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Keep Fit Program For The Brain
merryprankster writes "New Scientist is running a
feature on 11 steps
to a better brain. While becoming a nun might be an extreme way to avoid
senility, there are lots of other tricks, techniques and habits, as well as
changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey
matter and get the best out of your brain cells." From the article: "First, go to the top of the class by eating breakfast. The brain is best fuelled by a steady supply of glucose, and many studies have shown that skipping breakfast reduces people's performance at school and at work. But it isn't simply a matter of getting some calories down. According to research published in 2003, kids breakfasting on fizzy drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level of an average 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention."
The obvious stuff that has been known for millenia -- eat healthy, exercise (your body and your brain), don't abuse yourself.
Sad that this is so forgotten that it is news.
Well intentioned parents buy their kids crap like Pop Tarts or NutriGrain bars thinking they are healthy. Well read the ingredients and the nutrition label. Practically no fiber, and corn syrup and hydrogenated fat dominate.
Most of the breakfast convenience foods are just candy packaged differently. It's better to eat a piece of fruit (low glycemic index) or whole wheat toast, which, suprise suprise, are just as convenient!
It requires a bit of self-control as you have to ignore your hunger but as your body gets used to the idea that it will eat later anyways, you won't notice it much.
This energizes me quite a lot, and the work day just goes by faster, and problems are much easier to tackle.
Mostly random stuff.
1. Eat oatmeal for breakfast - if you must add sugars, make them complex, not processed (e.g. raw).
...
2. Get half an hour exercise each day, which basically means take the stairs or take the bus or if you drive don't park so close to work.
3. Get eight to nine hours sleep a night - this is the hard one for me. If you run a sleep deficit, sleep in Saturday morning, but wake up the usual time on Sunday.
4. For guys, drink one to two glasses of red wine with meals. For women, one-half to one, but depends on body mass.
5. Stop watching the news. All those car chases and crashes five states away just add to stress and you can't do anything about them. If you must watch, choose a less exciting program like PBS or such.
6. Ditch your watch and cellphone. Really.
7. Do crossword puzzles or something that engages your brain most every day. You meet a lot of cute girls that way
8. Don't be in such a rush. Biologically, we're not built to live like that.
9. Eat low on the food chain - how you do this is up to you, but avoid processed foods.
All the rest is commentary.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I see nothing in your quote or the tiny amount of text in the linked article that indicates this is nothing more than a correlation study. Did they actually take a random group of senior and somehow get half of them to play board games, and the other half to not play board games and then come back years later and see if there was and difference between the two? (How the hell you'd get the people to either play, or not play board games despite their preference I have no idea).
If not, it seems far more likely that people that have dementia don't want to play board games, instruments, etc because.. well they have dementia. That might make it a LOT harder to concentrate on something like a board game or an instrument.
AccountKiller
If you are not doing it now start. I would rank this even higher than a healthy diet. If you jog or do rhythmic exercise that creates a meditative state, you get a double bonus. Everything starts with that. You can try the "smart" drugs and the mental exercises after you get your sorry ass off the couch. Exercise is the best mental tonic I've found.
Take it with you to work! Seriously, I used to skip breakfast, grab some fast food at lunch, and go out to dinner almost every night, and I felt sluggish, worn down, and found that my grasp over my mental faculties was slipping...so, around a year ago, I hit reset on my life and diet, and I've felt better - in every way - ever since.
By preparing all of my daily meals on my own with fresh ingredients (including making my own snacks), I've lost weight and body fat (I'm at a very trim 173lbs with 10% body fat...almost as good a condition as I was in when I played baseball and soccer year-round back in high school), I've had far more energy, and I've been sharper and more on the ball in my day to day doings at work and at play (hobbies and such). I also started an exercise regime that has further improved my conditioning and stamina and energy level, and have been a happier person for it.
My meals are all balanced to come out as close to what we're supposed to be taking in on a daily basis according to doctors recommendations (caloric intake, vitamins, minerals, etc, etc, etc). I snack exclusively on fruits and vegetables. My breakfast includes a variety of fruits and homemade granola mixed in with a serving of plain yogurt, and I'm able to take that with me to work to eat while I go over my start of day emails and voicemails. My lunches are good sized, but never too large, and the same goes with my dinners. I've cut back on the amount of red meat and pork that I take in, and have increased the amount of fish and chicken....like I said, I hit reset entirely.
I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching or whatever, but I really do believe that there is a lot to be said for eating well and taking care of yourself...I still smoke and have the odd pint of beer here and there, but even those bad habits have decreased nearly to the point of being non-existant.
In short, eat breakfast...you can still eat well, have it taste good, and be good for you if you 'wake up late' and are 'running behind'...hell, you'll find you might even sleep more soundly and wake up more readily if you change your diet.
note: As an aside, and this may or may not be something you would be interested in...a side-effect of my healthier living has been an increase in both my libido and in my performance...couple that with a healthier living sig-o, and you've got a pretty nifty little sex life going. Fruits and vegetables help a lot, from what I understand...in more areas than just performance and stamina. I'm just sayin', is all...
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
According to research published in 2003, kids breakfasting on fizzy drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level of an average 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention.
Maybe that's because they are being raised by the kind of parents that feed their kids cola and candy for breakfast?
You can't take the sky from me...
Isn't it possible that your times improved because you were more experienced at crossword puzzles?
-- Dan
If only I had mod points ...
Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.
No offense, but I'm guessing you're not very good at chess. From what I've read about grand masters, and from my personal experience, the good chess players very much base their play on board patterns and abstractions. People simply can't analyze more than a few moves in advance, at least at a reasonable speed.
You hit on the biggest problem. Most people sit around and don't exercise at all.
What is disturbing is that article talks about pills in the first bit. A sales pitch for drug pushing companies? Thanks but I'll stick to my diet and gym/kung-fu routine.
yeah sure. just ask ender wiggin how much he liked playing that game.
I ate my sig.