Ultramind Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman

Lately I have been reading the work of Dr. Mark Hyman. I am almost through with his latest book “The Ultramind Solution”. I highly recommend it if you are trying to sort out a lot of the info out there about various neurodegenerative disorders or “brain diseases”. We all hear the names: depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson, ADHD, autism and so on. Hyman calls all of these “disorders” broken brains. He doesn’t mean that they are permanently broken, especially if we acknowledge that they have their source in the body as a whole and are not confined to the brain. He is a proponent of what is called Functional Medicine. The idea is that systems theory is applied to biology, meaning that the whole needs to take precedence over the part when it comes to figuring out how to achieve optimal wellness. This contrasts with the current medical model of treating all the parts of the body as separate entities.

A number of my older clients that I treat using the Egoscue Method are dealing with different types of broken brains – dementia, Parkinson’s, depression and so on. My mother passed away recently and suffered through years of Alzheimer’s. These are all extremely distressing disorders and especially if you are toward the end of life is not the way to spend the last days. In addition, the way these disorders are currently dealt with are very costly, have limited positive results and do not often treat the underlying causes. This is what Dr. Hyman illustrates so well in this book. Please put it on your list if any of these issues are a concern of yours.

Here is something to try that is from the end of the book in the chapter on calming the body and mind. He calls it the ultrabath (personally I get a bit tired of his use of the term ultra for everything) . Take a half cup of baking soda, 1 or 2 cups of Epsom’s salts, 10 drops of good quality lavender essential oil and add all to a bath of warm water. Soak for about 20 minutes preferably before bed. It is a great relaxer.

Take a look at the video blog about the new book if you don’t have time to read the whole thing now. It is 7 videos on each major part of the book. It is a great summary of his thinking that led to the book.