Dec. 2001
On Demand Accelerated Performance Newsletter
ACCELERATED PERFORMANCE
Accelerated neurodevelopment allows us the ability to
maximize and use our intellectual, physical, and emotional strengths
simultaneously.
When accelerating brain power, daily tasks such as working, studying,
and sports become easier to do and manage. The brain is functioning at
optimal levels and is able to make quick attentional shifts on demand.
This is the state of mind that peak performers call "the zone" and is
accessible at will.
On Demand Accelerated Performance will be
offering programs and assessments on how you can achieve top performance
from your brain and mind. If interested please contact us.
NEWS BRIEFS
The Society for Neuroscience just completed their latest conference from
November 11-16th. We thought you might be interested in some of the
latest research that was presented at the conference. -Crossroads Institute-
Fragile X Research Fragile dendrites may hold key to fragile X by Dan
Ferber Society for Neuroscience Conference Nov. 2001
In the depths of the brain, hundreds of genes direct the workings of
billions of neurons, which in turn direct the circuits that make us who
we are. New research is starting to reveal how dendrites, the
signal-receiving end of neurons, go awry to cause diseases such as
Fragile X mental retardation.
What's more, dendrite malfunction appears to underlie an array of brain
disease or injury, including schizophrenia, autism, and traumatic brain
injury.
In work presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference, the team
used microarrays representing the entire human genome to spot particular
RNA molecules in dendrites that might underlie the defective dendrites
in Fragile X disease. By analyzing those RNAs, the groups hope to
understand better how a defective FMRP causes the neural defects that
lead to mental retardation.
The work is important, says Shaila Mani of Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston, because it could lead to an understanding of how synapses alter
themselves as the brain learns. That could help spot the pathways that
researchers could then try to fix.
For complete details please click on the link below.
http://news.bmn.com/conferences/list/view?rp=2001-SFN-1-S2
Brain receptors feel your pain Science
NEW YORK, Jul 13 (Reuters Health) - Brain cell targets called mu-opioid
receptors play a key role in the way we perceive pain, say researchers
from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Pain is a complex experience encompassing sensation, perception and
interpretation. "These types of studies provide the bases for further
understanding of the brain chemical mechanisms that control the pain
experience," Dr. Jon-Kar Zubieta told Reuters Health. "We can now
examine methods that would regulate, possibly enhance, the natural
anti-pain systems in humans."
For the complete article please click the link below.
http://www.ontcm.com/message/1017162509.htm
Sense of self: More than a gut feeling Arthur Craig Society for
Neuroscience Conference Nov. 2001
Modern scans of the living human brain reveal a unique region that
registers the inner state of the body. The insula, tucked inside the
cortical covering of the brain, generates the uniquely human sense of
self. The findings confirm concepts first presented by scholars of the
nervous system a hundred years ago, and may give insight into syndromes
of chronic pain.
In a special lecture, neuroanatomist Arthur Craig of the Barrow
Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, presented classic anatomic
tracings, as well as cutting edge PET and fMRI scans, that delineates
this insular cortex. For more information please click on the link
below.
http://news.bmn.com/conferences/list/view?rp=2001-SFN-2-S1
Signal Processing Rachel Jones Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2, 680 (2001)
It seems that the more we find out about the nervous system, the more we
have to overturn our old models in favor of newer, more complex ones.
The simple idea of an axon as a fairly passive transmitter for the
output of a neuron is gradually being eroded as evidence accumulates
that axons have a more active role in signal processing and integration.
Schmitz and co-workers add to the story with the demonstration that the
axons of hippocampal neurons are electrically coupled by gap junctions.
Click on the link below for the complete article.
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nrn/journal/v2/n10/full/nrn1001-680b_fs.html
RESEARCH AND ADVANCEMENTS
The Society for Neuroscience just completed their latest conference from
November 11-16th. We thought you might be interested in some of the
latest research that was presented at the conference. -Crossroads
Institute-
Pay attention and your brain will follow Society for Neuroscience
Conference By Dan Ferber
Researchers measured visual attention by how easily monkeys were
distracted by peripheral flashing objects. When we pay attention to the
task at hand, we're more likely to do it well, but it's not clear
exactly what parts of the brain help us focus. Now, researchers have
identified a brain region that monkeys use to pay attention to what they
see. The experiments are the first time that anyone has predicted a
monkey's behavior solely on the basis of which neurons fire in a portion
of its brain, an American researcher said here today.
http://news.bmn.com/conferences/list/view?rp=2001-SFN-3-S4
Brain Plasticity and Brain Repair By Roberta Friedman Society or
Neuroscience Conference
New research is now indicating the glial cells that most neuroscientists
have regarded as merely support cells in fact take an active role in
building the brain and perhaps can be tapped into for making repairs.
A primitive type of glial cell serves as the stem cells that actually
generate the brain's neurons. Even in adults, these glial cells can form
new neurons scientists are finding.
This further supports the brain plasticity concept that the brain will
attempt to repair itself until the day we die. ÐCrossroads Institute-
For the rest of the research article please click on the link below.
http://news.bmn.com/conferences/list/view?rp=2001-SFN-1-S1
A Brain in Doubt Leaves it Out (Sometimes the brain ignores what the
eyes tell it.) By John Whitfield Nature
We are the prisoners of our brains. We see only what it decides to let
us see. Check out this site that proves that point! See how this
illusion can trick your brain into erasing some aspects of your visual
field.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010614/010614-9.html
Working Memory. A Life Span Perspective H. Lee Swanson School of
Education, University of California, Riverside
This study investigated whether working-memory (WM) span differences
across age are attributable to specific or general processing functions.
The study compared 9 age groups (6, 8, 10, 13, 16, 24, 35, 45, 57 years)
on verbal and visuospatial WM performance under initial (no probes or
cues), gain (cues that bring performance to an asymptotic level), and
maintenance conditions (asymptotic conditions without cues).
Age-related performance differences in WM were found across all
conditions and were not isolated to specific processes. Significant
performance differences remained among age groups on gain and
maintenance conditions. And the gain (accessing new information) and
maintenance conditions (maintenance of old information) for verbal and
visuospatial WM tasks contributed independent variance to age-related
performance.
The results support a general capacity explanation of age-related
differences. These differences in capacity reflect demands placed on
both the accessing of new information and the maintenance of old
information. For the complete research study please click on the link
below.
http://www.apa.org/journals/dev/dev354986.html
KIDS NEWS
More Dirt!
Journal of Chinese Medicine Oct. 2001
Remember when making mud pies and digging in the back yard were daily
occurrences? For many kids today that may not be so...and researchers
and now saying its time to get dirty again!
More and more disorders, especially atopic ones, are being ascribed to
lack of childhood exposure to sufficient dirt and bugs. Research carried
out in Finland randomly exposed pregnant women whose partners or close
relatives had eczema, to either Lactobacillus GG or a placebo, followed
by similarly exposing their infants for the first six months.
The children in the treatment group had half as much incidence of atopic
eczema (Lancet 2001;357:1076-9). In another Finnish study, two groups of
children were given either ordinary milk or milk containing
Lactobacillus GG over a 7-month period. The children in the
lactobacillus group had fewer days absence from day care, 17% less
respiratory infections and 19% less antibiotic use for respiratory
infections. (Hatakka, K et al, BMJ 2001, 322 (7298) 1327-9).
Bone Mineral Density and Celiac Disease SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2001
Nov. 12, 2001 (Ivanhoe Newswire) Ñ A gluten-free diet may help increase
bone-mineral density in young patients with Celiac disease.
A recent study in Turkey evaluated children diagnosed with Celiac
disease (CD), an illness marked by defective calcium absorption that can
lead to osteoporosis, rickets and soft bones. While bone mineral density
(BMD) levels were usually low in newly diagnosed children, adherence to
a strict gluten-free diet significantly increased BMD.
Researchers believe a diet free of gluten reverses the changes in the
intestine that lead to calcium malabsorption and the related effects of
CD, including low bone mineral density. For more on the story click
below.
http://www.ivanhoe.com/docs/newsflash/bonemineraldensityandceliacdisease.html
Health Windows Jr.
In this month's "kids" website we look at "Probe the Brain" an
interactive game that can teach you about the brain and how it works. In
this exercise learn about the motor cortex and how it works. Enjoy while
learning!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/brain/
Combined visual attention and finger movement Indovina I, Sanes JN.
Laboratory of Functional Neuroimaging Rome, Italy.
Sensory and motor systems interact in complex ways; visual attention
modifies behavior, neural encoding, and brain activation; and dividing
attention with simultaneous tasks may impede performance while producing
specific brain activation patterns. In this study participants performed
one of four tasks that required only a repetitive finger movement, only
attending to the color of a visual stimulus, simultaneous finger
movement and visual attention, or no movement and no visual attention.
The results yielded novel activation patterns when performing visual
attention and movement tasks simultaneously, even though the tasks had
no specific interrelationship. For the complete article please click on
the link below.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Display&DB=PubMed
Zinc Crucial to Children's Development Medboo Health
Researchers from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
(NWO) discovered that children in Java and Indonesia had better
resistance to disease if they took not only vitamin A and iron
supplements, but also extra zinc.
Commenting on dietary necessity of zinc, Dr Wendy Doyle, of the British
Dietetic Association, said, "Zinc is essential for making new body
proteins including cell growth and brain development in the unborn baby.
It comes from a variety of foods but is most easily absorbed from foods
of animal origin such as meat, seafood and poultry. Since iron can
interfere with zinc absorption, it would make sense in communities where
zinc intakes are likely to be low, to provide a supplement that
contained both iron and zinc.
For more information please click on the link below.
http://www.ontcm.com/message/1017312552.htm
SPEECH/LANGUAGE NEWS/UPDATES (New Category)
Language gene found
Nature Science Update October 2001
John Whitfield
The first linking of a gene to language could speed our understanding of
this most unique and most controversial of human abilities.
Language problems run in the 'KE' family. Members of several generations
speak "as if each sound is costing them their soul", one researcher has
said. They struggle to control their lips and tongue, to form words, and
to use and understand grammar. "To the naive listener, their speech is
almost unintelligible," says geneticist Anthony Monaco, of the
University of Oxford in England.
Researchers have unveiled the single gene that, when it goes wrong,
causes this speech breakdown. The gene - the first to be definitively
linked to language - switches others on and off, and so could lead the
way through a genetic network of language learning and use.
Geneticists are on the trail of genes that control brain development and
affect a range of mental disorders. The human genome sequence lets them
do much of the groundwork on a computer, "saving what used to be months
of work", says Robert Plomin, a behavioral geneticist at London's
Institute of Psychiatry.
For the complete article please click on the link below.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/011004/011004-16.html
Making sense of sentences Nature Science Update Rachel Smyly
"The cat chased the mouse." "The mouse chased the cat." These two
sentences contain exactly the same words, but obviously don't mean the
same thing. When your brain works out the meaning of a sentence, it
can't just rely on the meanings of the individual words: it must also
take into account their context and order.
Or to put it another way, there are two aspects to processing a
sentence: meaning and structure Ð or, more technically, semantics and
syntax. New evidence published in Neuron suggests that these two
properties are processed separately, in different areas of the brain.
The results also hint that the way we understand and use language is
more complicated than was previously thought.
For more information click the link below.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/991118/991118-2.html
The Music and Speech Connection Investigators: Robert Zatorre and Gregory Hickok by Apoorva Mandavilli Society of Neuroscientist
Conference Nov. 2001
Seated in the center of a concert hall, how do you identify the
distinctive sound of a bass on the left? Two different areas of the
brain combine activity to help people sort through and identify sounds
in a "noisy" environment, Canadian researchers reported.
When different sounds are played from different angles, a specialized
region within the auditory cortex becomes activated, says Montreal
Neurological Institute researcher Robert Zattore. "This area had been
predicted based on studies in monkeys, but it had not been found in the
human brain," he added. A second area, in the mysterious parietal
cortex, became active when volunteers tried to identify the location of
the sounds. The amount of activity in the area, located in the right
parietal lobe, closely predicted how accurately the volunteers could
locate a sound, Zatorre says.
"There has been much debate among scientists about what the parietal
cortex does," said Zatorre. "Our study demonstrates that this region
probably integrates the information from the auditory cortex with
information from the visual and motor systems."
In a related study, scientists at the University of California in Irvine
have identified two different brain regions that play a role in both
language and music abilities. The researchers exposed individuals to
various stimuli, including sentences, previously unheard keyboard
melodies, and sequences of non-language sounds.
They discovered that when the volunteers listened to the stimuli and
reproduced the sound to themselves, a region of the brain near the back
temporal lobe in the brain's left hemisphere is activated. The region,
called "Spt," is equally activated when individuals listen to speech or
music.
"We believe this region is part of a brain circuit that plays a role in
linking auditory signals, such as speech or music, with motor acts, such
as speaking or producing music vocally," said Gregory Hickok, associate
professor of cognitive sciences at the university.
For more information click the link below.
http://news.bmn.com/conferences/list/view?rp=2001-SFN-4-S5
AUDITORY NEWS/UPDATES (New Category)
Auditory Senses Working Overtime Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2, 757
(2001) Heather Wood
The act of hearing involves not only identifying the nature of a sound,
but also pinpointing the location of its source. To achieve this, the
brain needs to compare the sounds received by the two ears, and this
requires the development of ear-specific processing circuits. As in
other sensory systems, peripheral neuronal activity is thought to play
an instructive role in the patterning and refinement of these circuits.
In the auditory system, it was previously thought that this activity was
derived only from cells that were actively responding to sound. However,
as reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, Jones et al. have now shown
that during development, cochlear neurons can exhibit spontaneous
activity in the absence of external sensory input.
For more information on this article click the link below.
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nrn/journal/v2/n11/full/nrn1101-757a_fs.html
Seen and Heard Nature News Services Eleanor Lawrence
Striking new evidence of the versatility and plasticity of the human
brain is reported in Nature. According to Hiroshi Nishimura and
colleagues from Osaka University Medical School, Osaka, Japan, people
who have been profoundly deaf from birth and communicate entirely
through sign language make use of part of their brain that is normally
devoted to hearing.
We hear and interpret sound using areas of the brain called the auditory
cortex. The primary auditory cortex registers and organizes the signals
coming from the ears, and the auditory association cortex interprets
them, as language, for example. It is this latter area only that is
active in congenitally deaf people using sign language.
To find out which areas of the brain were being stimulated, Nishimura
and colleagues scanned the brain of a congenitally deaf subject. While
being scanned, the subject watched a video of sign language words being
signed by a Japanese signer. The auditory association cortex 'lit up' on
the scan while the primary auditory cortex did not.
Even more intriguingly, their subject did not appear to use the 'visual'
interpretation areas of the brain to interpret sign language, though
'bilingual' subjects who have both spoken and sign language do.
Their subject was scheduled to have a cochlear implant in the left ear,
which would enable him to hear someone speaking although he would not be
able to understand what they were saying. After he had received the
implant, the researchers repeated the PET scan, this time using a tape
of spoken language, to see what areas of the brain would be activated by
spoken language. This time the primary auditory cortex only lit up,
showing that despite never having received signals before, it was still
able to function.
These studies are yet further confirmation that although basic brain
functions such hearing and seeing are probably hard-wired, which parts
of the brain undertake 'higher' functions such as language
interpretation can be molded by experience in early childhood. When one
avenue of communication is shut off, brain areas that would be unused
are commandeered to enable humans to communicate through language. In a
similar fashion, congenitally blind subjects use the visual
interpretation areas of their brain to interpret the tactile stimuli of
Braille, while their primary visual cortex remains silent.
VISION NEWS/UPDATES (New Category)
Do Vision Cells Have Intrinsic Orientation?
Nature News Service
Hannah Wunsch
Many of our brain cells that are used for vision are programmed to
respond to stimuli that has a specific orientation, such as horizontal
stripes. These "orientation-sensitive" cells represent one stop on the
way to processing the visual world.
Are some cells already programmed to process only horizontal-- and not
vertical -- stripes before we ever open our eyes for the first time, or
do the things we see early in life program the cells instead? This is a
classic 'nature-versus-nurture' question.
Frank Sengpiel and colleagues from Germany, have tackled this question.
Their results, reported in the August issue of Nature Neuroscience, show
that the development of these orientation-specific cells involves a
little of both nature and nurture. There appear to be cells for all
orientations, regardless of visual experience. But some shifting of
cells can occur if one orientation is seen early in life more frequently
than the others are.
Some aspects of the development of brain cells used for processing sight
are well understood already. For instance, a baby initially has equal
numbers of cells in the visual part of the brain set aside to process
information from each eye. But if one eye is kept closed for an extended
period of time soon after birth, the brain cells for that eye will
eventually shift over and be used to process information coming in from
the other eye instead.
Subliminal Sights Educate Brain Paying attention isn't the only way to
learn. Nature Science Update October 2001 Helen Pearson
Today's busy world could overwhelm our ever-learning brains. You must
pay attention to learn, teachers say. Not necessarily, US psychologists
now argue: sights we are unaware of can have a lasting impact on our
brains.
"Without noticing, we are unconsciously learning," Takeo Watanabe says.
Repeated exposure to objects we are oblivious to "could have a
tremendous effect on our brains", he says.
The findings show that for basic visual processes "the brain is never
resting", says Robert Stickgold, who studies consciousness at Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We are learning automatically as we walk around, explains Ken Nakayama,
who studies vision at Harvard. "Patterns pass us all the time," he says,
like cars and people on the street. Subconscious learning may be an
efficient way to absorb these sideline features without trying. "You
can't pay attention to everything," he says.
Such a learning strategy may have evolved to help us incorporate
recurrent, and therefore important, information about our environment
into our memory, thinks Watanabe.
Watanabe's team asked subjects to look at letters on a screen.
Surrounding the letters were dots moving randomly, like the background
fuzz after TV programs have ended for the night. The participants did
not realize that 5% of the dots were moving consistently in one
direction.
After 25 days of subliminal training, people were tested on their
ability to see a detectable level (10%) of dots moving in one direction.
They were 20% better than normal at seeing the movement orientation they
had previously been exposed to.
For more information on this research please click the link below.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/011025/011025-12.html
MEET THE EXPERTS
Crossroads Institute would like to introduce you to its newest member
of our team of experts, Dr. Martha Grout.
Dr. Martha Grout has been trained in both traditional Western medicine
and in Chinese medicine. She received her medical (MD) degree from The
Medical College of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) in 1971 and has
practiced Emergency Medicine in New York, Florida and Arizona. She was
the Attending Physician at an 80 bed nursing facility in Groton, New
York and practiced Western medicine exclusively until 1996, when she
realized that there was more to healing than Western medicine could
provide, and began to look in other directions. She moved to Arizona
with her family in 1997, and took training in massage therapy, Reiki
healing, chelation therapy, Homeopathy and Medical Acupuncture, while
maintaining her practice of Emergency Medicine. She did her acupuncture
training with Dr. Joseph Helms, MD through the UCLA School of Medicine,
in course work entitled ÒMedical Acupuncture for PhysiciansÓ, and now
regularly serves as an instructor in the course. To this day, Dr. Grout
continues to practice medicine in both worlds, working in Emergency
Departments around the Phoenix area, and in private practice of
acupuncture. She uses Chinese herbal therapies, as well as acupuncture
and even occasionally pharmaceutical medications in her private
practice.
Dr. Grout firmly believes that there is no healing of the body without
simultaneous healing of the emotions, mind and spirit. The physical
body serves as the densest level of expression of disease, and always
points to the location of dysfunction in the other energetic bodies. It
is our belief that combining the neurofeedback work of Dr. Curtis Cripe
and the Chinese and Western Medicine of Dr. Martha Grout will take us a
giant step forward in our ability to promote healing and proper
functioning of the body, mind and spirit.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Acupuncture and Autism News from Journal of Chinese Medicine
OCTOBER 2001
Autism is a complex developmental disability that normally appears
within the first three years of life. It is estimated to occur in up to
one in every 500 children, is more common in boys than girls, and can
severely affect a child's social interactions and communication skills.
Many children develop normally for the first year of life, even walking,
talking or crawling earlier then the average child, but then autistic
symptoms begin to appear. Language is either slow to develop or does not
develop at all, whilst some autistic children master speech but have
difficulty processing information. Some will isolate themselves, rarely
interacting with others. Sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste, may be
impaired. Autistic children may lack the ability to play spontaneously
and imaginatively, and may exhibit aggressive behavior (to themselves or
others). They may show obsessive interest in one particular thing
whether a person, an activity or an object, staring at or playing with
the same item, or rocking repetitively for hours, and laughing or crying
for no apparent reason. There are many different approaches to the
treatment of autism, none offering spectacular success, but acupuncture
and Chinese herbal medicine have shown promising results. Now a new
acupuncture method has been pioneered by Prof. Virginia Wong of the
University of Hong Kong. The technique involves stimulating regions on
the tongue which, by using brain imaging techniques, were shown to
affect areas of the brain related to autism. Children who were treated
by this method showed improvements in language and social skills,
cognition, hyperactivity, attention span and aggression. (Proceedings of
the World Congress of Neurology, London).
Acupuncture and Childhood Constipation Journal of Chinese Medicine
Oct. 2001
Constipation in children accounts for between 10-25% of referrals to
pediatric gastro-intestinal clinics. An Israeli study selected children
from 3-13 years (median 6 years) of age with constipation of over 6
months duration and gave either true acupuncture at Xingjian LIV-2, Hegu
L.I.-4 and Zusanli ST-36, or sham acupuncture (stratum corneum
penetration at non-acupuncture points near the real points). Bowel
movements per week rose from 1.4 to 5.6 in female patients after 5 true
acupuncture treatments, and from 1.4 to 4.2 in male patients after 10
treatments, whilst there was no improvement in males during the sham
acupuncture 5-week period, and only a slight improvement in females.
(Broide E, Pintov S, Portnoy S, Barg J, Klinowski E, Scapa E. Digestive
Disease and Sciences 2001, Vol.46 (6): 1270-1275).
NEURODEVELOPMENTAL EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES
Music Therapy in Children Medboo
Music therapy has had very good results with children who have hearing
disabilities. The musical elements contribute to improving the quality
of life of these children, favoring the accessibility of talking,
socializing and the self knowledge through techniques that bond the
musical area with the corporal expressive area.
For autistic children the rhythm is the union of factors such as
intensity, duration, velocity, amount, texture, etc., which is converted
and exchanged through a corporal or verbal manner into all of their
vital experiences.
For more information please click on the link below.
http://www.ontcm.com/message/1016252463.htm
NUTRITION NEWS
Sugary Soft Drinks are Hard on Your Brain Nutrition and Your Brain:
Carbohydrates for Energy John D. MacArthur
If you've ever had a blood test that measured your glucose level, it
should be somewhere under 100 milligrams per deciliter. That translates
into 5 grams, or about a teaspoon of sugar in circulation throughout
your entire bloodstream. Let's say you suck down a soft drink containing
four times that amount of sugar, which is then quickly absorbed and
enters into your bloodstream.
Sensors in your brain's hypothalamus will instruct your pancreas to the
secrete the hormone insulin, which triggers cells throughout your body
to pull glucose out of your bloodstream and store it for later use.
(Cells and organs not part of your nervous system normally ignore
circulating glucose, because they burn fatty acids which generate more
than twice the energy that sugars do.)
Now, all of a sudden the glucose available to your brain has dropped,
and neurons unable to store glucose experience an energy crisis. Even
when blood sugar levels are again normalized, insulin levels can remain
high because your liver may be unable to remove the circulating insulin
fast enough. About two to four hours after eating, reactive hypoglycemia
sets in. You may feel weak, fatigued, and nervous. Your ability to focus
and think can suffer and your moods may swing.
Sugar: Love It, Leave It, or Level It (Nourishing Traditions)
To maximize brainpower, especially the ability to focus and sustain
attention, minimize blood sugar swings by eating carbohydrates low on
glycemic index or higher ones mixed with lower ones and in proper
balance with fats and proteins. Lately, it's been suggested that the
best ratio is 30 percent fat, 30 percent protein, and 40 percent
carbohydrate.
"As the consumption of sugar has increased, so have all the 'civilized'
diseases. In 1821 the average sugar intake in America was 10 pounds per
person per year; today it is 170 pounds per person, over one-fourth the
average caloric intake. Another large fraction of all calories comes
from refined flour and refined vegetable oils. This means that less than
half the diet must provide all the nutrients to a body that is under
constant stress from its intake of sugar, refined flour, and rancid and
hydrogenated vegetable oils. Herein lies a major cause of the vast
increase in degenerative diseases that plague modern America."
RECIPE OF THE MONTH (and other good things to eat)
In honor of the holidays we thought you might like this gluten-free
sugar cookie recipe. ÐCrossroads Institute-
Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
1/3 cup softened, unsalted butter 4-oz. low fat cream cheese 2 cups
French Bread Pizza Mix (#40) * see web link below 1 cup sugar 1/2 tsp.
gluten-free baking powder 1Ú2 tsp. grated shredded lemon or orange peel
1 egg 1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla 1 tsp. orange or lemon juice
Beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Combine 1 cup French
Bread Mix, sugar, baking powder, and citrus peel. Beat into butter
mixture. Add egg, vanilla and orange or lemon juice. Beat in remaining 1
cup of French Bread Mix. Cover and chill dough for 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half. Roll one piece
between two sheets of plastic wrap until 1Ú4 inch thick (or thinner).
Peel off top layer of plastic wrap and cut into desired shapes with
cookie cutters. Peel off bottom layer of plastic wrap and set on cookie
sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake 10 minutes or until edges are
slightly brown. Do not overbake. Cool completely. Frost or serve as is.
Makes 24-30 cookies.
http://www.glutenfree.com/cutout.htm
How Can a Gluten-Free & Casein Free Diet Help? The Gluten-Free Pantryª
Studies have shown that certain foods may affect neurological processes
in some children, causing Autistic behavior. Recent research suggesting
that foods containing gluten (the protein in wheat, oats, rye & barley)
and casein (the protein in milk products) should be avoided by many
Autistic children is gaining credibility.
Most people have the ability to break down gluten and casein proteins
into peptides and further into amino acids. When our bodies are unable
to break down these foods, the problem is often misdiagnosed as food
allergies.
Medical professionals in England and Norway have performed several tests
on children with Autism and discovered that 50% of these children do not
break down gluten/casein proteins completely into amino acids. These
undigested proteins (peptides) are then eliminated harmlessly in the
urine. However, a few peptides enter into the bloodstream.
Unbroken peptides entering into the bloodstream may cause abnormal brain
development and create an opiate-like affect. Opiates depress the
activity of the nervous. They can cause the individual to feel drowsy,
warm and content due to the relaxation. They also block pain sensations.
These opiates are highly addictive and can reach toxic levels. A
chemical dependency may develop that makes it difficult to "quit" eating
foods containing these substances. This may be a possible explanation as
to why many children with Autism crave milk and wheat products.
A simple urine sample taken to perform a Urinary Peptide Test can detect
unbroken peptides.
BOOK NOTES
MINDFITNESS TRAINING: Neurofeedback and The Process by Adam Crane and
Richard Soutar, Ph. D. Writers Club Press, 2000. Reviewer: DeAnsin
Parker
This fascinating book blends science, psychology, and philosophy into an
inspirational and highly authoritative exploration of the mind. Seldom
does a purportedly scientific book take what at first glance, judging by
the title, appears to be dry, clinical research data and transform those
brain wave analyses into an expansion of individual and collective
consciousness. However, this is exactly what the authors attempt to do.
Adam Crane is an entrepreneur thoroughly credentialed in Biofeedback and
Neurofeedback with 30 years experience in medical / educational
biofeedback and applied psychophysiology. He is the President of
American BioTec, Director of BioMonitoring International and BioTec
Corporations, and Founder of Health Training Seminars. Richard Soutar,
Ph. D. is a professor at Arizona State University and is Director of
Biofeedback Services for the Neuro Performance Center in Phoenix. He
lectures and gives workshops on social psychology and clinical
neurofeedback.
In the MindFitness program, with the technology of neurofeedback, the
authors discuss a method to help clients attain Profound Attention,
which is defined as the ability to see with brain and heart. The
MindFitness Training program includes The Process with its nine stages.
Although the book focuses on the expansion of consciousness, it does
cover a learned discussion of the more common uses of neurofeedback,
including the treatment of addiction, alcoholism, anxiety, ADHD/ADD,
chronic pain, conduct disorders, depression, epilepsy, learning
disabilities, and sleep disorders. Research data is quoted to
substantiate treatment protocol effects. However the primary focus and
majority of the book deals with The Process.
The beauty of this treatment is that it does not involve medication, but
rather the training of the mind, which is what good therapy is supposed
to be, but seldom is.
DeAnsin Goodson Parker, Ph. D., Director of the Goodson Parker Wellness
Center, developer and author of Yogababy tm, and Director of the
Foundation for the Development of Human Resources
MIND/BODY FITNESS
With the holidays upon us we should all probably just stop every now and
again and breathe, maybe this exercise will help. -Crossroads Institute-
THE HEALER WITHIN
The presence of special breathing practices in the ancient cultures has
always been a mystery to people in the Western world. In "Full Chest and
Abdominal Breathing" Dr. Jahnke explains a method that activates all of
the primary benefits of therapeutic breath practice when done slowly and
fully, with intention, concentration and relaxation.
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The CrossRoads Team
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