The Brain

The Brain Think about your smartphone. When you first took it out of the box, it was fast and efficient. It held its charge for a long time and performed at its peak. Then you started downloading apps and filling up memory space with pictures and videos. The operating system became increasingly crowded, and performance declined. Your phone is now slower to respond and the battery is more quickly depleted. Nothing on your phone works as well as it did when it was new. The brain is not much different. Similar to a smartphone congested with selfies and games, the brain is crippled by toxins in both your diet and environment that obstruct proper function. These toxins damage and destroy brain cells and weaken the body's ability to produce energy in cells. This is important to know because your brain needs an immense amount of energy to perform well. In fact, the brain uses up to 20% of your body's overall calories. That is more than any other organ in your entire body! Consequently, your body has to find a way to produce the energy necessary to function well. The cells in your brain, as well as every cell in your body, are powered by several hundred organelles called mitochondria. The number, efficiency, and strength of your mitochondria dictate a great deal for your health. Mitochondria influence whether or not you'll eventually develop cancer or a degenerative disease, how much brainpower you have, and how your cells communicate. In an earlier post, we learned about the cortex, the higher part of your brain in charge of your essential functions like balance and temperature regulation. It has the most densely packed mitochondria of any part of your body (other than the ovaries). That means that your mitochondria provide more energy to your brain’s performance than they provide to your heart, lungs, or legs. Your brain gets first dibs on mitochondrial energy, and your eyes and heart are right behind it in line. Your brain is about 60% fat, 25% of which is cholesterol. Cholesterol is a type of fat that helps you produce sex hormones and vitamin D, digest your food, protect your nerves, and more. Brain cells send signals to each other through junctions called synapses. Many of the junctions are coated in myelin, which is made almost entirely out of cholesterol. This fatty coating insulates your brain cells so electrical signals travel faster throughout your brain. It’s similar to the way electricity travels through an insulated wire. Let's touch on brain kryptonite really quick. Brain kryptonite refers to anything that pulls energy away from the brain and into another part of the body. Your kryptonite can be certain foods, environmental toxins, types of light, and even forms of exercise that, when performed poorly, can weaken your brain. Brain kryptonite doesn't kill you—at least not right away—but it slowly and stealthily eats away at your battery life. When your body has to use energy to oppose toxins or brain kryptonite, or if it isn't creating and delivering energy efficiently, the body’s demand for energy can go beyond its supply. In these instances, your mitochondria get burned out in parts of your body.

The first sign that your mitochondria are overtaxed is fatigue. Fatigue is an absolute performance killer. It causes cravings, moodiness, brain fog, forgetfulness, and lack of focus. Yes, most of the things you get frustrated with stem from brain fatigue. It is not a moral failing. It's just an energy delivery problem. Your body has to make extra energy to get rid of toxins. This means if toxins are draining your energy, your body becomes less and less efficient at metabolizing and removing them, so you'll have to expend even more energy to get rid of them. It's a vicious cycle and can wreck your performance if you don't do something to stop it. Thankfully, there are ways to improve the amount of energy being delivered to your brain so that its energy level actually exceeds its demands. Once you learn how to do this, your brain can function more like a brand new phone, fresh out of the package—fast, responsive, and highly charged. For four of the best ways to improve performance and prevent burnout, click here.