Thursday, April 15, 2010

Six Drug-Free Ways To Boost Your Brain

I just finished The Scientific American Brave New Brain, and, wow, is it a great read. The author, Judith Horstman, is an award winning science journalist. She makes it easy to understand how the brain works, what it does and how we need to take of it.

Here are Horstman's suggestions for drug-free ways to boost your brain power:

1. Exercise it. Physical exercise is the best thing you can do for your brain.

2. Feed it Fat. Our brains are mostly fat and the brain needs fat for fuel. But feed your brain good fats like Omega-3's, nuts and seeds.

3. Stimulate it. To do this you must learn something new and hard. The easy stuff doesn't get your neurons firing.

4. Play with it. Play is very important for brain health. From video games, board games, cards and surfing the net.

5. Serenade it. Music can enhance moods and better sleep and lower blood pressure. Of course, make sure you listen to classical, jazz and other soft sounds - and not thrash-metal
music.

6. Meditate it. Meditation boosts brain functioning as well as the immune system. So get your Ohm on.


I'm happy to say that I do all of these.

How about you?