Best Future You – Harnessing Your Body’s Biochemistry to Achieve Balance in Body, Mind, and Spirit
My 13th book, Best Future You, is out!
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting excerpts from the book and blogging frequently about the main concept in the book – which is the idea of harnessing your body’s internal cellular biochemistry to achieve true balance in body, mind, and spirit – and in doing so, help you to become your “Best Future You” in terms of how you look, how you feel, and how you perform on every level.
Chapter 6 – Feel Your Best
The Importance of CDR Activation for Mental and Physical Energy
Biochemical and genetic research studies are showing us how many of the ancient herbal remedies mentioned earlier work by activating the CDR cellular “switch” inside of every cell in our bodies. This CDR switch induces the natural production of internal cellular anti-stress proteins and increases our production of internal antioxidant enzymes.
You might think of the CDR pathway as an internal “thermostat” for cellular stress. Whenever a cell is under stress – whether from oxidative stress, or inflammatory stress, or any type of other stress that our modern world might throw at us, the CDR pathway senses the stress and induces numerous protective responses. Some of these responses help to reduce oxidative stress (antioxidant enzymes), while others help to clean up damage (housekeeping proteins) and prepare our cells for exposure to future stressors (heat shock proteins).
This natural induction of CDR is very much a “master regulator” of the body’s antioxidant and protective response – and the same mechanism at the heart of numerous new biotechnology and pharmaceutical research projects. In many ways, the natural induction of CDR is the future of maintaining proper internal balance and holistically protecting our body from environmental stress.
The CDR pathway is important for protecting every single cell in our body, but nerve cells, especially brain neurons; as well as mitochondria (our internal cellular energy generators) are particularly susceptible to damage from oxidative stress. A recent study funded by the Department of Defense (DARPA – Advanced Research Projects) showed that inducing CDR protects brain cells from oxidative stress induced by high altitude hypoxia (Lisk et al. Free Radic Biol Med. 2013 Oct;63:264-73). Another recent study showed that CDR induction may be particularly important for protecting the brain during degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (Hybertson et al. Mol Aspects Med. 2011 Aug;32(4-6):234-46). Numerous studies have indicated that mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to neuron degeneration via oxidative stress – and that specific flavonoids such as quercetin, proanthocyanidins, and EGCG can protect neuron growth against mitochondrial-linked pathologies (Dajas et al. Central Nerv. Syst. Agents in Med. Chem., 2013, 13, 30-35). Based on these and numerous other studies, it seems clear that optimal mental energy and performance is supported through variety of mechanisms that hinge on optimal activity of the CDR pathway.
Thanks for reading – please tune in for the next installment about, “Lifestyle Tips to Pump Up Your Energy.”
