Sharp As A Tack: How To Boost Your Brainpower and Restore Your Memory

From Biocentric Health Research Team of
(Second in A Two-Part Series)

In our February 8^th issue of Health Breakthroughs, we outlined two of the four Brain Power Strategies you can use to improve:

·        Focus

·        Concentration

·        Problem-solving

·        Creativity

·        Learning

·        Short-term memory

The two strategies were:

Brain Power Strategy #1      
Stop poisoning your brain with cortisol
 

Brain Power Strategy #2      
Start feeding your brain the nutrients it needs

Now on to the fun and key steps you can take today to boost your brain power.
 

Super nutrients that fuel and fire your brain cells 

If the nutrients in foods can help to protect your brain, could concentrated nutrients in the form of nutritional supplements help more?  It appears that this is the case. Nutritional researchers have now studied hundreds of herbs, vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids to determine which were most helpful in supporting and enhancing brain health.  Here are a few of the superstars. 

Gingko biloba increases circulation to the brain by expanding the tiny blood vessels that lead to the brain--flooding your hungry brain cells with needed oxygen and nutrients. It's also a powerful antioxidant, helping to keep the brain--and the rest of the body--safe from marauding free radicals.* 

There are hundreds of published studies demonstrating the brain-boosting benefits of gingko biloba.  Just this summer, the U.S. National Institutes of Health launched their own six-year, $15 million study of gingko's ability to fight Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, scientists at Stanford Medical School are currently in the middle of rigorous trials to confirm the validity of gingko as a treatment for non-Alzheimer's memory loss. * 

Gingko has been used for centuries in China to ward off age-related memory loss and decline.  European doctors, who are generally more accepting of herbal remedies than American doctors, have been using Ginkgo for decades to improve circulation--especially to the brain.* 

Acetyl-L-carnitine stimulates new nerve growthby supporting systemic levels of nerve growth factor (NGF.)  NGF helps to regenerate aged or damaged neurons and also stimulates the production of brand-new nerve cells.  The old belief that you can't grow new brain cells has been disproved by modern science. You CAN grow healthy, young brain cells at any age.  Stimulating your brain with challenging mental tasks is one way to encourage new growth. (See Strategy #4, below.) Keeping NGF levels high is another. There are other substances that also boost NGF but Acetyl-L-Carnitine is the only one that can cross the blood/brain barrier to work inside the brain, where it can do the most good.* 

 Huperzine A protects neurotransmittersfrom being broken down by enzymes in the brain.  By extending the active lifetime of these important chemical messengers, huperzine helps to increase the amount of information exchanged by your neurons.  There are scores of studies published in major medical journals showing that Huperzine A is highly active in the brain.*   

Huperzine A has been shown to promote long-lasting improvements in learning, memory, spatial orientation, and cognitive performance in animal models of senility as well as healthy adults and adolescents.  It also shows great promise as a nutrient that could be highly beneficial for those suffering from Alzheimer's disease. *  

Researchers working at Zhejiang Medical University in China conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of over 100 Alzheimer's patients, half of whom were given huperzine-A for 8 weeks. In that short time, 58% of the treated group improved in memory, cognitive and behavioral functions, leading the researchers to conclude that huperzine is "a promising for symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease." * 

Phosphatidylserine (PS) helps to activate nerve cellsso they can produce strong nerve impulses. This essential fatty acid is found throughout the body, but it is most highly concentrated in the brain, where it has several crucial functions.  In addition to playing an important roll in cell-to-cell communication and recognition, PS is an antioxidant, helping to protect delicate cell membranes from oxidative damage. * 

It also helps to maintain healthy levels of Nerve Growth Factor, which tend to decline with age. Finally, it works to regulate levels of the hormone cortisol. This hormone is produced in response to stress.  Excessive stress can lead to excessive cortisol, which can slow the uptake of glucose (energy) in the brain, negatively affecting brain function. *              

               One ground-breaking study, published in the respected medical journal, Neurology, found that among subjects 50 and older, daily supplementation with PS led to a 15% improvement in memory and learning after 3 months. Interestingly, those who had scored the lowest on cognitive function tests at the beginning of the test had the greatest improvements.* 

Docosahexanoic Acid (DHA)gets the nerve signals through "loud and clear" by increasing the fluidity of the synapses (the gaps that the impulses have to jump across to get from neuron to neuron.) DHA is an omega-3 essential fatty acid that is the primary structural fatty acid in the brain.  It is so important to the formation and growth of the brain during pregnancy and infancy that it is incorporated into baby formula in Japan. DHA is also important for adult and aging brains, helping to prevent the impairment of the neural function as we age. 

Several studies have noted that low levels of DHA in the brain correlate to a decline in the brain's structural integrity and function. *

Brain Power Strategy #3 Get enough exercise AND enough rest

"Fatigue is an important influence on memory simply because so many of us live with it." 
Cynthia R. Green, PhD, Total Memory Workout

      The health hazards of chronic sleep deprivation have been in the news lately.  Last year there was a widely publicized study, conducted at the University of Chicago Medical Center, in which 11 healthy young men were allowed to sleep only four hours per night for six days.  After less than a week of sleep deprivation, the scientists noted changes in the young men's hormone profiles that mimicked those of elderly people. In particular, cortisol levels were significantly higher, which can accelerate brain aging and cognitive decline. 

                Other studies have demonstrated that fatigue can reduce alertness, concentration, reactions times, and cognitive ability.  A chronic lack of sleep also impacts memory function.

                "Chronic sleep debt is becoming increasingly common and affects millions of people," writes Dr. Karine Spiegel, in an article for the British medical journal The Lancet.  The average amount of sleep per night has decreased from approximately 9 hours in 1910 to 7.5 hours today.  The good news to come out of the University of Chicago study is that when the subjects started sleeping longer and recovering from their sleep debt, their hormone profiles returned to normal.  You can promote a sharper more vital mind simply by making sure that you make time to get enough sleep.   

Next time you are tempted to steal an hour or two of sleep time in order to fit one more thing into your schedule, just remember that adequate sleep is absolutely critical to your brain longevity. 

Exercise is also a habit you cannot afford to be without if you want your brain performing at its peak.  As Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa explains in his book Brain Longevity: 

"Aerobic exercise has direct beneficial effects upon the brain and endocrine system.  It increases blood flow to the brain, and even spurs growth of new brain cell "branches." It also has powerful indirect benefits. It physically protects the body against the stress response, and also "burns off" harmful stress hormones."   (p.55) 

Brain Power Strategy #4  Use it or lose it 

"In much the same way that you can maintain your physical well-being, you can take charge
of your mental health and fitness."  Lawrence Katz, Keep your Brain Alive 

                A spate of recent books with titles like "The Total Memory Workout" and "Keep Your Brain Alive" reflect the growing anxiety of the baby boomer generation as they approach middle age and begin to experience  diminished mental prowess.  These books also make the important point that the brain is a "use it or lose it" kind of organ.  Although it is not a muscle, the brain does get stronger and more flexible the more that is used. Conversely, it will shrink and atrophy if not used.

                One reason that we seem to get slower and less mentally agile as we age is that we very often stop learning new things. Throughout childhood and adolescence, the human brain is absorbing and processing an incredible amount of new information. This is also the time that the brain is at its most powerful. 

                As young adults, we may spend several years pursuing higher education or learning the skills of a trade or profession.  During this period of our lives, we also constantly have new and unfamiliar experiences, whether its meeting new people, moving to a new town, traveling, or picking up new hobbies or recreational interests. 

                But by the time we reach our forties and fifties--right about the time that we begin to notice our mental engine beginning to slow down--many of us have settled into social, personal, and professional routines that offer very little in the way of new stimulus or learning opportunities for the brain.  

                Basically, the brain grows and thrives when it is confronted with new information...new words, new tasks, new sensory experiences. Unused and unchallenged, the dentrites of the nerve cells, which carry the messages back and forth begin to shrink and disappear.  With less biochemical and electric activity buzzing through the brain, the brain produces less of an important chemical called nerve growth factor, or NGF. Even in old age, however, the brain will respond to mental and sensory stimulation by pumping up its production of NGF, which in turn fattens up brain cells and helps them establish new connections.

The cognitive workout--Daily exercises for a mind like a steel trap 

1.       Do the daily crossword--word games like crossword puzzles, word scrambles, etc. exercise important information processing centers in the brain.  Studies have shown that doing these activities regularly preserves and enhances communication in the language centers of the brain as well as the ability to recall words. 

2.       Play a musical instrument--if you played tuba or violin as a child, get that dusty instrument out of the attic and give it a whirl just for old times' sake.  Or consider taking piano lessons at your local community music school.  Brain researchers have found that making music can make you 'smarter' by stimulating the communication between the right and left sides of the brain. Playing an instrument also improves hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills. 

3.       Learn a language--whether its French, Sign language, or HTML for computer programming, learning a language is a powerful way to strengthen tone the 'muscles' of your brain.  It also exercises memory and recall as you increase your vocabulary. If you once spoke a foreign language, see if you can find a newsstand or bookstore that sells newspapers or newsmagazines in that language, just for practice.  Or check a larger bookstore for foreign language children's books. 

4.       Balance your checkbook by hand--just like music, mathematics stimulate specific centers of learning and neural communication.  If you have gotten into the habit of using a calculator or computer program to balance your checkbook, try taking a few extra moments and computing the balances by hand (or even in your head.).  A few sums a day can help keep your cognitive circuitry sharp and flexible.  

5.       Brush off your bridge game--Complex games of strategy, such as bridge or chess, can be a fun way to socialize and strengthen brain skills at the same time.  The challenge of anticipating moves in a chess game or in keeping track of cards played in a hand of bridge can be an enjoyable way to exercise your memory and higher cognitive skills.   

6.       Do familiar things in an unfamiliar way--Brush your teeth or eat your breakfast with the opposite hand.  Try navigating (carefully!) around your bedroom or family room with your eyes closed.  Take a different route to work.  Sort your pocket change or identify your housekey by feel only. These exercises ask your brain to find new solutions to old problems, or to integrate sensory stimuli (sound, touch, sight, smell,) in a new way. In the process, new associative patterns are established in the neural networks, thereby enhancing memory and learning ability.  

Additional Resources 

Keep your Brain: 83 Neurobic Exercises to help prevent memory loss and increase mental fitness, Lawrence C. Katz, PhD and Manning Rubin. (Workman Publishing, 1999)

Total Memory Workout: 8 Easy Steps to Maximum Memory Fitness, Cynthia R. Green, PhD (Bantam Books, 1999)

Brain Longevity: The Breakthrough Medical Program that Improves your Mind and Memory, Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. and Cameron Stauth. (Warner Books, 1977) 

* These statements have not been reviewed or evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or illness.