Brain Fact Friday on "Improving Mental Clarity by Understanding our Brain States, Brain Fog, and How It's Created"

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for Brain Fact Friday and episode #147 that has taken me back to Dr. Jon Lieff from episode #143[i] and his book The Secret Language of Cells: What Biological Conversation Tells Us About the Brain-Body Connection, the Future of Medicine and Life Itself.[ii] I'm Andrea Samadi, author and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of our listeners, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies in our schools, sports, and the workplace with ideas that we can all use, understand and implement immediately, for improved results.   In Today’s Brain Fact Friday You Will Learn: ✔︎ How Brain Fog is Created  ✔︎ How the Brain and Immune System Work Together ✔︎ How Cells Communicate with Each other ✔︎ How to Strengthen Our Brain-Mind-Body Connection by Understanding Our Brain State On our last Brain Fact Friday, episode #141, I talk about how meeting Dr. Lieff opened my eyes to the importance of keeping the cells in our body healthy for our future health, productivity, and results and that I had never thought about my health through this lens. His book explores the cellular conversation as a new way of understanding that our cells have constant, intelligent chatter between them, showing there is no separation of brain-body, mind-body or brain-immune and It got me thinking about neurogenesis, (how we create new cells in the brain) reminding me to take my Omega 3-DHA to increase Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, (which is the best way to produce new brain cells) and the ties to keeping our brain cells healthy for learning, memory and retention. But what else is there? What are some other ways that I can look at health, wellness and productivity at the cellular level? Which Leads us to This Week’s Brain Fact Friday Have you ever wondered why we get brain fog, or have a harder time thinking when we are stressed? Dr. Jon Lieff shared with me why this happens, and I think it’s important that everyone understands this function of our brain and body. Did you know that the brain and immune system work together? T-cells (an essential part of the immune system, a type of leukocyte or white blood cell) sends a message to the neurons (the cells in the brain and nervous system) to stop making memory cells (when you are stressed) and you get brain fog. Dr. Lieff reminded us in our interview that stress is “at the interface of brain function and inflammation” and that “T cells are essential for dealing with stress…Both brain and immune cells pick up perceptions of stress. Brief stress related to learning or the unexpected can be helpful in stimulating positive brain activity. However, chronic stress (where the body has no way to break from a stressor) can trigger damaging inflammation.”[iii] We have all heard that stress causes inflammation in the body, that “leads to a number of chronic health conditions”[iv] like cancer and viral infections and Dr. Lieff comes to the conclusion that “all processes in the human body, in all animals and plants, and in microbe communities as well, are based on conversations and group decision making among cells.”[v] One of the many fascinating parts of my interview with Dr. Lieff, that I have had many messages about, was where he explained that no one knew there were immune cells near the brain. Cerebral fluid (a colorless fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) he explained “is also for communication and that t-cells get into this fluid and send messages to neurons.”[vi] When there is an infection in our body, the immune cells send “a sick feeling” to our body signaling us to pay attention to what we are feeling and take a rest or break so that healing can take place. Have you ever felt that feeling? You are working and something feels off in your body? Stefanie Faye mentioned the concept of “interoception” (being able to perceive the sensations from ins