Last week I had the opportunity to attend a conference by Dr. Caroline Leaf.  She specializes in studying the brain and the chemistry behind it.  She explained how the various chemicals interact in the brain, the role stress plays on the brain, what exercise does for the brain, and how nutrition affects memory.  I like to think that I have a fair amount of knowledge about a variety of subjects, but I learned a lot of things I had never heard before.  So because I learned some new things that I thought were pretty fascinating, I decided that I would share it with all of you.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had several people asking me about the nervous system and the function of the brain lately.  Many people fear Alzheimer’s Disease and our deteriorating memory, and I was really looking for something to help them.  Are there some things you can do to improve your brain function?  Well, last Saturday gave me the answers I had been looking for.  And while I promised in the last newsletter that I wouldn’t focus on nutrition for a while, there are some things that will creep back in with this particular topic.  But I find that absolutely fascinating that the brain can be affected by what you eat.

In relation to the way we age, brain function is very important.  Personally, I feel it’s very important to understand what we are dealing with, and then go into more and more specifics over time.

Are you Right or Left Brained?
It’s a common miconception to hear that we are either Right Brained (creative) or Left Brained (academic).  However, recent research has shown this isn’t exactly true.  What actually happens is the left side of the brain looks at the details first, and the right side looks at the big picture first.  Dr. Leaf gave an example of this in her seminar and in her books:

Take the equation 2 X 2 = 4

The left side of the brain sees this as 2 X 2 = 4 and the right side of the brain sees this formula as 4 = 2 groups of 2.  Dr. Leaf’s research concludes, “When you put these two together, you have deep understanding.  If you don’t, you will only have partial understanding.” 

For instance, play the video below.  Which way is she turning?  
 

Are you sure?  Maybe you should look again.

The Corpus Callosum is the structure in the brain the connects the two together and allows us to make sense of things.

I know what you are thinking.  Jason, stop with all of the information….I can only hold so much in my head.  Actually, research is now showing we only use 0.001 percent of our brain.  If we were to use our brain to the full capactiy, we could hold 3 millions years worth of data.  “So when you feel like you cannot fit another thing into your brain, it’s not because it’s full; it’s because you have built your memory poorly”, says Leaf.  It’s a shame we can’t defrag our brain like we can a computer.  But maybe you can.

A lot of what I’m going to talk about in the newsletter in the coming weeks deal with brain function, memory, how you can improve it, and the things that you are doing that is destroying it.  Interestingly, a lot of it has to do with Dendrites, seen in the video below.

Interesting Fact: “Up to 35 to 75 percent of information can be lost if the memory is incorrectly built.”  Let’s see if we can improve your memory over the next few weeks.

If you are impatient and want more information, you can visit Dr. Leaf’s website and order the products I have as well.  (I have all of them, but you can pick the one’s that you feel will be the most beneficial for you.)

Being active is so important, but finding things that won’t hurt when we do them can be challenging at times.  However, someone put together the Top 7 Baby Boomer Activites.  They are:

1. Ballroom Dancing
2. Swimming
3. Kayaking
4. Hiking
5. Tennis
6. Bicycling
7. Cardio Video Games

It’s a great list of activties.  I’ll add some more detailed Katy information in the near future on some places you can do these activities.  Stay tuned.

Link for the original article.

Knowing about the prescription drugs you are taking is so important.

Do you know what to do if you miss a dose?  Do you know what other drugs might interact with your current prescription drugs?  Could certain herbs you are taking cause problems as well?

“DrugDigest is a noncommercial, evidence-based, consumer health and drug information site dedicated to empowering consumers to make informed choices about drugs and treatment options.”

Take a few minutes to learn more about the prescription drugs you are taking.

It’s not as easy as it use to be.  Baby boomers longing to get away with what they did a couple of decades ago are disappointed to find that they find that the fat stays with them.  It’s not fair, but here are some quick facts about why you put on weight so much easier than you did years ago.

1. Activity Level Drops – You may think your lifestyle isn’t much different than it was years ago, but if you really think about it, your habits have changed.  Long walks, bike rides, playing racquetball in your spare time have all disappeared from your schedule.  A decrease in activity level = less calories being burned.  Less calories being burned means you can’t get away with eating as many.
2. Food intake – Let’s face it, life is busy.  Your eating habits are not what they use to be.  Instead of snacking throughout the day, suddenly your eating breakfast walking out the door, eating drive-through at lunch, and eating all of your calories.  And most of the people who are reading this, skips at least one of those meals.  Because of this, your metabolism is crashing and you are gaining more and more weight every year.
3. Less Intensity – Even if you have kept your exercise routine, the intensity just isn’t there anymore.  If you played racquetball years ago, you really played.  If you played a pick-up game of basketball, you played for hours.  The intensity was fierce and the calories burned were amazing.  Now, going for a run around the block is a huge workout.  Less intensity means a lot less calories are now burned.
4. Hormone Changes – This is inevitable.  Testosterone levels drop, menopause occurs, growth hormone levels decrease and hormones change over time.
5. Old Injuries – It happens to most people.  That shoulder just isn’t what it use to be, or maybe it’s the knee that bothers you when you try to go for a run.  The back only flairs up occasionally, but hopefully working the core will help it.  Old injuries can hold you back from working out as hard as you need to lose your weight.

Don’t give up yet though.  Subscribe to my newsletter and learn how to keep age from getting in the way of accomplishing your goals.

Here’s a recent video I made on how to correct your slumping posture while you are sitting in your office chair.

Upper Crossed Syndrome from Jason Hodge on Vimeo.

If the vimeo video doesn’t work for you, you can view the YouTube version.

The Houston Examiner posted an interesting article today about Baby Boomers.  Since I tend to work mostly with Baby Boomers, it caught my attention.  It talks about how Baby Boomers are not slowing down.  I find this very true.  Most Baby Boomers are determined to keep living life or even to start living life more than before.  In the process of jogging, swimming, hiking, biking, etc…. they end up getting injured.  This definitely keeps the physical therapists busy.  Personally, I don’t think people should slow down.  I believe many people have a physical activity program that is unbalanced and ends up resulting in injury.  This isn’t always the case, but often times it is.  So here are my tips to Baby Boomers to avoid injury and stay out of the physical therapy clinic.

1. Cross Train – Don’t focus on just one activity.  If you are a runner, include some other types of exercise that will help you use other muscles as well (swimming, biking, etc..).  Using any one particular group of muscles over and over again can lead to an imbalance among muscle groups. 
2. Strength Training – Add some strength training into your program.  It can help you balance out opposing muscle groups, prevent osteoporosis, and increase your metabolism.  Overlooked by many people, but it is essential as we age.
3. Stability – Work on stability exercises when you do your strength training.  I know you love sitting on the chest press and doing your chest workout, but get up and start doing more stabilization exercises.  The more you do your exercises on one leg or on an unstable surface, the more you will protect yourself from falls as you get older.
4. Consistency - While all of these ideas are meant to help you, doing them consistently is the key.  You can’t just choose to do it every January and expect it to work for you.  You have to consistently put it in your workout program in order to benefit from it.
5. Stretch – You have to include flexibility into your workout program.  Yes, I know…I don’t like to stretch either, but you have to.  Exercising all of the time without flexibility work will just cause you to tighten up more and more over time.

The reality is, there is no guarantee that you won’t get hurt.  Even the most trained athlete can get hurt if they step wrong, have a car accident, or {insert a host of other random events that could happen}.  But doing nothing at all will give you a better chance of getting hurt.  Add small things like this into your routine will benefit you greatly.