Books
The book that is vital for anyone in nutrition to read is Professor Michael Crawford and Davis Marsh’s ‘The Shrinking Brain’. It’s a highly readable science book but, within it, is the solution for saving humanity. Make no mistake, if we don’t prioritise nutrition and mental health, humanity is going to be in fast freefall. If you didn’t listen to my podcast with Professor Michael Crawford (now re-recorded for better audio) it’s a must.
Since I get books to review, I’ve read one that’s coming out on 5th February ‘Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind’ by psychiatrist Dr Georgia Ede. It focusses on ketogenic diets and mental illness, and is well worth a read. It’s very well written and researched. I learnt a lot. I’m releasing a podcast with Dr Ede on that day.
I’ve been writing another book, Upgrade Your Brain, out on 25th April, which will be accompanied by a UK and Ireland lecture tour, so I’ve been squirreled away reading tons of research with little room for anything else.
However, at one point I had a much needed short break in Morocco, visiting Marrakesh for some serious carpet buying and travelling through the mountains from Imlil beneath Toubkal mountain, the highest in the Atlas Mountains, then driving the stunning windy road across the Atlas to magical Essaouira. We read Arabian Nights Adventure by Tahir Shah, which is highly entertaining, uplifting and magical. He is a great writer. Tragically that mountainous area was devastated by the earthquake, so I’m not sure the road is passable, but if it is, they’ll need all the tourism they can get to help rebuild their lives.
If you want a quiz question for Christmas you could ask ‘which town and vegetable is good for the vowels?’
The answer is Essaouira and cauliflower.
Films
Oppenheimer is brilliant. I especially liked it knowing that my teacher, Dr Linus Pauling, worked with Einstein campaigning against nuclear bombs and received his second Nobel Prize on the day the Global Treaty to ban testing of nuclear bombs, was signed. He too was subject to the same paranoid control of the McCarthy era, which prevented him leaving the country. The odds are high, that if he had been able to visit the scientists at Oxford University he would have cracked DNA before Watson and Crick, and won a third Nobel Prize.
Change Your Mind, a netflix series by Michael Pollan, was a fascinating and well made program on the use of psychedelics for mental health. My hope is that they will soon be reclassified for therapeutic use.
Songs
I discovered the absolutely brilliant song Midnight in Harlem by the Tedeschi Trucks Band
For those who love their morning coffee and don’t know this song One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan. It’s another of my wife Gaby’s favourites.
I’ve also been really enjoying my son outlaw’s single, from his band the Smokey Angle Shades And You Tied a Ribbon On It.
These are great songs to listen to over Christmas.
Research Papers
The seminal paper by Professor David Smith and Helga Refsum entitled HomocysteineHomocysteine is an amino acid found in the blood. Elevated levels of homocysteine have been associated with narrowing and hardening of the arteries, an increased… – From Disease Biomarker to Disease Prevention is so worth reading. This is a MAJOR piece of health science, certainly worth a Nobel Prize. No other marker predicts so many diseases – over a hundred – and almost all mental and neurological illnesses.
Extraordinarily, even nutritional therapists and functional medicine practitioners, especially in the US, nearly always underestimate the tremendous importance of homocysteine as a marker for methylationMethylation is what occurs when the body takes one substance and turns it into another, so that it can be detoxified and excreted from the…, dependent on B vitamins. It is very readable, although requires concentration. It also explains in detail how homocysteine has been subjugated. I’ve seen this happen with so many nutritional breakthroughs. This is one we are all living to regret as doing so is allowing hundreds of thousands of people to drift into unnecessary dementia.
I am so delighted that we have, finally, discovered how to test homocysteine inexpensively from a home test kit – see foodforthebrain.org/tests. The kit is available now, but the lab opens on January 2nd so don’t prick your finger until the New Year. This is a piece of information that could save your mind and your life and the best Christmas present you could give yourself and the ones you love, especially those over 40.
Events
I’m going to kick off the New Year responding to recent cutting-edge research with a webinar ‘Get Healthy 2024: The 4 Keys to Protect Your Brain & Body‘ on 15 January and corresponding articles on the ‘Four Horseman of the Health Apocalypse’ – so you know the critical steps you need to take to make your New Year a healthy one.
For those who want a total health transformation, there are a few places left on my 17-20 May Total Mind and Body Transformation Retreat in the Black Mountains of Wales, feeding you from our own organic zero dig garden! It’s the only one I’m doing in 2024.
Christmas Wishes
Wishing you a Happy Christmas (remember, Brussels sprouts help you detoxify) and Healthy New Year!
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