Healthy Thinking, Neuroplasticity and Neurotransmitters

I have just joined the society. I am a New Zealand Emergency Department Physician and lecturer in Psychological Medicine at Auckland School of Medicine. I am interested in research related to how our thinking affects our health and emotions and have written 2 international bestsellers on Healthy Thinking. I have invented an attitude profiling psychometric test and am about to conduct research on how specific thought patterns and beliefs can create stress while healthy alternatives can lead to reduced blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. My belief is that Healthy Thinking can create healthy neural networks and generate healthy neurotransmitters. We run a Healthy Thinking Foundation that runs our cognitive training program in low decile and low socioeconomic areas.

I though this may be an interesting forum to join and get feedback and potentially help with our research.

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Comment by LoL on March 8, 2012 at 12:22: Read an article, last year, detailing an instance of OCD onset due to infection of the brain (bacterial or viral, can't remember which off the top of my head) that was reversed by a change of diet - I'll see if I can find the link if anyone's interested

Comment by Asa Jomard on February 6, 2012 at 12:40: Another interesting idea is that the right brain hemisphere deal with new information, while the left hemisphere is more concerned with routines. See Elkonon Goldberg's books.

Comment by Jacques Racine on February 6, 2012 at 11:14: Hi! Though this topic is quite old, I have something to share...
I've read this book from Dr. Eric Braverman, a french version of the "Edge Effect" ("un cerveau à 100%") and I could only relate what he says to the 6 hats. Given the 4 basic neurotransmitters from the 4 area of the brain: dopamine, gaba, acetylcholine and serotonine, delivered respectively from (in french) "frontal", "pariétal", "temporal" and "occipital" lobes; with associated brainwaves: beta, alpha, theta and delta; and fonctionalities: electrical tension, speed of spreading, rythm and synchronization. He uses BEAM technic (brain electrical activity map) based on the four latter criterions to find deficiencies that can be related to many diseases. He also says that dopamine and gaba define the left part function of the brain (logical) while acetylcholine and serotonine define the right part function of the brain (creative). Dopamine and acetylcholine speed up the brain while gaba and serotonine slow it down. If the four neurotransmitters are working well, then we have a healthy logical/creative thinking; otherwise we don't and we have to take care of it. Every one of us has a predominant neurotransmitter (50% gaba; 17% for each of the three last) but we all use the 4 of them all the time; it's only a question of personality. As I'm an "intuitive" guy, I would say: black=dopamine, white=gaba, red=serotonine, green=acethylcholine, blue=right part, yellow=left part.
I enjoyed a lot reading that book.

Comment by jf on May 20, 2010 at 7:35: Hi !

This topic is exciting. Not knowing anything of Alvaro Pascual Leone, now studied his works that seem interesting.
This contribution may be an outside of the subject, but also in Spain there is a technique invented by Dr. Escudero ( he has made documentaries with the BBC and you can find them on You Tube) call "Noesiterapia", which is based in operation only by the power of thought. Without the intervention of the anastesia. This author adds the body reacts biology. Depending on the type of thinking, this biology reaction can be positive or negative.

Saludos/Best regards

Comment by Jakov Jakisic on May 19, 2010 at 20:29: Hello Dr. Mulholland,
2 years ago i had some problems with an autoimmune desease (HUS), now i am in a pretty good shape again. Almost a year ago, i have met a doctor in Vienna, Austria - he told me that part of my brain (hipocampus) is and has been responsible for this "breakdown". He could stimulate the hipocampus and tell it to work properly.
Very short info, to give you some background info. Your test sounded interesting to me. I still have higher blood pressure and hate taking pills against it.

My goal is to find more about me, but maybe i can contribute as well or at least create an interesting link?

If anything of what i have said has sounded interesting to you, feel free to contact me.

best regards,
Jakov Jakisic

Comment by Dr Tom Mulholland on April 21, 2009 at 21:37: Hi Kim

I met Alvaro Pascal Leone at a recent World Congress of Neuropsychiatry and gave him a copy of my book Pensamiento Positivo (the Spanish Version of Healthy Thinking). He is a great guy.
Behaviour feeds back to the brain and influences activity. One of the treatments for Obsessive Compulsive disorder has shown fMRI changes in the by doing something different than washing your hands when you have the obsessive thought of "if I dont wash my hands I will die" Neurogenesis and Neuroplasticity is the way of the future and we have designed a tool to try and make such changes.

Comment by Andy on April 20, 2009 at 7:13: "Action is just thinking that passes through our muscles," says dr. de Bono. Lateral thinking is excellent and also enough (EAAE instead of EBNE (see de Bono's forum post about EBNE)). It can change (create new tracks/patterns) for both behaviour/action and thinking.

Comment by Tony Alexander on April 20, 2009 at 5:15: Wow, amazing story!! I guess I was asking about techniques for "roadblocking" patterns of behaviour (like you used at the train station).

The concepts of lateral thinking work for thinking/problem solving, but it seems that something different (even if similar to LT) is needed for behaviour. (I'm guessing this book you read talked about creating new "tracks" for BOTH behaviour and thinking?)

Comment by Tony Alexander on April 20, 2009 at 1:58: Kim, can you explain this "roadblock" idea?

Comment by Tony Alexander on April 20, 2009 at 1:57: I like Prof. Marty Seligman's work, e.g. Learned Optimism