Introduction

My name is Doctor Ralph Ryback and I would like to introduce myself.

I am a board certified Harvard trained psychiatrist with an internship in medicine. Growing up in Detroit, it was easier for me to build a sports car from the ground up, other than the motor, during my first year of medical school.Throughout my career I have been involved in scientific research, teaching, publishing and psychiatric practice.

Some of my past professional endeavors include participating in the Man Orbiting Laboratory studies at the School of Aerospace Medicine, beginning the first alcoholism and drug abuse treatment program at the Harvard Hospitals, being a visiting scientist and intramural researcher at the National Institutes of Health, a founding member of a managed health care system, consultant to NBA and NHL teams, developing a patent with Johnson and Johnson for the treatment of psoriasis, serving as medical director of several different adolescent programs in Adventist Health Care Systems, and most recently being medical director of "The Mindful Health Foundation" in Naples, Florida.

Philosophy-Without health, We Have Little. - from the blog of The Truisms Of Wellness.

Each of us in our own microscopic way, reflects our environment and the development of our modern species which is thought to have trudged out of the plains of Africa 50,000 years ago. Their biological and psychological selves experienced many "revolutions" including agricultural, industrial, digital, cyber, artificial intelligence, etc. Each caused and continues to cause psychological and physical stress or exposure to adverse situations over which we perceive to have little or no control. Understanding these relationships is vital to our present and future health.

The delicate balance between stress and our biochemistry can be characterized as a constant struggle to maintain a balance between oxidative damage from the formation of free radicals or reactive oxygen species(ROS) and antioxidants. If ROS excessively increases or and antioxidants are diminished, oxidative damage accumulates with resulting disruption of normal physiology, including damage to DNA, lipids, and proteins with the expression of overt disease. Sleep is a necessary part of the repair processes and that is why I call sleep "the center of sanity" both physically and mentally. During deep sleep, reparative processes take place, including and involving the release of growth hormone. The "stress system" or the hypothalamic – pituitary-adrenal axis is also involved in sleep and mood regulation.

It has been demonstrated that lifelong damage by ROS, especially to our energy producing mitochondria, accompanies, and is part of aging. When our cellular repair process called autophagy and our antioxidant defenses can no longer keep up with the assault of excessive ROS, aging accelerates. Antioxidants from berries, prunes, cherries, broccoli, dark, leafy greens, olives, pinto and red beans, etc. can donate an electron making free radicals less reactive, more stable, and reducing ROS. Dr. Ron Prior, the former Director of the US Department of agriculture research service at the Arkansas children's nutrition Center demonstrated there is a limitation to the amount of an antioxidants the body can utilize.

Free radicals are mainly produced by our cellular mitochondria in making ATP energy during the metabolism of what we eat. The consumption of food can have toxic qualities, not only related to what we age as for example, saturated and trans fats, processed foods, sugars, additives, preservatives, etc., But how much we eat and assimilate the state of the US study, 1990-2016, verified dietary factors are the number one risk factor for death and disease. We are familiar with the concept that overloading a motor will burn it out, and shutting it off, so it can cool down may prevent this. However, we really think this way about ourselves. Fasting is in fact, the closest we get to a state where repair and restoration can take place. Fasting, ketones, but not the ketogenic diet,as well as polyphenols found in resveratrol, quercetin, curcumin, olives, extra-virgin, olive oil, green tea, lemons, cocoa, carib, apple cider vinegar, tree, nuts, oregano, cloves, black chokeberries, blueberries, red and black beans, etc., and exercise, all four of which have been shown to prolong life. When we fast for more than 12 hours, our body shuts down metabolically, allowing essential cellular cleanup and recycling of chemicals and amino acids to occur.

Obesity can be a preventable cause of morbidity and mortality, but it is more than simply burning more than what you consume. Rather, our energy producing cellular mitochondria can affect our weight by limiting the amount of nutrients actually metabolized called uncoupling. This is a protective mechanism to keep our trillions mitochondrial engines from "overheating", working optimally, and not dying. Not surprisingly, the four underlined above all support mitochondrial uncoupling actually affecting our weight and our health.

What we ate and what we did is what we are and how long we will be. It also increases or decreases our appetite. Soluble, psyllium, husk, or a prebiotic oats have been studied, as well as non-soluble fiber, and increasing the speed of food transferred, and that's decreasing fed exertion fiber generally decreases appetite an increase is satiety resistant starch, which is found in certain types of corn, as well as green, bananas and barley can decrease glucose and insulin levels after a meal as well as the next meal. This results from favorably affecting the colonization or intestinal tract, as well as flattening the glucose curve, subsequent to its ingestion. This helps diminish glucose binding to proteins and fats in her body called glycation which causes subsequent damage to our organs and blood vessels. I discuss this process in more detail in my book, entitled Gut and Soul.

Our bones are our supporting framework since we are a sophisticated complex sack of water. Among the many problems that we face is back pain, slipped discs, osteoarthritis often called wear and tear, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune related problems. Many of the problems we have begin with the way we carry ourselves and sit. For example: if you sit leaning slightly forward over a desk, and stand up without moving your upper torso, you will find yourself erect and leaning forward with the slow development of weaker back and stomach muscles. Because I am victimized by my desk and scoliosis, I have developed a series of simple exercises to improve upper back strength and posture. This helps reduce leaning forward as we age, as well as putting unequal pressure on the anterior facets of our vertebrae. This can result in slipped discs and inflammation because our vertebral bones are unevenly. stressed. Orthopedic surgeons have realized the benefits of Pilates in preventing or partially remedying these problems. Pilates strengthens core musculature and stretches our muscles in both directions helping to realign the body and its bones.

The brain is the vessel of our mind, and some would say our gut is the seat and voice of our soul. I discuss this and its relationship to food assimilation in my book, Gut and Soul - Answers to the American diet and male death and fertility crisis, derived from history, science, and French food culture. There in, I discuss the importance of emotional and compassionate connections in the actual nutritional assimilation of what we eat.

There is an assumed cognitive decline with age. It is clear there in some individuals reason, memory, and other brain functions worsen with the most extreme being Alzheimer's dementia. This is a significant issue since approximately 20% of the US population are seniors, with the largest percentage being baby boomers who control almost 50% of the total US wealth. Senior moments have little to do with dementia, but rather are reflective of slower retrieval of information that actually exists in the brain's computer. Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are valuable because of their database. As we get older, we require a larger database which in of itself slows processing and retrieval among other causes in humans. Nevertheless, would you rather have a person with a larger database making your decisions since there are "Boomer moments" and "Boomer miracles" happening every second. Despite an industry that has jumped to the four with mindset, brain age, brain, trainer, crossword puzzles, etc., there is not a great deal of evidence. That metal exercises slow decline. Yeah, it has been documented many times that the period of greatest creativity for money is between 50 and 75 years of age, how can we reconcile this? It has been shown that novelty and especially attention are necessary prerequisites for the brain rewiring itself or what is called plasticity.

Are you paying attention? Plasticity is absolutely necessary for the acquisition of skills. This is why most brain games eventually fail because they become routine or hardwired instead of flexible demands needed to"think outside of the box". Moreover, with age, and without illness, the brain cells that we have actually become more efficient, and we usually acquire a larger database as noted in our repertoire.