Vitamin B12 and Your Memory

The connection between Vitamin B12 and your memory may surprise you. And it could be three or more years before you realize your memory has been damaged because of a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Memory and Vitamin B12

Dr Jill Ammon-Wexler here.  A recent study published in Neurology demonstrated that Vitamin B12 is essential to protect your brain’s ability to avoid memory loss and have a sharp memory.

The research group first measured subjects’ vitamin B12 levels. Then they divided the research subjects into three groups based on vitamin B12 levels, and followed them for five years with annual brain scans and physical and mental examinations, including memory loss and performance tests.

Memory Damage Due to Low Vitamin B12 Levels

This is important: The group with the lowest levels of Vitamin B12 lost twice as much brain volume as those with the highest levels – regardless of their brain size, age, sex, education, cognitive test scores and blood chemistry.

In effect, their brains shrunk.

Why is Vitamin B12 Important to Memory?

Vitamin B12 is crucial to brain function and the overall health of your nervous system. Every cell in your body and brain uses it to convert fuel into energy. And your brain-based memory systems are no exception to this rule.

If you don’t get sufficient amounts of Vitamin B12, you could have poor nerve function, anemia, fatigue, diarrhea, and low resistance to infection  –  PLUS  a shrinking brain volume and memory loss.

The only natural sources of Vitamin B12 are meats, fish, dairy and eggs. And supplements are NOT the answer. For a more complete discussion of  ways to get Vitamin B12 into your diet, I suggest the website I have posted at the bottom of this post.

A Second Critical Factor

Equally critical to your physical and mental vitality is your ability to manage your thoughts.  The stress that results from the mental exhaustion, discouragement, loss of hope and low-level fear that has become so common today is now known to actually KILL BRAIN CELLS.

Only 10 to 15 minutes a day in the AMAZING Self Growth Planet’s brain gym can give you the emotional lift you need to better handle today’s intense challenges and protect your brain.  GO check it out and experience the difference for 10 days from only a buck: http://www.selfgrowthplanet.com

Posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Solutions

Your Computer Can Build Mind Power

Your Computer Builds Mind Power.

A new study by UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small has clearly shown that using your computer changes your brain is some very beneficial ways, and can actully build  mind power.

In his new book, iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, Small tells us that the modern dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately even change the human brain and build whole new aspects of our mind power.

This should not come as a surprise. Our amazing brain’s plasticity – its ability to change in response to different stimuli – is now well known. And the more time you devote to a specific activity (like using your computer), the stronger the neural pathways (mind power) responsible for that activity become.

More Neurons = More Mind Power

Professional musicians have more gray matter in brain regions responsible for finger movements. And athletes’ brains are bulkier in areas that control hand-eye coordination. So, of course, people who process a lot of digital information would have more neurons dedicated to handling that information.

To see how the Internet might be rewiring us, Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed an online search, and again as they read a page of online text. The researchers were looking for any evidence that the experience tended to build mind power.

During the online search, those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed TWICE as much activity in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning. WOW!

The findings suggest that Internet use enhances the brain’s capacity to be stimulated, and that reading on your monitor activates more brain regions than reading printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that tech-savvy people:

1 Possess greater working memory: they can store and retrieve more bits of information in the short term,
2 Are more adept at perceptual learning: adjusting their perception of the world in response to changing information, and
3 Have better motor skills.

Researcher Small says these mind power differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people.

The Mind Power Brain Gap

Small  refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives-those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging-use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input.

On the other side, digital immigrants-those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired-are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace.

Well — maybe, and maybe not. The thing to remember is this: Those of us who were not born with a computer on our playshelf STILL have brain plasticity going for us. So get Grandma and Gramps on the computer to build their mind power and stay sharp..

And as to those who say computer use is isolating youth, this too can be challenged. A 2005 Kaiser study found that young people who spent the most time engaged with high-technology also spent the most time interacting face-to-face with friends and family. Interesting.

A Faster Way to Build Mind Power

Want a higher level of mental performance? There are now some truly amazine online high tech programs especially designed to build your mind power.

 

Posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Solutions

An Unusual Way to Boost Your Immunity

Would you imagine that just looking at a sick person could protect YOU against illness by boosting your immunity?

How Is Your Immunity?

We humans seem to have a natural aversion to those who are ill.  When we see someone who looks sick, we experience a powerful emotional response to avoid them. A new Canadian study shows that even *seeing* a sick person can boost your immunity to sickness. 

A Natural Immunity Boost

To for possible changes  in ones’s immunity, University of British Columbia researchers showed subjects one of two different slide shows—either a slides of people brandishing a gun, or slides of individuals who were obviously sick. To measure any changes in the research subjects immunity,  immediately after they drew a blood sample, exposed each sample to bacteria,  then measured the levels of a natural substance {interleukin-6 (IL-6)} secreted by white blood cells in response to stress or trauma. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a proven indicator of immunity levels.

Although the subjects rated the gun photographs as stressful than the illness images, their subjects blood tests told a different story — the gun images caused a 7 percent increase in IL-6, levels , but the images of sick people caused a 24 percent increase. Their immunity had obviously been boosted by seeing the images of sick people.

“It makes evolutionary sense that the immune system would respond aggressively only when it’s really needed,” said Mark Schaller, a psychologist and co-author of the study. “If I see a bunch of sick people, maybe a big infection is around, and I better kick my immunity into high gear. Many neurochemicals connect the brain to the immune system.”

Learn how to use your brain to=>> boost your immunity!

Posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Solutions

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