What you are about to learn is what I call “dessert for your mind.”

This is the final installment in my series of blogs on my new book, The UltraMind Solution, a sneak preview of which you can download here:

www.ultramind.com

Now for today’s blog ...

In the last 7 blogs, I outlined how imbalances in the 7 underlying key systems in your body can lead to a broken brain and all of the psychological and neurological symptoms you have been suffering.

You’ve learned that you no longer have to suffer with a brain (and a body) that is anything less than awake, engaged, present, focused, and refreshed.

You can have a brain that allows you to fully experience life, and enjoy your family, friends, work, and, most importantly, your own heart and soul.

But how do you do it?

Well, you follow The UltraMind Solution.

It is a 6-week, 4-step program that is designed to help you:

• Feel more alert and focused

• Have more stable moods

• Enjoy a better memory

• Have more energy

• Enjoy the kind of restful sleep that will help you wake up more refreshed and able to face your day

• Improve your digestion

• Decrease chronic sinus problems

• Experience pain-free joints

• Eliminate headaches

And there are wonderful side effects. You will lose weight almost automatically and you may even see your sex drive improve.

But I don’t want you to take my word for it.

Prove to yourself how well The UltraMind Solution works. I want you to try it, for just 6 weeks.

You have nothing to lose (except, perhaps, the chance to eat a few additional cheeseburgers and sodas).

And you have everything to gain. You can have the gift of your life back.

You will learn how to reclaim that gift in today’s blog, where I outline the 4 steps of the program and explain how it works so that you can begin taking advantage of The UltraMind Solution today.

4 Steps to an UltraMind

By following 4 simple steps you will learn more about your body and brain than you ever imagined. It may seem too simple and obvious… but it works.

As a doctor, I see the miracles The UltraMind Solution creates every day.

For example, there was the 6-year-old little girl who came to see me and was transformed from a violent, aggressive child to a beautiful, loving daughter and sister by clearing out the bad bugs in her gut.

And the 23-year-old woman with lifelong anxiety and depression that lifted after she quit eating foods to which she was allergic.

And the woman who traveled 5,000 miles to see me.

She had seen a dozen other doctors but still was fatigued, depressed, overweight, mentally slipping, and sluggish, and struggled through brain fog every day. All of her symptoms resolved in 6 weeks after she got off gluten, boosted her vitamin D level, and fixed her low thyroid function.

Her family said they finally had their mother and wife back.

If you want to heal your broken brain like these people did, here is what you need to do:

1. Eat right for your brain

2. Tune-up your brain chemistry with supplements

3. Live the UltraMind lifestyle: Exercise, relax, sleep, and train your brain

4. Live clean and green

By following these 4 steps for 6 weeks, your life will change—not in months or years, but in weeks, or even days!

This is true for one simple reason: If you work with your body as it was designed, it will work with you.

Once you begin following these steps you will realize just how good you CAN feel—and you’ll never want to go back.

What I hope for all of you is that you can experience the connection between your behaviors, your choices, your habits, things you put in your mouth, and how you feel right now.

How can we know that eating wheat, or not liking fish, or eating too much blue fin sushi, or staying out of the sun and using sun block are making us depressed, anxious, or demented?

The only way to know these things is to change our habits and pay attention to what happens.

That is what the 4 steps above help you do.

Some of the changes you experience will happen almost immediately. If you are gluten sensitive and you stop eating gluten, your life will change within just a week.

If you are B12 deficient and you take B12, you will improve your mood and brain function in a few weeks.

Other changes may take a little longer to achieve. If you are toxic with mercury, then it may take a few years and some hard work to fully recover. But you can regain your health and renew your brain. I did.

To help you achieve those goals, I want to look at each of the steps in a little more detail. But keep in mind that your brain is the most complex thing in the universe, so I can’t quite cover all the details on how to heal it in this short blog. All the details you need are in my book.

Step #1: Eat Right for Your Brain

Your fork is the most powerful tool you have to change your health, change your brain and heal your environment. There is nothing that has a bigger impact on your health, the environment, global warming, and political policy than what you put on your fork.

Here’s how to use it:

1. Eat Real Food: Eat whole, real, fresh, organic, local and unprocessed food. If it has a label or a barcode, you probably should avoid it. If your great-grandmother would not recognize it, then don’t eat it. Do you think she would know what a Lunchable, Go-gurt, or Snackster is?

2. Boost Phytonutrients -- The Brain Protectors: Eat a lot of fruit and vegetables full of colorful phytonutrients. All the dark, deep reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and blues in food are a sign of powerful anti-inflammatory, detoxifying and antioxidant, energy-boosting, brain-powering molecules. So enjoy those blueberries and dark leafy greens like kale.

3. Brain Food -- The Right Carbs: Eat foods with plenty of fiber, like beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. This keeps the toxins moving out of your body and keeps your gut bacteria healthy. And a healthy gut is a healthy brain!

4. Become a Fat Head: Sixty percent of your brain is made of the omega-3 fat DHA, which comes from algae and fish. Eat omega-3-rich foods like sardines, walnuts, wild salmon, and flax seeds.

5. Protein for Brain Power: Eat protein for breakfast every day, such as omega-3 eggs, soy or rice protein shakes, or nut butter.

6. Eat Early and Eat Often: Eat something every 3 to 4 hours and finish your last meal or snack 2 to 3 hours before bed

7. Stop Poisoning Your Brain: Eliminate sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, coffee, alcohol, trans fats, and food additives and preservatives, all of which poison your brain and disrupt your biochemistry.

If you follow these 7 principles (for just 6 weeks), you are doing 90 percent of what you need to do to stay healthy and heal your brain. You will be instantly eliminating all the brain-damaging foods and chemicals from your diet.

The rest of the plan is made of small refinements and details. Just stop poisoning your brain with pounds of sugar, uppers like coffee and downers like alcohol, high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, processed, packaged, fast food and junk food.

Remember, there is not really such thing as junk food—there is just junk, and there is food!

Brain Allergies

There is one other step you need to take during the 6-week program to eat right for your brain.

That step is to eliminate the two most common food allergens in our diet: gluten and dairy.

Now, you know what happens if you get stung by a bee, or get poison ivy: You have an allergic reaction.

But did you know your brain can become allergic, too?

And when it does, it causes brain fog, depression, autism, ADHD, dementia, and more.

Gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, spelt, and kamut) and dairy are the two foods that most commonly set off reactions in people. They have been linked to conditions ranging from brain fog to depression and to even more severe conditions like autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

You may have hidden allergies to these foods and not every realize it.

Despite the fact that the immune system and the brain are intimately linked and food has a MAJOR impact on your brain and body, most of us (including physicians) don’t make the connection between what we eat and how we feel.

You eat a piece of bread on Monday and feel depressed on Tuesday, but you don’t make the connection.

Many people are affected by low-grade, delayed food sensitivities or allergies. What you eat may cause allergic reactions that make you feel bad, but you might not know it.

You can take some simple measures to heal from brain allergies. Here’s what do ...

Simply remove dairy and gluten from your diet for 6 weeks.

That means a 100 percent elimination of these foods, no exceptions—not even a drop of milk in your tea or a crumb of bread for breakfast.

Watch what happens to your body and mind when you do this. The brain fog may lift; the depression may ease up. I have even seen autistic children start talking after they get rid of gluten and dairy.

Trust me, you will be amazed at how many other delicious things there are to eat besides bread and milk. I give you dozens of examples in Chapter 14 of The UltraMind Solution.

Eat this way for 6 weeks. Then continue for your lifetime and you’ll have the raw materials and ingredients you need for a vital and healthy body—AND a healthy brain.

Step #2: Tune Up Your Brain Chemistry with Supplements

Ninety-two percent of Americans are deficient in one or more essential vitamins and minerals, 80 percent are deficient in vitamin D, and more than 99 percent are deficient in the essential omega-3 fatty acids.

That is why we all need supplements. Vitamins and minerals are absolutely essential for brain health.

Therefore, I recommend that ALL people take a basic multivitamin and mineral, as well as calcium and magnesium, extra vitamin D, omega-3 fats, and probiotics as the foundation for good health, as well as a healthy brain.

Because specific B vitamins are so important for the brain and nearly every other function of the body, I also recommend methylation nutrients (vitamins B6 and B12 and folate) in addition to what is in your multivitamin.

Here are the basic raw materials needed for everyone who wants to keep their brain healthy.

1. A high-quality, high-potency, highly bioavailable, broad-spectrum multivitamin that contains all the basic essential vitamins and minerals

2. Calcium (600 to 800 mg daily) and magnesium (400 to 600 mg a day)

3. Vitamin D3 (2,000 to 4,000 units a day)

4. Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA in a ratio of 300/200; 1,000 mg twice a day)

5. Methylation factors: Folate (800 mcg), B6 (50 mg), and B12 (1,000 mcg daily). Often, special activated forms of these nutrients are needed to be most effective for brain health

6. Probiotics or beneficial bacteria to improve your digestion, reduce food allergies, and reduce gut inflammation

If you take these daily for 6 weeks (and ideally for a lifetime), you will be providing all the raw materials and ingredients you need for a vital and healthy brain and body.

Step #3: Live the UltraMind Lifestyle: Exercise, Relax, Sleep and Train Your Brain

The next step is to live the UltraMind Lifestyle. This actually consists of 4 lifestyle changes you make over the course of the program. You need to exercise, relax deeply, sleep enough, and train your brain.

Why?

Exercise is better for your brain than any antidepressant.

Let me say that again.

Exercise is better for your brain than any antidepressant.

Exercise naturally carries out all these missions for your body:

• Erases effects of stress

• Balances all your neurotransmitters

• Increases brain-derived neutrophic factor, which is like fertilizer for your brain

• Prevents dementia

• Balances hormones like insulin

Here’s what you need to commit to during the 6-week program.

Walk vigorously for 30 minutes every day. That’s it. That’s your exercise routine.

Of course, more is better.

I personally hate to exercise. But I love to play.

So if you don’t like to go to the gym, don’t. But start moving around some more. Walk with friends or family. Walk your dog. Walk your neighbor’s dog. Garden. Wrestle on the bed with your kids. Park your car farther from the door. Just move your body more!

You may be surprised at how much better your body—and your brain—feels.

However, as with all things, balance is important. You not only need to exercise more, you need to relax more, too.

Deep relaxation gives your brain and body time to rebuild and repair. You even make new brain cells when you relax.

Nobody needs help being stressed. But we do need to learn to relax.

I have two favorite tools. They are quick, simple, and give you a quick boost of energy.

They are the soft belly breath and the UltraBath. I teach you how to use these powerful tools on page 317 of The UltraMind Solution.

Sleep is also extremely important if you want to have an UltraMind.

Europeans are smart. They take a 2-hour siesta in the middle of the day and awaken refreshed and energized.

But you probably can’t do that (unless you are in Europe), so you need to find other ways to get enough sleep.

The key is to get 7 to 9 hours of restful sleep every night.

But that isn’t so easy for everyone. Some people have become so chronically sleep deprived that their bodies have a difficult time finding that restful state.

Here are some tips that can help:

• Avoid stimulating activities before bed—limit your television watching and Internet usage during this time as well

• Avoid stimulants like coffee, sugar, and cold medication, all of which interfere with normal sleep patterns

• Exercise daily for at least 30 minutes

• Avoid eating 2 to 3 hrs before bed

For most of you, taking just these few, simple steps will improve your sleep pattern, allowing you to get restful sleep that boosts your brain power.

Now you can eat right, take supplements, exercise, relax, and get enough sleep, but what’s the point of having a healthy brain if you don’t use it to engage more fully in life?

The joy of life is in all the things we humans get to experience—love, learning, discovery, connection, understanding, wisdom, and curiosity.

To do that, you must keep your brain active. The mental decline we commonly see with aging is very much due to imbalances in nutrition, hormones, and immune and digestive function, damage to our energy metabolism, toxins, and stress.

But some of it is also from lack of use. Just like your muscles, you need to use your brain or you lose it. Brain fitness is a real phenomenon. A study of more than 450 adults over age 75 found that just reading books, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and board games, playing a musical instrument, or dancing reduced their risk of Alzheimer’s disease. (1)

So create some new brain connections. Work your brain muscles. It isn’t difficult. Simply engage in the things you love—travel, read, write, take a class, just have fun!

Step #4: Live Clean and Green

The small choices we make every day can lead to big changes over time. Our brains, like our planet, are exquisitely sensitive to environmental toxins and stresses. Limiting your exposure to these toxic substances is good for you AND the planet.

Here are my suggestions for how to take care of your own health, and the health of the planet, at the same time:

1. Drink clean water

2. Limit your exposure to chemicals and metals

3. Limit your exposure to household, gardening, and personal care products

4. Keep your bodily fluids moving

5. Reduce electro-pollution and electromagnetic radiation

I give you more details on exactly how to do this in Chapter 17 of The UltraMind Solution.

Creating an UltraMind for Life

My wish for all of you is to live a life that is vibrant, awake, engaged, present, focused, delightful, refreshed, and balanced.

You can have a brain that allows you to fully experience every day, and all the joys and sorrows of being human, to show up and do what it is you want in life without being slowed down or blocked by a brain that keeps you from fully being you with your family, with your friends, with your work, and most importantly your own heart and soul.

This is the state of The UltraMind.

You understand how the 7 keys to UltraWellness can help you balance your brain function and heal from all of the effects of a broken brain.

And you understand the basic underpinnings of how the program works.

The next step is to follow the program and experience an UltraMind yourself.

I give you all the details in The UltraMind Solution. You can get a sneak preview by going to:

www.ultramind.com

Remember, just focus on your cleaning up your diet, taking the right supplements, improving your lifestyle, and living clean and green. If you do, you will soon experience an UltraMind.

Fix your body and you will fix your brain. And when this happens, you’ll say ...

“Wow, I had no idea having an UltraMind could feel this good.”

Now I’d like to hear from you ...

Have you started to follow the UltraMind program yet?

If so, what’s your experience been like so far?

If not, what’s holding you back?

Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment below.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

PS -- The UltraMind Solution public television show is starting on February 27th. Check your local listings for air times. Or, you can get your own copy of The UltraMind Solution DVD by Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D. Also, The UltraMind Solution Club by Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D. has just launched, which is an online club that makes going through the program simple and easy.

(1) Verghese J, Lipton RB, Katz MJ, Hall CB, Derby CA, Kuslansky G, Ambrose AF, Sliwinski M, Buschke H. Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly. N Engl J Med. 2003 Jun 19;348(25):2508-16.