The evidence for fish oil’s benefits to the brain, as well as a wide range of other bodily functions and conditions, just keeps piling up. Yet another recent study demonstrates dramatic improvement in academic performance in Junior High students. The Omega 3 oils in fish (DHA and EPA) have been found to control the inflammation that causes chronic health problems like arthritis, fend off depression, prevent cognitive decline, and behavioral problems, improve memory, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and address other health issues, such as macular degeneration, and menstrual pain. This single nutrient has to be the king of brain buffs.

But don’t be fooled. Manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon, marketing omega 3 in their food products, but in many cases this is omega 3 derived from plants (ALA) rather than marine sources (DHA/EPA). This exacerbates the problem. Omega 3 ALA is converted in the body into omega 6 —only a low percent of ALA actually converts into DHA (2-5%) and EPA (5-10%.) And part of the reason fish oil is so important is that the ideal balance of omega 6 to omega 3 should be 1 to 1. In our modern diets, this ratio is more like 20 to 1 in favor of ALA. This is primarily due to the pervasive presence of vegetable oil in most of our processed foods. Even if the label says Omega 3 and lists DHA and EPA, check to see if the source isn’t seed oil.

High quality fish oil does not taste fishy, it’s actually relatively tasteless. Look for something that you can take 2-6 grams of DHA+EPA in a reasonable dose (e.g. one tablespoon, or two pills, should give you over 1 gram.) Studies at the University of Minnesota have found that emulsified fish oil is absorbed 71% better than capsules. If you can’t find a product that meets these criteria at your local health store, we recommend Twinlab’s Omega-3 Emulsified Fish Oil. If you are using fish oil to lose fat, the dosage used in most studies was 6 grams. Take fish oil with food so that it’s not metabolized for energy.

If your brain is handling the same stuff but working a lot harder than it used to, it may need de-gunking. Amyloid buildup is a natural process of aging, creating protein plaque deposits in the brain that start accumulating in mid-life. Full blown Alzheimer’s exhibits this in its extreme form, but even milder manifestations can effect your efficiency and mental reserves. Curcumin, the active ingredient in curry, is a powerful defense. It’s probably not too surprising that Asian Indians, who consume this spice as part of their daily diet, have Alzheimer’s and other senile dementia rates that are only 25% of those in the developed world. It’s been used for over 3000 years in traditional Ayurvedic medicine and exhibits remarkable qualities as an antioxidant.

Dosage: 800-1,600mg; take it with food or it could eventually upset your stomach. Choose a brand with Bioperine (from black pepper) to enhance the bioavailability of Curcumin.

Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) is found naturally in animal products, but not in quantities that do much for you. ALC is a key in building the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, responsible for learning and memory, in addition to boosting the metabolism of cells.

Dr. Ray Sahelia, in his excellent book Mind Boosters, offers the following observation about ALC

I notice the effects of ALC within two hours after taking a 500mg pill; these effects are arousal and vigilance, along with mood improvement, and can last most of the day.

ALC can “jump-start” the brain and improves spatial learning, long-term memory and discriminatory learning.

One problem with ALC, however, is that increasing mitochondrial activity creates more oxidative damage. But when combined with a powerful antioxidant: Alpha Lipoic Acid, the results were astonishing, at least in rats:

After a month on the supplements, elderly (24-month-old) and lethargic rats had more energy and did better on memory tests, while their mitochondria worked better. The decline in overall activity typical of aged rats was reversed to the level of young-to-middle-aged adult rats, aged 7-10 months. The researchers likened this result to a group of 80-year-old humans throwing away their walking sticks and starting to act 35 years younger!

Curiously enough, the combination of these two nutrients has now been patented. While human studies have supported the animal studies, with ALC/ALA eventually slowing down and even reversing mitochondrial decline, it’s being advocated as a long term investment for health, rather than a quick fix for age reversal. It also has been discovered to increase communication between hemispheres of the brain.

You can combine the patented 500/100mg combo by buying each separately at your local vitamin store, or you can try the combination here.

Ginkgo biloba never quite panned out as a brain booster, very little research could validate its anecdotal claims. Vinpocetine, however, is widely used Europe where physicians believe it is far more effective than other supplements — such as ginkgo biloba. Its use for memory and brain functions has been extensively researched. Clinical studies found it enhanced memory, increased cognitive performance and improved cerebral circulation. Vinpocetine is a derivative of an alkaloid found in the periwinkle plant.

Author Beth M. Ley describes the following study in her book Vinpocetine:

In a German study 40 healthy volunteers were given 40mg of vinpocetine daily for 2 days. This brief course resulted in a significant improvement in memory as assessed by the Sternberg Memory Scanning Test. This study suggests that in normal, healthy people, vinpocetine can enhance memory, and can do so quickly.

If you started taking vinpocetine, how soon should you see results? Seven to ten days.

Take one 5mg tablet two or three times daily (up to two tablets, three times daily). Or, go for the 20mg tablets here to turbo-charge your memory.

A daily program with these proven supplements should make a significant difference in the functions and longevity of your brain —so buff up ftw!

Technorati Tags: fish oil, omega-3, health, omega 3, health and wellness, omega-6, supplements, nutrients, curcumin, vinpocetine, dha, epa, ala, alc, antioxidant, brain

Or so says the The Universal Traveler. Are most inventions merely “new ways of combining old bits and pieces?”

Once there was a shaman, as the story goes, passed down through oral tradition (the story that is, the shaman was too heavy to be handled such), and one of his most important tribal roles was finding new hunting trails. When game became scarce the tribe would come to him for answers. And he would draw a map on a piece of buffalo hide. On the map he etched the surrounding mountains and streams, and all the important landmarks of the area over a large radius. Then he’d wad up the map, squeeze it (probably sprinkle some ‘magic’ dust for job security) and then unfold it. Its creases now revealed new paths for game trails. Hunters chose those that seemed to make sense and off they went, discovering plentiful new bounty along directions they would not have otherwise explored.

We invented a similar device for exploring new territories of ideas using the rules described by Koberg and Bagnall in an out-of-print version of the book above. Want to come up with the next Google or Flickr or YouTube? Try it out. The technique is called Morphological Analysis. It can be done with pen and paper for about three dimensions, but you can explore many more with the iDeAZing widget. Plus, it’s hard to wad up a 10 dimensional map on paper.

Technorati Tags: creativity, ideas, art, innovation, writing, design, marketing, business, inspiration, internet, technology, startup, invention, blog, gadget

Limber up your Neurons

Brain Flex is an experimental (and free) composition of brain wave frequencies designed to perform the following:

• If you are in a stuck, negative or unproductive state it can lead you someplace else.
• If you are already feeling good, it can make you feel even better.
• If you’d just like to exercise your mind, running it through a series of state changes by altering its external stimulation in unpredictable ways, it can do this too.

Our brain waves fall into predictable patterns. Unless we are experiencing new people, places and events regularly, there’s little demand to increase its flexibility or range. If we’re not meditating regularly, or effectively, we may not hit the more interesting realms of lower alpha and theta except on the quick slide into sleep. And may not notice when we do.

This thirty minute adventure takes the brain through the gamut of all the typical states of beta, alpha, theta and a splash of delta. But it also peaks into some experimental frequencies like gamma (above beta) where research is discovering that unusual mental experiences like mystical and shamanic states may live. Or at least correlate. EEG studies found the affects of the South American, hallucinogenic alkaloid mixture “ayahuasca” produced the particular gamma frequency we chose.

We haven’t had any reports of people hallucinating with this composition, but we would like to make a few suggestions on its use.

1. For best results, listen with headphones.
2. Please do not listen to this while driving, flying a spaceship or any other activity that may need your full attention for safety.
3. It’s probably not a good idea to listen to this before going to bed, as it tends you leave you energized.

OK, so prepare for a journey, we hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to send us feedback through our contact form or comments section.

If you would like to download this for your iPod, you can do so here. Just right click and Save Link or Save Target to your local disk.

This audio free to share under a Creative
Commons Music Sharing License.

Technorati Tags: gamma, shamanic, fatigue, mystical, mood+change, brainwaves, eeg, entrainment, motivation, hemispheric+synchronization

can I rule the world now?

Maybe. But first, some housekeeping. Before discussing what happened, let’s talk about some of the theories used to explain away the effect. If you haven’t done the experiment yet, please try it here first. The rest of this will make much more sense.
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Einstein demonstrated that time is relative.

But the rabbit-hole goes much deeper. Quantum physics discovered that consciousness is entangled in matter in some inexplicable ways; but other than the very fast, or very small, or very large, we tend to assume our “ordinary” reality conforms more to the laws of Newton. Simple cause and effect unfolding with clockwork constancy —well, it’s time to shatter this assumption. Let’s stop time.
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Replace coffee with this mp3 designed to entrain your brain

If you’ve stopped drinking coffee but miss the buzz, this one’s for you. Wake up in the morning, afternoon —get extra mental energy and focus before studies or meetings with this 10 minute entrainment from grasshopper.com. Digital Espresso uses a research protocol successful with patients of CFS, depression, ADHD and found to reliably increase energy and motivation. Put on some headphones, kick back, close your eyes and let the pulses massage your brain and the frequencies wake up those slacker neurons. A high speed connection is recommended. Click the play button to listen to now

or, if you would like to download this for your iPod, you can do so here. Just right click and Save Link or Save Target to your local disk.

This audio free to share under a Creative
Commons Music Sharing License.

Technorati Tags: caffeine, coffee, brainwaves, cfs, adhd, depression, eeg, entrainment, motivation, hemispheric+synchronization

Or just create your own virtual reality

In 1988 a professor at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota started an experiment with students of average IQs. The students, exercising their minds with a specific protocol, demonstrated IQ gains ranging from 2.3 to 0.9 per hour. They measured a 20 point increase in IQs over the 40 hour duration of the experiments —additional gains after this period appeared to be open-ended. Perhaps not so incidentally, the exercise was found to increase creativity, vivid mental imagery, cross-hemispheric communications and verbal fluency in addition to facilitating access to subconscious processes.
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