Brain Nutrition

From my experiment performed on me by me from Oct 17, 2020 – Jan 17, 2021 diligently and ongoing for the remainder. Compiled for my Brother Kristian and my Close Friend and Business Partner Brandye Turner. Revision VI for my Sister Tiffany and my Niece Danielle

Forward

Forward For the last 35 years of my life I have always known deep inside there was something wrong. Having intermittent issues with depression, anxiety, mood swings, emotional outbursts. At times I would think it was alcohol so I would quit drinking yet the problem never went away. I thought maybe sugar? So I did not eat anything that tasted sweet (little did I know I was still consuming large amounts of sugar though I never ate deserts, candy anything that might be sweet). My mother lived the last years of her life impaired from anti-anxiety drugs and anti-depressant drugs. In addition to that she had diabetes and heart issues. Numerous members of my family have died from diabetes or with diabetes as a contributing factor to their death. So I always thought I was conscious of all the sugar I ate. What I didn’t know was that sugar affects the (at least mine but after having lived and been so close to so many family members I have to conclude it affects most of us the same way) brain much the same way alcohol does. In fact it alters the chemistry in such a manner that it takes days or weeks to reach equilibrium again. Making it difficult to identify with clarity what was causing these strange episodes with my perceptions and affecting my ability to concentrate, focus and use my brain the way I love to and the way it was designed to be used. So my close friend and business partner advised me to check my blood sugar and it was over the top! From that point it was time to start on a sugar abstinence program in a more diligent way. Primarily following guidance provided at mayoclinic.org, webmd.com and a few others as prescribed to reduce blood sugar levels.

During this period a friend lent me a book that was greatly about brain chemistry as well as brain nutritional needs and the affects of alcohol on the brain. As I was reading it it occurred to me the same symptoms a person suffers from excessive alcohol usage are virtually identical to those suffered by diabetics. In fact in my own research on myself I learned most people more than likely suffer from diabetes long before they even realize they have a problem and by the time they do so much damage has been done to the pancreas medications and long term treatment may become unavoidable. Indeed on WebMD, MayoClinic and many of the assorted diabetes sites they recommend regularly getting your A1C checked at least annually after the age of 50. In addition to this it is advised that if a person consumes over 50 grams of sugar a day it is not if they will become diabetic but rather when (provided they live long enough). The A1C test provides a summary of what your blood sugar has been for the last 90 days and test kits can be purchased for $40-$120 from most pharmacy stores. So after connecting the dots I put a hybrid program together for myself and they way my mind works now makes me feel like I have been living the last 35 years in a semi-haze without full cognizance, deductive reasoning, critical thought and interrelationship abilities (although I am still a hard ass that despises weakness of mind and it still remains noticeable).

Notes from my experience performing this regiment

  1. This regiment will without question improve all mental faculties significantly. It seems that the brain chemistry is highly affected by sugar and the simple act of reducing sugar intake to 20 grams or less per day will provide this outcome.
  2. The first six weeks will be difficult. The body is going to make every effort to convince the mind to acquire sugar in the most subtle ways so it is vitally important to plan for this at least seven days in advance for each seven day period of this endeavor. A good tactic is to have healthy snacks at your disposal through out. Another tactic “REMEMBER THIS IS GOING TO HURT AND IT IS NOT GOING TO BE EASY!” this is a journey towards self improvement and mastery. Remind yourself of this everyday some how while acknowledging the results will be forthcoming. Nothing long lasting and worthwhile comes without sacrifice, effort, vigilance, diligence and discipline. Remember this to get over the hardest periods of this.
  3. During the first few weeks (probably at least six weeks) you may expect issues with concentration, focus, lethargy and apathy. You may also experience amplified emotional states. Mood swings, symptoms that look like bipolar issues. My guess is this is a result of your body is relearning how to metabolize nourishment more efficiently and is partially the result of not having the steady flow of sugar it is used to getting to feed the brain. So be prepared for this. It took me around six to eight weeks to achieve full cognitive, memory and concentration for extended periods without suffering metal fatigue, distractions or emotional imbalances. Since I was doing chess puzzles everyday it provided me a metric (in retrospect) to see what was happening with my mind during this endeavor. My chess problem solving (chess puzzles at chess.com stats are available for any to see at https://www.chess.com/stats/puzzles/tecwolf change the date range to 1 year and again to all time to see the cognitive improvement from this discipline) rating went from 1347 in October 2020 to 1253 (where I bottomed out) on Feb 8, 2021. It then started climbing and peaked on July 1, 2021 at 1716. Currently it is at 1953 (a rating of 1800-2000 is considered a Class A level and is also recognized as an Expert Chess player. 2000-2200 is considered Master Level and Grand Master Level play starts above 2200) From about Feb on I stopped taking all of the supplements and only kept sugar intake reduced but continue to take supplements not mentioned in schedule below which are Niacin (only the flush kind do not take flush free Niacin it is harmful to the liver), Lions Mane, Cordyceps, Ginko Biloba, Ginseng, Vitamins E, D3, Calcium, Magnesium, B Complex, Quercitin and Berberine. I also take BrainPep sparingly. Green Tea is also a regular part of my diet.
  4. Sleep – Sleep was profoundly affected during the first three weeks or so and continued to be affected for the following months intermittently. Use Melatonin and Tryptophan if needed and pay attention to how it affects you. Tryptophan has an adverse affect on me so it was useless. Made me feel like I was catching a cold. Now here is something I wished I had known prior to this. You will have dreams of eating something sweet. Meditate on this before you go to sleep for an opportunity to have a lucid dream and have cosmic questions answered should you have the presence of mind. Meditate on what you want to know and say “I will know I am dreaming when I am eating sweets”. In any event dreams will become better and better as you progress I would expect. They did for me and still do.
  5. Diet – Diet is going to be a critical part of the success in weaning off of sugar. The book referred to below provides a significant amount of information on this. However to simplify (although I did reference all the foods in this book numerous times) stick with fresh produce and meat foods. The only processed food I purchased (and still purchase) are bread (mostly sour dough as it has the lowest sugar at 2 grams per slice), tortillas, potato chips, fritos, jalepeno bean dip, corn chips, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, mozarella cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, pace picante sauce, tuna fish and that is it. All the rest is wild rice and steel cut oatmeal, fresh veggies and fresh meats but also a lot of hamburger. In the beginning keep a close eye on the glycemic index of your foods. Some of the references I used are:
  6. The cost – The nutritional supplements at the gate will cost around $260 initially. However this is assuming you have none of these and based on stocking them for the first time. After that it is around $60 to $90 a month to resupply what is needed to resupply and there are ways to cut corners here I have no doubt. However make sure you get capsules that are far more easily absorbed by the body than the solid pills and make sure they are high quality. Often they have well informed nutritional staff at health food stores that can help advise here but not always. So use good judgment and discretion here. Just because it costs more does not mean it is higher quality. I was able to get everything is a capsuled powdered except the Calcium and Magnesium. The Multi vitamin I took and continue to take intermittently is Source of Life Red (all fruit based) and I chew them up like Fred Flintstone vitamins. Chewable are acceptable as well however not the ones with sugar. The typical gummy bear supplements have 2 to 5 grams of sugar each.
  7. 20 Grams – Remember you have 20 grams a day. Use them wisely. For me it was mostly divided up like this: 1 Teaspoon of sugar in my coffee once a day (five grams) 1 or 2 Tortillas a day (6 to 10 grams) or 2 slices of bread (6 to 10 grams depending on the bread) 1 small handful of blue berries in my steel cut oatmeal (about 5 grams of fructose) which also had 4 grams of cinnamon (helps liver produce insulin), a heaping teaspoon of flax seed, a handful of pecans or walnuts, a tablespoon of butter and some Himalayan salt sprinkled in there (Himalayan salt tends to be more rich in trace minerals than white salt).
  8. Measuring the Glucose levels – A glucose test kit can be purchased for under $25 dollars. If you already have pretty healthy glucose levels this is probably not necessary. However to have one is to be able to know yourself what your blood sugar levels are and besides that it is kind of a fun thing to check at different periods (take your blood sugar during a hangover sometime). You can also learn how long it takes your body to find glucose equilibrium when it gets out of balance. There are three test used to track blood glucose. They are:
    • The Fast Test – This one is done after you have not eaten any food for 10 to 11 hours and is taken after you wake up in the morning. The term Breakfast comes from Break Fast in case you were wondering. A non diabetic person will have a glucose level less than 100 for this reading. Healthy readings tend to be between 80 and 90.
    • The Lunch Reading – This reading you take exactly two hours after eating lunch. A healthy reading will be below 120
    • The Dinner Reading – This reading you take 4 hours after dinner and should be under 110. These are indicators of your blood sugar health.
  9. Measuring Acidity Levels – I wished I had been doing this during all of this. However felt it was a good idea to add this. As Cancer, Viruses, bacterial infections all require an acidic environment to survive. You can get PH test kits pretty cheap at most health food stores and pharmacy stores. The quickest way to reduce an acidic state of affairs is with high PH water, unprocessed food, green leafy veggies, broccoli, nuts, peppers (the hot peppers are hot from alkaline not acid) legumes and others. In other words THE FRIGGIN DIET WE SHOULD ALL BE ABIDING ANYWAYS TO BE HEALTHY IN MIND AND BODY! The infrared sauna also accelerates the process of lowering the bodies PH levels when used in tandem with high PH water and alkaline rich foods.

Summary of benefits I enjoy now:

  1. I can concentrate for significantly longer periods and experience far less wasted effort in my endeavors
  2. My daily sleep requirements per day are typically 4 to 6 hours seven max
  3. Almost never suffer anxiety, depression, apathy, malaise or anger and never suffer despair anymore and can think my way through any troubling issue without emotional distraction.
  4. My powers of observation, contemplation, reflection, memory, meditation, focus and analysis have increased beyond description.
  5. The clarity of mind and presence of mind has achieved a level that rises above any cultural influences or concerns causing me to endeavor towards a more pure and focused mind cultivating self awareness and presence of mind. In addition to this it is a very trying and not a fun process to go through at all which also prevents me from doing anything that will negatively affect my biological chemistry potentially causing me to go through this again.
  6. Higher stamina in any physical or mental activity
  7. Much more vivid dreams
  8. Virtually no cravings for anything
  9. A measurable improvement of IQ by at least 30 points if not more
  10. A deliberate conscious endeavor towards the direction of additional improvements
  11. Sense of taste especially but also sense of smell is vastly improved
  12. Vision is improved
  13. Keen awareness of what my sugar/glucose levels are without using a tester
  14. It is normal now to satisfy hunger and not appetite

Upon Rising at least 1/2 hour before eating

Brain ChemistryL-Glutamine1000 mg
Brain ChemistryAmino Complete2250 mg
Brain ChemistryL-Tyrosine800 mg
Toxins and immunity*Ester C2025 mg

After Breakfast

Toxins and immunityCalcium Magnesium900/450 mg
Brain and metabolismGLA300 mg
General Health Multi Vitamin/Mineral
Recommend Source of Life Red		recommended dose

Between Breakfast and lunch

Toxins and immunity*Ester C2025 mg

Before Lunch

Brain ChemistryL-Glutamine1000 mg
Brain ChemistryAmino Complete2250 mg
Brain ChemistryL-Tyrosine800 mg

After Lunch

Toxins and immunity*Ester C2025 mg
Bones Toxins and immunityCalcium Magnesium900/450 mg
Brain and metabolismGLA300 mg
General HealthMulti Vitamin/Mineralrecommended dose
For rebuilding the pancreasPancreatine4000 mg

Between Lunch and Dinner

Brain ChemistryL-Glutamine1000 mg
Brain ChemistryAmino Complete2250 mg
Brain ChemistryL-Tyrosine800 mg
Toxins and immunity*Ester C2025 mg

After Dinner

Toxins and immunity*Ester C2025 mg
Toxins and immunityCalcium Magnesium900/450 mg
Toxins and immunityGLA300 mg

Bedtime

Optional use if sleeping is a problemMelatonin5-6 mg
Optional use if sleeping is a problemTryptophan1000-2000 mg
Optional use if sleeping is a problem*Ester C2025 mg
Optional use if sleeping is a problemCalcium Magnesium900/450 mg

Ester C – If runny soft stool occurs reduce dosage by one capsule per dosage until it is no longer a problem. This was the affect it had on me.

The brain chemistry supplements also help with depression, morose and anxiety. In addition to them you can add Ginko Biloba and Niacin. If you are not used to Niacin get the 100 mg to 200 mg tablets and take only after eating. Do not get Niacinamide (the anti-flush Niacin) as it is harmful to the liver.