The UltraMind Solution (76 page)

But the secret of its power is the sulfur (SH) chemical groups it contains. This sulfur acts like flypaper and all the bad things in the body stick to it—from
free radicals to toxins like mercury and other heavy metals. Think of it as the UPS or FedEx system in your body that packs everything and ships it out in the urine and stool.

We make it from foods that contain sulfur—garlic and onions, cruciferous vegetables, egg yolks, and most forms of protein. All these contain an amino acid called cysteine, the basic building block of glutathione. Add a few more amino acids like glycine and glutamine and a few vitamins (B
₆
, B
₁₂
, folate), and voilà, the magic of the methylation and sulfation trains pops out a little glutathione molecule.

Normally glutathione is recycled in the body—except when the toxic load becomes too great (which explains why we are in such trouble now in our hyperpolluted world).

In my practice I test the enzymes involved in glutathione production as well as the genes involved in producing enzymes that allow the body to manufacture and recycle glutathione. GSTM1 and GSTP1 are just two of the genes that can be tested for.
⁴¹

We all evolved in a time before the eighty thousand toxic industrial chemicals were introduced into our world, before electromagnetic radiation was everywhere, and before we polluted our skies, lakes, rivers, oceans, and teeth (with dental amalgams) with mercury and lead.

We used to get by with just the basic version of the genetic detoxification software encoded in our DNA, which is mediocre at ridding the body of toxins. We didn’t need more. But who knew we would be poisoning ourselves and eating a processed, nutrient-depleted diet?

So why is glutathione so important?

Glutathione recycles antioxidants. I will discuss antioxidants more in the next chapter. For now you simply need to know that antioxidants are critical for cleaning up free radicals that, when left unchecked, lead to massive cell destruction.

Dealing with these free radicals is like handing off a hot potato. They get passed around from vitamin C to vitamin E to lipoic acid (which are all antioxidants in their own right) and then finally to glutathione, which cools them off and recycles the other antioxidants. Then the body can “reduce” or regenerate another protective glutathione molecule. And we are back in business.

This antioxidant function is critical. When it doesn’t work well, cells are damaged and cannot produce the energy we need to live (see
chapter 11
).

Problems occur when we are overwhelmed with too much oxidative stress, or too many toxins, or when the methylation or sulfation trains are
derailed, or we are not getting enough sulfur in our diet, or enough methylation nutrients such as B
₆
, folate, and B
₁₂
.

Then the glutathione becomes depleted, leading us toward some terrible illness. We can no longer protect ourselves against free radicals, and we can’t get rid of toxins that accumulate in our bodies and brains. Then we become sick.

Glutathione is also critical in helping your immune system
⁴²
do its job of fighting infections and preventing cancer. Studies show it can even help in the treatment of AIDS.
⁴³

We need glutathione to reach peak mental and physical function. Research has shown that raised glutathione levels decrease muscle damage, reduce recovery time, increase strength and endurance, and shift metabolism from fat production to muscle development. Oxidative stress and glutathione deficiency have also been connected to dementia, depression, Parkinson’s, autism, and ADHD.

If you are sick or old or just not in shape, you likely have glutathione deficiency. The top British medical journal,
Lancet,
found the highest glutathione levels in healthy young people, lower levels in healthy elderly, lower still in sick elderly, and the lowest of all in the hospitalized elderly.
⁴⁴

Keeping yourself healthy, optimizing brain function, treating mood and brain disorders, boosting your performance, preventing disease, and aging well all depend on keeping your glutathione levels high.

Glutathione is responsible for keeping many of the keys to UltraWellness (which are the basis of the UltraMind Solution) optimized. It is critical for immune function and controlling inflammation; it is the master detoxifier, and the main antioxidant, protecting our cells and making our energy metabolism run well.

Glutathione is the center of good health because it is the
key
to protecting us against oxidation, controlling inflammation, and getting rid of toxins. When those systems break down, disease results.

Thankfully, we can easily boost our own glutathione production.

First you must get the methylation train running properly, because if it stalls, so does the sulfation train. Sometimes you can take glutathione itself, or the compounds that help your body make more glutathione, such as NAC (n-acetylcysteine), alpha lipoic acid, or milk thistle.

But you can also eat your way out of trouble. Using phytonutrient “super foods” from a plant-based diet should be the foundation for everyone’s diet and health.

Broccoli sprouts are the biggest inducers of glutathione production, but
you can load up on all the members of the broccoli family daily. Take your pick: collards, kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, mustard greens, rutabaga, turnips, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, arugula, horseradish, radish, wasabi, and watercress.

In Part IV I will give you a specific program for boosting glutathione. I will also teach you how to detoxify and boost your own detoxification system. This promises to protect you from the deadly toxins that infiltrate our lives more and more every day and cause the epidemic of brain disorders.

Even if you suffer from little more than a bad mood, detoxification can help. If you are coping with a chronic illness (whether physical or mental), it is an absolutely critical step on the path to UltraWellness.

Enhance Detoxification

Clearly we must face the enormity of our addiction to “modern” life, which is dependent on energy, coal burning, and industrialization, and has dumped billions of pounds of metals and toxins into our environment.

This poison echoes across the brains of the very young with autism and ADHD, the very old with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and the rest of us with depression and anxiety.

Ferreting out the toxins, making different choices, cleaning up our lives, going “green,” filtering our water, eating organically, and learning how to optimize the body’s own detoxification system are essential if we are to regain our health and reduce our impact on the planet and all its inhabitants.

I remember an old saying from the 1970s: think globally, act locally. The time has never been riper for each of us to be actively engaged.

That starts with your own health and the environment you occupy. I will teach you some steps on how to detoxify your body, your diet, your home, and your life in Parts III and IV. I strongly encourage you to follow those steps and become actively engaged in detoxifying our world.

Next we will learn about why conserving and making energy is so important to your brain and what can go wrong. You will learn how all these toxins, bugs, poor nutrition, hormonal imbalance, and inflammation ultimately lead to cell destruction and death by a common mechanism, literally depleting us of our life energy.

Making energy from food and oxygen to run all our cells is essential to life. And the system that does that for us—the mitochondria—is very sensitive to injury. If you want more energy and you want to learn how to protect your brain, read on.

——————

Ultimately everything comes down to energy. We need it, we want it, we lose it, and we try to get it back until finally we can’t make energy anymore. That’s called death!

Most of us don’t think much about where our energy comes from, why sometimes we have more or less of it, how it might affect our brain, or even the whole process of aging.

But in fact, everything we have explored in the first five keys influences our health directly through energy.

Enough energy means a happy, healthy, focused, and sharp brain. Lack of energy means slowed mental function, autism, mood disorders like depression, and ultimately Parkinson’s and dementia.
¹

The part of your body that uses the most energy is your brain, which has the most
mitochondria,
the little factories inside your cells that produce energy. Energy is necessary for memory, learning, and the whole information flow inside you that creates the synchronous, harmonious firing of neurons and brain cells.

No energy = abnormal cell function and cell death.

Abnormal cell function and cell death = chronic illness and brain disease.

Is this is why your brain is broken? Take the following quiz to see if your mitochondria are damaged and you are losing energy.

In the box on the right, place a check for each positive answer. Then find out how severe your problem is using the scoring key below.

LOSS OF ENERGY QUIZ *
I have chronic or prolonged fatigue.
I have aching muscle pain or discomfort.
I have sleep problems (trouble staying or falling asleep or waking up early).
My sleep is not refreshing.
I have a poor tolerance for exercise, with severe fatigue after.
I have muscle weakness.
I have trouble concentrating or remembering things.
I am irritable and moody.
Fatigue prevents me from doing things I would like to do.
Fatigue interferes with work, family, or social life.
I have been under prolonged stress.
My symptoms started after acute stress, an infection, or trauma.
I have chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.
I have a history of chronic infections.