What is Digg?153 Comments
- MattTheGr8, on 06/26/2008, -4/+41I am a neuroscientist, and this list is mostly junk. The only one that is totally legit is sleeping well. Most of the others are either not backed up by science (notice the near-total lack of citations), or the science cited is misquoted. For example, if you click on the link in #1, you see that the almond research really applied only to treating Alzheimer's Disease and had nothing to do with people who are healthy. If you are not at risk for Alzheimer's (e.g. under 60ish), almonds will probably not do anything noticeable to your mental functioning. If you start eating a lot of almonds and think you notice a difference, it is probably just a placebo effect.
In general, if you want your brain to work right, you should get enough sleep, avoid stress, eat generally healthy food (the specifics, like apple juice, aren't really that important -- most of us have no shortage of acetylcholine in our brains), avoid excessive amounts of psychotropic substances that aren't medically necessary (including caffeine, alcohol, legal and illegal drugs, etc.), and exercise. According to recent research, physical exercise actually seems to have greater neuroprotective effects than mental exercise. On the other hand, regular mental exercise (reading, engaging in creative activities, problem solving) will probably make you a more interesting person, and there's no point in having a healthy brain if you don't do interesting things with it.
If you give it enough rest and proper fuel (by the way -- fasting is not actually good), your brain is remarkably good at maintaining its own internal state. Sorry, no magic bullets the way this list implies. - DiggLive, on 06/26/2008, -2/+36Take Alzheimer drugs like House did.
- ath1337, on 06/26/2008, -11/+3816. Cannabis can increase the amount of alpha brainwaves our brain produces, which is a direct link to our creativity :)
- fakekevinrose, on 06/26/2008, -0/+23masturbation overclocks my brain
- Camspoozel, on 06/26/2008, -6/+22"Fasting cleans and detoxifies our body"
I've never read an article full of so much crap! - inactive, on 06/26/2008, -0/+1615. Water cool your Brain, then raise the vcore and fsb
- TimeIsTissue, on 06/26/2008, -1/+16I've never seen drinking apple juice and sex is in the same list before.
- papastout, on 06/26/2008, -0/+12Dugg for Sex
- cdhill, on 06/26/2008, -4/+16For those who need a Mirror / behind a Firewall:
Have you ever felt exasperated when you bumped into someone at the store but absolutely couldn't remember their name? Sure, it happens to all of us.
Despite being the strongest computer on the planet, our brains do lapse. It's hard to blame them really. As humans, we spend much of or existence stuffing our brains with stuff. Some stuff is worthless, some of it's meaningful, some of it, well, it's just stuff and there is an endless amount of it.
No matter how powerful our brains are, they need recuperation time, to be kept in shape, and even an occasional charge. Think of it as a tune up for your brain. Skipping brain maintenance is as silly as the person wandering the parking garage because they forgot where they parked. Is that you? Are you that person? Sure. We all are at some point. No worries, there is hope.
Now I am not a brain surgeon and I am not going to suggest you do anything surgical or dangerous. I am however an astute student of human behavior, so I always look for simple ways to super charge my brain.
Here are some things you can begin doing as soon as today to begin the great brain tune up.
1. Eat Almonds
Almond is believed to improve memory. If a combination of almond oil and milk is taken together before going to bed or after getting up at morning, it strengthens our memory power. Almond milk is prepared by crushing the almonds without the outer cover and adding water and sugar to it.
2. Drink Apple Juice
Research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice increases the production of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain, resulting in an increased memory power.
3. Sleep well
Research indicates that the long-term memory is consolidated during sleep by replaying the images of the experiences of the day. These repeated playbacks program the subconscious mind to store these images and other related information.
4. Enjoy simple Pleasures
Stress drains our brainpower. A stress-ridden mind consumes much of our memory resources to leave us with a feeble mind. Make a habit to engage yourself in few simple pleasures everyday to dissolve stress from your mind. Some of these simple pleasures are good for your mind, body and soul.
* Enjoy music you love
* Play with your children
* Hug a stranger
* Appreciate others
* Run few miles a day, bike or swim
* Start a blog
* Take a yoga class or Total Wellness routine
5. Fast for a day
Fasting cleans and detoxifies our body. It is known fact that heavy food not only causes stress on our digestive system but also drains our brainpower. Fasting relieves toxic emotions such as anger, grief, worry, and fears - before they accumulate and cause disease. By cleansing toxic emotions, fasting strengthens metal clarity with increases memory, concentration, creativity and insight.
6. Exercise your mind
Just as physical exercise is essential for a strong body, mental exercise is equally essential for a sharp and agile mind. Have you noticed that children have far superior brainpower than an adult does? Children have playful minds. A playful mind exhibits superior memory power. Engage in some of the activities that require your mind to remain active and playful.
* Play scrabble or crossword puzzle
* Volunteer
* Interact with others
* Start a new hobby such as blogging, reading, painting, bird watching
* Learn new skill or a language
7. Practice Yoga or Meditation
Yoga or Meditation relives stress. Stress is a known memory buster. With less stress, lower blood pressure, slower respiration, slower metabolism, and released muscle tension follows. All of these factors contribute significantly towards increases in our brainpower.
8. Reduce Sugar intake
Sugar is a non-food. It’s a form of carbohydrate that offers illusionary energy, only to cause a downhill slump once the initial burst has been worn off. Excess intake of sugar results in neurotic symptoms. Excess sugar is known to cause claustrophobia, memory loss and other neurotic disorders. Eat food without adding sugar. Stay away from sweet drinks or excess consumption of caffeine with sugar.
9. Eat whole wheat
The whole wheat germs contain lecithin. Lecithin helps ease the problem of the hardening of the arteries, which often impairs brain functioning.
10. Eat a light meal in the night
A heavy meal at night causes tossing and turning and a prolonged emotional stress while at sleep. It’s wise to eat heavy meal during the day when our body is in motion to consume the heavy in-take. Eating a light meal with some fruits allows us to sleep well. A good night sleep strengthens our brainpower.
11. Develop imagination
Greeks mastered the principle of imagination and association to memorize everything. This technique requires one to develop a vivid and colorful imagination that can be linked to a known object. If you involve all your senses - touching, feeling, smelling, hearing and seeing in the imagination process, you can remember greater details of the event.
12. Sex
Our sexual imagination often empowers our ability to daydream, which strengthens our brainpower with greater imagination, visualization and association.
13. Control your temper
Bleached food, excess of starch or excess of white bread can lead to nerve grating effect. This results in a violent and some time depressive behavior. Eat fresh vegetables. Drink lots of water and meditate or practice yoga to relieve these toxic emotions of temper and violent mood swings.
14. Take Vitamin B-complex
Vitamin B-complex strengthens memory power. Eat food and vegetables high in Vitamin B-complex. Stay away from the starch food or white bread, which depletes the Vitamin B-complex necessary for a healthy mind.
I don't believe these are that tough. If you find yourself increasing stumped, give a couple of these a try.
Fun article. - mediaspree, on 06/26/2008, -2/+14Ok who paid to have this dugg. These comments suck.
- mrblaack, on 06/26/2008, -4/+15I'm going to hug the crap out of every stranger I see, so I can be a super genius.
- Gumbos, on 06/26/2008, -1/+10"By cleansing toxic emotions, fasting strengthens metal clarity with increases memory, concentration, creativity and insight."
I'd like to see the peer-reviewed evidence behind this statement. What a load of crap. - alexjordan, on 06/26/2008, -1/+10I stopped reading after that BS.
- rhinopig, on 06/26/2008, -1/+10"Fasting relieves toxic emotions"
toxic emotions? are you ***** me? - voodoochild461, on 06/26/2008, -4/+12cocaine
- Renian, on 06/26/2008, -3/+10Have you ever fasted before, or researched it's effects at all?
I have. Fasting does that to an extent. I've fasted for two weeks before. One of things that it does to improve your memory--and the most noticeable thing--is that it causes your body to release BDNF ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDNF ), which improves your cognitive ability and memory. During my two-week fast, I was still in school, taking four AP classes. During and after the fast, my GPA (percent-based, not letter based) improved by 10 points for the last two quarters. Would I have done better intermittently fasting instead? Fasting also improves insulin resistance and defense against neurotoxins. It also causes your body to go into autolysis, which makes it burn unhealthy cells for fuel--including cancer. It also slows cellular mitosis, giving cancerous cells more times to suicide.
I need to find all my articles, but for now, here's two:
http://www.nia.nih.gov/NewsAndEvents/PressReleases ...
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/2006/09/13/fast ... - cryptomystic, on 06/26/2008, -0/+7What if she is 300 pounds and has mouth sores?
- MMilitia, on 06/26/2008, -0/+7Yeah, sentences like "X detoxifies the body" always set alarm bells ringing. Not surprised to learn this is mostly junk.
- Luigison, on 06/26/2008, -0/+7From Wikipedia:
Caution
The FDA and other international health authorities have published an alert on galantamine based data from use on two studies during the treatment of mild cognitive impairment; higher mortality rates were seen in drug-treated patients. - rootsm3, on 06/26/2008, -0/+7Are we supposed to drink applejuice while banging? They didn't clarify that.
- inactive, on 06/26/2008, -0/+7Hug a stranger ?
- Rikkochet, on 06/26/2008, -0/+7But, but, the author says I can be a super genius if I start a blog and do yoga! How can you possibly argue against THAT?
- vidar808, on 06/26/2008, -1/+7Yeah well at the same time damaging your memory among other things. Which is a big part of thinking in general. Yeah you may be able to find stories to defend your point of view, but make sure you are doing it not just to defend your habits. These stories are just a few things I pulled of Google real fast so you should do your own more thorough research.
http://www.livescience.com/health/060313_pot_brain ...
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10607
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1808
http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pot/a/blaan060315.h ...
http://www.idmu.co.uk/canmem.htm - kmattso, on 06/26/2008, -2/+8Stick your tongue into a light socket.
- pwnerofnoobs, on 06/26/2008, -3/+8I'm afraid it's too late for you.
- Jennefah, on 06/26/2008, -0/+5Woa, I digg you for observation. Didn't notice that at first. Perhaps I need to be drinking more almond milk and having more sex...
- inactive, on 06/26/2008, -0/+5I'm from NYC, if some guy tries to hug me on the street I will probably punch the guy.
If its a girl, I will probably get the wrong idea, and do a little more than hugging... heh heh... - cutething, on 06/26/2008, -1/+6These articles are always suspect to me, especially in light of the fact that few articles online or in print cite sources, much less cite them accurately. But hugging strangers... man, I would love to see how that one is justified. This is just stupid.
- skinnypup85, on 06/26/2008, -0/+5Health and Wellness are not rocket science.
1. Eat Well
a. Inactive people should consume less calories.
2. Rest
a. 7-8 hours
3. Drink Water
a. 8 glasses is *****. Most fruits and vegetables contain water.
4. Exercise
a. 30 minutes of medium to intense training.
Does my research require citation? - cyberwiz01, on 06/26/2008, -0/+5And since you're on digg probably no #12 either.
- Renian, on 06/26/2008, -1/+6(This is a more obvious repost to a comment I replied to above.)
Have you guys ever fasted before, or researched it's effects at all?
I have. Fasting does that to an extent. I've fasted for two weeks before. One of things that it does to improve your memory--and the most noticeable thing--is that it causes your body to release BDNF ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDNF ), which improves your cognitive ability and memory. During my two-week fast, I was still in school, taking four AP classes. During and after the fast, my GPA (percent-based, not letter based) improved by 10 points for the last two quarters. Would I have done better intermittently fasting instead? Fasting also improves insulin resistance and defense against neurotoxins. It also causes your body to go into autolysis, which makes it burn unhealthy cells for fuel--including cancer. It also slows cellular mitosis, giving cancerous cells more times to suicide.
I need to find all my articles, but for now, here's two:
http://www.nia.nih.gov/NewsAndEvents/PressReleases ...
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/2006/09/13/fast ... - DeltaWolf, on 06/26/2008, -1/+5What kind of loser feels so strongly about the advice about fasting that they are digging down everyone that criticizes it?
- zkirill, on 06/26/2008, -0/+4So have I and I can testify to this as well. People that are calling BS on this have obviously never tried it because effects are very apparent.
- mightyslick, on 06/26/2008, -1/+5its gives your digestive system time to catch up...that is about it
- baylat, on 06/26/2008, -0/+4lucid dreaming... good stuff
- CrackyJSquirrel, on 06/26/2008, -0/+4It's a hell of a drug..
- CrackyJSquirrel, on 06/26/2008, -0/+3If you read the Teacher/Student Relationship Guide. Its in there..
- artofwar420, on 06/26/2008, -0/+3Not if you're getting eaten, by a toothy vagina.
- megamod, on 06/26/2008, -1/+4I agree...let me go tell my girlfriend!!! I've been referring it as the wrong thing all along. I'll just ask her if she wants to supercharge my brain from now on.
- KingGorilla, on 06/26/2008, -0/+3Tell me more about these...placebos
- inactive, on 06/26/2008, -4/+717. Eat human brain.
- TheMachine1, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2Url problem.
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ ... - hiPpymIck, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2see below
- Bapho, on 06/26/2008, -1/+3buried. Fasting is dumb
- irishjays, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2If you fast, you should play sports.
- Luigison, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2Which drug did he take? Galantamine?
- CrackyJSquirrel, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2It smelled nice and its shoes matched its shirt..
- Renian, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2lol, I put "Would I have done better intermittently fasting instead" and forgot to say, "Maybe".
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