Chapter 4 – Cartoons, Digital Games, Digital Toxicity & Foods & Chemicals
Digital Dose – violence of colour & sound, speed of digital games, violence of digital games or cartoons & spookiness make up the digital dose. Let’s say 15 minutes of cartoon colours + sound = 10 minutes of games = 5 min of spooky stuff = 1 dgt (digital toxicity). Why is it rational to categorise digital dose? Digital stimulation acts like a drug on the neurone receptors to release neurochemical transmitters & on the hypothalamus to release hormones from end organs – cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline. One can see in children those who have “tipped off” = digitally intoxicated. Other children who have not tipped off are easier to retrain, relearn, re-manage with Empathic learning therapy.
Digital Dose
Violence of colour & sound, speed of digital games, violence of digital games or cartoons & spookiness make up the digital dose. Let’s say 15 minutes of cartoon colours + sound = 10 minutes of games = 5 min of spooky stuff = 1 dgt (digital toxicity). Why is it rational to categorise digital dose? Digital stimulation acts like a drug on the neurone receptors to release neurochemical transmitters & on the hypothalamus to release hormones from end organs – cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline. One can see in children those who have “tipped off” = digitally intoxicated. Other children who have not tipped off are easier to retrain, relearn, re-manage with Empathic learning therapy.
Unreal Cartoons take child into fantasy. He thinks fantastic – increasingly spooky. He cannot relate to humdrum school work – “boring” is the word. More of the same – stickers, drawing the same, bottles – create damaging brand addiction & fierce loyalty which should only be given to parents. Child becomes alien in his own family. His eyelids are lifted high – simple things are abhorred & humility departs. He will seek more risky thrills. Empathic learning Therapy sets this right. Parents need to take cognizance now. Teachers & school need to pitch in & be attuned. Overwiring of last 3 circuits via digital overuse obstruct the first 4.
Influence of Food additives & food molecules on Impulsivity & Hyperactivity of children (ADHD) has been questioned by Conservative Clinicians perhaps because Environmental Practitioners attributed everything to allergies. Allergy may be the wrong word for most molecules. It is conclusively known that substances that alter PgE2 levels in prenatal or postnatal brain drastically affect gene expression in brain cells – how much receptors of what kind. This is why some children are hyperactive from day 1. It is rational as Prof Doris Rapp demonstrated to identify food additives that contribute to wrong brain stimulation. SOME children go nuts on peanuts, others on sugar, cola, chocolate, colourings in food, E classified additives etc. which receptor is already overexpressed in the Brain decides which molecules in food or environs affects the child.
Five war zones that need peace in children exposed to digital surplus & get brain wise tipped off – food time, sleep time or rest time, wash time, rest time, study time, cartoon stop time. Good News is that we can reverse the impulsivity with empathic learning therapy. Since brain chemistry is “aroused” – digital intoxication is quite appropriate to understand the issue. Don’t neglect, don’t panic, don’t argue with class teacher, don’t drug the child – there is a better way. Digital rehab is possible.
Table for food, chair for buttocks & floor for feet!!! Properly Eating food – is one of the most powerful brain wiring tools in the 2nd & 3rd year of a child. He recognises food items. Smell, touch, space send, mouth – hand – eye coordination – neurologically connects 40% of neurones in motor & sensory cortex. Warm heart exercise. Initiation at right time. Progress stepwise & end goal achieved with reward at end – wires up the executive empathic pathway of the dorsolateral Prefrontal to frontal cortex. This must not be mechanical with digital display & child not concentrating on food, making no effort herself. Fed by mother at least once a day of course is a tremendous heart wiring exercise. This has now become the research of thought scientists & paediatric neurologists.
Serotonin & satiety – Serotonin is a chemo-transmitter in the brain that regulates hunger & satiety – “feeling full”, satisfied, good meal, healthy appetite – eating right amount, right food, right time, thankfully. Digitally “toxic” kids have variable serotonin responses that make them eat at odd times (snacking) – never coming to satiety at a given time. This is one reason for obesity. Cortisol levels fluctuate in when children are digitally aroused, violent digital games, PFC wires risk, survival, stress. Cortisol redistributes body fat causing central obesity. Repetitive behaviour promoted by “digitally boxed in” mechanised child promotes junk food addiction with their additives further stimulating child to impulsivity & hyperactivity. Along with this when sleep is disturbed diurnal rhythms all hormones go haywire – contributing to childhood obesity & early Diabetes.
Teens who drink energy drinks a lot are more likely to get head injuries than those who don’t consume the highly caffeinated beverages, a new study from Canada suggests.
Researchers analyzed information from a survey of more than 10,000 middle and high school students ages 11 to 20 in Ontario in 2013. Students were asked about their energy drink consumption, as well as whether they had experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), meaning they had sustained a blow to the head that left them unconscious for at least 5 minutes, or resulted in an overnight hospital stay.
About 22 percent of students said they had experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in their lifetimes, and 6 percent said they’d had a TBI in the last year. Most of these injuries occurred while the teens were playing sports.
There was a link between energy drink consumption and having experienced a TBI. In the researchers analysis, they compared teens’ odds of having a TBI in the past year with their odds of not having one. They found that for teens who had consumed energy drinks in the past week, the increase in odds of having a TBI was five times greater than it was for teens who didn’t consume energy drinks at all.
In other words, teens who consumed the drinks were far more likely to have a TBI than those who did not.
The findings are concerning, because energy drinks might interfere with the body’s ability to heal from a TBI, the researchers said.
Teens who drink energy drinks a lot are more likely to get head injuries than those who don’t consume the highly caffeinated beverages, a new study from Canada suggests “Energy drinks, such a Red Bull and Rockstar, contain high levels of caffeine and change the chemical state of the body, which can prevent people from getting back on track after a TBI,” study co-author Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said in a statement. “Brain injuries among adolescents are particularly concerning because their brains are still developing.”