The 4 Levels of the Brain and Your IQ

Studies are now showing that a high IQ may be linked to how we process information.

Here's the question: Is there a single way to predict whether someone has a high IQ or not?

The answer: Maybe.

 According to a new study in the Journal Current Biology, high IQ is correlated with an ability to process important information while ignoring the unimportant distractions.

In the movie "For the love of the game"  Kevin Costner has to drown out all the distractions as he attempts to pitch a no hit game for his farewell performance in the big leagues. His strategy was to blur out all the visual and auditory distractions by creating a focused strategy. He would say to himself "clear the mechanism," and he would have a much clearer focus on the task at hand. Having a strategy to regain your focus can increase your memory, cognitive skills and reduce stress. Each level of the brain often overrides the other based on prior experiences if you let it just remain on auto pilot.

Many scientists have suggested that high IQ is linked to processing speed, or how quickly and accurately a person can understand incoming information. This information can come from a wide range of sensory inputs, including sounds, sights, and physical sensations. Responding to a tap on your shoulder or computing a difficult math problem both rely on processing speed, among other cognitive abilities. The problem in today's lifestyle is we have more potential distractions from texts, cell phones, 24 hour world news and the rapid pace of our world than ever before.

The University of Rochester had researchers conduct a study searching to find what if the ability to ignore certain information is just as important as the speed it takes to process it internally.

Researchers first set out the determine how quickly the study’s 53 participants processed different types of visual information. A series of shapes passed across a screen, and participants were asked to identify how the shapes had moved — for example top-to-bottom or left-to-right. The shapes could be large or small.

Counter intuitively, participants generally took longer to process large shapes than small shapes. This phenomenon, called spatial suppression, originates from a natural instinct to pay less attention to large background movements — like ignoring the lion on the horizon to focus on the lion in front of you.

Each participant received a Suppression Index score (SI) based on the difference between their response time to the small moving shape compared to the large moving shape.

Participants also took a version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), one of the most extensively studied IQ tests in existence.

Analysis revealed a strong correlation between IQ score and SI score — meaning that people with higher IQs were better at processing small movements and worse at processing large movements. Learning how to use all 4 levels of the brain teaches you how to attain selective focus on what is most important.

This study’s findings make plenty of sense in real-world scenarios: most of the time, the environment rewards a myopic focus. When you drive, it’s the cars and pedestrians close by that command the bulk of your attention. Events happening in the background  such as buildings you pass, objects on the side of the road, people moving on the sidewalk all become secondary.

The brain is complex and sometimes perplexing, so it’s always gratifying to see researchers begin to understand one of its most important mysteries and how our focus can affect our intelligence quotient.

Better Brain tip

Next time you’re out in the world, pause for a moment and see if you find yourself relying on a specific sense more than others.

Stop and look around to see first what feels most important to pay attention to...then broaden your senses to also see a bigger picture of your surroundings.

Both of these actions  are important to create a better balance between the 4 levels of the brain and avoiding getting stuck in a sensory pattern.

What Causes Brain Dysfunction?

Almost all brain dysfunction can be summarized into one of three categories that I call the three Ts , "TRAUMA ,TOXICITY and THOUGHTS". You may have seen some of my previous videos when I told the story about how my wife Jeanine and I were in a horrific helicopter crash. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and it is the main reason I created the Better Brain Academy.

The synthesis of what  I learned in 30 years of practice along with the worldwide search to find the best doctors, the best research, best treatments and remedies to create a healthy brain and nervous system was the main reason for my wife's recovery

 Any time there is a trauma to the brain and body it can short-circuit the nervous system. It is very important to always make sure that you do something to start to reset the nervous system and restore proper function. Any stress can trigger the fight or fight response that needs to stop within a short period of time. There's a feedback loop that takes place from the brain to our body and then back the brain. Healthy responses have to send messages to the cells from the brain 100 % of the time for proper communication

It is critical to look at what energy and information is being received  to support the health and healing for the best amount of communication from the brain. The brain can actually affect the messages down the spinal tracks so your posture is very important in the recovery after a trauma. Many of us have toxins that have been accumulating in the body .A critical step in healing is to make sure that you are taking steps to start to reduce that and eliminate toxins as much as possible .I will go into the steps more in depth in future videos on how to reduce toxicity

 It is also important to really be aware of what we're thinking because it could be firing off this feedback loop with negative feedback reducing your overall health. I want you to have 100% of your brains message to bring 100% of expression of life energy flowing to the body 100% of the time. So start to THINK a little bit better and reduce TOXINS now to achieve a much healthier life.

Better Brain Academy and The 3 Powers

We all have the ability to transform our lives by understanding how to use our "Three Powers." In the Better Brain Academy we take you through a three week process to tap into each of your powers. It takes 21 days to create a new habit pattern so we address all the three powers starting first with your Elective power, then your connective power and finishing the last week addressing your Reflective power.

Your Elective Power is the "power of you". Your ability to find what truly drives you and link this with your values for more fulfillment in life. Your Connective Power is how you create stronger lifelong connections using your emotional brain. Your Reflective Power is tapping into your Innate purpose and defining your highest mission in life.

For more information watch the introductory video below or visit our website at www.betterbrainblueprint.com

Balancing the Brain with Our Innate Senses

This week the focus is about getting in touch with our own innate senses. The word innate means inborn or natural. We all have innate skills, innate dreams and desires that makes us each unique. Our five senses are how we interact with the external world and actually create the quality of our life. These senses also direct our internal drives and motivation. We can all create an internal feeling that is enough to compel us to travel great distances for our favorite food, to see something that is majestic as a ocean sunset, or listen our favorite musician.

I would like to take a closer look at how to reduce the stresses of daily life by using the sense of smell. Different smells can actually alter brainwave patterns because it is the only sense that bypasses the gatekeeper of the brain( thalamus). The universal smell for calming the brain is lavender .It has a direct effect on the brain and nervous system reducing anxiety. If you have kids that are more hyperactive and they have a hard time sleeping, use lavender on their pillow. When my grandkids come over my wife will put it a little bit of lavender oil on their pillow and it's amazing how they sleep much better.

We begin the digestive process with smelling our food first. With our fast food society it is so easy to overeat because the sense of smell is not stimulated. The brain triggers the digestive process with smell and begins stimulating the release of digestive enzymes. Many times a meal has already been devoured before the body can catch up so indigestion occurs. I challenge to consciously tap into your senses this week at a greater level of mindful awareness.

Better Brain Tip

Close your eyes for an entire meal and truly listen to sounds around you and taste your food at a higher level. We all need to use our five senses on a daily basis however many times we can be on auto pilot and don't allow the body to digest the energy and information our food and environment is providing. Slow down today and it will be easier get the brain in better balance and reduce stresses on your nervous system.

The 8 Innate Brain Tips to Get A Better Night's Sleep

Proper sleep is one of the most important factors for long term brain health and function. Small adjustments to your sleeping area and daily routine can go a long way toward ensuring you uninterrupted, restful sleep and thereby better brain health. If you're even slightly sleep deprived, I encourage you to implement some of these Better Brain tips tonight.

1) Maintain optimal light exposure

Your pineal gland produces a hormone called melatonin in response to the brightness of sun exposure in the day and complete darkness at night. If you're in darkness all day long, your body can't appreciate the difference and will not optimize melatonin production. I recommend getting at least 30 to 60 minutes of outdoor light exposure during the daytime in order to set your master clock rhythm, in the morning if possible. More sunlight exposure is required as you age.

2) Preparing for Rest

Once the sun sets, avoid bright light as much as possible to assist your body in secreting melatonin, which helps you feel sleepy. Avoid bright lights from computers, televisions, video games or e-books at least 1 hour before bed time. It can be helpful to sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible. If you need a bit of light to navigate down the hall in the wee hours of the night, install a low-wattage yellow, orange, or red light bulb. Light in these bandwidths does not shut down melatonin production in the way that white and blue light does.

3) Prepare your Mind for Sleep

A disturbance in sleep is always caused by something, be it physical, mental or emotional, or all of the above. Anxiety and anger are two mental states that are incompatible with sleep. Feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities is another common sleep blocker. To identify the cause of your wakefulness, analyze the thoughts that circle in your mind during the time you lie awake, and look for themes. Regular meditation is one of the best ways to regulate proper brain wave patterns that promote deep sleep.

4) Temperature affects Brain Activity

Keep the temperature in your bedroom below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Many people keep their homes too warm (particularly their bedrooms). Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take a hot bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime. This raises your core body temperature, and when you get out of the bath it abruptly drops, signaling your body that you're ready for sleep.

5) Follow Natural Rhythms

There are natural rhythms in nature just as there are rhythms in the body. Normally, your brain starts secreting melatonin between 9 pm and 10 pm. Staying up later than 10 pm can affect your ability to not only fall asleep but stay in the important deep delta wave sleep pattern.

Going to bed and getting up at the same time each day helps keep your sleep on track, but having a consistent pre-sleep routine or "sleep ritual" is also important. For instance, if you read before heading to bed, your body knows that reading at night signals it's time for sleep. I often suggest listening to calming music, stretching, or doing relaxation exercises.

6 ) Be mindful of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in your bedroom

EMFs can disrupt your pineal gland and its melatonin production, and may have other detrimental biological effects . Ideally, you should turn off any wireless router while you are sleeping—after all, you don't need the Internet when you sleep.

7)  Avoid Alcohol, Caffeine, and other drugs, including Nicotine

Two of the biggest sleep saboteurs are caffeine and alcohol, both of which also increase anxiety. Caffeine's effects can last four to seven hours. Tea and chocolate also contain caffeine. Alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, but it makes sleep more fragmented and less restorative. Nicotine in all its forms (cigarettes, e-cigs, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, and smoking cessation patches) is also a stimulant, so lighting up too close to bedtime can worsen insomnia. Many other drugs can also interfere with sleep.

8 ) Monitor your Sleep Habits

I Use a Fitbit fitness tracker to help to get to bed on time, and track which activities boost or hinder deep sleep. Many fitness trackers can now track both daytime body movement and sleep, allowing you to get a better picture of how much sleep you're actually getting. Newer fitness trackers can even tell you which activities led to your best sleep and what factors resulted in poor sleep.

Take action NOW to set up your daily rituals and sleep will be a more natural process with very healthy results.

Toxic Brain Waste Management

The brain creates a tremendous amount of toxic waste through normal daily thought processes. A key finding on MRI scans of Alzheimer’s patients is the presence of altered proteins in the memory areas of the brain responsible for short them storage. There’s no cure for Alzheimer's disease, which makes prevention all the more important, and sleeping well appears to be an important part of prevention.

 Studies published in 2012 and 2013 revealed that your brain actually has a unique method of removing toxic waste during deep delta sleep patterns This waste-removal system has been dubbed the glymphatic system and operates in a way that is similar to your body's lymphatic system, which is responsible for eliminating cellular waste products.

However, the lymphatic system does not include your brain. The reason for this is that your brain is a closed system that is protected by the blood-brain barrier to control what can go through and what cannot. The glymphatic system gets into your brain by "piggybacking" on the blood vessels in your brain. (The "g" in glymphatic is a nod to "glial cells"—the brain cells that manage this system.)

By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain's tissues, the glymphatic system flushes the waste from your brain back into your body's circulatory system. From there, the waste eventually reaches your liver, where it's ultimately eliminated.

The most important fact is that this system ramps up its activity during sleep, thereby allowing your brain to clear out toxins, including harmful proteins called amyloid-beta that create the buildup that has been linked to Alzheimer's.

During sleep, the glymphatic system becomes 10 times more active than during wakefulness. Simultaneously, your brain cells shrink by about 60 percent, allowing for greater efficiency of waste removal.

During the day, the constant brain activity causes your brain cells to swell in size until they take up just over 85 percent of your brain's volume, thereby disallowing effective waste removal during wakefulness.

More recently, researchers discovered that the blood-brain barrier naturally tends to become more permeable with age, allowing more toxins to enter. This combined with the reduced efficiency of the glymphatic system shows that damage in both your brain and blood-brain barrier can start to accumulate at an increased pace. This deterioration is thought to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer's.

Better Brain Tip

·        Prepare your brain for better sleep with the Walk-Breath-Twist (WBT)        routine at the end of your workday

·        See video for the 3 simple steps to WBT routine  

The Five Signs that Show Your Brain Needs More Sleep?

Poor sleep habits can lead to serious health conditions .This is becoming a growing problem in our country with nearly 40 percent of adults reporting that they fall asleep unintentionally during the day ,and five percent report nodding off while driving. Forty-five percent of teens also don't get enough sleep on school nights and 25 percent report falling asleep in class at least once a week.

Lack of sleep has serious health consequences that go far beyond not feeling fully awake and refreshed during the day. There's a price to pay both in the short term and long term as now a number of studies have linked poor sleep or lack of sleep to an increased risk of Alzheimer's. One of the reasons for this challenge has to do with the fact that your brain's waste removal system only operates during deep sleep.

So how can you be sure you're getting the right amount of sleep for you? The following Five signs indicate you probably need to address your sleep habits because you're not getting enough time for the brain to recharge.

1.    You're moody- Chronic insomnia is associated with a greater risk for irritability, depression and anxiety. The problem is even one night of insufficient sleep can have a dramatic impact on your mood. According to Lauren Hale,17 editor-in-chief of the journal Sleep Health:"If you're sleep deprived, you're more vulnerable to crankiness, irritability, and challenges coping with stress."

2.    Your work performance and productivity is inadequate - Basic brain functions such as focus, logical reasoning, and even memory can suffer when you're tired. Sleep has also been shown to boost creative functioning and promote problem solving, both of which are valuable needs in just about any profession.

3.    You're gaining weight -  The risk of developing insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes increases due to poor sleep habits or lack of sleep . Sleep exerts a specific effect on glucose metabolism, and lack of sleep also decreases levels of the fat regulating hormone leptin while increasing the hunger hormone ghrelin. The resulting increase in hunger and appetite can easily lead to overeating and weight gain.

4.    Signs of sleep deprivation are showing on your face- You can usually tell when someone hasn't slept well by how they look. A recent Swedish study looked at facial cues showing sleep deprivation, finding that people readily identified as having hanging eyelids, red swollen eyes, dark under-eye circles, pale skin, more wrinkles, and more droopy corners of the mouth as tell-tale signs of a poor night's sleep.

5.    You're drowsy during the day and catch yourself nodding off- Daytime sleepiness is a clear sign that you didn't get enough sleep the night before. So, if you're constantly yawning, and consuming excess coffee to keep yourself going, you need to get to bed earlier.

Sleep Is NOT a Luxury, It's an Essential for Good Health

**As noted in a recent issue of Time Magazine

"Sleep, the experts are recognizing, is the only time the brain has to catch its breath. If it doesn't, it may drown in its own biological debris... [Sleep researcher Dr. Sigrid] Veasey is learning that brain cells that don't get their needed break every night are like overworked employees on consecutive double shifts–eventually, they collapse.

Better Brain Tip

1)    Get your body in a natural rhythm by going to sleep and waking up at the same time for one week. See how you feel and adjust the time appropriately for better sleep patterns.

2)    Make sure you have a good mattress and pillow while avoiding sleeping on your stomach.