Category: HACK 151-200

Research has proved that when it comes to maintaining and strengthening your mental abilities, practice makes perfect. In one study, scientists recorded the number of words people could recall after listening to a lengthy list of random words. Before they received memory training, the older members of the study group were able to recall fewer words than the younger members. But after just a handful of memory training sessions, which included tips such as placing words in meaningful groups rather than trying to memorize them out of context, the older participants were able to triple their word recall. In another study involving children, memorization training revealed an improvement in cognitive abilities not related to the memorization training and a leap in IQ test scores of 8 percent, as reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

People with strong memories tend to have memory centers that communicate with the visual and spatial areas of the brain. While they may not have bigger memory centers than the next person, their brain communicates with itself more efficiently. That’s a result of how memory training works: you link what you’re trying to remember to a visual plan. For example, to remember a series of cards, you might imagine yourself walking through a palace and seeing one diamond chandelier in the entry with three club chairs arranged on a heart-shaped rug with four corners. When it comes time to remember the sequence, you “walk” through the room and come up with a 1 (ace) of diamonds, a 3 of clubs, and a 4 of hearts. Try it! You’ll soon find you have a much easier time remembering even complex information.

Improve your mathematic abilities by doing calculations in your head whenever possible. For example, balance your checkbook without the aid of a calculator. Mentally figure out sales tax on a purchase. Determine the price per ounce or unit at the grocery store. Calculate how much change you should get back whenever you hand over money. Come up with the correct tip at a restaurant without using a tip guide. Find ways to use math in your daily life. Reliance on technology tends to dull our math skills, so put your calculator app away and use your brain. If you really want to challenge your brain, study advanced mathematics or chemistry. 

Tofu, anyone? According to experts, soy protein appears to help lower blood cholesterol levels, decrease blood clots and platelet “clumping” or aggregation (both of which can increase the risk for a heart attack or stroke), improve the elasticity of arteries (which makes blood flow better), and reduce oxidation of LDL or “bad” cholesterol, which can lower the risk of plaque formation. All of this is good news for your brain because it means eating soy can help lower your risk for stroke. Good sources of soy include defatted soy flour, isolated soy protein, miso, firm and regular tofu, soy cheese, soymilk, and soy veggie burgers. Adding one serving a day can make a difference. If you’re concerned about reports linking soy to in- creased estrogen and potentially impairing male fertility or increasing the risk of breast cancer, the most current research says that consuming soy, even by breast cancer patients, is safe and beneficial. If you’re still concerned, just remember— everything in moderation!

Your brain functions best when the body carrying it around is healthy. Hawthorn berries have been scientifically proven to lower high blood pressure, a prime risk factor for heart disease. It’s also an excellent antioxidant that eliminates free radicals, the dangerous agents that roam the body and can cause damage to blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis. Hawthorn also contains rutin, a substance that reduces the formation of plaque, a buildup of which can block blood flow and possibly lead to stroke or a heart attack. One study showed that hawthorn may provide protection for nerve cells and may reduce inflammation of brain neurons. A very preliminary finding showed hawthorn as effective in helping prevent injury from stroke. This means hawthorn shows promise in treating, if not preventing, stroke. 

According to study results published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, cocoa powder has nearly twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times the amount found in green tea. The standard for evaluating the antioxidant properties of foods is called the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) score. Based on the US Department of Agriculture/ American Chemical Society’s findings, dark chocolate tested the highest for antioxidants over other fruits and vegetables. Dark chocolate came in with an ORAC score of 13,120; its closest competitor, milk chocolate, had a score of 6,740; and third was prunes at 5,770. 

Dark chocolate may help lower blood pressure in people with hypertension, and has been shown to decrease levels of LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, by 10 percent. In- cluding dark chocolate in your diet may benefit your heart by helping to block arterial damage caused by free radicals; and it may inhibit platelet aggregation, which could cause a heart attack or stroke. There have also been studies indicating that the flavonoids in cocoa relax the blood vessels, which inhibits an enzyme that causes inflammation. 

Avocados are a gold mine of nutrients that boost your brain health—not to mention help you maintain a healthy body. They contain a monounsaturated fat known as oleic acid, which has been shown to help lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease and arteriosclerosis. For your brain, that means a slimmer chance of stroke. Avocados are also rich in magnesium and potassium, which help to regulate blood pressure and prevent circulatory diseases such as stroke and heart disease. One cup of avocado contains 23 percent of the daily value for folate, which when combined with the monounsaturated fats plus potassium decreases your chances of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Ounce for ounce, avocados provide more magnesium than the twenty most commonly eaten fruits. They contain no starch and very little sugar, yet they provide an excellent source of usable food energy. However, one whole California avocado has about 300 calories and 35 grams of fat, 8.5 grams being monounsaturated fat. Eat small amounts of avocado for the optimum benefit. 

When you choose a partner and commit to a mutually rewarding intimate relationship, your brain produces the hormone oxytocin, known as “the bonding hormone.” Oxytocin is associated with social behavior such as trust and empathy. High levels of oxytocin support memory and help relieve stress and cognitive problems related to stress. Oxytocin is also known to influence “prosocial” behavior— that is, things like cooperation and caregiving. 

Women have higher levels of oxytocin, which may improve their ability to choose one partner (and also helps them bond with their newborns), while men’s levels increase five fold following orgasm. So commit to (and have sex with!) some- one for optimum brain health. 

Balance and moderation are key for a healthy and optimally functioning brain. Humans have a tendency to want more of what we like. If we drink one cup of coffee in the morning and it makes us feel more alert and focused, we drink ten. Then we wonder why we can’t focus! The same thing happens with everything from cake to sex. Or we go to the opposite extreme and banish all the little pleasures from our lives. We think since sugar is unhealthy, we should never have any more of it ever, and suddenly our entire life has turned into a dreary battle against high-fructose corn syrup. You can still be healthy and eat your brownies, just as long as you don’t eat too many of them. With moderation as your guide, creating a lifestyle and nutritional regimen that nourishes the brain can be more enjoyable and pleasurable than you may have imagined. 

Scientists suggest that many hobbies can help stimulate our minds and stave off Alzheimer’s and dementia as we get older. There’s probably something in your life you feel passionate about. Maybe it’s bicycling, maybe it’s painting, maybe it’s creating scrapbooks or doing jigsaw puzzles. That’s the basis of your hobby— something that engages the creative centers of your brain. Hobbies help make neural connections between different parts of your brain. For instance, learning to play a musical instrument early in life seems to help children with the ability to do mathematics. Learning new words to beat your friends at Scrabble can build brain cells in the language centers of your brain. So think of something you really enjoy doing and make that your hobby. 

Trivia games can be marvelous ways to see how good you are at jogging your memory. When you’re digging around in those dusty corners of your mind for the answer, your brain synapses will be firing as they ruffle through your mental files. It’s even fair to buy a trivia game, read all the answer cards, and then test how good you are at remembering something freshly learned. Read the cards often and play against yourself to see how much you improve. 

While the memory training aspect is helpful, the real benefit of playing trivia games, according to a recent study, is that they provide a dopamine boost when you win—without the negative side effects of, say, gambling. A round or two of trivia can improve your mood and your attitude.