Hudson Valley Chiropractic & Wellness

  • About
    • Dr. Christa
    • Consultations
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Testimonials
  • Questions?
  • Contact
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Book an Appointment
You are here: Home / Archives for Functional Neurology

Blue light, your brain and your health

March 22, 2016 by drchrista 2 Comments

Blue light is much more common in our environment than it ever has been. It’s affecting your eyes right now as you read this on your computer screen or device. I’m not going to tell you it’s all bad. In fact, sunshine has been providing our eyeballs and brain with a source of blue light since the very beginning of time.

The problem is that our brains are still very much attuned to natural rhythms of dark and light. When bright sunlight hits the backs of our retinas first thing in the morning, it actually helps us wake up. Melatonin production is turned off and cortisol production begins. Cortisol should be at its highest levels first thing in the morning.

blue light

blue light

Throughout the day, cortisol levels will gradually decline, with the lowest levels occurring just after dark. Since cortisol is antagonistic to melatonin, it is extremely important that this occurs. People who have trouble falling asleep at night, especially if they feel their minds are too ‘busy’ to fall asleep, often have cortisol levels that are too high in the evenings.

This often happens due to stress, but it also occurs because of all the stimulatory blue light we expose our eyes and brains to at night!

In the evenings and after dark, the bright, blue wavelength light fades away in favor of the orange wavelengths. Without the blue wavelengths stimulating the pineal gland and the rest of the mesencephalon (the top part of your brainstem), cortisol production decreases and melatonin production proceeds.

What’s interesting to note is that melatonin may do more than just help us sleep. There is research that suggests it has cancer-fighting properties; that one of the important things that happens while we sleep is immunosurveillance for precancerous and cancerous cells. In this study, women who worked at night had an elevated risk of breast cancer. Here, it was associated with an increase incidence of colorectal cancers (see citation 12-17 in this last article for physiological mechanisms of melatonin’s anti-cancer properties).

So we need to limit our exposure to blue light after sundown, but how? One of the biggest ways is to eliminate the use of electronic devices at night. Smartphones, tablets, and laptops have all become regular interlopers in our evening routines. For purposes of stress reduction as well as melatonin, it would be optimal to not use these device at all after sunset.

That may not be reality for most of us though. I use a free program on my laptop called f.lux that determines what time of day it is in my next of the woods and then automatically filters out the blue light from the screen. You have to jailbreak your phone or tablet to use it on those devices and I’m not just not up for doing that, so if I have to use one of those devices, I wear a pair of orange googles that filter the blue light. Rumor has it that the new iOS update (9.3) includes a native blue-light filter function , though my phone is not new enough for me to have tried this personally.

One thing I would like to note here-  though there are ways to mitigate the harmful effects of blue light exposure at night, that doesn’t mean you can continue using your device at night with impunity. The postures we tend to use when staring at a small screen, as well as the effects to the muscles of our eyes from focusing on a close up object for long periods of time, all take their toll on our bodies and our health as well. For some of us, the stress caused from social media interactions can be detrimental. For these reasons, it would be best not just to mitigate the harmful effects of blue light, but also to be more conscious and aware of our electronic usage in general. You’ll probably find more high quality, fulfilling interactions with the people next to you then the ones on the other side of the electrons.

Want to learn more about lifestyle factors may be eroding your health? Interested in working with doc that “gets it” and sees the bigger picture of health? Give my office a call today at 845-687-6387 and see how I can help you.

Or sign up for my email list with the link below to get my free report and to receive emails with important information for living your best, healthiest life!

Filed Under: Brain Tagged With: better sleep, blue light, cancer risk, cortisol, melatonin

Your brain on Movement

August 3, 2015 by drchrista Leave a Comment

Our big, wonderful brains. Arguably what makes us distinct as humans. We like to think that our brains developed in order to give us the ability to think and to create- and therefore give us the advantage that allowed us to develop language, art and civilization.

But this is wrong.

Scientist Daniel Wolpert puts it best: “We have a brain for one reason only: to produce adaptable and complex movements.”

The largest amount of data coming into your brain at any given moment is coming from the musculoskeletal system and the smooth muscle of other organ systems like the digestive system. Mechanoreceptors in every joint, every muscle, every tendon of your body are constantly telling your brain about where your body, and each part of it, is in space, something we call ‘proprioception.”

This information comes in to the primary somatosensory cortex- a strip of the neocortex that runs roughly from the top of your ear to the apex of your skull on both sides. It is organized in a way that it reflects perfectly how the body itself is organized (the part that receives information from the hand is next to the part that receives information from the lower arm) and its weighted according to where we have the most nerve endings/receive the most sensory input (the areas receiving information from the hands, feet, lips and genitalia for example are much bigger than the areas receiving information from the low back or the buttocks.)

Directly in front of the primary somatosensory cortex is the primary motor cortex- it gets the information about where your body is in space from the primary somatosensory cortex and then uses that information to decide which motor pattern to use. In order to reach for a glass of water, your brain needs to first know where your hand, arm, elbow and shoulder are so that it can tell those muscles and joints exactly how much to move and in what directs in order to reach out and grasp that glass of water.

This all happens so quickly, so eloquently, so seamlessly that though we can create robots that can master the game of chess, they can’t move the pieces around the board as deftly as even a child can.

So what does this mean for our brains and brain health?

Well, to begin with, your brain works much like your muscles- if you use them, they get stronger. And if you don’t they get weaker and less useful. As we move, we get stronger (and smarter) because the movement of our bodies and the subsequent firing of neurons that that requires causes the release of a chemical called BDNF- brain derived neurotrophic factor, or as one author put it “Miracle-Gro for the brain.” Its whole purpose is to stimulate growth of brain cells- not just in the parts of the brain most concerned with movement- but throughout the entire organ.

In a formal literature review, researcher Frank W. Booth showed that lack of movement was a factor in over 20 different chronic diseases. But even more poignantly, he wrote in his review “[s]edentary lifestyle is associated with lower cognitive skills.” Further studies showed that cognitive skills do not decline simply because we get older, they decline because we move less.

Not only is movement a key piece of preventing and addressing dementia and Alzheimer’s, but it has also been shown to be as effective as SSRIs in treatment of depression, with longer lasting benefits and less side effects too.

In short, you need to move to have and keep a healthy, keen brain throughout your life.

Exercise is definitely part of this, but it is only a part. We generally think of exercise as any movement we do in order to stay healthy and fit. Movement is broader than this. Movement is anything that changes the loads on your cells and tissues. A simple changing of the load on your muscles will cause a change in the feedback an embedded mechanoreceptor will give the brain about where that muscle is in space. Therefore movement can be as simple as changing the focus of your eyes from near distance to far, getting goosebumps from a chill in the air, getting up from being seated on the floor, or even evacuating your bowels- there is a reason we call it a ‘bowel movement‘ and not a bowel exercise.

Movement should happen throughout that day, all day long, providing plenty of input to the brain and stimulus for new neuronal growth. In contrast, when we spend 8, 10 or 12 hours a day being sedentary, sitting in a chair, and then go to the gym for an hour, we may get enough exercise to keep our waistline from expanding, but we are not getting enough of the movement we really need keep our brains happy and healthy.

The best part about having a movement practice as opposed to ‘exercising’ is that it can be much easier to fit into what is probably already a busy life. Find errands you can do by walking instead of in the car. Growing a vegetable garden can provide more nourishment than than just from the food alone. Moving your positions through the day from standing to sitting on the floor and back again can provide plenty of novel movement and loads for your body. Working in the kitchen to cook can provide a nourishing meal and nourishing movement at the same time. Play with your kids on the playground instead of sitting on the bench and starring at your phone while they play. Walk the dog in the evenings instead of watching another hour of TV. Its not hard: walk, play, crawl, hike, lifting, bend, run, swing, hang- pretty much do anything but sit and watch TV or zone out in front of screen.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. But now, for the sake of your brain health, please get out there and move!

Your brain on Movement

 

 

Filed Under: Brain, Functional Movement Tagged With: Alzhiemer's, brain health, depression, fatigue, functional movement, heart disease, natural movement, obesity, weight loss, whole body movement

Health food or hype?

You eat pretty well, but perhaps you're frustrated that you can't seem to lose any weight. Or maybe you struggle to have enough energy to get through the day. You may be eating foods you think are 'healthy' but are secretly eroding your health. Sign up for my newsletter and receive the FREE report I wrote just for you- '7 "Health" foods to ditch to lose weight & feel great! '

Click Here to Subscribe

Dr. Christa

I am a Chiropractor helping patients to have less pain, move with more freedom and ease, and have more energy for the things they love. More…

What Patients Are Saying
L.W.-
L.W.-
I was thrilled to be given a recommendation that didn't involve medications or procedures, only dietary changes.
Anonymous-
Anonymous-
I knew I wanted NO medication. Many practitioner try to stuff meds down your throat. You have a lot better to offer with your natural supplements. There are highly effective and safe.
Anonymous-
Anonymous-
I feel great after each of our sessions. All of my symptoms are gone. I feel awesome.
C.S.-
C.S.-
I feel that my coming to you has really helped with the issues I had been having. I enjoy our sessions and have really benefitted greatly from everything we have done.
Anonymous-
Anonymous-
You were very effective quickly in helping with my symptoms and I trust you tremendously. You are knowledgeable. I rave about you all the time! I also tell them about how reasonable your pricing is.
prevnext

Looking for something?

Our Location

Visit us at Sun Creek Center

8 Sun Creek Lane, Suite 6
Stone Ridge, NY 12484

Schedule your appointment

Office Hours

  • Monday: 9:00 AM- 5:00 PM
  • Tuesday: 12:00 PM-5:00 PM
  • Wednesday: 9:00 AM-6:00 PM
  • Thursday: Closed
  • Friday: 9:00 AM-5:00 PM
  • Saturday: Closed
  • Sunday: Closed

Book an Appointment

Connect With Me

I use Chiropractic care combined with herbal & nutritional support for conditions of the nervous & musculoskeletal conditions to help patients to have less pain, move with more freedom and ease, and have more energy for the things they love.

Phone

  • 845-687-6387

E-Mail

  • DrChrista@hvchiropracticandwellness.com

Copyright © 2023 · Agency Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in