Heal the Head
By Dean L. Jones
Growingly, the football season raises awareness about the negative effects of head injury and brain trauma. The larger conversation centers on brain concussion treatment and the effects it may have on the brain’s ability to fully recover. Brain injury is not germane to just playing football, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 1.7 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury each year, resulting in 52,000 annual deaths.
Important to the healing of the head is what neuroscientist reveal how there is a link between nutrition and brain health following a traumatic brain injury. This means that a lot of people should be alert to eliminating the consumption of fructose commonly found in processed foods. Especially during the head healing phase one should avoid processed fructose as it can inflict additional harmful effects on the brain’s ability to repair itself after a head trauma.
Processed fructose disrupts the creation of fresh pathways between brain cells needed for learning or experiencing something new. For the most part, a diet high in processed fructose can interfere with the brains’ ability to heal after head trauma. Bear in mind that fructose also interferes with recovery from strokes as well as brain injury. This is because excess processed sugar consumption diminishes memory and overall cognitive health.
This relates to the growing studies showing the link between processed sugars contributing to Alzheimer’s, which is at times being labeled as Type 3 Diabetes. In America the sources of fructose are vast including cane/beet sugar (sucrose), high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and honey. HFCS is widely added as a sweetener and preservative to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. Take note that there is an opposite effect from the fructose occurring naturally in fruit, which contains antioxidants, fiber and other nutrients that prevent the same damage.
President Barack Obama stated last week following the murderous calamity in Oregon that such tragedies are becoming routine. A little discussed component of what is routine is the modest attention applied to mental health. Specifically, mental health deteriorates from routinely eating and drinking processed sugary filled foodstuff.
Something becoming more newsworthy is an increasing amount of youth being dependant on a diet high in processed sugars. A diet swallowed up with sugar and saturated fats in all likelihood contributes to a state of depression and anxiety-like behavior. Then, social acceptance can look like rejection or even exclusion which can be detrimental to a person’s life.
Routinely consuming an unhealthy diet can in fact breed social exclusion that is a problem for the person who suffers it, and can problematically disrupt society at large. Rejection is known to turn toward violence, which is documented in common among 13 USA school shooters found to have been socially rejected. Thereby making it essential to live SugarAlert!
Mr. Jones is a marketing strategist with the Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), sharing his view on mismanagement practices of packaged foods & beverages