A recent study published in the journal “Nuerology” indicates that a shrinking brain during aging may be a causative factor in the development of the ravaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease. While the causes of a shrinking brain may elude western scientists now, Chinese medicine describes such processes in terms of a decrease of yin, or vital fluids. The brain is conceived like a storehouse of a vital hydro-electric liquid, which indeed it is. The brain needs proper nourishment as we age. The entire physiological complex of the creation of fluids for intracellular fluids, synovial fluids, cerebrospinal fluids etc. is one integrated system. Digestion must be strong to transform food into utilizable energy and the large intestine must be able to reabsorb water and nutrients into the blood.
So all the processes of making thought from food, or making bone from nutrition, or making water for the brain are connected. The brain in Chinese medicine is associated with the energetic field of the kidneys. The kidneys and will, the mentation of the kidneys, drive the creation of bones, and the process of hearing in Chinese medical thought. The continuum of brain, kidney, thyroid, bone and hearing responds to the ability to generate fluids, what the Chinese call yin. To produce yin, we must be able to transform food and thought. When thought gets backed up or a person has too many “thoughtforms” running through the stage of their mind, then they have not “transformed” that thought. Trans means to go beyond, and form means something substantial. To transform is to go beyond the form.
When a person’s brain is shrinking, they are not transforming their food appropriately and they are not making the yin their body needs to keep their brain well hydrated. There have been some interesting speculations recently about the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients being acidic. Acidic fluids certainly could cause a shrinking brain. Acidity means that the body is not receiving the right nutrition and that acid wastes are then circulating throughtout the blood. Too much acid wreaks havoc on, guess what? The kidneys. For instance, an excess of uric acid not processed by the kidneys can become gout.
Acid, inflammation and a shrinking brain
So understanding Chinese medicine can help understand this process of a shrinking brain. When the body fluids become acidic, and the body becomes inflamed and inflexible, stiff and with poor circulation, the bones become weak, the muscles atrophy and a brain will shrink.
Using Chinese herbal formulas like Dia-Slim will help your body absorb food better, reduce inflammation and protect the heart, body and brain from inflammation. To learn more about herbal weight loss you can check out this letter I wrote to my friends and patients.