Brain Exercise

Sounds weird??

     Are you struggling to keep up with your body exercise's weekly schedule? well, you need more than that. Your brain needs exercise as well. YES. I can hear you wondering ... what the... why....

     Well, to make it simple think of it like this- your brain is just like your muscles. If you don't use it, it will undergo atrophy.

     In fact, muscles are composed of muscular cells, and these cells needs workout and training to keep functioning and growing. So, If you don't do exercises you are basically telling your muscles that you don't need them. In the same way, when you don't exercise your brain, it's like you are putting it on hold and telling it that there is no need to function more.

     This need for exercise becomes more urgent as we age. Back again to the muscles example- we know that when we get older we lose muscles, and so is for our brain cells. More specifically, our brain's ability to withstand neurological damage due to aging and other factors diminishes through the years. That can make it more difficult for us to perform mental tasks. But, just as weight workouts strengthens your muscles and help you retain them in as you get older, researchers now believe that following a brain-healthy lifestyle and performing regular, targeted brain exercises can also increase your brain's cognitive reserve- which means it's ability to withstand age related damage and atrophy.

It's never too late :)

     Brain exercise can be helpful not only to withstand age related changes, but also to reverse them. Because our brains are resilient, their function can be modified and improved. New research suggests that making lifestyle changes and challenging your brain can also help regain lost brainpower. 

     In a six-month study, Dr. Bender, who is a Medical Director of the Johnny Orr Memory Center and Healthy Aging Institute in Des Moines, Iowa, and other researchers found that Alzheimer's patients recovered a significant amount of brain activity after undergoing a program involving drug therapy, physical exercise, low-fat diet instruction, cognitive training, socialization, and meditation. "We now know the brain is plastic, or resilient enough that we can actually make ourselves smarter," says Bender. "Even in cases of Alzheimer's disease, some normal brain cells remain, and research suggests they can be stimulated to create new connections."

Here are some Tips...

     The good news is that, unlike body workout, you do not need to buy some fancy aerobic machine or get a platinum gym subscription in order to train your brain. you can start with things as simple as a magic square cube, or even your daily newspaper. "Simple games like Sudoku and word games are good, as well as comic strips where you find things that are different from one picture to the next," says John E. Morley, MD, director of St. Louis University's Division of Geriatric Medicine and author of The Science of Staying Young. He also recommends the following exercises to sharpen your mental skills: 

- Test your recall. Make a list — of grocery items, things to do, or anything else that comes to mind — and memorize it. An hour or so later, see how many items you can recall. Make items on the list as challenging as possible for the greatest mental stimulation.

- Draw a map from memory. After returning home from visiting a new place, try to draw a map of the area; repeat this exercise each time you visit a new location.

- Do math in your head. Figure out problems without the aid of pencil, paper, or computer; you can make this more difficult by walking at the same time.

- Challenge your taste buds. When eating, try to identify individual ingredients in your meal, including subtle herbs and spices.

- Take a cooking class. Learn a new way to cook. Cooking uses a number of senses: smell, touch, sight, and taste, which all use different parts of the brain.

- Create word pictures. Visualize the spelling of a word in your head, then try and think of any other words that begin (or end) with the same two letters.

- Learn a foreign language. The listening and hearing involved stimulates the brain.

- Let the music play. Learn to play a musical instrument or study music.

- Refine your hand-eye abilities. Learn a new skill that involves fine-motor skills, such as knitting, drawing, painting, assembling a puzzle, etc.

- Engage your senses. Try activities that involve as many of your senses as possible, such as gardening.

 Learn a new sport. Take up an athletic exercise that utilizes the mind and body, like golf or basketball.

Improve Memory Power | Ways to Improve Memory | How to Improve Memo

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References:

 Lawson, S. (n.d.). Alzheimer’s Disease — No Longer Thought of as a One-Way Street. Sequoia Senior Solutions Blog Discussing In-Home Care for Elderly Clients and their Families in Napa County, Sonoma County, Marin County, Solano County, Mendocino County, and Lake County. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.sequoiaseniorsolutionsblog.com/2011/09/05/alzheimer%E2%80%99s-disease-%E2%80%94-no-longer-thought-of-as-a-one-way-street/

Melone, L. (n.d.). Brain Exercises that Strengthen Memory and Fight Alzheimer's – Longevity Center – EverydayHealth.com. Health Information, Resources, Tools & News Online - EverydayHealth.com. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.everydayhealth.com/longevity/mental-fitness/brain-exercises-for-memory.aspx

Healthy diet

Eating healthy food has been proven to be a very effective way to defeat some diseases and even improve the quality of life. However, there is a misconception assuming that a healthy diet is only a necessity for people are overweight and suffering from debilitating diseases. In fact this is far from being true. Not every thin person is healthy neither all the overweight people are ill. In many cases I have seen people being sarcastic when they see someone slim trying to make a healthy dietary choices. They think of a healthy diet as a remedy rather than a lifestyle. 

This lifestyle is a way by which we can maintain our physical and psychological health.  Physically, it’s very well known how our daily choices can affect our physical health. For example, high fat diet is the main cause of many cardiac problems. Also, low- vitamins diet is the main cause of malnutrition. The psychological health can also be affected by our diet.  Unbalanced diet can aggravate many psychological disorders, induce depression, and lower self-esteem. Thus our simple-unconscious daily choices might have an effect that is more serious than we think.

Although developing healthy diet habits seems to be very restrictive and confusing it is in fact simpler than we think. Understanding this fact depends on our understanding of what is healthy. Healthy diet is simply eating a wide variety of balanced food that hasn't been majorly synthesized or processed and, still, in moderate amounts. Thus even if fibers are a healthy choice, we should not substitute it for other important component neither should we consume it in large amounts. That means a healthy diet is nothing but a balanced diet. By following this simple concept we can preserve our health while still enjoying the taste of life. 

The following basic guidelines are what you need to know to construct a healthy diet.*

1 Eat plenty of high-fiber foods—that is, fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. These are the “good” carbohydrates—nutritious, filling, and relatively low in calories. They should supply the 20 to 30 grams of dietary fiber you need each day, which slows the absorption of carbohydrates, so there’s less effect on insulin and blood sugar, and provides other health benefits as well. Such foods also provide important vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals essential to good health).

2 Make sure to include green, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables—such as broccoli, carrots, cantaloupe, and citrus fruits. The antioxidants and other nutrients in these foods may help protect against developing certain types of cancer and other diseases. Eat five or more servings a day.

3 Limit your intake of sugary foods, refined-grain products such as white bread, and salty snack foods. Sugar, our No.1 additive, is added to a vast array of foods. Just one daily 12-ounce can of soda (160 calories) can add up to 16 pounds over the course of a year. Many sugary foods are also high in fat, so they’re calorie-dense.

4 Cut down on animal fat. It’s rich in saturated fat, which boosts blood cholesterol levels and has other adverse health effects. Choose lean meats, skinless poultry, and nonfat or low-fat or nonfat dairy products.

5 Cut way down on trans fats, supplied by hydrogenated vegetable oils used in most processed foods in the supermarket and in many fast foods.

6 Eat more fish and nuts, which contain healthy unsaturated fats. Substitute olive or canola oil for butter or stick margarine.

7 Keep portions moderate, especially of high-calorie foods. In recent years serving sizes have ballooned, particularly in restaurants. Choose a starter instead of an entrée, split a dish with a friend, and don’t order supersized anything.

8 Keep your cholesterol intake below 300 milligrams per day. Cholesterol is found only in animal products, such as meats, poultry, dairy products, and egg yolks.

9 Eat a variety of foods. Don’t try to fill your nutrient requirements by eating the same foods day in, day out. It is possible that not every essential nutrient has been identified, and so eating a wide assortment of foods helps to ensure that you will get all the necessary nutrients. In addition, this will limit your exposure to any pesticides or toxic substances that may be present in one particular food.

10 Maintain an adequate calcium intake. Calcium is essential for strong bones and teeth. Get your calcium from low-fat sources, such as skim milk and low-fat yogurt. If you can’t get the optimal amount from foods, take supplements.

11 Try to get your vitamins and minerals from foods, not from supplements. Supplements cannot substitute for a healthy diet, which supplies nutrients and other compounds besides vitamins and minerals. Foods also provide the “synergy” that many nutrients require to be efficiently used in the body.

12 Maintain a desirable weight. Balance energy (calorie) intake with energy output. Exercise and other physical activity are essential.
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* " 13 Keys to a Healthy Diet | Wellness Letter." Wellness Letter | The Newsletter of Nutrition, Fitness, and Self-Care. Version december 2009. UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.wellnessletter.com/ucberkeley/foundations/13-keys-to-a-healthy-diet/#>.


 

“The power of positive thinking”

Abraham Lincoln said, “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Although most people are confronted by the same kind of challenges in their daily life, it seems that their response to these challenges can vary greatly. Some people tackle these situations with a positive attitude, while others seem to be very pessimistic.  These different attitudes can define our different views of life. For some of us, a hurdle means a challenge to succeed, but for others, it’s a dead end for their dreams. This is exactly what differentiates a positive person from a negative person.

Positive thinking and its effect on our wellbeing has become a very popular topic. More people are becoming interested in learning how to think positively. But before learning how to practice it, we need to understand exactly what the positive thinking means.  Does it mean looking at the world through rose-colored glasses? No, it does not.  A positive attitude means thinking about the drawbacks that we are confronted with as transient external forces that we shouldn’t blame ourselves for. In other words, we never blame ourselves for failure; instead, we always try to find an external factor or circumstance to explain bad things that happen to us. In contrast, negative thinking means that we always try to blame ourselves and take the responsibilities of the bad things that we face.  This explanation very clearly sets the consequences of each approach or way of thinking. Positive makes you try again and again without losing energy and hope, while negative means losing your self-confidence, under estimating your abilities and thus loosing hope.

 Even though some people argue that positive thinking can sometimes make us fool ourselves and live in denial by blaming everything on factors that we cannot control, its benefits cannot be ignored. The psychological and physical effects have been proven by many studies. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve your health." The physiology by which the optimistic attitude can induce faster recovery after surgery or even deal better with serious disease such as cancer or AIDS isn’t clearly understood. However, it could be explained by the effect of stress hormones on the body’s immune system. Many studies has found that stress management that results from positive thinking can lead to noticeable reduction of stress hormones which in turn has its positive effects on the body’s overall health. It seems that the mind’s power has a great influence on the body.

The mechanism of optimism cannot be explained by the law of attraction. We cannot just attract success or good luck. It is not magic. Think of it as when you want something so badly. You convince yourself that you can get what you want, but it won’t happen unless you do your best and give all of your effort. You cannot expect things to happen just because you want or wish them to happen. When you put sugar in a cup of tea, you cannot expect it to become sweet unless you stir it. You need to learn how to make lemonade out of lemon, how to make success out failure, and how to learn from your mistake. This is what it takes to succeed, and this is the realistic meaning of positive attitude.