Neuroplasticity -- what I need after losing my mind

Okay, I DO seem overly curious about brain health, but that's because I can NEVER ever take it for granted again.  

3.5 years ago, I got very ill, resulting in brain inflammation and injury leading to the longest, most horrific clusterf*#! imaginable, so I am fascinated and grateful that there is something called neuroplasticity.  It may be my only hope.

Yep. My amazing brain.  It got fried and then denied. Crazy.

But yes, we all have these amazing brains.  Protect 'em if you can.  Stop eating and drinking sugary stuff.  It's like kerosene on your brain.  Burns it down to transform you into someone you won't even recognize in the mirror.  

You gotta believe me: you can't even begin to describe your brain and the stuff it can do without a functioning brain.

So eat your veggies, exercise, socialize and sleep well...

For Jackson -- My First Nephew

I am so proud of you, my only brother's only son.  Envious, too.  You're doing what I wanted to do when I was going to Cal.  I wanted to be a filmmaker.  So it's great to see that you became yet another creative force in the 4Js clan.  Between your father and mother, you had the genes from the start.  Ahhh, but it would be hard to find your own thing, right?  Dad's a geek (aka software engineer), loop artist, musician, songwriter, graphic artist & photographer; and Mom's a teacher, athlete, world traveler, and excellent creative force/photographer in her own right.  

And then, of course, there's Jade.  Where do I begin with your sister?  No doubt a formidable individual & artist for ANYone to follow, and now she's a landscape architect!? Wow.

Yes, Jerry & Julie made two masterpieces on their very own Green Acres.  They did good.

Anyway, I started this whole blog thing because of your Dad.  I had just moved to Houston (instead of hanging with him in Santa Cruz), which really pissed him off (and doubtless raised his already-elevated BP even higher -- into super hypertension!). Then, right around Christmas, he presented the symptoms of a man who was about to have a heart attack (angina, radiating pain down his arm, etc.).  So your physician-grandfather took him to the hospital, where they ran tests, and then they took him to the cath lab to insert a stent.

Those stents are carefully inserted before they spring out to keep the vessel open, so blood can still carry oxygen to the cells that make up the heart's muscle tissue.  Can't do much pumping without O2! So my first post was dedicated to my brother, your father, and his "stentorian awakening." It also gave me the opportunity to write about CPR and AEDs for everyone... Stayin' alive, stayin' alive...

And here is a link to one of my first posts, talking about New Year's resolutions, right around your birthday on New Year's Eve.

So, before we ever reach true 2020 vision, the morning after your birthday, just remember: Health and happiness may appear to come easily for some, but for most of us humans, it takes work.

Yeah, keep making those big bowls of salad greens!  Alas, sugar is SO sweet.  Giving up all the fun, yummy-tasting stuff (I scream, you scream, we ALL scream for ice cream!) after they've already highjacked our brains and turned us into addicts -- for love and pleasure and nostalgia or whatever it takes to justify self-destruction... that's what we will struggle with the rest of our lives -- the Standard American Diet (SAD).  And that's why I "toil" at this labor of love -- sharing information I hope will be life-changing for the folks I will love forever and for those I have yet to meet.