How Does the Brain Develop?
Scientists have known for some time that the brain developed in response to movement. When living creatures started to move decision became important. They were either moving towards something or away from something. That continues today in the mind, people will be driven towards something they perceive as good and away from that they perceive as bad. One pull is stronger in each situation and ‘wins’.
Babies are born with primitive reflexes – as I am sure you know. What you may not realise is that babies are born with only 25% of our full brain capacity but by age 3, that has grown to 90%. The moment we start to move and interact with the world, we get feedback from our senses which fires off gene production and neurons and causes our brains to grow.
We can spot developmental problems early on by observing a childs motor system. If there is a problem with breast feeding or if they haven’t rolled over by about 6-8 months, then there is possibly a problem with the motor system. Since they don’t have a fully developed brain yet, the motor system is driving the show. That drives the brain development. An imbalance in the motor system often creates an imbalance in the brain.
If this is not caught early on, it will lead to poor movement, co-ordination, muscle tone and ultimately an imbalance in the spine.
Dr Robert Melillo – author of Autism, The Scientific Truth About Preventing, Diagnosing and Treating Autism Spectrum Disorders, What Parents Can Do Now, talks about how this imbalance to the brain, if too great, creates a disconnect between left and right sides which prevents the sharing of information, so you end up with a ‘functional disconnection’. This disconnection is one of the leading theories as to the causes of autism, ADHD, OCD, tourette’s and other mental health problems.
Which brings me to Brain Based Wellness and why it is important.
Just realising that the power that made the body can heal the body is a great first step. There is more to healing the body than just dealing with symptoms. In fact symptoms are the last thing that shows up in the disease process and the first thing that goes away in the healing process. You cannot manage your health based on symptoms.
When you leave the doctors surgery the cause of your illness has not gone away, even though you might have a prescription to deal with the symptoms. Sometimes the health problem is there and symptoms do not show up until it is too late. We all know of people who felt good and then had a heart attack or were diagnosed with cancer. I don’t recommend waiting until you have symptoms to pro-actively manage your health.
Take steps now to reduce the stress in your life and reprogram your brain to a better way of thinking, which will impact your decisions, your activity, your choices and your physical and mental health.
It all starts with the brain. The brain can be reprogrammed. Every new experience in life creates new neural pathways, but what is often under recognised is that every new THOUGHT creates new neural pathways. Just as you can decide to drive a different way home from work which will create a different experience and create new pathways in the brain, so you can also decide to think differently about a situation or problem and create new pathways.
If you want to learn more about how the brain works I have co-written a book with Dr Patrick Porter titled, “Brain Balance” which will be coming soon.
Filed Under: Mind
Tags: brain, brain development, brain health, development, Dr Jason Gould, health, mind
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