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.)

Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease that many people are afraid of.  I did some research and found a video about Alzheimer’s.  If you want to leran more about this disease, I hope this will explain it a little more.

I have four different articles I found today about your health.  They are all great reads.  Here is a brief description of each one.

1. A little extra weight Hurts the Heart – Doctors are studying themselves to see what happens when they follow their own advice (or if they don’t follow their own advice).  They are seeing that even a slight increase in weight gain increases the risk of a heart attack.
2. Linking Sleeplessness and Heart Disease – “After accounting for various other causes, the researchers concluded that one hour more of sleep per night was associated with a 33 percent decrease in the odds of calcification…”  This is an interesting article comparing how your sleep habits may give you some insight into your artery health.
3. US Black Women Appear to be Shrinking – It appears that the average height of black women is decreasing from one generation to the next for the first time in decades.  The article concludes this is directly related to poor nutrition and an increase in obesity. “Almost 80 percent of black females are overweight or obese, compared with 62 percent of the total female population, according to the CDC.”
4. Slow Starvation of Brain Triggers Alzheimer’s – “We need to improve our cardiovascular health, not eat more sugar,” Vassar said. “What is coming out in terms of the epidemiological studies is that exercise during mid-life is one of the best prevention strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, so people should stay active physically, and they should watch their diets and reduce cholesterol intake, because cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis, and that is true for the heart and the rest of the body as well as for the brain.”