Scientists used to believe the connections among the brain nerve cells were set early in life and did not change in adulthood; however, with the help of advancements in brain imaging and other techniques. this assumption has been disproved In fact, scientists have come to grasp the concept of ongoing brain development.

Studies have indicated that mental training through meditation can change the inner workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness.

By working with Tibetan monks, scientists have been able to:

• Translate mental experiences into a scientific language of high-frequency gamma waves and brain coordination
• Identify the left prefrontal cortex of the brain — an area just behind the left forehead — as a place where brain activity associated with meditation is particularly intense

In one study, scientists hooked up eight of the Dalai Lama’s most accomplished practitioners (with an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 hours of meditation training) and 10 student volunteers (with one week of training) for electroencephalograph (EEG) testing and brain scanning. The subjects were fitted with a net of 256 electrical sensors and asked to meditate on unconditional compassion for short periods of time. The sensors picked up slight bursts of electrical activity — caused by thinking and other mental motion — as large groupings of neurons sent messages to each other.

The Results

• Sensors picked up much greater activation of fast-moving, powerful gamma waves in the monks, compared to the students
• The movement of the waves through the brain were better organized and coordinated in the monks than in the students
• The highest levels of gamma waves were found in monks who spent the most years meditating; intense gamma waves have been associated with knitting together dissimilar brain circuits and are connected to higher mental activity and heightened awareness
• It was concluded that meditation not only alters the workings of the brain in the short-term, but quite possibly permanently

Washington Post January 3, 2005

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

I’ve always believed meditation can be a wonderful tool that can help you take a deliberate break from the stream of thoughts that are constantly flowing in and out of your mind. Some people use it to promote spiritual growth or find inner peace, while others use it as a relaxation and stress-reduction tool.

The study provides further support for the link between physical and emotional health. Since we are constantly stimulated in our daily lives — visually, mentally, emotionally and physically — it is not surprising that taking a break from this stimulation can actually improve your physical health.

Numerous scientific studies have confirmed the health benefits of meditation.

One earlier study found that people who underwent eight weeks of meditation training produced more antibodies to a flu vaccine. Though I don’t recommend the flu vaccine, this study does indicate meditation can boost the immune system.

Other Ailments Meditation Can be Useful For

If your schedule is anything like mine, you are probably wondering how you can possibly fit regular a meditation practice into your schedule, while still trying to fit in other healthy lifestyle choices like:

• exercise
• more sleep
• preparing your own food

Well folks, the answer lies with new and exciting brain wave entrainment technology. This is a system in which you listen to relaxing sounds of a rainfall on a CD through stereo headphones. Each channel has different frequencies that gradually but rapidly bring you into a state of blissful relaxation because your brain is now resonating at frequencies consistent with those observed in experienced meditators.

I previously had endorsed a system called Holosync on this site. While that was a great program that helped hundreds of thousands of people, it cost $150 and the company had far too aggressive annoying marketing follow-ups. I was fortunate to find an equally beneficial system at a fraction of the price that does not send out ANY followup marketing materials. We have had the Insight CD System on our site for a while now and have received many testimonials as to how this has helped.

The Insight CD is actually set up so you can do a 20-minute quick session that gets you most all of the benefits. Most people, including me, can carve out 20 minutes; however, the CD is also set up so you can do a 40- or 60-minute session.

By listening to the CD you can literally train your brain to function at a high level of synchronization, opening up the way for a flood of positive effects. When left and right sides of your brain begin to work in concert with each other, electrical activity and energy patterns in your brain become more widespread throughout the brain instead of remaining confined to certain areas. Research has indicated this type of “whole brain synchronization” is present in the brain at times of intense creativity, clarity and inspiration.

Therefore, whether you do it with the Insight audio CD or on your own in a quiet, undisturbed place, make sure you make meditation a priority of your daily life. It’s a simple step that can have lasting and profound influences on both your physical health and mental well-being.

Scientists have suggested that the “using 10 percent of our brain” is just a myth that has refused to die. They also claimed that the media has played a role in keeping the myth alive.

A study of the “brain booster” genre concluded that the true secret to getting ahead in life is through practice and hard work. Despite these findings, millions continue to seek solace by the prospect that their shortcomings for success can be blamed on their inability to tap into their unused brain reservoir.

Other evidence has shown that using electrical stimulation during neurosurgery has failed to wake up any dormant areas of the brain and despite the use of advanced technologies that involves listening to the functional trafficking of the brain, no areas of the brain waiting to surface have emerged. Scientists have agreed that waiting for an increase in your grade point average or getting that job advancement won’t happen while waiting to tap into “sleeping brain” areas.

Researchers have speculated that the myth materialized from misconstrued scientific papers by early brain researchers, which referred to a huge percentage of the cerebral hemisphere as the “silent cortex.”

The good news is that the 10-percent myth has resulted in motivating some people to strive to become more creative and productive in their lives.

Scientific American March, 2004

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

People that continue to believe in this myth after reading this article are undoubtedly setting themselves up for a life of disappointment. The idea that we only use 10 percent of our brain is a myth and should not be used as an excuse for not reaching goals and seizing opportunities when they come your way.

So rather than asking yourself, how can I find the secret to unlocking dormant areas of my brain, you should be asking how you could find ways to improve upon your existing brain capabilities. This could be done in several ways, most importantly through a nutritious eating program and regular exercise.

Blueberries are a particularly powerful brain-boosting food and you can likely find organic blueberries in your local health food store, and we now carry delicious and convenient Wild Blueberry IQ Softgel Capsules in our store that are made from whole fresh blueberries — and contain 40mg of potent disease fighting anthocyanins per capsule — more than any other available supplement!

Challenging your mind with new ideas, such as taking a course in a foreign language or doing crossword puzzles, will also help to keep your brain strong.

There is a common notion that there is only a fine line between creativity and insanity. A small group of people known as schizotypes may essentially live on that line.

Between Genius and Madness

Schizotypes fall in the midpoint between sanity and insanity. They do not suffer most of the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as paranoia and hallucinations, but they often exhibit both eccentricities and enhanced creativity. A new study confirms that both may come from their using more of the right side of the brain than the rest of us.

Scanning Your Brain

The link between creativity and aberrant behavior has generally been based on anecdotal evidence. The new study used brain-imaging techniques to investigate the creative process in an experimental manner, with “creativity” being defined as the ability to generate something new and useful from pre-existing materials or ideas.

The researchers compared the creative thinking processes of schizotypes, schizophrenics, and normal control subjects.

Schizotypes Used Their Right Brain More

Scans showed that both sides of the brain in all three types were active when making novel associations. But in schizotypes, the activity in the right hemisphere was much higher when compared to the control subjects, and they also came up with a wider variety of creative ideas.

It was theorized that schizotypes may have more access to the right hemisphere of the brain, or that they may exhibit more efficient communication between the two hemispheres.

To be creative is to have the capacity to think freely, openly, without limitations or constraints about problems and challenges. Creativity allows you to think outside of the box, around the box and through the box in an imaginative and free flowing manner.

A Creative Genius has a certain set of qualities, beliefs, methods of talking to themselves, asking the right kinds of questions and taking strategic actions that naturally cultivate creativity within the recesses of their minds. By consistently and persistently instilling these traits into your psyche, you can supercharge your mind and unlock your capacity for creative thought.

The Qualities of a Creative Genius Mind

Flexibility: A Creative Genius is flexible in thought, opinion and in the decisions they make on a daily basis.

Possibility Thinker: A Creative Genius persistently thinks about the possibilities that are available to them at any one moment in time.

Risk Taker: A Creative Genius fully understands that without “risk” there can be no worthwhile rewards.

Focused: A Creative Genius is fully focused and locked mentally on the goals they seek to achieve.

Imaginative: A Creative Genius utilizes the full capacity of their imagination to find the answers they need to overcome the challenges in their life.

Dedicated: A Creative Genius is fully committed and dedicated to the outcomes and objectives they seek to achieve.

Patient: A Creative Genius realizes that creativity is a process that involves patience and careful preparation.

Proactive: A Creative Genius is constantly moving forward towards their objectives.

Courageous: A Creative Genius is courageous in action and thought.

Independent: A Creative Genius is an independent thinker and doer.

Intuitive: A Creative Genius fully understands that some answers can only be realized when they have an intuitive understanding of the world and the problem they are facing.

Persistent: A Creative Genius is aware if they persistent long enough over a consistent period of time, every problem can be solved in a surprising and creative way.

Curious & Playful Nature: A Creative Genius approaches every task or activity in a curiously playful manner.

The Indispensable Beliefs of a Creative Genius

Belief in Self: A Creative Genius has full confidence and belief in themselves and their own ability.

Belief in a Higher Power: A Creative Genius isn’t necessarily religious in nature, although they can be. However, they do believe that there exists a higher power that helps spark the creative forces within their body and mind.

Belief in Learning From Every Success & Failure: A Creative Genius essentially does not distinguish between success or failure. Instead, they only acknowledge the feedback they receive.

The Proactive Actions of a Creative Genius

Proactive Learning: A Creative Genius fully understands that life is a process of constant and never ending learning and self-improvement.

Journaling: A Creative Genius keeps a regular record of their life experiences, learnings and questions within a journal.

Mind Mapping: A Creative Genius consistently uses a set of accelerated learning tools that help to build strong associations between seemingly unrelated ideas within their minds.

These Creative qualities are very much like muscles — they must be trained and built over the course of days, weeks, months and years. The more time you spend flexing these muscles and utilizing them, the stronger, more creative, effective and efficient they will become. And when you have these qualities ingrained deeply within your psyche, then your true Creative Genius Capacity will finally shine through.

Researchers have detected abnormalities in the brains of people with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition whose symptoms include muscle pain and fatigue.

Some researchers have suggested that the pain of fibromyalgia is the result of depression, but the new study suggests otherwise. The abnormalities were independent of anxiety and depression levels.

Researchers evaluated 20 women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 10 healthy women without the condition who served as a control group. The researchers performed brain imaging called single photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT.

The imaging showed that women with the syndrome had “brain perfusion” — blood flow abnormalities in their brains. The abnormalities were directly correlated with the severity of disease symptoms.

An increase in blood flow was found in the brain region known to discriminate pain intensity.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

It’s estimated that 2 percent to 4 percent of the U.S. population has fibromyalgia, and nine out of 10 are women. As more research like the study above comes out, it should put to rest the controversy over whether or not fibromyalgia is “real.”

And, yes, fibromyalgia is a real, sometimes debilitating illness. People who suffer from it often report pain all over their bodies — including in their muscles, ligaments and tendons — along with a feeling of exhaustion. There are also typically “tender points,” or places on your body where even a slight pressure causes serious pain.

Physical Proof of Fibromyalgia

The causes of fibromyalgia are still unknown, although some experts, such as Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases and the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined fibromyalgia’s diagnostic guidelines, believe fibromyalgia is mainly a physical response to mental and emotional stress, depression, and anxiety about economic and social issues.

I would have to agree with his assertion, as nearly every person I have seen with fibromyalgia has suffered from an underlying emotional component.

This does NOT mean that fibromyalgia is “all in your head.” As the study above showed, SPECT imaging found that women with fibromyalgia had blood flow abnormalities in their brains. Specifically, an increase in blood flow was found in the brain region known to discriminate pain intensity.

A similar study conducted several years ago had nearly identical results. In it fibromyalgia patients underwent a type of detailed brain scan known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while an instrument intermittently applied different levels of pressure to their left thumbnail.

When all study participants received the same level of mild pressure, blood flow increased much more in the brains of patients with fibromyalgia than among those in the control group. As in the more recent study, the increased blood flow — which is a “surrogate measure” for nerve activity — occurred in areas of the brain known to be associated with pain.

In addition, when study participants were subjected to different levels of pressure, fibromyalgia patients reported pain at half the level of pressure that caused the same feelings of pain among the healthy controls. So something appears to be awry with the way the central nervous system processes painful stimuli in fibromyalgia patients.

A Brief Warning About Lyrica

The pain of fibromyalgia can be severe, and most people do not respond to conventional painkillers. So it’s easy to see why there was such fanfare when the FDA approved Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat fibromyalgia pain.

Lyrica is a drug originally designed for diabetic nerve pain that was rejected because of its unimpressive results and many side effects, including weight gain, edema, dizziness and sleepiness.

One of the primary concerns surrounding Lyrica is the tendency for this drug to cause substantial weight gain, especially considering that many fibromyalgia patients are already overweight. In three-month trials of the drug, 9 percent of patients had a weight gain of more than 7 percent, and their weight kept rising steadily over time.

And, as you may already suspect, this is a steep risk, considering that fibromyalgia cannot be cured with a pill.

Easing Fibromyalgia Pain and Symptoms the Natural Way

A natural treatment program for fibromyalgia should involve a three-pronged approach:

Finally, as you work to normalize your emotional traumas the following therapies can further help to reduce pain and get you back on track to optimal health: