12 simple ways to supercharge your brain

Here are some things you can begin doing as soon as today to begin the great brain tune up:

Eat Almonds
Almond is believed to improve memory. If a combination of almond oil and milk is taken together before going to bed or after getting up at morning, it strengthens our memory power. Almond milk is prepared by crushing the almonds without the outer cover and adding water and sugar to it.

Drink Apple Juice
Research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice increases the production of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain, resulting in an increased memory power.

Sleep well
Research indicates that the long-term memory is consolidated during sleep by replaying the images of the experiences of the day. These repeated playbacks program the subconscious mind to store these images and other related information.

Enjoy simple Pleasures
Stress drains our brainpower. A stress-ridden mind consumes much of our memory resources to leave us with a feeble mind. Make a habit to engage yourself in few simple pleasures everyday to dissolve stress from your mind. Some of these simple pleasures are good for your mind, body and soul.
*Enjoy music you love
*Play with your children
*Run few miles a day, bike or swim
*Start a blog
*Take a yoga class or Total Wellness routine

Exercise your mind
Just as physical exercise is essential for a strong body, mental exercise is equally essential for a sharp and agile mind. Have you noticed that children have far superior brainpower than an adult does? Children have playful minds. A playful mind exhibits superior memory power. Engage in some of the activities that require your mind to remain active and playful.
*Play scrabble or crossword puzzle
*Volunteer
*Interact with others
*Start a new hobby such as blogging, reading, painting, bird watching
*Learn new skill or a foreign language

Practice Yoga or Meditation
Yoga or Meditation relives stress. Stress is a known memory buster. With less stress, lower blood pressure, slower respiration, slower metabolism, and released muscle tension follows. All of these factors contribute significantly towards increases in our brainpower.

Reduce Sugar intake
Sugar is a non-food. It’s a form of carbohydrate that offers illusionary energy, only to cause a downhill slump once the initial burst has been worn off. Excess intake of sugar results in neurotic symptoms. Excess sugar is known to cause claustrophobia, memory loss and other neurotic disorders. Eat food without adding sugar. Stay away from sweet drinks or excess consumption of caffeine with sugar.

Eat whole wheat
The whole wheat germs contain lecithin. Lecithin helps ease the problem of the hardening of the arteries, which often impairs brain functioning.

Eat a light meal at night
A heavy meal at night causes tossing and turning and a prolonged emotional stress while at sleep. It’s wise to eat heavy meal during the day when our body is in motion to consume the heavy in-take. Eating a light meal with some fruits allows us to sleep well. A good night sleep strengthens our brainpower.

Develop imagination
Greeks mastered the principle of imagination and association to memorize everything. This technique requires one to develop a vivid and colorful imagination that can be linked to a known object. If you involve all your senses - touching, feeling, smelling, hearing and seeing in the imagination process, you can remember greater details of the event.

Control your temper
Bleached food, excess of starch or excess of white bread can lead to nerve grating effect. This results in a violent and some time depressive behavior. Eat fresh vegetables. Drink lots of water and meditate or practice yoga to relieve these toxic emotions of temper and stressful mood swings.

Take Vitamin B-complex
Vitamin B-complex strengthens memory power. Eat food and vegetables high in Vitamin B-complex. Stay away from the starch food or white bread, which depletes the Vitamin B-complex necessary for a healthy mind.

I don't believe these are that tough. If you find yourself increasing stumped, give a couple of these a try.

Workout for the brain

SEARCHING the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, US researchers said.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles studied people doing Web searches while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.

"What we saw was people who had Internet experience used more of their brain during the search," Dr Gary Small, a UCLA expert on ageing, said. "This suggests that just searching on the Internet may train the brain – that it may keep it active and healthy," said Small, whose research appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Many studies have found that challenging mental activities such as puzzles can help preserve brain function, but few have looked at what role the Internet might play.

"This is the first time anyone has simulated an Internet search task while scanning the brain," Small said.

"We found that in reading the book task, the visual cortex – the part of the brain that controls reading and language – was activated. In doing the Internet search task, there was much greater activity, but only in the Internet-savvy group."

He said it appears that people who are familiar with the Internet can engage in a much deeper level of brain activity. "There is something about Internet searching where we can gauge it to a level that we find challenging."

In the ageing brain, atrophy and reduced cell activity can take a toll on cognitive function. Activities that keep the brain engaged can preserve brain health and thinking ability.

Small thinks learning to do Internet searches may be one of those activities. "It tells us we probably can teach an old brain new Internet tricks," he said. – Reuters

Otak Lelaki, Wanita Berbeza

LONDON: Lelaki dan wanita akhirnya mempunyai satu perkara untuk dipersetujui - cara pemikiran kedua-duanya tidak sama dan ia dibuktikan secara saintifik untuk menjelaskan misteri yang sudah berlanjutan bertahun-tahun lamanya.

Kajian mendapati, wanita memperuntukkan lebih banyak bahagian otak kepada membuat keputusan, emosi dan keupayaan mengemudi, sesuatu yang memeranjatkan kerana tanggapan umum golongan berkenaan lemah membaca peta.

Bagaimanapun, otak lelaki pula cuma mengesahkan 'stereotaip' dengan penekanan lebih besar terhadap seks. Namun, perbezaan jantina tidak terhenti di situ, dengan lelaki dan wanita menggunakan kaedah berbeza memproses kesakitan dan emosi.

Malah, selera mereka juga berbeza bagi dadah terlarang berpunca daripada pembentukan otak, kata penyelidik selepas mengukur dan membandingkan 45 bahagian otak pada lelaki dan wanita.

Ini berbeza dengan teori dipakai sekian lama bahawa perbezaan cara dua jantina itu berfikir adalah disebabkan tekanan sosial dan proses pembesaran, atau tindakan hormon seks.

Laporan majalah New Scientist menyebut: "Bagi kebanyakan bahagian, pembentukan asas otak, dan cara ia berfungsi, difikirkan sama bagi kedua-dua jantina. Penyelidikan mendedahkan otak lelaki dan wanita dibina daripada genetik induk ditanda secara berbeza.

"Ada juga perbezaan dalam proses genetik itu dan kimia yang menyampaikan mesej. Semua ini membawa kepada rumusan ada dua jenis otak, bukan satu." - AFP