The Biochemical Soup that Controls Human Brains and Behavior

What Everyone Should Know about the World’s Largest Battleground

I often refer to human brains as “The World’s Largest Battleground” because we often fight our toughest battles inside our minds. These battles make us prone to addictions and behavioral ruts. Today most of us suffer from abuse not by others but by our own brain. The following modified excerpt from my book explains this further:

Recently famed comedian and social commentator Russell Brand celebrated his 19 years of sobriety from drugs and alcohol. That may sound trivial but neurologically, it means 18 years of daily dialogue, often battle, between his frontal cortex (the cognitive brain) and his dopaminergic limbic/sensual brain circuits that could evoke the addiction at a moment's notice. Not everyone is as lucky and determined as Brand. Tragically, countless movie stars and celebrities, even many self-help influencers, are seriously challenged in their mental battle against addiction. By the end of this chapter, we will clearly see why addictive self-reinforcing feedback loops have become an innate feature of the human brain, and why human brains are home to endless battles, the outcome of which is manifested in the war and peace we see in the external world.

There is an evolutionary metabolic reason for humans to be so prone to self-delusion and behavioral ruts. This is another excerpt from my book:

To explain and simplify the evolution of the main brain circuits, I will use the four main functions of brains in vertebrates and mammals, what the evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists humorously call the 4F’s, the acronym mnemonics denoting Food, Fight, Flight, F..k (mating and reproductive sex). Our brain evolved to manage the 4 F’s through the 4 P’s of risk reduction: Prediction, Prevention, Protection and Planning. Through this process, our brain manages our body’s physiology by constantly assessing risks and metabolic costs associated with our pursuit of reward (originally food and mating). As discussed in last chapter, intelligence in all life forms has evolved for the purpose of metabolic efficiency, but unlike trees and earlier life forms that rely significantly on photosynthesis, symbiosis and slow metabolism, vertebrates, and particularly mammals, have faster metabolisms that require more complex brains. Our brain and body use nervous system signals and hormones, which are usually peptide (protein) or fat (cholesterol) based molecules, as energy signals. Humans have evolved the following five major hormonal systems, three of them self-reinforcing and addictive, to handle all sorts of challenges posed by nature and other humans:….

In the rest of the book, I describe how humans constantly create ecosystems that easily condition their own brains into self-reinforcing (broken) hormonal feedback loops which lead to behavioral ruts, self-delusions and addictions to endless reward seeking, irrational fear (paranoia), recklessness, greed and narcissistic rivalry.

The quotes in this blog were copied from Chapter 4 of my book: Masks, Crutches and Daggers: The Science of our Self-Delusional, Addictive Homo economicus Brain. I spent two years to draw from the latest discoveries in a wide range of disciplines — Neuroscience, evolution, biochemistry, psychology, economics, physics, philosophy, nutrition, and even mysticism — to understand the roots of self-delusion that plague human lives, rich and poor alike. The book is an essential simplified scientific “user manual” for our brain and body and how they communicate (feedback Loops), balance (for health), or burn out (for disease). I believe I have identified the common denominator of disease, disorder, disparity and discord (fights, divorces, lawsuits, riots, wars) that plague our lives. Here is the book’s introduction on Amazon’s Hot New Release in Behavioral Psychology (due to popular demand, the book’s promotional sales at 23% OFF continues this week):

A Simple Practical Guide to How Your Brain and Body Communicate (Feedback Loops), Balance (Health), or Burn Out (Disease)

Most of us know more about sports, politics, games, apps, and our jobs than about how our own brain and body work or get burned out together. For less than the cost of a family dinner, this is one of the few books in the market that can help us understand in simple language the complex nature of body-brain feedback loops as the common denominator of disorders and diseases (such as diabetes, hypertension, weight gain, dementia, sleep disorders, constipation, infertility), and discords (fights, divorces, lawsuits, riots, wars). The author has spent two years to ingeniously draw from the latest discoveries in a wide range of disciplines: Neuroscience, evolution, biochemistry, psychology, economics, physics, philosophy, nutrition, and even mysticism to help us understand the roots of fatigue and imbalance that plague human lives, rich and poor alike. This book is an essential simplified scientific “user manual” for our brain and body.

A Unique Book and Author

Today self-censorship is the main form of censorship that constrains and compromises sponsored writings and speeches. The scientific insight and life stories shared in this book are candid, uncensored and heartfelt, shared by an author who is an independent scientist philosopher, and a freelance educator living by his motto "Guided by Conscience, Not Mobs!"

A graduate of University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University, Ray Armat, Ph.D., is a materials scientist, chemical engineer, former NASA grantee and educator with years of interdisciplinary corporate research, business development and academic experience. He specialized in balancing industrial product formulas but once he realized his own body and mind were imbalanced, he tempered his ambitious career goals to learn more about the human brain and behavior. He shares how he had an epiphany during a stay at Frank Sinatra's original house. As a scientist philosopher, storyteller and educator, he uses a unique and rare blend of real life stories and scientific first principles that govern both natural and industrial processes to find unifying explanations to disease, disorder and discord. The book will be eye-opening and life-changing for many readers.