The findings stated by its author Peter C. Whybrow, MD in his book “When more is not enough” can be mapped from the American example to virtually the entire “developed world” today.
Therefore, this publication of mine, which content is searching connects the global problems of consumerism and human greed with simple natural solutions, is certainly welcome. Natural solutions are those that are consistent with the natural order.
OZADJA – opiši transmiterji, nevrotransmiterji, dopamin, serotonin, stari možgani, imunski sistem
Soil Bacteria Work In Similar Way To Antidepressants
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840.php
UK scientists suggest that a type of friendly bacteria found in soil may affect the brain in a similar way to antidepressants. Their findings are published in the early online edition of the journal Neuroscience.
Soil bacteria can boost immune system
Harmless bug works as well as antidepressant drugs, study suggests
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18082129/
EXTRACT: Exposure to friendly soil bacteria could improve mood by boosting the immune system just as effectively as antidepressant drugs, a new study suggests.
The researchers suspect, however, that the microbes are affecting the brain indirectly by causing immune cells to release chemicals called cytokines. “We know that some of these cytokines can activate the nerves that relay signals from the body to the brain,” Lowry said in a telephone interview.
The stimulated nerves cause certain neurons in the brain to release a chemical called serotonin into the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain known to be involved in mood regulation, among other things.
Scientists think the lack of serotonin in the brain is thought to cause depression in people.
Previous studies have linked early childhood exposure to bacteria to protection against allergies and asthma in adulthood. The new finding take this idea, called the “hygiene hypothesis,” a step further, and suggests bacteria-exposure not only boosts our immune systems, but alters our vulnerability to conditions such as depression as well.
“These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health,” Lowry said. “They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.”
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“Selfish behaviors(*) are reward driven and innate, wired deeply into the survival mechanisms of the primitive brain, and when consistently reinforced, they will run away to greed, with its associated craving for money, food, or power. On the other hand, the self restraint and the empathy for others that are so important in fostering physical and mental health are learned behaviors – largely functions of the new human cortex and thus culturally dependent. These social behaviors are fragile and learned by imitations much as we learn language”. Dr. Peter Whybrow – “American Mania”
(*) Thought is selfishness as we have been WRONG TEACHED to misinterpret.
Some interesting insights and food for thought…
Status and Curiosity – On the Origins of Oil Addiction by Nate Hagens
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4240
The various layers and mechanisms of our brain were built on top of each other, via millions and millions of iterations, keeping intact what ‘worked’ and adding on what changes and mutations helped the pre-human, pre-mammal organism incrementally advance. … We are, all of us, descended from the best of the best at surviving and procreating, which in the environment of privation and danger where we endured the most ‘iterations’ of our evolution, meant acquiring necessary resources, achieving status, and possessing brains finely tuned to natural dangers and opportunities. In our modern environment, it is the combination of pursuit of social status and the plethora of fun, exciting/novel activities that underlies our large appetite for oil.
Research tells us that drugs of abuse activate the brain’s mesolimbic dopamine reward system, the neural network that regulates our ability to feel pleasure and be motivated for “more”. When we have a great experience… our brain experiences a surge in the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine. We feel positively charged, warm, ‘in the zone’ and happy. After a while, the dopamine gets flushed out of our system and returns to it’s baseline level. We go about our lives, looking forward to the next pleasurable experience.
Hagens also muses that “There is anecdotal evidence that the typical american diet high in processed starches and sugar robs us of our baseline serotonin – the zen master of brain neurotransmitters. Lack of serotonin makes us more susceptible to cravings/behavioural changes and throws the reward machinery out of whack. Food we buy/eat is available at stores and restaurants because a)it is profitable b)it is convenient and c)it tastes good. I suspect that future changes in diet towards more vegetables and less processed food might improve our collective addictions/impulsivity.
Ugotovitve, ki jih v svoji knjigi “When more is not enough”, navaja njen avtor Peter C. Whybrow, MD, je iz Ameriškega primera dandanes mogoče preslikati v tako rekoč ves “razviti svet”.
American Mania: When More is Not Enough
W.W. Norton, 2005 – 338 strani
Despite an astonishing appetite for life, more and more Americans are feeling overworked and dissatisfied. In the world’s most affluent nation, epidemic rates of stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and time urgency are now grudgingly accepted as part of everyday existence-they signal the American Dream gone awry. Peter Whybrow, director of the Neuro-psychiatric Institute at UCLA, grounds the extraordinary achievements and excessive consumption of the American nation in an understanding of the biology of human craving and the reward system of the brain-offering for the first time a comprehensive, physical explanation for the addictive mania of consumerism. Whybrow’s analysis combines careful reflection on the roots of American culture as a laissez-faire, competitive, free-market economy with an exploration of the nation’s migrant temperament and its role in the creation of our ambitious, restless society. Taking into account our ancestral biology, he sheds critical light on the dangerous misfit emerging between our consumer-driven culture and the brain systems that evolved to deal with privation 200,000 years ago. Absent any controls-cultural or economic constraints-we are easily hooked on our acquisitive pleasure-seeking behaviors. Whybrow shows how human biology is ill equipped to cope with the demands of the 24/7, global, information-saturated, rapid-fire culture we not only have created but also have come to crave. Drawing on rich scientific case studies and colorful portraits, American Mania presents a clear and novel vantage point from which to understand the most pressing social and medical issues of our time, and it offers readers an informed approach to addressing these problems in their individual lives.
Peter C. Whybrow, MD, is director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. Born and educated in England, he is the author, among other books, of A Mood Apart and the award-winning American Mania: When More Is Not Enough.
