■ Do you love doing crossword puzzles or playing sudoku because you think it keeps your mind sharp? Well, think again. “Most of those things... »
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Health
Putting Your Brain On A Diet
■ A diet is a prescribed selection of foods. In the West, it’s long been advocated as a way of losing weight. Other benefits touted are improved health, sleep, circulation, and even a longer life. As consumers, we are constantly bombarded with new diets. From limited calorie intake to eating only certain foods (grapefruit, anyone?), we rush for speedy solutions... »
Am I Blue?
■ Ah, blueberries: the refreshing taste of summer. What could be more gratifying than popping them into your mouth one by one, their ripe, sweet and sour goodness being crushed between your teeth, leaving a faint bluish tint on your pucker? But there’s much more to the little berry than you’re probably aware of. Most people know that blueberries are an... »
5 Reasons The Brain Loves The Summer
1. Hydration It can be hot in the summer. When it’s hot, we want to drink. Water. Lots of it. The brain loves water almost as much as it loves oxygen. That’s because the brain is 85% water—and you can hardly ever have too much of it. Water helps us learn better (even if it’s summer!), stay alert (for summer fun),... »
Fighting Epilepsy
■ Two million people have it. Eleven million will have it. It’s slightly more common in males than females, and although 70% of children will outgrow it, it can affect people of any age, starting in infancy or in middle age. It can be hereditary — even if no family members have it — or it can come from a... »
Altered States
■ What is our true potential? How powerful are we? Are we destined to live out our lives based on patterns that we were born into? Or can we rise above our alleged “genetically determined” fates and environment to become who we want to be? Kelly Howell thinks we can. She credits meditation with helping her heal from a devastating car... »
Beating Migraines
■ Searching for answers about migraine and cluster headaches, which affect over 30 million Americans, can be enough to give you a headache. The myriad pieces of advice, scientific findings and folk remedies can alternately provide hope or prove maddening. But recently, research has been paying off: 1 If you have ever felt that a room’s lighting affects the way you think... »
Three Steps to Brain-Based Language-Learning
■ Despite the best efforts of teachers, students and parents, learning a new language is challenging, and at times can be frustrating or even traumatic. However, by applying a few basics of brain-based education — what neuroscience and educational psychology have taught us about the brain and learning — teachers can dramatically change what happens in their classrooms and inside... »
Winning Attitudes
■ Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.” Though his math might’ve been off, he was on the right track. The mind plays a crucial role in an athlete’s success. How else do you explain Steve Blass being a World Series hero, a 19-game winner, and then suddenly unable to find the plate? Or... »
Silent Strokes
■ When the elderly decline mentally—they complain of slowing down or lose interest in their bridge club, for example—family, friends and even their doctors may blame it on the natural effects of aging. Indeed, many of the most common ailments of the elderly are written off as signs of getting old, including urinary incontinence, poor balance, depression, apathy and confusion.... »
Three Brain Rules You Need to Know
■ John Medina is a molecular biologist, private consultant, professor, Director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, and, most recently, best-selling author, thanks to the runaway success of his book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Medina, who calls himself a “grumpy scientist,” wrote the book out of a desire to... »