Brain health and mass failure in Maths, English (2)

Many people do not look after their brains. They do not even remember it exists until they have a headache or their memory begins to fail. How can such people be expected to relate poor school performance or failure in examinations to poor brain nurture or food and ebbing brain health? I remember Mrs. Bikkesteth, my primary three class teacher in 1958 at St. Andrew’s Primary School, Ibara, Abeokuta. She forced the class to memorise the Bible verses such as Romans 12:17-21 irrespective of whether we had enough brain power to do so.

 Children who were slack about it padded their buttocks and back with extra clothing because Mrs. Bikkesteth was quick with the cane. Some other teachers were worse. Their punishment for slackness were heavy knocks of the knuckle on the head. They either didn’t know, or it didn’t matter to them that this traumatise an already irresponsive brain. So, many children of my generation dreaded school, hated some teachers and the subjects they taught, were happy on Fridays because there would be no school on Saturdays and on Sundays, and would end up hating English Language and Mathematics. Who in the 1964-68 ‘O’ Level set at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo. In the class, the French teacher made us read the French grammar book in turns. Many of us preferred the back seats. Then, one day, he began the routine from the back row. Omolewu couldn’t pronounce quest que ces’t? Pretending to help him, the teacher read the three words as kese ko se?/ in trust, Omolewu read on, after him. The class roared in rib-cracking laughter. Even the teacher couldn’t help reeling in laughter. The class nicknamed Omolewu kese kose, his nickname till this day.

Today, I see many university graduates around who cannot balance the tenses of grammar when they speak. They remind me of the General Studies class of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the 1973/74 session. The Use of English was a component of this first-year course. The examiner asked the students to identify gerunds in some sentences and to form sentences of their own with gerunds of their choice. Your guess is as good as mine: mass failure. Yet a gerund is no more than a verb which ends in ingas long as it doesn’t function as an adjective. Thus, the verb go, derived from the words to go, becomes a gerund in the sentence… Going to school yesterday, I saw a rat.

English Language is an interesting subject. I must admit that, like many of today’s schoolboys and schoolgirls, I, too, hated the English class. Adjectival clauses were Greekish. Adjectival clauses sounded like Latin. Today, even teachers of other subjects, such as mathematics and chemistry, cannot balance equations on both sides of a simple sentence. I often hear lettered people say, for example, if I knew he was a bad man, I would have avoided him. That is wrong. The correct expression would be: if I knew he was a bad man, I would avoid him. OR: if I had known he was a bad man, I would have avoided him.This problem of the Use of English as a second language manifest everywhere. Your secretary is likely to mess up a simple letter many times. Business centres are worse. The boys and girls who work there probably have no good ‘O’ Level pass in English Language. If you rely on them for a large job, you would have to proof-read several times to make the work at least 80 per cent error free. Newspaper readers who complain about typographic errors do not know what editors go through in one work day. As a newspaper editor, I strained my eyes every day reading 70 per cent page proofs of editions of no fewer than 40 pages. New proofs would come with new errors of punctuation, tense, spelling etc that I didn’t introduce! With a deadline to beat, the editor often throws up his arms in defeat. Isn’t it better to get the paper out than not to have it read? Thus, we can see that mass failure in English Language and in Mathematics examinations is a complicated matter which will require deep-rooted solutions.

Today, I address only the possibility of supporting brain function with food supplements known in folklore and in clinical experience to prevent brain weakness or damage, nurture the brain, improve memory and enhance brain output. There are too many of them than can be accommodated here. So, I will probably address only about ten that I have found useful over many years. I would like to begin by situating the brain and brain function in a world of these herbs and food supplements.



The Brain
The brain is a fatty substance. That means it must be nourished by food which contains the components of this fatty substance. And as fat oxidize or rot easily under oxidative impact, the brain needs protection antioxidants. How many of us include brain foods and brain specific antioxidants in our daily diet, or add them to the diet of our children, especially those involved with serious learning and examinations?. Many people take their brains for granted, as they do many organs of their bodies, and only remember they have something “upstairs” when they have headaches, migraine or they begin to suffer from memory loss.

These problems are more rife today because of the oxidizing effect of the cell phone. Fat accounts for between five to 15 per cent of the average human brain. The rest of it is water and protein. Most of the fat surrounds the myelin sheath or covering of the nerve oxons. The sheath protectively houses the nerves, and the fat protects the sheath.

The brain is divided into three parts: frontal, middle and back. Inside the brain are about 100 billion neurons. Neurons are nerve cells which send signals to all parts of the body through the Central Nervous System (CNS) and receives signals from them. There are global cells in the brain as well. The support the neurons and are more numerous than them. Neurons transmit signals at about 200 miles per hour. There are many types of neurons. They function biochemically in ways too complex for this column to describe. That is the job of neurologists. I am fascinated by the fact that neurons branch into what are called dendrites. I am fascinated because I may not have had the optimum number of neurons at birth. So, as the brain stops growing at a point during babyhood, I may have lost that chance forever. Yet the more the neurons the more the intelligence the brain packs. Neurons are tightly packed like sardines in the can, so, if I add the better information then to my receipt, storage and diet, my retrieval is faster and grows more efficient than if they were loosely packed or distant from one another. Dentrites are like tentacles of neurons. Distant neurons can communicate, though not as efficiently as if they were closer, if they grow dentrites towards one another certain foods and herbs support the growing of these dentrites. An average neuron has about 1,000 to 10,000 dentrites. The interesting part of it all for me is this

1) If a pregnant woman takes enough Omega-3 fish oil to support the pregnancy, the baby in her womb will likely have more neutrons and dentrites than the baby of a woman whose diet was Omega-3 deficient. Now know that the more neurons, the more intelligent the baby is likely to be. Adults whose mothers cheated on Omega-3 may not grow new neurons as adults because their brains have stopped growing, but they may benefit from a flourish of dentrites from neurons. These dentrites help to bridge that gaps between these neurons somewhat. But they cannot have the effect or impact of tightly or closely packed neurons. It would appear that Mother Nature still makes room for amends outside the womb, for the brief period the brain continues to grow after the birth of a baby.



Omega – 3 Oils

Dr. Joseph C. Maroon, M.D., and Dr. Jeffrey Bost, P.A.C; wrote a book titled FISH OIL, THE NATURAL ANTI-INFLAMATORY in which they advocate use of Omega-3 fish oil as an anti-inflammatory in place of ibuprofen or even aspirin as a blood thinner.

In respect of Omega-3 uses for brain health, they say:

“A developing foetus obtains EFAs through the mother’s dietary consumption. Omega-3 EFA supplementation has shown many benefits for both the pregnant mother and the developing child, including prolonging gestation and preventing pre-term labour. In 2002, in a randomised iced, double blind, placebo-controlled study, which is the most stringent way to evaluate an effect, S.F. Olsen and colleagues show that supplementation with DHA prolonged gestation by six days. In 2003, C.M. Smuts and colleagues showed that supplementation with fish oil prolonged gestation in women with high risk for pre-term delivery”.

Omega – 3 essential fatty Acids (EFAs) are in two major fractions: EPA and DHA. EPA is used more for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. It is DHA that is more specific for the brain and the eyes.

Remi Cooper, in the booklet The essential omega -3 Fatty ACID DHA says: “How much of the brain is composed of DHA? The exact amount is not known, but it is believed to be at least at 330 per cent and probably more… of particular importance is neural development in any human development. There is a large body of research investigating the role of DHA in the development of the brain and nervous system in foetuses and young infants. The fact that DHA is specifically incorporated into the membrane phospholipids of the brain and retina, and that it is the “preferred” essential fatty acids for these tissues is not disputed. In fact, so prevalent is DHA in the makeup of the brain and retina that researchers and health experts are beginning to emphasise how important this fatty acid can be.” In a research by Nettleton, Trial animals denied DHA in their diets for three weeks lost half of their brain DHA when animals were fed DHA, their brain DHA levels increased copper adds: “There is too much research to ignore the notion that lack of dietary DHA for developing fetuses and infants can have serious adverse consequences later in life, particularly in the area of the brain and nervous system.”

From the foregoing, we can easily observe the folly or stupidity of many adults and parents. Mothers do not take Omega-3 fish oil during pregnancy or during breastfeeding. They send children too early to nursery schools where their brains are prematurely opened for intellectual development without Omega-3 oil to help the brain cope with the pressure. And since Mother Nature abhors a vacuum, the brain uses Omega 6 and Omega-9 oils instead of Omega-3. Can this make the brain as efficient as it should? Any wonder that these children cannot cope easily with tedium? Yet Omega-3 oil is abundant in the “Original” Titus fish and Sardine. Health shops sell well-formulated Omega-3 fish oils. Udo’s Oil and Ultimate Oil are about the best brands. Do not buy artificial omega 3 oil.



Ginkgo Biloba

Anytime I suggest Ginkgo biloba to a woman, I tease her. This is because, originally, this herb was known as Maiden Hair. It was so called because it made the hair of women long, thick and beautiful. It is surprising that they would ignore it today and prefer instead chemical relaxers which cause a host of health problems for them. The Ginkgo biloba tree species is about 150 million years old on earth, and the individual tree can live for about 1000 years. When researchers investigated why it made female hair look so beautiful, they found it was because a tea of the leaves promoted micro blood circulation in the brain. Trust men! They took over this herb and renamed it Ginkgo. The Chinese led the world to Ginkgo biloba, using it for memory enhancement, to ease asthma, bed wetting, bladder irritation, intestinal worms and gonorrhea. Ginkgo has helped people suffering from dementia to improve their thinking, memory and social behavior.

According to Dr. H.C.A. Vogel in his The nature doctor: “In Cases where the brain does not receive sufficient blood, the tincture made from the leaves has proved to be efficacious. Also, a deficiency of oxygen to the brain can be remedied quite rapidly which is very important after a stroke. Blood viscosity, that is, its consistency and rate of flow will increase in a short time. This makes it possible to eliminate the symptoms of a defective circulation such as headaches, buffing in the ears, problems with hearing and sight, depression and the state of fear panic. Some people over the age of 70 have registered a notable improvement in health after only four to six weeks when they have taken a double dose of the tincture three times a day (the normal dose is 15-20 drops three times a day). Relief is even more certain when a low protein diet but one that is rich in vital substances, vitamins and minerals is also followed. It is possible to normalise high blood pressure after just a few weeks of taking Ginkgo biloba, viscosity will be favourably affected. Improved blood circulation and supply of oxygen ensure that the cells of the central nervous system are better nourished and hence more efficient.



Alpha Lipoic Acid

When it comes to protecting the brain against free radical damage, Alpha Lipoic Acid is of great value. It is fat and water solube, that means it is active in both fat and water and as antioxidant. This makes it of great value as an antioxidant is of inestimable value these days of the cell phone.

It has been shown in some experiments that the cell phone has a microwaving effect on auditory tissue and the brain, with the possibility of ionizing them. Young people spend a great deal of time on the cell phone and may does be impacting ionizing radiation on their brains. Antioxidants protect these tissues. The traditional antioxidants, Vitamins A, C and E cannot be left out. So is their big boss, Grape seed Extract, which is about 50 times more powerful than either vitamin A or Vitamin E. the beauty of Grape Seed Extract is that it is one of the few substances which easily cross the brain-blood barrier. Dr. Ray Strand, author of What your doctor does not know about nutritional medicine, may be killing you in ever fails to include it in any of his prescriptions. It was one of the remedies which saved his wife from fibromyalgia, bone, muscle and nerve pain of many years.

Lecithin

This is a fat emulsifier or dissolve which many people are aware of who use it to dissolve gall bladder stones or to reduce high cholesterol levels. It has two major fractions, choline and inositol which are important for nerve and brain health.

Lecithin is a major component of cell membranes and is important for healthy nerve growth and function. Egg yolk is a good source of lecithin. But many people keep away from egg because of Cholesterol problems. So, many people have turned to soya beans, which is now the commercial source of lecithin. In many human studies, in which lecithin effects on the brain has been targeted, this fat like substance has been found to help cases such as Alzheimer’s disease, bibolar disorder (manic depression) and attention deficit. In the book Optimun nutrition for the mind, nutritionist Patrick Holford suggests one tablespoonful of lecithin granules to the cereal everyday helps the memory of many people. In Nigeria, lecithin granules are not as common as the lecithin softgel sold as 21 grain/1,200mg per gel. Over dosage may occur at between 10 grams 10,000mg, ( 30 grams or 30,000 mg), accordingly to Vanderbilt University, overdosage may create symptoms such as gastrointestinal problems, diarrhoea, weight gain, a rash, headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and or a fish body odour”

Based on the brains critical need for Omega-3 fatty acids and lecithin, researchers have developed a means of binding both and delivering them to the brain. In a study of, people who took this remedy for memory or learning problem, the Clinical response was 2.4 times greater than in a placebo group. Although this particular remedy is not available in Nigeria, Omega-3 fatty acids and lecithins are available and should be consumed by young and old people alike.

Sugar and other Brain Enemies
Young people depress or damage their brains without being aware they are. They do not drink enough of plain water. Dehydration causes brain shrinkage and heat which may oxidise the fatty components of the brain. Aluminium cookware (pots, tea cups, spoons etc) leach into food and end up in the brain. Even the commercial pepper grinding machines leach iron and grease into food and these affect brain health. This is not to mention alcohol and sugar consumption.

Tweet