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Wellness Blog
How to Love Your Brain
Anyone who wants their body to be healthy and perform optimally realizes the need to supplement their healthy diet with nutrient concentrates. While the food we eat goes a long way toward supporting this goal, in this stressful day and age food unfortunately may not be the total answer. The brain, just like the rest of the body, needs to be nutritionally supported as well. Even adding just a few key brain nutrients into your daily regimen can go a long way in terms of helping to keep you focused and sharp. One that's absolutely critical is phosphatidylserine (PS). This nutrient is required for a great variety of the body's essential functions, based on its fundamental importance for the functioning of all the body's cells, and by extension for the functioning of the body as whole. So what exactly is PS? PS is a phospholipid, one of a unique molecular category that are essential building blocks for all our cells. Though PS is essential for every cell of the body, it is highly concentrated in the brain where it is crucial for information transfer between nerve cells at the synapses. It is also essential for the mitochondria, the cell’s energy generators. PS has been extensively researched in numerous double-blind clinical trials and found to support brain health across the human lifespan. Research has demonstrated some of the ways PS is critical to optimal brain function: Facilitating the actions of key neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Facilitating energy generation, so crucial to the brain's health and performance. Supporting numerous nerve cell functions including their maintenance and renewal Enabling efficient passage of electrical signals along nerve cells and across their connections (the synapses). Supporting other cell to cell communications in the brain via nerve growth factor, omega-3 DHA, and other messenger substances. Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical research trials have shown that dietary supplementation with PS has measurable brain benefits. PS promotes attention, learning, and other cognitive functions. PS especially can enhance memory for words, faces, names, and numbers, and supports brain health not just in adults but in children as well.1-3 Outside the brain, PS is essential for healthy wound healing and for the immune system to dispose of dead cells. While the body can make PS, it also gets some from foods. However, unless you like eating lots of brains or other organ foods your best bet is to take a dietary supplement that provides PS. Supplemental PS has been most commonly manufactured from soy. This is bad news for those who are allergic to soy. That is why BrainMD Health is proud to announce that we have updated our Brain & Memory Power Boost to contain a high-quality PS derived from sunflower lecithin, a vegetarian source free from soy allergens. If you want to improve your mental focus and your memory for words, faces, names and numbers try adding PS to your supplement regimen. References: 1 Crook TH, Tinklenberg J, Yesavage J, others. Neurology 1991;41:644-649. 2 Kato-Kataoka A, Sakai M, Ebina R, others. J. Clin. Biochem. Nutr. 2010;47:246-255. 3 Hirayama S, Terasawa K, Rabeler R, others. J. Hum. Nutr. Diet. 2014;27 (Suppl. 2):284-291.
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Supercharge Your Memory
Can’t find your phone? Don’t remember what’s on your grocery list? Forget the name of your personal trainer? You're not alone. Everyone forgets things occasionally. However, if it is happening more than every once in awhile, it is time to pay attention. Memory problems need to be taken seriously at any age! Losing your memory or developing brain fog in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, or even 80s is NOT normal. Just because it happens to so many people doesn’t mean that it’s optimal or healthy. Did you know there is no such thing as a "bad memory"? Rather, there is a trained memory and an untrained memory. With a simple plan you can dramatically improve your brain’s ability to think and remember. Here are some immediate tips to implement in your life. Use mnemonics. These triggers to aid memory are a great way to boost your brain while developing a system to remember things. When memorizing a list, associate it with the craziest picture you can think of to help your brain recall it later. No one sees the image you are holding in the privacy of your mind, so be creative and have fun with it. To remember names, repeat the name, use it once or twice in natural conversation, visualize the name as a picture (perhaps on the person’s forehead) and use their name when saying good-bye. Exercise your brain. Cognitive skills tend to dip after we graduate from college or retire from work. Don’t stop challenging your brain on a daily basis! The world is endlessly fascinating for those who never stop learning, and it helps your brain thrive. No matter what your age, mental exercise has a global, positive effect on the brain. Take note. Note-taking increases comprehension and retention. When you read, take notes in the margin of a book. If it is a textbook that you cannot mark in, or a library book, keep a notepad handy as you read. Jot down notes on the strips of paper then tuck them in the pages where you found the quote or point you liked. Find your style. Everyone has a preferred learning style. Do you learn best by reading, hearing, talking, writing or doing? Or some combination? Try to learn something new via your best learning style. If you are an auditory learner, listen to a book on tape. If you a kinesthetic learner, take a class where you’ll have hands-on experiences. Get still. Meditation has been shown to boost activity in the prefrontal cortex and sharpen your mind. Just a few meditative minutes a day can make a dramatic difference in your mental abilities. Choose smart supplements. BrainMD Health’s Brain and Memory Power Boost is formulated with seven brain boosters which help promote brain energy, support important neurons, and defend against free radical damage to the brain. Together they help power up mental sharpness and cognition so you can think fast on your feet again. Stay childlike. Did you know that preschoolers ask between 300 and 400 questions a day? Not only should we never stop asking questions, but we should be actively curious. Ask yourself, “What if?” or “I wonder?” and then seek out the answers. Get a good night’s sleep. The brain has a special waste management system to help eliminate toxins that build up during the day, including the plaques thought to be responsible for Alzheimer’s disease. During the day, your brain is so busy managing your life that this cleaning system is pretty much turned off. Without healthy sleep, the cleaning crew does not have enough time to do their job and trash builds up, causing brain fog and memory problems. Balance your stress. Whenever you’re exposed to a flood of stress hormones, it not only disrupts your sleep, but it can damage your immune system and actually shrink the memory centers in your brain. Drink. Water that is. Being dehydrated by just 2% impairs performance in tasks that require attention, immediate memory skills, and physical performance. It is also associated with brain atrophy (shrinkage), poor concentration, memory difficulties, diminished school performance, and increased sensitivity to pain. Cut the sweets. Refined sugar is devoid of minerals needed for enzymes and can cause mineral deficiencies. It interferes with the actions of calcium and magnesium, increases inflammation, and erratic brain cell firing, and has been implicated in aggression. In brain imaging studies it increases “slow brain waves,” and a study at UCLA showed that sugar alters learning and memory—not for the better. Quit multitasking. Can't find your keys? It's probably because you weren't paying attention when you put them down. When you're juggling too many things, you're bound to forget. As it turns out, the brain doesn't actually multitask. Instead, it switches focus from one thing to another, which is why it is difficult to read a book and hold a conversation at the same time. Multitasking will slow you down, so make it a point to concentrate on the task at hand. Jog your memory. Literally. Physical activity increases blood flow to your whole body—including your brain—and helps keep your memory sharp. Exercise delivers extra oxygen to the brain and also appears to stimulate the growth of new cells and blood vessels in the brain. Even though getting older isn’t optional, having a brain that looks and feels old is!
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Boost Your Brain Power
Did you know the fountain of youth is between your ears? It is your brain that makes the decisions that keep you healthy, happy and on track to live a long time. Likewise, it is your brain that makes the bad decisions that ruin your health and send you off to the undertaker early. If you want to live a long, happy life, the first place to start is by having a better brain! Through the imaging work done over the past 26 years at Amen Clinics with tens of thousands of patients from around the world, it is very clear that you have a choice: You can either accelerate the aging process and make your brain look and feel older than your chronological age, or you can decelerate it and have a brain that looks and feels much younger than your age. Even though getting older is not optional, having a brain that looks and feels old is! The brain is the most complicated organ in the universe and thus the most vulnerable to damage and aging. It is estimated that your brain has one hundred billion neurons (brain cells), with each one having by up to ten thousand individual connections to other cells. This means that you have more connections in your brain than there are stars in the universe! As you can probably imagine, all of these cells and connections need a tremendous amount of energy in order to function. So even though your brain is only about 2 percent of your body’s weight (about three pounds), it uses 20 to 30 percent of the calories you consume, 20 percent of your body’s blood flow, and 20% of the oxygen you breathe – and even more than that when your brain is on “overdrive”! BrainMD Health’s Brain and Memory Power Boost is exclusively formulated to promote healthy brain metabolism and optimal functioning of its staggering amount of cells. Watch this short video featuring Dr. Amen and BrainMD Health’s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Parris Kidd, to learn more about the ways in which this supplement supports memory, learning, attention, mood, and behavior. Brain and Memory Power Boost is formulated with seven brain boosters, which help promote brain energy, support important neurons, and defend against free radical damage to the brain. Together they help power up mental sharpness and cognition so you can think fast on your feet again. Brain and Memory Power Boost contains: PhosphatidylSerine – a natural building block for cell membranes that supports healthy cognitive function Acetyl-L-Carnitine – an amino acid which helps protect against mental fatigue and can enhance mood N-AcetylCysteine – an amino acid that supports healthy cognition and mood and enhancing coping Alpha-Lipoic Acid – a potent antioxidant that protects against cell damage Ginkgo Biloba Extract – helps ensure reliable and sufficient blood flow to the brain Vinpocetine – works with ginkgo to support healthy brain blood flow Huperzine A - improves the actions of the acetylcholine neurotransmitter system, which plays a central role in memory and behavior If you are looking for a brain-boosting formula that will provide you with an all-star lineup of potent ingredients to support your brain’s energy, connectivity, and overall performance, look no further than Brain and Memory Power Boost. “This is one of the best brain-health supplements available, offering support for a wide range of cognitive functions including focus, memory and mental clarity.” – Daniel G. Amen, MD
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