugar is a powerful drug but then it would have to be as the brain cannot live for more than a few minutes without glucose. When sugar levels (glucose) decrease after a meal, you become hungry. The hunger has you seek out food that will feed the brain and hopefully that is something sweet.
The brain gets easily habituated to some nutrients like coffee and nicotine but we can never simplify the effects because drugs affect people in a complex way. For instance, when you have a fever, aspirin will bring it down, but it won't cool you off on a hot day.
Chapter Ones ends letting the reader know that this book is only a summery barely scratching the surface of what goes on in this brain of ours. Nevertheless you will learn more than you thought you wanted to know.
Chapter Two examines "Memories, Magic, and Addiction" and delves into poisonous plants that get you high! Exploring these toxic plants is a bit difficult because they are refereed to by their scientific names, common names and occasionally their nic names--following what chemical is what becomes a bit cumbersome if not highly entertaining. Wenk deals with henbane, jimsomweed, mandrake (the stuff of Harry Potter) and even deadly nightshade along with the mention of a snake or two.
The author gives a colorful account of how Voo Doo dolls work by playing on fears and expectations. Through a series of sympathetic nervous system triggers and other reflexes, a victim can appear to be dead, buried, and rise later, extremely annoyed at what has happened... all the makings of Zombie movies for Hollywood.
In a witty manner, the author continues with wild tales of of nude witches riding brooms under the influence of Datura and potash. He includes in his tales, stories of Amanita mushrooms and how the Vikings used them when invading Ireland. The psychoactive ingredients are very stable in this mushroom and can be used up to 4 times. That meant that Vikings undoubtedly drank the urine of one who used it and were able to get high for multiple battles on one dose! It makes one wonder who initially discovered this fact!
Chapter Two ended with a discussion on smoking and how nicotine is the most addictive drug currently used by humans. I can attest to that!
Can chemicals determine whether we are happy or sad?" Wenk asks in Chapter Three. The reader is then introduced to catecholamines that may in fact determine our emotions. The discussion of imported neurotransmitters began to lose me although the author does pepper the discussion with some interesting facts. But I am not a brain surgeon and this is not a textbook and there is only so much talk of norepinephrine, dopamine, tyrosine, levodopa, tyrosine hydroxylase, amino acids and cofactors that one can take in a single paragraph!
The reader does learn that it was suggested that Adolph Hitler's paranoia at the end of his reign was probably do to his amphetamine use. There are a number of plants in the wild that are amphetamine like from mahuong to khat, an African plant, and even a cactus called mescaline which of course will be well known to baby boomers.
Some spices also spice up the brain such as nutmeg which contains an ingredient not unlike mescaline. But alas it takes a whole can to produce a slight high and its use can cause psychosis accompanied by diarrhea. So who is using that! Other spices of interest would be saffron, fennel, dill, and cinnamon which also contain psychoactive substances.
An interesting tidbit for those in the medical field is that every drug of abuse somehow enhances the dopamine uptake in the brain.
Filtering and dealing with all the bombardment of sensory information mankind now lives with is covered in Chapter Four. So how do we anchor ourselves in reality with sights and sounds and feelings coming at us from everywhere? It is not well understood but serotonin seems to be the main neurotransmitter that dribbles into our brain during waking periods and keeps our feet planted firmly on earth.
Although not stated emphatically, spiritually minded people might not like the serotonin explanation of religiosity. Wenk tells us that "extravagant" religious behaviors are associated with shrinkage of the right hipppocampus! One might be offended when he writes, "...for lack of any more precise way to quantify these experiences, neuroscientists often describe religious phenomena in terms of neurobiological processes..." but then he narrowly redeems himself by writing that perhaps scientists are observing "the a brain's response to an actual communication from God!"
Chapter Five is a treatise to marijuana and how we have endocannabinoids in our own brains. Human brains have a large number of neurons that are affected by marijuana causing it to be nearly impossible to explain all that is going on with our brain on cannabis.
Chapter Six deals with GABA and how it turns on and off our neurons--which turns on and off parts of our brain. The effects of alcohol, barbiturates, bensodiazepines, and amino acids are explored.
Chapter Seven deals with sleeping and waking while Chapter Eight is a lesson on the evolutionary history of our neuopeptides and is the chapter that teaches about opiates and opiate-like neurotransmitters.
Chapter Nine is titled, "Brain Enhancement and Other Magical Beliefs" where Wenk destroys our cherished beliefs that somehow we can enhance the function of the brain as we age-- "it is impossible" he writes. I don't want to believe him. The products that we find on line that claim to do this are actually stimulants that enhance performance, not cognitive function. I still don't want to believe him. "Faster is not smarter," he points out.
Wenk takes away the promise of a truly anti-aging remedy for our brains. The very air we breathe, he says is aging us. Gingko Biloba and other plant extracts from herbologists only give us a placebo effect. Dastardly book, I say. You may not want to read it and have your hopes dashed--but then again, you might save a lot of money on "youth" potions.
Gary L. Wenk took a very complex subject and gave a playful yet informative account of how food (nutrients) affect our brains. Questions were asked that you didn't know you wanted answers to--and although you will have to read the book to find out what causes you to feel like you are being watched at times and why margarine might be good for the aging brain, I will tell you that Coca Cola did not (as is generally thought) get its name because it contained cocaine. Where did the name come from? You have an entertaining book to read to answer that one.
© 2011 Shelly Marshall
Shelly Marshall, B.S., CSAC is an Adolescent Chemical Dependency Specialist and Researcher. You can review her work at www.Day-By-Day.org and www.RespectMeRules.com |