Better Brain Boosters: Natural Not Artificial Ways To Brain Strength

By: Brenda Skidmore
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:41:16
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Most people don't consider how hard their brain works for them every day. We are usually focused on the rest of our body and unfortunately, we do not know how to properly care for our hard working brain.

We have bitten into the assumption hook, line, and sinker ( bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry) that at some point we will lose our control of our memory as we age. A strong and sharp memory does impress others, especially well into our later years.

It is possible to boost brain power at any age after making a few simple lifestyles changes. These powerful strategies can work in as little as two weeks! The simple changes I'm talking about are brain food, exercise, antioxidants, and plenty of water.

The healthiest brain food of all is well documented, and that would be omega-3 fatty acid. A deficiency of this essential fat can impair your learning ability, intelligence, and increase your risk of depression and memory problems. Omega-6 fatty acid is an essential fatty acid that we need too, and it is considered a healthy fat for our bodies. Unfortunately, we eat to much of it at a rate of about 20:1. Ideally we should be consuming it at a rate of about 4:1 with omega-3. An overload of omega-6 is believed to induce inflammation, which is undesirable throughout the body, and especially in the brain.

Getting more omega-3 is as easy as eating more cold water fish such as mackerel, salmon, tuna, haddock, lake trout, or herring. If contaminated fish sources scare you supplementing with fish oil is a good way to get your omega-3. Chickens that are fed a a fish meal mixture will produce eggs that are rich in omega-3. Walnuts and flax are other sources of this much needed nutrient.

Exercise does benefit your brain cells. The blood vessel system inside your brain will dilate and improve blood flow when you engage in regular exercise. Exercise helps get out the toxins or other offending agents and lets oxygen and nutrients flow in so your brain can use them.

Antioxidants like vitamin C and E help protect brain cells from damage caused by free radicals. Vitamin E can be found in food sources like wheat germ, yogurt, soy yogurts, and sunflower seeds. Getting enough is difficult sometimes and supplementing is often recommended. Vitamin C helps boost immune response and helps lower inflammation. Inflammation in the brain is the last place you want to see this of anywhere in the body. Of all the B vitamins B12 is also an important nutrient for healthy brains, as well as the mineral magnesium.

The importance of adequate water intake is poorly understood by most people in proper brain health. In his book “Your Body's Many Cries For Water” Dr. Batmanghelidj, MD explains, water that the brain uses as electrical energy is generated by the water drive of the energy-generating pumps. With no water (dehydration) the level of energy generation in the brain is decreased. Many functions of the brain that depend on this type of energy become inefficient. This inadequacy of function is recognized as depression. This”depressive state” caused by dehydration can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome. In other words these labels of disease are really just seen to be associated with stress. A dehydrated body is a stressed body.

Taking care of your brain health just makes sense anyway you look at it. Your brain pretty much controls every function throughout your body.

Drug companies would like for you to believe the solution is to take one of their antidepressants daily for the rest of your life to restore your “chemical imbalance”. Which after you quit taking, often times many discover, the condition is not healed and returns.

The fact is anyone of these, or a combination of the natural strategies mentioned above have been proven to work time and time again. The question is which of these methods makes more sense and what would you rather try?

Article source: Expert Articles