Is It Possible to Regenerate Your Brain?

Contrary to popular belief, recent studies have found that there ARE some ways to regenerate your brain.

Studies  at the National Institute on Aging Gerontology Research Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have shown that both calorie restriction and intermittent fasting, along with vitamin and mineral intake, increase resistance to disease, extend lifespan, and stimulate production of neurons from stem cells.

Fasting has also been shown to enhance synaptic elasticity — possibly increasing the ability for successful re-wiring following brain injury. These benefits appear to result from a cellular stress response, similar in concept to the greater muscular regeneration that results from the stress of regular exercise.

Other research suggests that increasing time intervals between meals might be a better choice than chronic calorie restriction, because the resulting decline in sex hormones may adversely affect both sexual and brain performance. Sex steroid hormones testosterone and estrogen are positively impacted by an abundant food supply.

But if your not keen on starving yourself, there are other options. Another recent finding from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and Iwate University in Japan reports that the herb rosemary contains an ingredient that fights free radical damage in the brain. The active ingredient (carnosic acid)  protects the brain from stroke and neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s, and from the effects of normal aging.

Simply using  rosemary in its natural state  is known to get into the brain, and has been consumed by people for over a thousand years. The herb was used in European folk medicine to help the nervous system.

Other brain boosters found in walnuts and fatty fish (such as salmon, sardines, and lake trout) are thought to help ward off Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, they likely help prevent depression and have been shown to help prevent sudden death from heart attack.)

Turmeric, typically found in curry, contains curcumin, a chemical with potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In India, it is even used as a salve to help heal wounds. East Asians also eat it, which might explain their lower rates (compared to the United States) of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, in addition to various cancers. If curry isn’t part of your favorite cuisines, you might try a daily curcumin supplement of 500 to 1,000 mg.

Physical exercise may also have beneficial effects on neuron regeneration by stimulating regeneration of brain and muscle cells via activation of stress proteins and the production of growth factors. But again, additional research suggests that not all exercise is equal. Interestingly, some researchers found that exercise considered drudgery was not beneficial in neuronal regeneration, but physical activity that was engaged in purely for fun, even if equal time was spent and equal calories were burned, resulted in neuronal regeneration.

Exercise can also help reduce stress, but any stress-reducing activity can help the brain. There is some evidence that chronic stress shrinks parts of the brain involved in learning, memory, and mood. (It also delays wound healing, promotes atherosclerosis, and increases blood pressure.)

It should go without saying that short-term cognitive and physical performance is not boosted by fasting, due to metabolic changes including decrease in body temperature, decreased heart rate and blood pressure and decreased glucose and insulin levels, so you’re better off not planning a marathon or a demanding work session during a fasting period.

As part of a healthy lifestyle the prescription of moderating food intake, exercising, and eating anti-oxidant rich foods is what we’ve long known will boost longevity, but it’s good to know that we can bring our brains along with us as we make it into those golden years without being the 1 in 7 who suffers from dementia. Try this for immediate brain health!!

By Rebecca Sato / Source: Daily Galaxy

Every Thought is an Affirmation

Here is an interesting view of what is commonly called affirmations. I’m certain you’ve heard that term.

Many self-help authors recommend that we use daily affirmations to help keep our self on track to achieve our goals.

But have you ever noticed that affirmations do really seem to work? You usually don’t get any closer to your goal with this approach and it may even be a total waste of time.

Why is this?

Here’s the secret: It does not work because literally EVERY thought you have is actually an affirmation.

You can spend three minutes telling yourself I am focused. But here’s the problem  the rest of the time your powerful subconscious mind knows darn good and well you ARE not focused, and will revert to an unfocused mind the minute your end your affirmation.

The basic idea of conditioning yourself to think in new ways is excellent, but verbal affirmations alone do not work and neither does so-called positive thinking.

Actually, positive thinking by itself is a bust.

You CANNOT think yourself anything you need to reinforce this with attacking those ANTs Automatic Negative Messages that run around in the back of your mind AND you need to take POSITIVE ACTION.

If you really DO want to make some changes in your life, you need to literally re-program your brain. One great way to get started is to make some changes in your environment that will support creating your desired new habits.

Yes, I did say habits. Everything we do is based on habits. In fact, our brain loves habits. How else could it do what it does to keep your miraculous body purring along at the same time letting you do things like imagine, plan, think, make love, etc.

So get started by removing links to any undesired aspects of your current your identity the triggers that cause you to think in your old ways. Start today with a small change, like cleaning up and rearranging your workspace.

A few little changes won’t be enough to get you where you want to be. But if you keep building these little changes, you will actually shift more and more of your environment to your new role.

Look around your home and ask yourself objectively, What kind of person lives here? If I didn’t know who lived here, what would I conclude about the inhabitant? Do the same for your office: What kind of person would work here? Then make a list of the six people with whom you spend the most time, and ask, What kind of person would associate with these people?

Are your answers to these objective questions in keeping with the kind of person you want to be? If not, then what kind of environment would that person have? What kind of friends? And how can you shift your environment toward the desired new one?

Maybe you can’t immediately get a whole new house or a new job, but what CAN you change right now TODAY that will move you in the desired direction?

Feel Like Your Memory is Declining?

Yikes. New US research says  that after peaking at about age 22, our mind power starts to decline at about age 27.

Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia found reasoning, spatial visualisation and speed of thought and memory all decline in our late 20s. Mind power exercises designed to stall or reverse the mental aging process and declining memory may need to start much earlier, he said.

His seven-year study of 2,000 healthy people aged 18-60 is published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

To test mental agility, the study participants had to solve puzzles, recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols.  In nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22. The first age at which there was any marked declining memory was at 27 in tests of memory, speed of thought, reasoning and visual puzzle-solving ability.

But the good news is that  abilities based on accumulated knowledge, such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information increased until the age of 60 among those who continued to exercise their brain.

 

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