"If you think the brain is complicated --- wait until you get to the immune system"

Val's Take/Conjecture

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio makes the point the mind is not just "Neural."

Rick was really the person that told me about MICROGLIA, and he was monitoring the research on that and thought it was ground-breaking and had enormous significance.

Additionally, as I was telling him about what I was learning about "IMMUNO-PSYCHIATRY" ---- one of the things he said was, "If you think the the brain is complicated --- wait until you get to the immune system."

Rick passed away March 9, 2022 from terminal lung cancer.  He never smoked.

Is it just the IMMUNE SYSTEM --- well, it is playing a HUGE ROLE that we've largely missed historically -- it is COMPLICATED.

In addition --- ALL OF THIS IS CONNECTED --- to:

• the MICROBIOME,
• the ENDOCRINE SYSTEM,
• the METABOLISM,
• the larger CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (including the eyes),
• BONES and CALCIUM -- including the TEETH
• the Food Supply
• Toxins --- Natural and Human-Made
• the Social Determinants of Health
• the "EXPOSOME"
• the "LEGALOME"
• Etc.

When we consider a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH to CRIMINAL JUSTICE or HOMELESSNESS, we are talking about traditional MENTAL HEALTH --- BUT WE NEED TO CONSIDER SO MUCH MORE.

Getting DEVELOPMENTAL NEURO-IMMUNE MECHANISMS on the radar screens of all of us, not just the researchers, is critical.

The 92nd Street Y, New York

Neuroscientist & Author Antonio Damasio explains why the mind encompasses more than just the brain

​The Halluci Nation
R.E.D.