Boost Your Brain Power in 60 Seconds
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A pilot study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience found significant improvements in symptoms of Parkinson’s disease sufferers when they engaged in qigong for 6 weeks. They found that following qigong, people showed improvements in sleep quality and significant improvements in gait performance.26 While the study was small, the results were impressive. And any treatment that shows improvement in Parkinson’s disease, particularly one lacking harmful side effects, is worth serious consideration.
Parkinson’s disease sufferers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from qigong. New research published in the journal Explore found that qigong may be helpful in the recovery of people who have suffered a mild traumatic brain injury.27 (That doesn’t mean that it isn’t helpful for moderate to severe traumatic brain injury survivors, but rather that this particular study didn’t assess qigong with these people.)
How to Benefit
It’s easy to start benefiting from tai chi or qigong exercises. Sign up for a local class, pick up an instructional video from your library or online bookstore, or follow along with a book on the topic. Whatever you choose, the brain health rewards will be worth the effort.
Super Health Bonus
Tai chi and qigong exercises were designed to regulate the functions of all the organs and glands in the body. Like many others, you will probably notice improvements in seemingly unrelated health conditions if you stick with these exercises over time.
60-SECOND BRAIN HEALTH TIP #39:
Enjoy the Benefits of Ohm Sweet Ohm
Meditate to quell the brain-damaging effects of stress.
Meditation is quite effective for lessening stress and the resulting stress hormones that have a negative impact on your brain. Many people associate meditation with religion, but it is actually a simple technique that transcends religious beliefs. It is a mental vacation from the stresses of daily life whereby you center your mind and create a sense of peacefulness. The rewards are worth the minimal effort.
In one study published in Health Behavior News Service, scientists found that brain scans and blood tests confirmed positive effects of meditation. In this study of 48 employees at a biotechnology company, half were trained in meditation and practiced it for 1 hour a day, 6 days a week, using prerecorded guided meditations. The other half of the participants did not meditate. Dr. Richard J. Davidson at the University of Wisconsin found that the meditators had greater electrical activity in their brains than the nonmeditators. Some of the effects of meditation continued for up to 4 months after the participants discontinued their meditation practice.28
Other research shows improvements in mood, pain threshold, immune system activity, and bronchial and arterial smooth muscle tone. The studies also show a decrease in stress hormones and a reversal in the effects of chronic stress.29
When we think of things that improve blood flow to the brain, meditation is probably not one of the first things to come to mind. We’re far more likely to consider exercises that boost heart rate. But even if you’re injured, disabled, or just having trouble exercising, meditation is still an option, as research shows that it improves blood flow to the brain.
Research in Psychiatry Research shows that meditation affects the flow of blood to the brain. Scientists at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA studied the effects of meditation on the “stress” circuits of the brain. Ten experienced meditators performed two types of meditation: a focus-based meditative technique and a breath-based practice. The meditators’ brains were scanned using MRI technology before starting, during the meditation practices, and following meditation.
Researchers found that four regions of the brain were affected during meditation and that the two types of meditation states cause different patterns of blood flow to the brain; however, both techniques improved blood flow to the brain. Some of the brain changes continued even after meditation stopped.30
While research in this area is still in its infancy, the positive impact of meditation on blood flow to the brain may have applications in treating brain disorders or stroke and in keeping your brain healthy for the long term.
Meditation is simple to learn, requires no expensive equipment, and can be done almost anywhere. All that is needed is a commitment and a small amount of time. While participants in the study mentioned above practiced for 1 hour a day, even a few minutes daily will be helpful.
There are many different types of meditation. Don’t get bogged down in finding the ideal one for you; that sort of quest is often just an excuse for procrastinating, anyway. As Nike says, “Just do it.” There are a million or more excuses for not meditating, starting with “I don’t have time” or “I’m too tired,” but they are all simply excuses for not making your health a priority. No one has the time. How you spend your time is up to you.
Meditation has also been found to boost attention. In a study published in the International Journal of Yoga, researchers found that when children are trained to practice meditation, their attention spans are significantly increased. The researchers tested two yoga-based relaxation practices involving specific meditation and rest techniques with 208 school children (132 boys and 76 girls) between the ages of 13 and 16. Their attention spans were tested before and after practicing the meditation and rest techniques. Both techniques improved the children’s attentiveness significantly, but meditation had the greatest impact on the attention scores, regardless of gender or age.31
While the study shows that meditation training may be valuable in improving attention in children and especially in the treatment of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it is likely that the effects translate to adults, as well.
How to Benefit
You can choose breathing meditation, walking meditation, sitting meditation, mindfulness meditation, guided meditation, visualization, or prayer. Most of these types of meditation indicate what is involved.
Commit to meditating for at least 10 minutes per day. Simply let go of thoughts that come to your mind. Don’t try to force your thoughts to disappear. That doesn’t usually work, anyway. Simply acknowledge thoughts and let them go. If your thoughts come back, acknowledge them again and let them go again, as often as needed. Meditation is like any other activity. Most of us need practice and patience to get the hang of it. And if you’re just not disciplined enough to do it on your own, sign up for a local meditation group in your area. Many cities and towns have guided meditation groups to help people learn (and commit to) meditation on a regular basis.
Here is a simple, yet effective, meditation exercise. You can play peaceful background music while performing this meditation or you can have silence, whichever you prefer.
1.Sit in a comfortable position where you will not be disturbed. If you have children, it is important to teach them to respect your quiet time. Taking time to recharge and release stress will allow you to be a better parent. Close your eyes. Keep your head upright and shoulders relaxed.
2.Begin by breathing deeply and steadily. Do not force your breathing. Simply breathe as deeply as you comfortably can. Observe your breath.
3.Begin to allow your breath to expand your abdomen. Comfortably expand your abdomen with each inhalation, and then release your abdomen with every exhalation.
4.Continue breathing deeply for at least 10 minutes. The longer you can meditate, the better.
Practice this meditation daily, increasing the amount of time each day. You can also purchase excellent guided meditation apps, CDs, videos, and DVDs to help with your meditation practice.32
Super Health Bonus
Research shows that meditation helps manage binge eating, emotional eating, and weight loss in overweight individuals who have these behaviors.33 If you’re overweight, you can expect that meditation will help address any tendencies toward emotional eating, such as binge eating or eating when you’re stressed.
60-SECOND BRAIN HEALTH TIP #40:
Stretch and Cycle for a Superb Memory
Stretch y
our muscles and hop on a bike to boost both short-term and long-term memory.
Do you want to enhance your short- and long-term memory? Simply taking time out of your day to stretch your muscles and then hopping on your bike can significantly improve both types of memory.
Kirsten Hotting, PhD, of the University of Hamburg, in Germany, wanted to find out if exercise begun later in life could make a difference to memory. She evaluated 68 inactive women and men ages 40 to 56 and assigned them to either a stretching or a cycling program. An additional 18 inactive people acted as controls for the study. Each of the programs was supervised and lasted for 1 hour, twice weekly.
“The stretching/coordination training started with a short warmup phase, followed by stretching and strengthening of the major muscles of the whole body,” Dr. Hotting said. “Coordination exercises were balance exercises, complex movements of arms and legs, and so on. The training ended with some relaxation exercises.” The cyclists exercised at their target heart rate for 45 minutes and then finished with a cooldown pace. Her team measured memory and other cognitive skills.
The study found that those people who did stretching exercises for the same duration each week boosted their short-term memory, while the cyclists who rode for 1 or 2 hours weekly had a noticeable improvement in long-term memory after 6 months.34 The study also suggests that mixing different types of exercises may have synergistic effects, boosting their overall brain benefits. Additionally, both the cycling and the stretching groups performed better on memory tests than the inactive group.
As you age, and particularly in late adulthood, your hippocampus—a part of your brain involved in memory—typically shrinks. Dr. Hotting’s research shows that this part of your brain can actually grow after you begin to exercise. And that brain growth results in improved memory.
The cyclists performed better than both the stretching and inactive groups in long-term retention of learned material. The stretching group improved more in a test of attention than the cycling group. To test attention, the participants were given a paper and pencil test in which they had to find and mark certain letters quickly.
Earlier studies also found that inactive people who become physically active increase blood flow to the brain and score better on memory tests.35
How to Benefit
It’s easier than you think to reap the memory benefits of stretching and exercise. Choose 2 days a week to perform stretching exercises for 1 hour each day. Choose an additional 2 days a week to cycle or perform another form of cardiovascular activity for at least 1 hour each day. (Keep in mind that the study participants cycled at their target heart rates for 45 minutes before engaging in a 15-minute cooldown.)
So how do you calculate your target heart rate? It’s easier than you think. However, keep in mind that this is an estimate only and is primarily relevant to activities during which your feet touch the ground (such as walking or running). Women should subtract their age from 226 and men should subtract their age from 220. (For cycling, subtract 5 from your result to get your estimated maximum heart rate. For swimming, subtract 10 to get your estimated maximum heart rate.) Then multiply that top rate by 50 percent to get a minimum target heart rate and by 85 percent to get your maximum target heart rate. For example, a 40-year-old man would subtract 40 from 220 to get 180. Then he would multiply that amount by 0.50 to get 90, which is the low end of his target heart rate. He would then multiply 180 by 0.85 to get 153, which is his maximum target heart rate per minute.
Super Health Bonus
In the University of Hamburg study, the cyclist group improved their heart fitness by 15 percent, boosting their overall cardiovascular health. You can reap the same heart health benefits by participating in at least 1 hour of cycling twice a week.
60-SECOND BRAIN HEALTH TIP #41:
Game Your Way to a Supercharged Memory
Play games and puzzles to boost long- and short-term memory, information retention, and concentration.
The road to brain health may be more of a puzzling path—one filled with games and puzzles, that is. According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, any activity that stimulates the part of your brain that handles planning, memory, and abstract thinking offers a twofold benefit, strengthening both your brain and your immune system. That includes doing puzzles or playing games on a regular basis.
Other studies show that playing games can improve your short- and long-term memory, help you retain new information, and improve concentration. Even people who already suffer from a brain disease, including Alzheimer’s disease, or a traumatic brain injury show mental improvement when they participate in memory games or computerized brain-training programs.
In a study published in the Archives of Neurology, researchers studied 10 people with Alzheimer’s disease along with 65 healthy adults and 11 young people. They found that those who participated in mentally stimulating activities had less beta-amyloid—one of the suspected causes of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers concluded that people who participated in more brain games, reading, and writing in early and midlife have lower levels of beta-amyloid and a reduced likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease.36
Additional research in the journal Brain Injury found that memory tests improved the memories of adult brain-injury patients. The study explored the effects of brain training on 21 adults who had suffered traumatic brain injuries an average of 37 months prior to the study. The participants conducted memory training on a computerized program on a daily basis for 5 weeks. Researchers assessed their results 4 weeks and 20 weeks after the memory training. The study’s authors concluded that “. . . structured and intense computerized working memory training improves subjects’ cognitive functioning.”37
While you can benefit from participating in many different memory games, researched showed that participants in The Brain Fitness Program, a computerized brain-training program developed by Posit Science, experienced significant memory, attention, and information-processing improvements. The researchers found that participants scored as well on memory and attention as people 10 years younger who had not participated in the memory game.38
How to Benefit
For your convenience, my friends at Prevention magazine have singled out the 10 best brain-boosting games to improve your memory, retention, reaction time, concentration, and more—and they’re fun, too! There’s no need to sign up or pay a fee. Just visit www.prevention.com/content/brain-games to get started! You can choose to play two or three games a week, or you can play them all every day and challenge yourself to see how much you can improve throughout our program. Additionally, you can also dig out Scrabble or a jigsaw puzzle, or do the crossword or sudoku in your daily newspaper.
Super Health Bonus
Like I said, these games are fun, so they have the added bonus of helping to relieve stress, as well! And, as the University of California, Berkeley, scientists found, you’ll be boosting your immune system at the same time. Catching fewer viruses isn’t a bad side effect of having fun playing games or doing puzzles.
60-SECOND BRAIN HEALTH TIP #42:
Walk Your Way to a Bigger, Better Brain
A daily walk can stave off dementia.
You don’t often think about taking your brain on a brisk walk or run, but that’s the advice British researchers are offering after studying the potential ability of exercise to stave off dementia.39
Professor Clive Ballard researches age-related diseases at King’s College London, and he has found that exercise has a more noticeable impact on slowing cognitive decline than completing puzzles, an activity that’s proven to maintain brain health. (See 60-Second Brain Health Tip #41.) Specifically, brisk walking or moderate jogging for 40 minutes three times a week will help people protect themselves from the ravages of dementia.
Dr. Ballard’s work echoes findings from the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers at the university found that participants in their study experienced brain growth after three weekly sessions of mod
erate exercise, such as a fast-paced 40-minute walk. Considering your brain shrinks by about 1 percent annually, the researchers considered a 2 percent increase in brain size to be significant. They also found that exercise participants between the ages of 55 and 80 experienced an increase in the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain largely responsible for memory and our ability to discern spatial relationships.
Research by the University of Cambridge and the National Institute on Aging explored the exercise–brain health connection in mice. Scientists found that mice that ran an average of 15 miles a day doubled the memory test scores of their sedentary companions.40 Fortunately, humans don’t have to run mini-marathons to reap the benefits of taking their brains out for some exercise.
Dr. Ballard, who is leading a long-term study on “brain training” for older people, found that intellectual games such as crossword puzzles offer little positive impact on brain health when it comes to cognitive disorders that fall under the general term of dementia. He also found that they did not offer protection against Alzheimer’s disease, arguably the most well-known form of dementia. That’s not a reason to stop enjoying your crosswords and sudoku puzzles. Just remember to regularly get up off the couch and take your brain for a lap around the block.
We all know that we need to get moving, but additional research gives us one more reason to stay or become active. According to a large review published in the BMJ, researchers from Harvard University, Stanford University, and Britain’s London School of Economics and Political Science assessed 305 studies of 340,000 people and found that exercise was more effective than prescription drugs for stroke recovery. As an interesting aside, they also found no statistical differences between the effects of exercise or drugs for people suffering from heart disease or prediabetic symptoms.
Considering the high cost of many prescription drugs and the potentially serious health risks, exercise is a superior choice. It has also been shown to reduce your risk of depression. However, I’m not suggesting that you stop taking any drugs that your doctor may have prescribed, just that you add a reasonable amount of physical activity to your day.