Walking for a Better Brain

When people hear walking can improve memory, and leads to volumetric changes in the brain, they are often surprised. But researchers  at New Mexico Highlands University have found that the foot’s impact during walking sends pressure waves through the sparteries that significantly modify and increases blood supply to the brain. 

"New data now strongly suggest that brain blood flow is very dynamic," said researcher Ernest Greene and his colleagues at New Mexico Highlands University.

Speculatively, walking and running may optimize brain perfusion, function and overall sense of wellbeing during exercise.

So the best brain exercise is walking and it is The daily brain medicine we really need.

For a boost to overall well-being and a better-working brain, just take a walk.

Anyone can walk, It’s free. 😊

5 Strategies That Will Multiply Your Personal Energy

When you have a low personal energy and getting things done seems like a heavy burden you have to wear climbing a steep cliff, you get a loud and clear signal from your mind and body: you need to change something in your life. Explaining why you feel this way by focusing on something outside of you will never be a good explanation as your life always is a mirror of something you do inside your mind.



Even if your personal energy is caused by something you do in your mind you can increase it in many different ways. Let us group them:

• Your thinking habits and how you pay heed to your mind
• Your level of self-respect.
• Your eating habits
• Your level of physical activity
• Your habits of restoring your energy

Making changes within these five habitual behaviors will have a conclusive impact on your personal energy level.

1) Change your thinking habits
Do you usually tend to focus on the negative stuff in your life? Well, you are not alone as most people tend to do so. However have this in mind: The positive things in your life are just as real as the negative stuff. By not focusing upon them you prevent the energy boost they normally would give you.

Action step: Start changing this bad thinking habit by searching for all the positive aspects in your life and write them down in a notebook. Do this every night. Start every morning by reading the list you wrote the evening before. I bet you start to notice a change in your energy level almost instantly.

2) Increase your level of self-respect
If you have a tendency of putting everything you want in life hindmost everything else, you don't have enough self-respect to stay firmly behind what you want. This is a highly effective way of draining your energy. You may do this because you think you are not as valuable as everybody else. This is a false belief. The fact that we humans behave otherwise does not change the fact that every one of us is born as equal to everybody else. All of us come with the ability to think, observe, reflect and accept.

Action step: To change this self-destructive behavior you need to start speaking positively to yourself. Even if you feel resistance and that what you say is not true, know that this is a reaction growing out of a false belief. Decide to create a positive and acceptance inner self talk about yourself and what you want.

3) Improve your eating habits
Luckily the focus upon changing poor eating habits is growing. If you know in your heart that you have a potential for improvement here, then put it into action. You owe that to yourself.

Action step: Back up your self-respect by feeding your body with nutritious and healthy food.

4) Get more physical active
Our body is not constructed to not be used. Then it gets rusty and starts to hurt. When your body hurts you start pity yourself. This perspective leads into negative thinking which drains your energy. Physical laziness is rooted within negative self talk.

Action step: You need to do two things: a) Start to observe what you say to yourself in different situations and replace it with positive inner self talk. B) Decide to find a physical activity you like to do and start doing it.

5) Replace draining habits of how you spend your free time with energy boosting activities
Taking time off from what we normally do is important in order to restore our level of energy. The question is: How do you do that? Does your way of taking time off restore your energy or drain it?

Action step: Be honest with yourself as the only one who will suffer if you lie to yourself about this is you. Change your habits if they do not support you. Make sure your new activities are fun to do.

When making changes to restore your personal energy I recommend you work two ways simultaneously:

Make changes in your mind to support practical action steps.
Make changes in what you usually do to support changes in your thinking habits.

Also make sure you drop thinking in terms of "should" and "ought to". Instead think this: "I want to do this, because..." and "I decide to do this because..."

When you do this whole heartedly I can guarantee you that your personal energy will have a boost. When your personal energy vibrate positively the law of attraction will start work in your favor!

Source Article By Aase Koppergaard

Boosting Your Brain Power

The old theory that DNA could not be changed and that you would be stuck with what you were born with has now been disproved. Researchers found that your DNA actually changes continuously based on your experiences, emotions, and environment.

Our views of the brain have also altered in a similar way as our views of DNA. Science has now provided more and more evidence that your brain is malleable and adapts continuously in response to your lifestyle, physiology, and environment. This concept is called neuroplasticity or brain plasticity, meaning you are literally reforming your brain with each passing day. Your brain possesses the remarkable ability to reorganize pathways, create new connections, as well as neurons (nerve cells) throughout your entire lifetime.

For example, your brain has the ability to move functions from a damaged area to undamaged areas. It also has the ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning. When you acquire a new skill, the more you focus and practice it, the better you become. This is the result of new neural pathways that form in response to your learning efforts.

In the meantime, your brain also undergoes "synaptic pruning", the elimination of pathways that you no longer use. This phenomenon even applies to emotional states. For instance, if you have a history of anxiety, your neural pathways will become wired for anxiety. However, if you develop tools to feel calm, relaxed, and peaceful, those anxiety pathways will be pruned away from lack of activity.

Consequently, you can see that your brain's plasticity is highly affected by your way of life. The foods you eat, how much physical activity you have, your emotional states, and sleep patterns all have an influence over how your brain functions. Therefore, there is much that you can do to preserve or even boost your brain power. The following are key factors that will greatly affect your brain's performance:

1. Link Between Gut Inflammation And Brain Inflammation
The fundamental mechanism that underlies chronic diseases, including the ones related to the brain like autism, Alzheimer's, anxiety, depression, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's, is the process of inflammation. Current science is strongly supporting that this process of inflammation actually begins in the gastrointestinal tract, which subsequently spreads to affect the brain.

What are the instigators behind gut inflammation? To the surprise of many, it is predominantly dietary -


The mistake of eating too many carbs resulting in chronic high blood sugar levels. Blood sugar elevation raises the binding of glucose to protein. This process, known as glycation profoundly increases the amount of inflammation in the body.
Opting for a low-fat diet, eating the wrong types of processed, rancid fats, or too few healthy fats.
Insufficient intake of antioxidants, which are mostly found in fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
Consuming too much foods loaded with irritants and toxins, such as chemicals, preservatives, pesticides, GMOs, and heavy metals.
Having undiagnosed sensitivity to gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley) and other foods such as dairy, eggs, and corn.
Candida yeast overgrowth, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and intestinal parasites all trigger the immune response and lead to gut inflammation.

Inflammation is the body's natural defense against something it believes to be potentially harmful. For instance, if you sprain your ankle, the body will sense some kind of stress going on. The natural response is to create swelling and pain to reduce movement and promote healing. These are the hallmarks of the inflammatory process; in small doses, it is not a negative thing.

It only turns bad when inflammation gets out of control and becomes chronic. Chronic inflammation is typically low-grade, silent, and produce no symptoms. When the body is constantly under assault, the inflammation response stays on and it spreads to every part of the body through the bloodstream. The brain is particularly susceptible as it is also connected to the gut via the vagus nerve.

Unchecked inflammation results in the production of a variety of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines which are toxic to the cells. The cytokines travel throughout the body causing oxidative stress, leading to a reduction of cellular function and even cellular destruction, and resulting in actual loss of function in the body. Studies using new imaging technology showed dramatic elevation of inflammatory cytokines in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and individuals with other brain disorders. Hence, to prevent brain inflammation, the foremost is to maintain a healthy gut.

2. Foods That Feed The Gut And The Brain
The reason why inflammation is so rampant in western civilization is the modern diet. It is high in foods that provoke inflammation, such as refined flour, excess sugar, oxidized or rancid fats, trans fats, plus a wide range of chemicals and preservatives. And it is low in foods that reduce inflammation, like long-chain omega-3 fats, fermented foods, and fermentable fiber.

The following are some foods that are particularly beneficial to the gut and the brain:

Avocados
Beets
Blueberries
Bone broth (used for healing the gut lining damaged by inflammation)
Broccoli
Coconut oil (used as an alternative fuel for the brain, other than glucose)
Celery
Chocolate, dark only
Egg Yolks
Fermented foods (rich in beneficial bacteria to keep the gut healthy, e.g. kimchee, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, yogurt, and fermented drinks like kefir and kombucha)
Fermentable fiber (used as food for the good gut bacteria, e.g. asparagus, artichokes, garlic, jicama leeks, and onions)
Olive oil, extra virgin
Green, leafy vegetables
Rosemary (anti-inflammatory)
Wild caught Alaskan salmon
Sardines
Turmeric (anti-inflammatory)

3. Exercise To Reduce Inflammation

While bouts of exercise tend to promote acute inflammation, when done regularly over the long term, it actually decreases chronic inflammation. The oxidative stress from the exercise forces your body to build up your antioxidant defenses. This is indicated in studies showing extended exercise programs help reduce inflammatory markers, such as insulin resistance (a risk factor for diabetes) and high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (an indicator of cardiovascular disease).

However, some people tend to over exercise and it is extremely important to allow for sufficient recovery, especially when doing High Intensity Interval Training (repeated sprints interspersed by recovery). If you over-train, as in marathons, you may do more harm than good since your body needs to recuperate from the damage (acute inflammation) incurred during your workout.

The average American adult spends about 10 hours each day sitting. Research shows that this level of inactivity cannot even be counteracted with a 60-minute workout at the end of each day. So, what do you do if you have a desk job?


Know that the body needs near-continuous movement throughout the day. At the bare minimum, you should get out of the chair every 50 minutes or so and walk around.
One way to increase activity is to simply walk more. It is recommended that you aim for 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day. A fitness tracker will be a useful tool to help you meet your daily goal.


4. Lack Of Sleep Impairs Brain Function
Sleep deprivation is really bad for brain function. Many studies show that sleep loss impairs various cognitive functions and behavior, including arousal, attention, cognitive speed, memory, emotional intelligence, and decision making.

Using brain imaging technology, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists compared the brain of someone who was sleep-deprived to the brain of someone who had slept normally. They found reduced metabolism and blood flow in multiple brain regions which indicated impaired cognitive function and behavior.

Several nights of poor sleep or one night of no sleep will start to disrupt your hormonal balance. According to a study from Stanford University, your body's ghrelin levels, which stimulate feelings of hunger, can jump nearly 15 percent. It also lowers your levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates energy balance, which explains why you tend to feel sluggish when you are sleep-deprived.


Your brain also struggles to curate and sort new memories. You are able to absorb new information but your brain has problems accessing that information and putting it to good use. You may feel distracted, while your reaction time plummets. This makes tasks like driving more difficult and dangerous.

A CDC survey shows that half of Americans (48%) do not get enough sleep. So if you want your brain to stay at tip-top shape, you need to place sleep high on your priority list. In the event that you just cannot get enough nocturnal sleep, a 30-minute nap at lunch time is still helpful although it cannot fully eliminate the negative consequences of sleep deprivation.

5. Vitamin D May Save Your Brain
Much has been learned about the health benefits of vitamin D over the past decade. While it has long been recognized that vitamin D supports strong and healthy bones, its role in brain-related disorders is becoming increasingly evident.

A new study that collaborated multiple highly respected institutions around the world found a profound correlation of low vitamin D level and increased risk of developing dementia. Even having a moderate deficiency of vitamin D was associated with a 53% increased risk of dementia. Those who were severely deficient had a 122% increased risk!

Many people are not aware that vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased inflammation. There are about 30,000 genes in the body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them. Your brain has vitamin D receptors too. Therefore, unless you get 20 minutes of sun exposure daily (without using sunscreen on face, arms, and legs), you may want to consider supplementation.

Most people need around 5,000 I.U. a day to reach the optimal level of 50-70 ng/ml as determined by a blood test. If you supplement, opt for vitamin D3, which is the natural form, and take it with vitamin K2, with at least 100 mcg of menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The combination of D3 and K2 will make sure that calcium is deposited in the bones instead of the arteries.

6. Think Positive And Stimulate Your Brain
Stress and anxiety kill existing brain neurons and stop new neurons from being created. Research has shown that positive thinking speeds up the formation of cells and dramatically reduces stress and anxiety. Hence, catch yourself when your negative thoughts surface, discard them, and replace them with positive ones.

When you learn or do new things, new neural pathways are developed. As a result, you want to stimulate your brain on a continuous basis. Remember the phrase - use it or lose it?


Source By Carol Chuang

Boost Your Brain Power With Super Nutrition

 

Cloudy thinking, forgetful, illogical? 'Brain foods' can help!

We wall have days when our thinking is fuzzy, our logic defies reason, when we can't for the life of us remember some name or fact that was so familiar just the day before. On days like those, you might want to trade in your grey matter for a new, improved model with rechargeable batteries and a software system that lets you discover the unknown secrets of the universe in one easy lesson.

Unfortunately, we have to make do with Mother Nature has given us. Luckily, that's usually more than adequate. And with better nutrition, we can make better use of the brainpower we do have - and even stave off the mental deterioration we know as senility.

Oxygen Clears The Mind, Keep All Circuits Functioning!

IRON - POOR INTELLECT
"The brain needs large amount of oxygen to function effectively, and the only way it can get it is through iron packed red blood cells" says Don M. Tucker, associate professor of psychology at the University of Oregon.

Some studies show that children with iron - deficiency anemia have short attention spans and trouble learning new material. They also show the boosting iron intake reverses those problems.

Alertness And Memory Can Suffer With "Low But Normal" Iron Levels!

And Dr Tucker's research shows that adults can suffer from related problems with alertness and memory when their iron levels are in the "low but normal" range.

In one study, for instance, the higher the blood iron levels, the greater the word fluency. (Volunteers were asked to come up with as many words as they could that begin with "Q" and end with "L". In another, in adults over age 60, blood iron levels were one of the more important measures in determining whether or not the person has normal brainwave patterns.

"Getting enough oxygen to the brain is certainly part of its function, but we think iron also influences brain chemical and pathways," Dr Tucker says. "We know no that iron is heavily concentrated in a part of the reticular activating system. This area of the brain turns the brain on, so to speak. It maintains alertness. So we can't help but think that iron plays an important role in awareness and alertness."

Sources of Iron: Liver, brain, kidney, meat, fish, oysters, shrimps, egg yolk, beans, cereals, lentils, leafy vegetables, drumstick leaves.

"B" SMART

The brain seems o have a special need for the B Vitamins. Memory loss, disorientation, hallucinations, lack of coordination, and personality changes can occur with B-complex deficiencies.

Short-Term Memory Is Sometimes Impaired In Alcoholic Who Develop Thiamine Deficiencies.

Alcoholics, for instance, who sometimes develop thiamine (B1) deficiencies, have problems with short-term memory. They may remember in detail that little café in Paris 20 year ago, but not what they had fur supper the previous night.

Thiamine may also keep the brain thinking straighter and younger. An orthopedic surgeon in England thinks that thiamine deficiency can cause confusion and that confusion can lead to stumbles and broken bones.

The surgeon, M. W. J. Older, had noticed that people who come to him for hip and thighbone surgery all experienced a dip in their thiamine levels as results of the stress of the operation. He also noticed that until the thiamine shortage passed, the patients suffered a bout of confusion.

Digging a little deeper, Dr Older found that patients who come in for elective hip surgery - planned in advance, that is - weren't thiamine - deficient before the operation, and that their post surgical thiamine deficiency didn't last so long. But the patients with emergency fractures, he discovered, were deficient before, during, and after their operations. That raised the possibility that preoperative thiamine-related confusion may even helped cause the emergencies.


"mental confusion in the elderly awaits further study, "Dr older notes, "but our data support the concept that thiamine deficiency may be a contributory factor to postoperative confusion. We suggest that the causation of fracture itself may be attributable to thiamine deficiency, with confusion precipitating the fall".

The Most Promising Anti-Senility Nutrients?
But if there were a contest for the most promising anti-senility nutrients, the price might be awarded to vitamin B6 and copper. Two University of Texas nutritionists have reported (in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition), the remarkable news that a deficiency of B6 or copper in young rats causes some of the same kind of brain cell abnormalities as those seen in senile humans. The results implied that those two nutrients might prevent mental decline.

Science, of course, is never hat simple. But the evidence seems striking. The researches found, among other things, that in rats and humans, the dendrites - delicate, branching roots that carry electrical impulses from one brain cell to another - tend to shrivel up and die when deprived of B6 or cooper. Without the all important dendrites, brain circuitry breaks down.

Though the rats were fed a diet skimpier in the two nutrients than any human diet would be, the researches said that a mild deficiency of those nutrients over the years could have the same devastating effect. The Texas researches, Elizabeth Root and John Longenecker, recommended getting adequate of B6, copper and other nutrients into the diet as soon as possible for the sake of prevention.

For Best Results, Catch The Deficiencies Early!
"If you catch these changes early then you might prevent some of the neurological damage from occurring," Dr Root says. "But it's not just B6 and copper. People who have a poor diet in general are the most likely to get into trouble. We're starting some more experiments on the possible effects of deficiencies in magnesium and foliate, two nutrients that also come up low in most diet surveys."

Sources: B1 (thiamine: Unpolished rice, wheat, bajra and jowar.

B6: Egg yolk, liver, meat, fish, milk, whole grains, cabbage and other green vegetables.

Copper: liver, nuts, dried fruits, cereals, pulses, meat products, fruits, vegetables, oysters and fish.

Even Mild Deficiencies Of B12, C, Folate, And Riboflavin Can Impede Brain Function.

KEEPING A KEEN MIND
Actually, there's evidence that physically healthy people over age 60 can be measurably keener of mind that their peers if they maintain sufficient dietary levels of vitamins B12, C, Foliate and riboflavin. Even milked virtually unnoticeable deficiencies of those nutrients can mean less than optimal brain function.

At the University of New Mexico, senility experts Jean Goodwin and her husband, James Goodwin, and other placed advertisements in newspaper and on TV and radio asking for volunteers for an experiment. Each volunteer had to be at least 60 years old, free of all serious diseases, and not on medication. After a screening process, Goodwin chose 260 men and women between the ages of 60 and 94 from various social and income levels.

All the volunteers gave a sample of their blood and filled out a three day food diary stating exactly that they ate during that period. Taken together, the blood test and diet survey showed the researchers almost exactly what each person's levels of most vitamins and minerals were.

Memory And Problem-Solving Tests Administered To 260 People Yielded Definite Nutritional Links.

After the process, the volunteers underwent two mental performance tests. In the first one, a researcher read a one paragraph store to each person and asked hi to repeat it as quickly and accurately as possible. A half hour later the volunteers had to recite the paragraph from memory, with no cues. The second test measured each person's ability to solve non-verbal problems and to think abstractly.

The researchers fed all the test scores and nutritional profiles into a computer and waited to see if good nutrition would correlate with quicker thinking. It turned out that the volunteers with the lowest B12 and C Levels scored worst on the memory test. Those with the lowest level of B12, C, Foliate and riboflavin did worst on the problem solving test.

"We showed that in population of healthy older people, those people who had a deficient intake and low blood levels of certain vitamins scored significantly worse on the test," said Dr Jean Goodwin. "Our recommendation is that everyone maintain an adequate intake of those nutrients,"

Sources: B12: Milk, cheese, eggs, beef kidney, heart and liver, chicken liver. (Animal foods are the main source, and pure vegetarians who exclude even milk from their diet, run a risk of developing a deficiency)

Foliate: Vegetables, cereals, Meat and liver.

Riboflavin: Milk, meat, cereals and pulses.

Vitamin C: Green vegetables, fruits (especially guavas, oranges, sweet limes and lemons) and fresh crop potatoes.

THE PROMISE OF CHOLINE
Thiamine and B12 are also needed to produce and use one of the brain's major chemical messengers, acetylcholine.

Choline: The Active Component Of "Brain Foods" Like Fish, Liver, And Eggs.

But the real star in acetylcholine production is another B vitamin, choline. Manu of the foods touted as "brain foods" - fish for instance, liver and eggs contain choline a substance researches are finding really can help preserve the brain's ability to reason learn, and remember. Choline is the building block for a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine that sends messages between brain cells.

For instance, researchers at Ohio State University recently found that mice fed a diet heavy in choline rich lecithin had much better memory retention than mice on regular diets. They took much longer to go into back room in their cages where they had received a mild electric shock, meaning they hadn't forgotten their unpleasant experience.

What's more, their brain cells, examined under a microscope, showed fewer of the expected sighs of aging, says Ronald Mervis of Ohio state University's brain Aging and neuronal Plasticity Research Group.

Sources: (Choline): fish, liver, eggs, heart, soyabeans, peanuts.

Can Lecithin Provide A Brain Boost?

Like fiber or fish oil, it's slowly becoming a household word. You may have heard of it already lecithin.

What's the big to do? Studies have suggested that lecithin may aid memory and even slow down or prevent Alzheimer's disease.

But what is lecithin? Found naturally in soybean, eggs, butter, corn and milk, lecithin is used in medicines, food, even cosmetics as a wetting, emulsifying and penetrating agent. It's the lecithin that keeps the fat and the cocoa from separating an in chocolate, for instance, and in keeps margarine from splattering when hot.

For years, lecithin has been sold in health food stores in the west as a treatment for everything, from heart disease to weight loss. In fact so many clans have been made that some proponents are worried about over kill.

Just how solid is the lecithin memory connection? Lecithin is precursor to choline, and scientists re excited about animal studies that suggest lecithin may slow down one part of the ageing process: the degeneration of brain cells, and therefore normal age-related memory loss., says Dr. Mervis, "Normally, as the brain ages, its cell membranes become more rigid with fatty deposits and lose their ability to take in and release brain chemicals and to merely messages." This can cause memory loss and the confused thinking.


A Lecithin-Rich Diet Appears To Keep Nerve Channels Open.

But a lecithin rich diet seems to repress or delay this membrane hardening.

As part of the deterioration process, aging brain cells also tend to lose dendrite spines, the chemicals receptor areas that are vitally important is passing along information.

Having too few dendrite spines is like having a bad phone connection. Messages get distorted and lost. But lecithin fed older mice had the same number of dendrite spines as much younger mice.

"Despite the difference between mice and people there are, nevertheless, remarkable similarities in the structure of their never cells," Says Dr Mervis. "I believe lecithin could help to repress or delay similar problems in people."

Can Lecithin Boost Min Power In Normal, Healthy People?

In fact, in some studies, lecithin has shown some promise in boosting the mind power of normal, healthy persons.

"Our studies show that choline has a week modern memory enhancement effect" says Dr Mervis. "It's not a robust effect, but it can be measured."

On two separate days, they gave ten healthy volunteers, raging in age from 21 to 29, either a supplement of 10 gms of choline chloride or an identical appearing but worthless substitute. Then after an hour and a half, the people were given a memory test.

In a serial learning test, subjects had to memorize in proper order a sequence of ten unrelated words. The list was read to each person and repeated as often as necessary until perfect recall was achieved and could be repeated twice in a row.

"Choline significantly enhanced serial recall of unrelated words as measure by the number o trials required... ," the researchers reported. "Furthermore, the enhancement was more pronounce in 'slower' subjects than in subjects who performed well."

Indeed, Choline Enhanced Memory - Particularly In People Who Were Forgetful.

In other words, the people most in need of help had their memories prodded the most when they took choline. One individual who normally need six trial readings to master a ten-word list cut that to four after taking choline. Another dropped from seven to five attempts with choline supplement.

One person who normally required ten trials to aster a list of difficult words reduced to five (a 50 percent improvement!) after taking choline.

Long-Term Effects Of Choline Supplementation Are Still Unknown.

As promising as Dr Mervis' results were, however, he as quick to point out that many questions still remains. For example, these test measured memory 90 minutes after a single dose of choline and the doses of choline given in these test were at lest the times as great as the 900 milligrams or less supplied by a typical diet. We still don't know how long the effects last or whether they would continue over several weeks or months if extra choline were consumed daily.

And the trials involved only younger, healthy volunteers with a normal range of remembering ability.

Moreover, high doses of lecithin can cause gastrointestinal cramps, diarrhea or nausea in some people.

So, what can we say for sure about lecithin?

Basically, that we really need more solid evidence before promoting it as a super nutrient. Some great ideas turn out to be the truth. But the whole truth about lecithin is still to be learned.

Meanwhile there's no harm in upping your intake of fish, soybeans and corn. You may just give your brain power a little boost.


I firmly believe that the whole universe is inter-connected. Our body, mind and spirit are deeply rooted with each other. If body is sick, the mind cannot relax or feel good. And if mind is not relaxed, it will give birth to stress and that will lead to chronic health problems.


Article By Susan Cruise

Best Brain Foods for Peak Performance for Exams

As exam season comes, we ask which types of brain food should we take in this periode? and can boost our brain power at exam time?


Our brain needs the energy from food to work efficiently, any food we consume should be well digested so as to achieve the most from it. We should go for foods that can be easily digested and are high in vitamins, minerals, healthy carbs and protein. We should eat brain foods that will stimulate the brain. So It's no surprise that healthy brain foods are the key to better brain power. It can boost concentration and help to Stay Focused.

Whole Grain

 whole grain breads , cereals, popcorn and brown rice increase blood flow towards the brain.  help keep your blood-sugar level stable, boost concentration and brain power.Whole grain meals and cereals have vitamin B6, while wheat germ is high in thiamine that assists in memory improvement.

Fish 

salmon and tuna are good sources of omega 3 which enhances energy, improves learning capability, enhances problem tackling skills, improves memory, and boosts communication in the cells found in the brain.

Eggs 

rich in vitamin B, eggs also offer crucial fatty acids to the brain. The yolk contains choline that assists in memory boost.

Vegetables 

Vegetables contain fibre, Good sources of fibre include carrots and broccoli. 

Fruits 

Fibre slows down digestion and so causes energy in food to be released into the body more slowly; apples, pears, blueberries and bananas are good sources. 

Chocolate 

promote verbal and visual memory and enhance impulse control and the reaction moment. Dark chocolate enhances blood flow to the brain and enhances cognitive abilities.

Beans

 high in antioxidants, iron and other essential nutrients that assist in maintaining blood sugar levels and also make the brain more active.

Green / Black Tea 

Both black and green teas contain a similar amount of flavonoids and beneficial antioxidants,  green tea may enhance brain connectivity and improves the brain health.

Dairy products 

milk, yogurt and cheese are known to enhance alertness and memory.

Best Wishes

Lamia Ghandi