Book Review: The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman

When I picked up this book at my school’s library, I thought I was going to read on how I could give myself an edge in the terms of a sharper memory or quick recall for all of those anatomical terms I had been learning. While I got that, it definitely was not what I was expecting.

The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman is his method of finding health and wellness by capitalizing on the strengths of the dominant features of your brain. I’m sure you recognize that most of your friends and family all different personalities from you and each other. One of the reasons for this is that there is a dominant neurotransmitter in our brains which can be produce common traits in us all. For example:

• Dopamine dominant individuals tend to be Type A personalities, good with numbers, and might not be so good at expressing their emotions
• Acetylcholine dominant individuals tend to be quick thinkers, creative, and impulsive
• GABA dominant individuals tend to be never be stressed, even in times of chaos, sometimes organized
• Serotonin dominant individuals tend to be playful, maybe even party animals, and have trouble with commitment

After an introduction to the neurotransmitters, you take a personality test which takes at least an hour.  After the book explains what your results mean and how you can truly make the most of yourself given how your brain functions.

I found this to be an interesting book and had fun chatting about it with my friends, all of which had different dominant neurotransmitters!  Dr. Braverman actually has a practice that he bases this book off of and mentions that he has had positive results with mental disorders that today’s medicine is having a hard time maintaining, let alone treating, such as Alzheimer’s disease and strokes.  I’m not sure if I believe everything I read, such as people can’t change their neurotransmitter once it’s determined, or it is unlikely to have two dominant ones (my test came out as a tie…).  I think sometimes we do change our personalities such as the Meyer’s Brigg’s test, but hey, I’m not a brain doctor.