nutritional/supplemental suggestions for pregnant women
In many of the episodes, you have talked about nutritions and supplements that are essential and/or benificial for health and performace. My wife was recently pregnant, and I was wondering if there's any particular nutritional and/or supplemental suggestions for pregant women?
Construction Workers and TBI's....
In a recent interview, you briefly mentioned that the demographic of people who suffer the most TBIs are actually Construction Workers. Counterintuitive to the often-discussed injuries among sports athletes. Can you please explain this further? Are the injuries due to blunt force trauma or excessive vibration? Does wearing a hard hat daily contribute to body strain or exacerbate minor incidents? Thoughts on TBIs from non-team sports? The idea that repetitive impacts are put on the body and the head is constantly compensating for these abrupt movements. eg. downhill skiing 80+ days per year, Mtn Biking, dirt biking, jet skiing.... etc.
Methods for Regulating Brain States including Binaural Frequencies.
Andrew, I am a neuropsychologist who has been for many years very interested in ways to regulate different brain states and to say the least, your presentations speak directly to me, You are a tremendous resource and I frequently incorporate your insights and content into my lectures to my postdoctoral students. Thank you for doing what your doing. One of my interests has been neurofeedback which is a very promising technique whose potential has yet to be realized. There are many theoretical and technical issues that need to be addressed and when used properly, at least at this point, neurofeedback training and therapy is time consuming and requires clinical application and monitoring. There is definitely a need for a methodology that could produce similar results without the time and resources required for neurofeedback. A few months back, you mentioned an app Brainwaves using binaural frequency to induce different brain states. I have tried it and have been impressed with the results on my own state of mind. I was hoping that you could address the state of research and knowledge regarding this methodology and any guidelines for its use. For example, can you overdo it or is there any adverse effects from changing from one brain state to another within a short period of time? I have been a meditator for years and have found the practice to be beneficial. However, when I originally learned TM, the practice prescribed two 20 minutes sessions per day, often not convenient and, therefore, unsustainable. With the Brain Wave app, I put it on the meditation program and continue with my daily routine; no need to have to sit in repose for twenty minutes. I have found that this more passive form of "meditation" has been able to produce a similar mental state as the more conventional practice without the inconvenience. In a recent episode, you spoke of meditation and described three dimensions including internal versus external focus of attention. I fear that practicing mantra medication for years has definitely biased me more to an internal focus and I am now following your suggestions to balance myself with focusing upon external sources. It seems to me that there may be some role for binaural frequencies in promoting states more focused inward or outward. So, not so much as a question as much as my thoughts about various issues that I would love to hear you address in future episodes. Thank you for your stellar work. Arnold Purisch, Ph.D.
Working in a toxic environment - how does it affect creativity and the ability to focus on more riskier ideas?
We know that working in a toxic environment has great effects on mental and physical health (but let's be honest, employers don't really trigger on those numbers). And as Lisa Feldman Barret wrote in "humans are unique in the animal kingdom, because we also regulate each other with word.” Is there any scientific study that shows that if working in a toxic environment we are less creative or have less ideas because of the actual neurological component(s)? Lisa F.B. states also that society is already paying the costs of reduced innovation, because people are constantly stressed (and they don't learn well). One could argue that psychological safety is biologically based then :)