The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Hardcover)

by Mark Hyman MD (Author)
Key Phrases: functional medicine, balance your hormones, cool off inflammation, Solution Companion Guide, Enhance Detoxification, Score Severity Care Plan Action (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Dr. Hyman's brilliant new book shows us that the emotional resilience and mental clarity we all seek is within our grasp. You too can unleash the body's hidden ability to dramatically improve mood, memory, and thinking speed."-- Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., author of YOU: The Owner's Manual

"The UltraMind Solution is an amazing book that will help you today. It is packed with practical information to help you heal your body and enhance your brain."-- Daniel G. Amen, M.D., author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

"For the past thirty years, I've studied how comprehensive lifestyle change can prevent and reverse many chronic illnesses. Now, Dr. Hyman shows how to prevent and often reverse mood and brain disorders by addressing their underlying causes. Highly recommended." -- Dean Ornish, M.D., clinical professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease and The Spectrum

"If you suffer from anxiety, depression, memory loss, or attention problems, the help you need is right here -- in UltraMind. Mark Hyman's approach is right on the mark."-- Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Wisdom of Menopause

Product Description

A hidden epidemic races around the globe -- we can't see it or touch it, which makes it so dangerous.

The invisible epidemic has led to the suffering of millions who spend billions on drugs, only to find they don't work.

This is an epidemic of broken brains.

"Broken brains" go by many names -- depression, anxiety, memory loss, brain fog, attention deficit disorder, autism, and dementia, to name a few -- and show up in radically different ways from person to person, making each seem like a separate problem.

But the truth is that these "diagnoses" are all the result of a few basic problems with our biology. Pinpoint these biological problems, fix them, and let your body's natural healing intelligence take over to repair your brain. Now you can experience an UltraMind -- one that is highly focused and able to pay attention at will, with a strong, reliable memory and a mood that is calm, confident, in control, and in good spirits.

We have all heard of the mind-body connection or how our thoughts affect the health of our body. But the reverse is far more powerful: what you do to your body, your basic biology, has a profound effect on your brain.

Have you ever experienced instant clarity after exercise? Alertness after drinking coffee? A mental crash after popping candy? Does your brain inexplicably slow down during stress, while multitasking, or when meeting a deadline? Each is an example of how what we do to our bodies -- whether through nutrition, sleep, exercise, or stress -- has a dramatic effect on our brains.

Conventional treatments don't help, or provide only slight benefit, because they just manage symptoms rather than deal with -- and heal -- the underlying problem. And just as brain problems all stem from the same root causes, they all have the same solution -- The UltraMind Solution.

Our ancient genes interact with our environment to create systemic imbalances that affect our brains. Correct those imbalances -- most caused by nutritional deficiencies, allergens, infections, toxins, and stress -- and you can achieve optimum mental health without drugs or psychotherapy.

The UltraMind Solution is the future of medicine, the culmination of the last twenty years of research on what makes the brain happy, focused, and calm; research that has uncovered a few simple factors that explain why things go wrong and how to fix them.

Don't wait for this revolution in medicine to trickle into your doctor's office: it usually takes research twenty years to move from the lab to the patient. The answers are here, right now, in The UltraMind Solution.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 447 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549714
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549710
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #365 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

218 of 251 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Restore your energy naturally, December 18, 2008

By	Sherril Stinnett (Waynesboro, Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was privileged to be one of the participants who was chosen to undergo the Ultramind solution for six weeks prior to publication. Although it has only been 18 days since I started, the change in my energy level and my ability to concentrate is remarkable.
I have been suffering from intense fatigue and trouble concentrating for the last two years, and my physicians have been unable to find a medical diagnosis for my symptoms. Being a 46-year-old graduate student, wife, mother and employee, I have to be able to concentrate for long periods of time, especially in the evenings after work. Before the Ultramind solution, I could not concentrate or stay focused past the early morning. Without knowing exactly when it occurred, I now find that my energy has been restored enough so that I can work twelve hour shifts at the hospital without fatigue and still go home and study, while retaining what I read. As a side effect, I have lost close to ten pounds without ever going hungry.
Although it may sound totally impossible to remove all processed foods, sugar, dairy, trans fat, wheat and flour products as Dr. Hyman required from my diet, I have discovered that all of my prior sugar cravings have disappeared completely, even now during the hoiday season when cookies and candy abound. I snack on nuts and fruit and make sure I eat good proteins and plenty of fresh vegetables and I drink plenty of water.
In the beginning I thought I would never be able to make it six weeks, but three weeks have breezed by. I am definitely going to make the Ultramind Solution a way of life from now on. Dr. Hyman's principles are simple yet effective.

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Most Doctors (including ME) Were Never Taught, March 9, 2009

By	James John Hollandsworth, M.D. "lightalongthe... - See all my reviews

One of my guiding principles has always been: Never read a book that has the word "ultra" in the title.

However, interesting perspectives on diet & health intrigue me, & when I saw endorsements from such respected doctors as Dean Ornish, Christiane Northrup & Mehmet Oz, I decided to break my rule and plunge into The UltraMind Solution.

I'm glad I did, for this book is an engaging read that's full of cutting edge science & practical advice. Dr. Mark Hyman has been on a mission to do medicine & health differently since conventional medical thinking failed him in his own debilitating illness twelve years ago. He convincingly argues that maintaining the body's health is essential for the brain's well-being, and that many mental & psychological disorders can be rooted in physical, biochemical derangements in the body's health & metabolism.

In part one of the book he details the background: his personal story which led to his changed philosophy & practice of medicine. He is an advocate of what is termed functional medicine, a relatively new discipline which focuses on not the established "label the disease, give it a drug" approach but "find what's functionally wrong behind the patient's symptoms, then correct the body's metabolism back to optimum function."

The second part of the book contain the outline of his "Seven Keys to UltraWellness" (argh! there's that word again!). He covers optimizing nutrition, balancing hormones, reducing inflammation throughout the body, fixing digestive tract problems, enhancing the body's detoxification, boosting energy metabolism, & calming the mind itself. The third part of the book covers a six week plan to initiate many of these changes, while the fourth part goes into specifics for each of his seven key areas.

Ok, so what's the bottom line? There's a lot of intriguing information and sound advice in the 400+ pages, & I saw nothing that I absolutely disagreed with. Like any diet or health book, he has his own viewpoint & focus, & some of his strategies & recommendations will work better for some than others. This book was a major swing factor in my own decision to try a vegan gluten free caffeine free water only lifestyle, which was difficult but very beneficial for me in multiple areas. I can see this book being useful for two groups of people: First, people who are suffering from problems such as anxiety, depression, "brain fog", adhd, migraines or other brain related problems might find something helpful or even life-changing in his plan. Other people, like myself, who are interested in new approaches & optimum health will certainly find new concepts & tools that they can implement in their own healthy lifestyle. Either way, an excellent book to read.

402 of 494 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not good advice, February 3, 2009

By	Kathy - See all my reviews

Hyman recommends the use of methyl-donating vitamins and says that methylation is the key to all chronic diseases. He calls it riding the methylation train. But I'm not so sure that is safe. An article in Scientific American Mind (June July 2008) on how methylation effects our genes says that methylation is associated with gene silencing of the corticosterone receptor, and silencing of genes that regulate hippocampal brain derived neurotrophic factor. The increase in methylation was associated with impaired stress response and depression.

I'm not sure that this Hyman is on the right track with his methylation train. Methylation is also linked with promoting cancer and researchers are looking for substances that demethylate the genes. Also M Szyf has shown hypermethylated genes in suicidal patients.

Methylation is not a panacea, nor is it necessarily always good for our genes. Methyl donating vitamins like folate and B6, which Hyman recommends, do lower homocysteine, but if you do not eat a lot of animal protein, you won't have elevated levels of this toxic chemical to begin with.

Also, eating seaweed (which Hyman suggests) may actually be bad for those with hypothyroid, according to researchers in Japan who were able to reverse hypothyroidism by restricting iodine to 100 mcg a day. Seaweed like kelp and bladderwrack is very high in iodine.

I thought the comments about potatoes being destructive to the brain were pure fiction. There is a book called Potatoes Not Prozac that talks about how important carbs are for tryptophan to enter the brain where it is synthesized into serotonin. It's based on J Wurtman's research. Wurtman says that even small amounts of protein or fat will interfere with the ability of carbohydrates to get tryptophan into the brain.

Missing from the list of foods that cause an immune reaction in the gut are beef and pork. These are prominent in leaky gut or as he puts it leaky brain. S Zar showed that IgG antibodies to beef and pork are the most prevalent and consistent food allergens for all types of IBS.

One of the primary ways to ward off diseases goes unmentioned, but not without the author letting us know he knows about it, but won't tell us. It's very weird. The way Hyman writes about The China Study, he makes it sound like some people need animal protein, even thrive on it, but in fact the whole point of that huge study was that not only do we NOT need animal protein, but that even modest amounts of it are associated with all of our western diseases of affluence, from heart disease, to cancer, osteoporosis, and diabetes; it's a long list.

I ate the way Hyman suggests for years and it did not work. It wasn't until I found The McDougall Program that I started to understand how to use food to get healthy and stay healthy. Plus you don't have to figure out all the supplements because you get all your nutrients from your food, which is the best way to take vitamins and minerals. It is simple, effective, and very inexpensive. I would recommend any of Dr John McDougall's books on the subject.