Computer Games - Just a bit of harmless fun?

I just know I'm going to sound like a bit of a 'Grandad' here but of late I've been thinking about the impact of computer games on health.

A lot of the work that I do revolves around retraining the body's dysfunctional stress response.

The flight or fight response is brilliant for getting us primed for physical action. The stress hormones of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol are released and get the blood pumping and heart beating. As this is seen as a dangerous situation, the body prioritises energy to the limbs. In fact any bodily function that is not needed is put on the back burners. So things like your digestion, your immune system, even your normal brain function takes up energy. These systems function are momentarily lowered to ensure all energy is used to get you safe. This is a brilliant system for acute stress. We can do without them briefly. However the impact of chronic stress can be disasterous. (Stress can be physical mental or emotional). We just don't seem to be designed for chronic stress.

So that's what's going on physiologically when we go into 'Flight or Fight'. Now think of computer games. We go into the same flight response. What is the impact of children spending hours and hours playing computer games in this stressed state?

There is another potential impact as well. New understandings of how the brain works indicates that our experiences changes the neurons in our brain. (A concept known as Neural plasticity) If we see someone doing something, the corresponding parts in our own brain light up as if we are doing it (Mirror Neurons). If we see it enough it is like we are doing it.

Computer games are no longer a yellow pac man eating pills and chasing monsters. It is so life like and you are 'in the picture' in what psychologists call being 'associated'. So with the shooting games children are learning in graphic detail what it is like to kill someone (but without the emotion or consequences).

New brain retraining programmes are highlighting the positive impact of computers to rewire the brain. So some caution should be exercised to ensure our children's constantly changing brain are protected.

Food Intolerance

Last week we looked at how our emotional state impacts directly on our digestion. The link between stress and ulcers is well known.

It’s worth looking at the field of neurology and how our understanding of the brain has radically changed over the last 10 years.

It was once believed that the brain was unchanging after early childhood. Well it turns out not only were we wrong but spectacularly wrong. Our brain is always and constantly changing. The concept of Neuralplasticity says that everything we do and think lays down new nerves in our brain. If one area of our brain is damaged we can train other areas to take up the missing function.

Another mantra of neurologists is ‘What fires together wires together”. For those that remember the Russian scientist Pavlov, his experiments with dogs and bells, was neurologicall conditioning . The sound of the bells became linked with food. So when one fired, the other fired. It’s a radical concept. That a bell could influence an animals digestive system!

When 2 things are happening simultaneously the brain makes a neurological link. Even if there is no actual link.

Now how is this linked to intolerances? If someone is undergoing stress then there is the potential for the brain to link that stress to whatever is happening at the same time. The longer the occurance of stress the greater the potential of a link. Remember - What fires together wires together.

From the brain’s point of view it is in ‘danger’ mode and detects gluten/grass seeds/lactose - things that are normally common and harmless. But a link is made. It then has been conditioned to respond to to the ‘danger’. Avoidance behaviours further reinforce the danger - which has now moved from perceived to real.

The the body has learnt (incorrectly) that something harmless is harmful. So it can be re-educated and you can be trained out of food intolerances. It takes a bit of work but far easier than a lifetime of avoiding foods and missing out on social activities because of a limited diet.

Next week we will look at the impact of computer games and TV in our childrens’s health….but as a sneak preview. If your child is playing war games for hours on end, they are in fight or flight not rest or digest.

Never Eat Angry - Digestion and Stress Hormones

It’s amazing how many times modern scientific discoveries finally catch up with ancient wisdom.

As I was sitting through a lecture in the role of stress hormones on digestion my mind was taken back to what I was told in an Ashram in India – never eat angry. The idea that you are better to go without than eat when in a distressed state -  as in that state you can not digest properly. A period of calm after eating also ensures proper digestion so it is recommended lie down and rest. Well a lie down seems like a pretty good idea when the only thing waiting for you after dinner is another long session of yoga or silent meditation.

But what about in the ‘real world’. Surely with the faster pace of our lifestyles it’s just not pratical. It is advice ignored at our own peril and it turns out this becomes even more important .

Flash back to my lesson on stress hormones and it all falls into place as does the high incidenses of digestion problems and intolerances.

Our bodies are designed to be able to deal with ‘stress’.  The part of the body responsible for this stress response is known as the Sympathetic Nervous System, or the flight or fight response. Our bodies goes through a rapid biochemical change releasing a cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones to attempt to bring the body back to homeostasis.

When you are stressed the body goes into fight or fight mode.  To get out of danger we are primed to either run away or fight the danger, so need our muscles. So it’s action stations.  The body then has a very clever way of putting all it’s energy into fight or flight. Any system that is drawing energy that is not needed is temporarily shut down.

During the moment of danger we do not need to digest as it uses up vital energy that might be spent getting out of immediate danger. And so our digestive function (as well as immune function) temporarily reduces.

So in a stressed state your digestion function drops hence the Ancient wisdom reminding us to not eat angry.

Of course the stressed state is not just anger. It includes anxiety, panic or just plain old garden variety stress. But what about eating on the run when you are running late for a meeting? What state are you in during your breakfast, your lunch and your dinner?

An extreme of this is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a physical condition, whereby after some stressor (often viral) the body starts it’s stress response. The initial trigger seems to pass but the body gets stuck in what’s known as a sustained sympathetic nervous system arousal. With key body functions like digestion, immune and sleep ‘turned off’ the ensuing consequences can be debilitating. The majority of people I see with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome have some form of food intolerance and there is little point focusing on the food intolerance until the underlying dysfunctional physical stress response is addressed.

So being mindful of how you eat is just as important as being mindful of what you eat. If you are spending a fortune on suppliments, vitamins and organic fresh food but putting them into a digestion system that isn’t working for you, then you won’t be getting the full benefits.

Next week we look at the rise of food intolerances and new theories on how we are training ourselves into intolerances.