The elementary purpose of blood vessels is to transport the sole power source; blood – in and out of the Brain. The brain needs a lot of that power source to function. More often than thought, blood vessels have a significant role to play in neurological disorders.

To understand this, let’s consider some basic analogies:

Won’t the tv start? Check the power!

You would never start troubleshooting, by opening the TV. Two wires power every electrical appliance in your house. One carries electricity in, and one carries it out, thus a circuit is completed for the device to work. Similarly, two hoses power each organ in your body. One carries oxygenated blood into the organ, and one carries it out. The only difference is, unlike electrical appliances, your body’s organs get energized through fluid blood as their power source, instead of electrons. That’s where hoses and plumbing come into the picture.

Now, if your home circuit breaker is regularly tripping out, what’s the first thing to look at? Is something drawing too much current? our attention directs toward any heavy appliance that was recently switched on. Heavy appliances draw more current and therefore will be the first to trip a circuit breaker. Similarly, our brain is the heaviest of organs by energy consumption. It requires the most energy out of all other organs to function. It would therefore be the first to show signs of starvation if blood circulation was insufficient, causing it to protect itself by shutting down non-essential functions.

Key takeaways:

1. Our brains are heavy appliances; they are the first to call for help

2. The brain’s functional ability directly corresponds to the quality of power supplied

3. When the brain starves, its circulatory system is often the culprit

Simple to figure out from these analogies that neurological conditions can possess circulatory roots. The brain is a hefty, electrochemically controlled electrophysiological super-circuit, most sensitive to the quality and quantity of its energy source. Therefore, any circulatory changes will be noticed first, by a typical neurological symptom before anything else. Could be as trivial as a headache or a sleep disorder. We’ve all been taught to ignore and suppress these signs with over-the-counter medication.

When this trivial neurological symptom becomes occasional, a pattern is identified. This pattern is referred to as a symptomatic diagnosis. Generally, a fancy disease category is tagged on by a neurologist, followed by relevant prescriptions to directly jump into altering brain chemistry. Anti-histamines, muscle relaxants, pain meds; NSAIDs, sleep aid; antidepressants; CNS depressants; SSRIs, SNRIs, and benzodiazepines, etc. are all common, part-of-life harmless little pills with a safe touch of assurance. After all, they change the brain’s electrochemistry, shocking it into self-preservation, leaving the underlying cause *unknown*. Often rendering a state that the brain seldom recovers from. When it gets bigger things to worry about, why bother with the little plumbing issue. So, does it make any sense to directly alter chemical configurations, when the brain is merely exhibiting a secondary vascular symptom?

Many neurological conditions overlook the underlying vascular element while focusing on controlling waves of symptoms produced by neuroactive (neuro-suppressive; neuro-toxic) chemicals. Treatment of symptom after symptom, a multitude of symptoms (from changed electrochemistry; side effects, and withdrawal symptoms with fancy names) lead to a very complicated neuroelectrophysiological state; partially excitotoxic, partially degenerative (exact opposites). Cause *unknown*.

Needless to say, any neuro-therapy is incomplete without the vasculature factored in. Blood vessel abnormalities may be rooted in atypical cytokine activity such as autoimmunity or genetics. Some are treatable, and some are not. Careful consideration of the underlying vascular condition determines the long-term efficacy of any therapy directed toward a neurological condition. Modern clinical equipment and advancements in multipotent cellular biology offer precise solutions to fix circulatory plumbing, induce angiogenesis and modulate immune hyperactivity before neurogenesis is undertaken. Suppressing neurological symptoms is merely asking the donkey to shut its eyes, in the middle of heavy traffic.