The Brain Wash: A Powerful, All-Natural Program to Protect Your Brain Against Alzheimer's, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Depression, Parkinson's, and Other Diseases.

The introduction and first chapter of The Brain Wash explain how the brain works and why it is at risk. Part One explains all of the environmental dangers that can adversely impact the brain; Part Two outlines the natural products (foods, minerals, vitamins) that can protect your brain from these dangers; chapters 8 and 9 in Part Three provide directions for how an individual can protect their brain using the knowledge acquired in Part Two. Various plans are outlined including ones for combatting specific brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Chapter 10 is about the natural therapies that can help with the toxicities that our bodies have absorbed. It covers such things as: far-infrared sauna therapy for detoxification, nutritional chelation, and bioenergetic medicine.

The tone of Part One is quite alarmist—it is apparently impossible to avoid being poisoned by our environment, and our brains are particularly vulnerable. A reader could not be blamed for thinking that they are doomed upon reading this section. Luckily the second and third sections teach the reader how to avoid or mitigate potential brain disease, though the monetary cost of following the author’s advice of buying organic and consuming multiple kinds of supplements would be beyond many people’s financial means. This is, however, not the real concern with this book.

The real issue is the pseudoscience found throughout it, which is a shame, as environmental toxicity is a very real concern. While the author uses citations, these are predominantly secondary sources and articles from non-peer-reviewed journals. Also, animal studies are used to support statements referring to humans without equivocation.

This book also perpetuates the vaccine–autism link myth. It questions the independence of one scientific study that found no link in an attempt to delegitimize the evidence but does not address the body of knowledge that exists on this subject.

There is some useful information on diet, food, and environmental toxins but these are overshadowed by the questionable “science” found throughout.