brain study

8/6/2019 Brain Study

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BRAIN STUDY

UNDERSTANDING HOW THE BRAIN WORKS

It's important to understand the complexity of the human brain. The human brain weighs only

three pounds but is estimated to have about 100 billion cells. It is hard to get a handle on anumber that large (or connections that small). Let's try to get an understanding of this complexity

by comparing it with something humans have created--the entire phone system for the planet. Ifwe took all the phones in the world and all the wires (there are over four billion people on the

planet), the number of connections and the trillions of messages per day would NOT equal thecomplexity or activity of a single human brain. Now let's take a "small problem"--break every

phone in Michigan and cut every wire in the state. How long would it take for the entire state(about 15 million people) to get phone service back? A week, a month, or several years? If you

guessed several years, you are now beginning to see the complexity of recovering from a head

injury. In the example I used, Michigan residents would be without phone service while the restof the world had phone service that worked fine. This is also true with people who have a headinjury. Some parts of the brain will work fine while others are in need of repair or are slowly

being reconnected.

AN ELECTRICAL AND CHEMICAL

MACHINE

Let's start looking at the building blocks of the

brain. As previously stated, the brain consists ofabout 100 billion cells. Most of these cells arecalled neurons. A neuron is basically an on/off

switch just like the one you use to control thelights in your home. It is either in a resting state

(off) or it is shooting an electrical impulsedown a wire (on). It has a cell body, a long little

wire (the "wire" is called an axon), and at the very end it has a little part that shoots out achemical. This chemical goes across a gap (synapse) where it triggers another neuron to send a

message. There are a lot of these neurons sending messages down a wire (axon). By the way,each of these billions of axons is generating a small amount of electrical charge; this total power

has been estimated to equal a 60 watt bulb. Doctors have learned that measuring this electricalactivity can tell how the brain is working. A device that measures electrical activity in the brain

is called an EEG (electroencephalograph).

Each of the billions of neurons "spit out" chemicals that trigger other neurons. Different neurons

use different types of chemicals. These chemicals are called "transmitters" and are given nameslike epinephrine, norepinephrine, or dopamine. Pretty simple, right? Well, no. Even in the

simplified model that I'm presenting, it gets more complex.


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IS THE BRAIN ONE BIG COMPUTER?

Is the brain like a big phone system (because it has a lot of connections) or is it one big computerwith ON or OFF states (like the zeros and ones in a computer)? Neither of the above is correct.

Let's look at the brain using a different model. Let's look at the brain as an orchestra. In anorchestra, you have different musical sections. There is a percussion section, a string section, awoodwind section, and so on. Each has its own job to do and must work closely with the other

sections. When playing music, each section waits for the conductor. The conductor raises a batonand all the members of the orchestra begin playing at the same time playing on the same note. If

the drum section hasn't been practicing, they don't play as well as the rest of the orchestra. Theoverall sound of the music seems "off" or plays poorly at certain times. This is a better model of

how the brain works. We used to think of the brain as a big computer, but it's really like millionsof little computers all working together.

GETTING INFORMATION IN AND OUT OF THE BRAIN

How does information come into the brain? A lot of information comes in through the spinalcord at the base of the brain. Think of a spinal cord as a thick phone cable with thousands of

phone lines. If you cut that spinal cord, you won't be able to move or feel anything in your body.Information goes OUT from the brain to make body parts (arms and legs) do their job. There is

also a great deal of INCOMING information (hot, cold, pain, joint sensation, etc.). Vision andhearing do not go through the spinal cord but go directly into the brain. Thats why people can be

completely paralyzed (unable to move their arms and legs) but still see and hear with noproblems.

Information enters from the spinal cord and comes up the middle of the brain. It branches out

like a tree and goes to the surface of the brain. The surface of the brain is gray due to the color ofthe cell bodies (that's why it's called the gray matter). The wires or axons have a coating on them

that's colored white (called white matter).

TWO BRAINS--LEFT AND RIGHT HEMISPHERE

We have two eyes, two hands, and two legs, so why not two brains? The brain is divided in half,

a right and left hemisphere. The right hemisphere does a different job than the left. The righthemisphere deals more with visual activities and plays a role in putting things together. For

example, it takes visual information, puts it together, and says "I recognize that--that's a chair,"or "that's a car" or "that's a house." It organizes or groups information together. The left

hemisphere tends to be the more analytical part; it analyzes information collected by the right. Ittakes information from the right hemisphere and applies language to it. The right hemisphere

"sees" a house, but the left hemisphere says, "Oh yeah, I know whose house that is--it's UncleBob's house."

So what happens if one side of the brain is injured? People who have an injury to the right side ofthe brain "don't put things together" and fail to process important information. As a result, they

often develop a "denial syndrome" and say "there's nothing wrong with me." For example, I


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treated a person with an injury to the right side of the brain--specifically, the back part of theright brain that deals with visual information--and he lost half of his vision. Because the right

side of the brain was injured, it failed to "collect" information, so the brain did not realize thatsomething was missing. Essentially, this person was blind on one side but did not know it. What

was scary was that this person had driven his car to my office. After seeing the results of the tests

that I gave him, I asked, "Do you have a lot of dents on the left side of your car?" He wasamazed that I magically knew this without seeing his car. Unfortunately, I had to ask him not todrive until his problems got better. But you can see how the right side puts things together.

The left side of the brain deals more with language and helps to analyze information given to the

brain. If you injure the left side of the brain, you're aware that things aren't working (the righthemisphere is doing its job) but are unable to solve complex problems or do a complex activity.

People with left hemisphere injuries tend to be more depressed, have more organizationalproblems, and have problems using language.

VISION--HOW WE SEE THINGS

Information from our eyes goes to areas at the very back of the brain. We've all seen cartoonswhere the rabbit gets hit on the head and the rabbit sees stars. This can actually happen in human

beings (trust me, not a good thing to do at home!). If you take a hard enough blow to the back ofthe head, this brain area bangs against back of your skull. This stimulates it and you can see stars

and flashing lights. Remember those two hemispheres? Each hemisphere processes half thevisual information. Visual information that we see on the left gets processed by the right

hemisphere. Information on the right gets processed by the left hemisphere. Remember, wiresthat bring in information to the brain are "crossed"--visual information from the left goes to the

right brain.

MOV

EMENT

The area of the brain that controls movement is in avery narrow strip that goes from near the top of the

head right down along where your ear is located. It'scalled the motor strip. If I injure that area, I'll have

problems controlling half of my body. If I have astroke in the left hemisphere of my brain, the right

side of the body will stop working. If I have an injuryto my right hemisphere in this area, the left side of my

body stops working (remember, we have two brains).This is why one half of the face may droop when a

person has had a stroke.

HEARING AND LANGUAGE


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In the general population, 95 percent of people are right-handed, which means that the lefthemisphere is the dominant hemisphere. (For you left-handers, the right hemisphere is dominant.)

With right-handed people, the ability to understand and express language is in this left temporallobe. If I were to take a metal probe, and charge it with just a bit of electricity, and put it on the

"primary" area of my left temporal lobe, I might say "hey, I hear a tone." If I move this probe to

a more complex area of the temporal lobe, I might hear a word being said. If I move theelectrical probe to an even more complex area, I might hear the voice of somebody I recognize;"I hear Uncle Bob's voice." We have simple areas of the temporal lobe that deal with basic

sounds and other areas of the temporal lobe that look at more complex hearing information.

The right temporal lobe also deals with hearing. However, its job is to process musicalinformation or help in the identification of noises. If this area is damaged, we might not be able

to appreciate music or be able to sing. Because we tend to think and express in terms of language,the left temporal lobe is more critical for day-to-day functioning.

The vision areas and the hearing areas of the brain have a boundary area where they interact.

This is the area of the brain that does reading. We take the visual images and convert them intosounds. So if you injure this area (or it doesn't develop when you are very young), you get

something called dyslexia. People who have dyslexia have problems that may include seeingletters backwards or have problems understanding what written words mean.

SKIN SENSATION

If something lands on my left hand, this information will betransmitted to the right side of my brain. It goes to the area of

the brain next to the area that deals with movement. The tactilearea of the brain deals with physical sensation. Movement and

feeling are closely related, so it makes sense that they are nextto each other in the brain. Because movement and tactile areas

are located close to each other, it is not uncommon for peoplewith a brain injuries to lose both movement and feeling in

parts of their body. Remember--tactile information from theleft side of the body goes to the right brain, just like movement

and vision.

FRONTAL LOBES--Planning, Organizing, Controlling

The biggest and most advanced part of the brain is the frontal

lobe. (It's called the frontallobe because it's in the front part ofbrain.) One job of the frontal lobe is planning. You have

probably heard of "frontal lobotomies." At the turn of thecentury, this surgery was done on people who were very violent or who were in a psychiatric

hospital because they were very agitated. Doctors used surgery to damage this area of the brain.Following this surgery, people became very passive and less violent. At first, scientists saw this

as a great thing. Neurosurgery could stop behavioral problems such as violence. The problemwas that the patients stopped doing a lot of other things. They didn't take care of themselves and


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they stopped many activities of daily living. They basically sat there. In head injury, individualswith frontal lobe impairment seem to lack motivation and have difficulty doing any task that

requires multiple steps (e.g., fixing a car or planning a meal). They have problems with planning.

The frontal lobe is also involved in organizing. For a lot of activities, we need to do step A, then

step B, then step C. We have to do things in order. That's what the frontal lobes help us do.When the frontal lobe is injured, there is a breakdown in the ability to sequence and organize. Acommon example is people who cook and leave out a step in the sequence. They forget to add an

important ingredient or they don't turn the stove off. I've met a lot of patients who've burned ormelted a lot of pans.

Additionally, the frontal lobes also play a very important role in controlling emotions. Deep in

the middle of the brain are sections that control emotions. They're very primitive emotions thatdeal with hunger, aggression, and sexual drive. These areas send messages to other parts of the

brain to DO SOMETHING. If you're mad, hit something or someone. If you're hungry, grabsomething and eat it. The frontal lobes "manage" emotions. In general, the frontal lobe has a NO

or STOP function. If your emotions tell you to punch your boss, it's the frontal lobes that say"STOP or you are going to lose your job." People have often said to me "a little thing will set me

offand I'm really mad." The frontal lobes failed to stop or turn off the emotional system.

On the other hand, we have talked about how the frontal lobes plan activities. The frontal lobes

may fail to plan for some types of emotion. For example, sexual interest involves some level of

planning or preparation. Without this planning, there is a lack of sexual interest. A lack of

planning can also affect the expression of anger. I've had some family members say "You know,

the head injury actually improved him, he's not such a hot-head anymore." If you listen very

carefully, you're also going to hear "he's not as motivated anymore." Remember, the frontal lobe

plans activities as well as controls emotions

Neuro science for kids.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html


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The Blood Supply of the Brain

Food and oxygen are carried to the brain by many blood vessels.

These vessels are found on the surface of the brain and deep within the brain. The blood vessels (and

nerves) enter the brain through holes in the skull called foramina

Although the brain is only about 2% of the total body

weight in humans, it receives 15-20% of the body's blood supply. Because brain cells will die if the supply

of blood which carries oxygen is stopped, the brain has top priority for the blood. Even if other organs

need blood, the body attempts to supply the brain with a constant flow of blood.

The blood brings many materials necessary for the brain to function properly. The blood also removes

materials from the brain.

Blood is supplied to the entire brain by 2 pairs of arteries: the internal carotid arteries and vertebral

arteries. As you can see in the figure below, the right and left vertebral arteries come together at the base

of the brain to form a single basilar artery. The basilar artery joins the blood supply of the

internal carotid arteries in a ring at the base of the brain. This ring of arteries is called the circle of Willis.


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The circle of Willis provides a safety mechanism...if one of the arteries gets blocked, the "circle" will still

provide the brain with blood.

Base of the Brain

Only some of the vessels that exist in a real brain have been labeled.

Brain Attack = Stroke

You may know someone, a parent or grandparent, who has had a "stroke," also

called a "brain attack." What exactly is a stroke? A stroke occurs when the blood supply to the brain is

stopped. If this happens for enough time, neurons will start to die because they will not get enough

oxygen. Paralysis or aphasia (loss of speech) are possible consequences of a stroke.

There are two major causes of a stroke:

1. Blockage of a blood vessel (in the brain or neck) caused by:

y a blood clot in the brain or neck (this is called a thrombosis)


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y a blood clot from somewhere else that has moved and now blocks a blood vessel in the brain or

neck (this is called an embolism)

y constriction or narrowing of an artery in the head or neck (this is called a stenosis)

2. Bleeding of a blood vessel (this is called hemorrhagic stroke)

There are several warning signs that occur with a brain attack. (Reprinted with permission from The

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

y Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm, or leg on one side of the body.

y Sudden dimness or loss of vision, particularly in one eye.

y Sudden difficulty speaking or trouble understanding speech.

y Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

y Unexplained dizziness, unsteadiness, or sudden falls,especially with any of the other signs.

There are several conditions linked to stroke. Reprinted with permission from The National

Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

y High blood pressure - Eat a balanced diet, maintain a healthy weight, and exercise to reduce

blood pressure. Drugs are also available.

y Cigarette smoking - Don't start smoking and if you do smoke, quit!

y Heart disease - Your doctor will treat your heart disease and may also prescribe medication to

help prevent the formation of clots.

y Diabetes - Treatment can delay complications that increase the risk of stroke.

y Transient ischemic attacks - These are brief episodes of stroke's warning signs and can be

treated with drugs or surgery.

Did you know?

y Each year there are 700,000 people (one every 45 seconds) in the United

States who suffer a stroke. Stroke is the THIRD leading cause of death in the

US and kills about 160,000 Americans each year. (Statistic fromAmerican

Stroke Association

y The word "carotid" (carotid artery) comes from the Greek word karotis meaning

"deep sleep." This is because it has been known for a long time that pressure

to the carotid arteries causes animals to become sleepy.

y In humans, the brain uses 15-20% of the body's oxygen supply. In the African

elephant nose fish, the brain uses 60% of the oxygen supply! (Source: Nilsson,G.E., Brain and body oxygen requirements ofGnathonemus perterssi, a fish

with an exceptionally large brain. J. Experi. Biol., 199:603-607, 1996.)

More about stroke:

y Improving Stroke Prevention and Treatment Now - Cerebrum, January, 2006


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y Brain Attack. A Look at Stroke Prevention and Treatment - March-April 2005, FDA Consumer

magazine

y Images of the brain after a stroke

y More facts about brain blood flow

y National Stroke Association

y StrokeCenterat Washington University School of Medicine

y Stanford Stroke Center

y Stroke - Quick Facts and Figures

y Stroke Relief

Tips to Increase Neurogenesis (Growing New Neurons) in Adult Brain in order to stop yourEating Disorder.This is what neuroplasticity is all about. Now, lets look at 11 major principles

of how we can facilitate the processes of neurogenesis (growing new brain cells) in order to stopyour eating disorder.

Neurogenesis is growing new brain cells (neurons).

By now you probably know that eating disorders are problems related to emotions, perceptionand specific neuronal pathways in your brain which related to eating disorder behaviour. And

that in order to stop your eating disorder you need to create new neuronal pathways responsible

for good constructive behaviour to replace the faulty neuronal pathways.

1. Learn everything you can about how the brain works. Even some basic understanding will

help you to appreciate your brains beauty as a living and constantly-developingstructure with billions of neurons and its connections. When you understand what happens in

your brain while you binge-purge or starve yourself you will have an idea of how to reverseit. Until you understand this process you are like a blind person who is trying to find his way

home walking through the debris in the wilderness.


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2. Take care of your nutrition. Your brain consumes 20% of all the oxygen, nutrients and energy

you consume. If yo u are an anorexic and dont eat (or eat little) your brain starves.It can not function properly and thats why people with anorexia stop seeing a clear picture of

reality that other people see. They see themselves fatter than they are, they judge others by theway they look and how skinny they are. And their starving brain is a big contributor to it. The

Brain can only function at its best when it has enough energy and nutrition to process theinformation.

3. Moderate physical exercise enhances neurogenesis (production of brain cells). But eating

disorder sufferers have to be careful not to over exercise because many of them already do

overexercise. Always remember that when you exer cise the spending of energy increases rapidly and body needs energy to burn. Energy comes from the food we eat but

when there is not enough energy from food, the body starts consuming its own tissue as anenergy source. Fat burns first. But if a person does not have fat (or has very little) like an eating

disorder sufferer, the body start burning muscles and other body tissues. And that is a dangerousprocess. It can lead to dystrophy and caxechia the syndrome is what a person looks like who

has just come from a concentration camp we have all seen the pictures. Please Remember:moderate exercise is great; I dont mean running 10 miles a day. But you need to make sure that

you have something to burn not just burn your muscles and brain tissue as an energy source.

4. Practice positive, future-oriented thoughts, until they become your mindset. Look forward to

every new day in a constructive way. Find and follow your main purpose in life.

Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by your own thoughts,actually kills neurons and prevents the creation of new ones. You can think of chronic stress as

the opposite of exercise: it prevents the creation of new neurons.

5. Get excited and thrive on learning and mental challenges. You have probably heard theexpression Use it or lose it. And yes it does apply to the brain also. What relation thisprinciple has on eating disorders, you may ask. The answer is everything. You see, the brain of

an anorexic bulimic person is full of faulty neuronal pathways which are resp


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onsible for their anorexic-bulimic behaviours. There are pathways for binging-

purging, for starving, for taking laxatives and diuretics, over exercising etc. When you start

learning new constructive thing like for example, how your brain works, its anatomy andphysiology etc. you actually will produce new neuronal pathways in your brain which will takethe place of your old pathways and replace them.

Learning can be about anything you want to learn but it has to be good, positive and constructive.Something you can share with others and teach them to do the same. The more you learn this

new thing the more it becomes your new mindset and the closer you became to eating disorderrecovery.

6. Find a purpose. Aim high. As far as we know humans are the only self-directed organisms on

this planet. This means we are the only ones who can make decision and

exercise our own will.

If you dont know what your purpose in life is dont worry. It will come if you keep focusingon finding it. And dont forget to learn about how your brain works it also will give

understanding on how life has a purpose which is already created and imbedded in your mind.

7. Explore and travel. It has been proved that travelling to new locations forces you to pay more

attention to your environment. This will pull your attention away from your eatingdisorder and help you to develop new neuronal pathways in the brain different from what the

eating disorder has created. It can also help to produce more good chemicals in the brain(neurotransmitters) which are responsible for your attention span. More attention will make your

learning of new things easier.

8. Dont succumb to the opinions of others. Dont think that what is in the media, something said

by your neighbou r or what polit icians say are true. Have your own opinion.

Remember that media makes billion of dollars every week to program peoples mind bydisplaying womans body images that are impossible to achieve by any normal person. Most

diets and other health care products which claim to improve your health dont work or work on aplacebo effect only.


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9. Develop and maintain stimulating friendship. This is very important for eating disorder

sufferers because gene rally eating disorder sufferers are withdrawn fromothers and prefer to spend time alone with their eating disorders. Byspending your time with good friends you take yourself away from the eating disorder. You will

also develop different neuronal pathways which if exercised regularly can replace the eatingdisorder pathways.

10. Remember: Laughter is the best medicine. Spend more time laughing it is healing and puts

you in a different state of mind. I recommend you even to find jokes aboutweight and food , laugh at it and look at the funny side of it. For example, when you see thefunny side of being anorexic or bulimic you will change your attitude to your abnormal

behaviour. Laughter also improves hormonal status in the body which normally suffers inanorexic-bulimic people. Laughter also helps to release good chemicals in the brain which can

change your brain for the better.

11. Love. Love more, learn about what love is and how you can feel love and be loved. Learn

how to give your love to people and receive the love back. I am not talking here

just about romantic love (although this is the love too). I am talking about love as a number ofemotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment.

Eating disorder sufferers dont know exactly what these feelings are and it is one of the reasonsthey have their eating disorders. So start educating yourself about this topic and you will

discover miracles.

Eat brightly colored vegetables and meats, drink plenty of fluids and increase your salt content.Read Read Read, and do a lot of complex thinking. Get poetry, and difficult books to read and

figure them out. You'll feel yourself become physically tired after a while because of the workyour brain is doing. When you are slowing down stop and take a break and start up again. Do

drawings with contrasting colors and try to learn a new language. the second you let your mind


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skilled at navigating through mazes than rats who werent fed blueberries. Scientists know for afact that blueberries promote the growth of new neurons. In order to track the growth of neurons,

researchers injected dye into rats.

They saw that in the hippocampus region, new brain cells were generated. Scientists figure that

anthocyanin dye the dark bluish-dye found in blueberries caused the neurogenesis. Theanthocyanin-dye contains chemicals that can cross the blood-brain barrier and produce thegrowth of neurons. There is growing evidence that the anthocyanin dye has the same effect on

the brains of humans!

Related: For more information on brainfoods, read the article Brain Foods: 50 Good BrainFoods.

3. Taking Time for Meditation

Meditation has always thought to have been beneficial for the brain. Recent compelling evidencefrom scientific researchers at Yale, Harvard, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed

that meditation can allow us to grow bigger brains. Though this isnt the same thing asneurogenesis, meditation could very well be an activity that boosts the birth rate of neurons.

Researchers also discovered that meditators literally had an altered-physical brain structurecompared to non-meditators. Brain scanning technology [i.e. MRIs] showed that meditation

boosted thickness of brain structure dealing with attention, sensory input, and memory functions.The thickening was found to be more noticeable in adults than younger individuals. Its

interesting because the same sections of our cortex that meditation thickens, tend to get thinneras we age.

Meditation is known to boost brain activity, coherency of brain waves, strengthen neural

connections, and thicken gray matter. Though scientists havent confirmed the effects ofmeditation and its ability to aid neurogenesis [due to complexity issues], there is a likely

possibility that it helps.

4. Antidepressant Drugs

Scientific research by the National Institute of Mental Health has proven that antidepressants

work by allowing our brains to grow new brain cells (neurons). In a 2003 study, scientists

discovered that when they blocked the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus brainregion, behavioral effects of the antidepressant Prozac [Fluoxetine] were diminished.

Research has already understood that depression, stress, and anxiety disorders can cause death of

neurons in the brain. More studies have demonstrated that most other antidepressants on themarket can and will trigger the growth of new neurons. Even more interesting is the fact that

besides humans, adult animals grow new neurons when given antidepressant drugs.


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Restricting calorie intake has been associated with increases in neurogenesis and a better overallneuroprotective effect in the brain. Scientists have found that calorie-restricted animals nearly

always stay active and healthy up until the end of their lives. This phenomena has also beenassociated with a significantly lowered likelihood of developing a degenerative brain disease and

can even produce new nerve cells!

*8. Infared Light Helmets

Though the use of infared light helmets is relatively new, researchers believe that they may help

patients with Alzheimers disease by helping them grow new brain cells. Developer of thisinfared light helmet, Dr. Gordon Dougal, (also the director of medical research at medical

research company Virulite) believes the helmet will hit the market about 1 year from now. Itworks by aiming low levels of infared light at the wearers brain. Next, it stimulates

neurogenesis in the brain, suggests research.

More on how this works according to its inventor [Dr. Gordon Dougal]: How we hope itsgoing to work is that the infrared light will be facing inside the helmet onto the actual person,

onto their skin, onto their brain, and actually goes on the frontal part of the bones, so it goes ontothe actual front part of the brain and the side of the brain.

The side of the head and their skull are relatively thin, so the light will penetrate the skull and

treat the underlying brain tissue. And the top of the head is also quite thin, and the light willpenetrate the brain tissue at that point.

-

For more information, view the sources:

LEMagazine: June 2002 Calorie Restriction, Exercise, Hormone Replacement, and

Phytonutrients Fight Aging Age Conference Madison, Wisconsin

Harvard University Meditation found to increase brain size Mental calisthenics bulk up somelayers By William J. Cromie Harvard News Office

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/2006/01/23-meditation.html

Antidepressants Grow New Brain Cells About.com;

http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/psychopharmacology/a/neurogenesis.htm

Sci STKE. 2003 Aug; (195):318. Antidepressants and Hippocampal Neurogenesis. Santarelli L,Saxe M, Gross A, Surget A, Battaglia F, Dulawa S, Weisstaub N, Lee J, Duman R, Arancio O,

Belzung, Hen R.


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The Journal ofNeuroscience. 2007 Mar; 27(13): 3252-3259. Experience-Specific FunctionalModification of the Dentate Gyrus through Adult Neurogenesis: A Critical Period during an

Immature Stage. Tashiro A, Makino H, Gage FH.

Stanford University Research In Progress: HD & Lifestyle

http://www.stanford.edu/group/hopes/rltdsci/inprogress/ae2.html

Related posts:

1. 50 Ways To Boost Your Brain Power

2. 5 Ways Of Enhancing Brain Power (Part 2)

3. 7 Brain Foods For Optimal Brain Health

4. 5 Supercharged Brain Foods

5. The Evolution Of Brain Power: New Synaptic Molecular Evolution Theory

Top 20 Foods to Improve Your Memory and Brain Function

In this information era, we are always trying to squeeze in and out every bit of information and

memory capable with our brain. We are always looking for new ways to remember things andbetter manage them once in our brain.

Keep our body and minds active through regular exercise and a challenge like, crossword

puzzles and sudoku are a good ways to improve memory. But do not forget what we eat alsoaffects our brains performance. Propernutrition will give your brain power to think faster, better

organized, improve memory and brain function. By adding some foods below to your diet, canreally help in keeping your memory in good condition and help your brain to function at full

capacity.

1. Greenleafy vegetables

Green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and spinach are rich in vitamins

B6, B12, and folate, compounds needed by brain to break down homocysteine levels, which can

lead to forgetfulness and even Alzheimers disease. These vegetables are also high in iron, which

can reduce the risk of developing cognitive impairment by reducing oxidative stress.

2. WholeGrains

Whole grains such as brown rice, oatmeal, and other grain products made with 100% whole

wheat flour can increase blood flow which help deliver oxygen to your brain at peak

performance. They also help supply the brain with glucose, something your brain needs to

function properly.

3. Avocados

Avocados contain monounsaturated fats which is one of the healthy fats that the brain needs to

function properly. Monounsaturated fats contribute to normal blood flow and even help lower

high blood pressure as well as prevent stroke.


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4. Eggs

Eggs are a good source of protein and nutrients, particularly choline, which is a vitamin B

complex. Choline contain in egg yolk, plays a role in the production of neurotransmitters in the

brain that helps regulate mood, behavior and memory. It also helps with alertness and improves

cognitive performance.

5. Greentea

Green tea offers many health benefits, including improving memory. Component of green tea,

polyphenols, especially flavonoids, inhibit neuronal loss. Flavonoids reduce the production of

proteins that can develop into plaques in the brains of Alzheimers patients.

6. Blueberries

These lovely blue gems are not only delicious but packed with antioxidants, highly source of

vitamin C and dietary fiber. Researchers found that a diet that includes blueberries significantly

improves learning capacity and memory function. Blueberries are perhaps the best brain food of

all because they increase the potential of neuron signals, protect the brain against oxidative

stress and reduce the effect of age-related memory conditions such as dementia and

Alzheimers disease.

7. Salmon

Salmon is a sustainable source of omega-3 fats. This omega-3 fatty acids are believed essentialfor the proper development and function of your brain. Essential fatty acids are not produced by

the body and must be obtained with the diet. They play an important role in brain function and

are highly concentrated in the brain.

8. Almonds

Like fatty fish, almonds high in omega-3 fatty acids. They are also rich in antioxidants, including

vitamin E. Antioxidants support healthy brain cell communication through the neurotransmitter,

and increases healthy blood circulation, especially throughout the vast network of small blood

vessels of the brain, allowing you to stay focused, alert, and functioning at peak mental capacity.

9. Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are a rich source of vitamin E, with about 30 grams provides 30% of your total

daily intake. Vitamin E is one of the major antioxidant that will help reduce your age memoryloss, making it one nutrient that you cant miss out.

10.Sweetpotatoes

Sweet potatoes are very nourishing for the brain. They are rich in carbohydrates, vitamins B6

and antioxidant nutrients, which not only cleanse the blood, but also help to improve brain

power significantly.

11.Kidneybeans

Kidney beans can improve your cognitive function. One cup of cooked kidney beans contains

nearly 19% of the RDV (Recommended Daily Value) for B-vitamins thiamin, which is essential for

cognitive function because it is needed to synthesize choline.

12.Apples

Apples contain high levels of quercetin, an antioxidant that has been shown to protect against

Alzheimers disease. In addition to helping protect your memory and brain, apples have also

been shown to decrease the risk for many cancers

13.Cranberries

Cranberries can protect brain cells from free radical damage and bitterness in the fruit can

improve your memory and coordination. They also provide necessary antioxidants that can keep

you fit and healthy.


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