50 Ways to Boost Your Noodle #1-5

1. Snack on almonds and blueberries instead of a candy bar. As they lower blood sugar, healthy snacks can improve cognition. In this case, the omega-3s in the almonds and the antioxidants in the blueberries can keep your brain functioning correctly.

2. Ballroom dance like the stars. Dancing is a brainpower activity. How so? Learning new moves

activates brain motor centers that form new neural connections. Dancing also calms the brain's stress response.
3. Love the crunch of croutons on your salad? Try walnuts instead. Omega-3s in walnuts have been found to improve mood and calm inflammation that may lead to brain-cell death. They also replace lost melatonin, which is necessary for healthy brain functioning.
4. Take your dog—or yourself—for a walk. Walking for just 20 minutes a day can lower blood sugar. That helps stoke blood flow to the brain, so you think more clearly.
5. Add Chinese club moss to your daily vitamin regimen. Taking less than 100 micrograms of the herb daily may protect your brain's neurotransmitters and keep synapses firing correctly, tests suggest. But this herb is powerful, so check with your doctor for drug interactions.

Stress Management & Relaxation Techniques

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation focuses on the major muscle groups and learning to recognise the difference between tension and relaxation in the muscles.

Commencing at your feet and working upwards
Bring your attention to your
• Thighs, buttocks, calves and feet Tense the individual muscles for 5-7 seconds and then relax for 10-15 seconds Repeat for the following groups
• Hands, forearms and biceps
• Chest, stomach and lower back
• Head, face, throat and shoulders

Slow breathing or Controlled Breathing Exercise
Focus on your breathing pattern. Notice if you breathe mainly through the chest or through the stomach. The goal is to breath deeply and slowly though the nose, feeling more movement in the stomach than the chest as you inhale and exhale.
Place your hand on your diaphragm, just below your ribs. Release any tension by blowing out the air in your lungs with a big sigh. You should notice your shoulders relax and
lower.
Take a deep breath in for three to fve seconds notice your hand should move.
Hold the breath for one second and then release for three seconds feeling your hand sink back in.
The time for breathing in and out can vary so breathe at the rate your feel comfortable. Stop if you feel dizzy or light headed.

Isometric Exercise
Take a small breath and hold it for up to 7 seconds.
• At the same time slowly tense your leg muscles by crossing
your feet at the ankles, pressing down with the upper leg
while trying to lift the lower leg.
• After 7 seconds breathe out and slowly say the word
“relax” to yourself.
• Let all the tension go from your muscles.

Keeping Your Brain Healthy as You Age

By Camille Bartus, FCPS Wellness Specialist

Concern about brain health, memory and cognitive functions can increase as a person ages. Although jokes abound about aging and diminished brain functioning, a normal aging brain does not deteriorate to the point of losing functions. When this does happen, it is an abnormal process called dementia. Dementia is a cli ical syndrome whereby there is damage to brain cell connections which lead to a loss in memory and other cognitive brain abilities. It can result from various diseases and conditions, the most common cause being Alzheimer’s disease.

More recently, brain research findings demonstrate that the brain does not lose the vast amount

of brain cells with aging as previously thought. In fact, studies support that the normal aging process leaves most mental functions intact and may actually improve in some areas such as verbal knowledge and processes that form the basis of wisdom. What has become quite evident is that retaining high level brain function as we age has more to do with practicing a healthy lifestyle and risk factor reduction than with the aging process.

Brain Food

Current scientific studies reveal, in general, what is good for the heart is also good for the brain. Therefore, a diet rich in whole foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein helps to preserve healthy brain function. Similarly, regular aerobic exercise delivers oxygen rich blood to the brain cells. According to Dr Carl Corman, a neurobiologist at University of California-Irvine, “You are literally building the structure of the brain by moving your feet”.

Exercise enhances concentration, builds gray matter and strengthens the connections in the brain among other things.

Mental Olympics

The “use it or lose it “adage applies to brain health as well. Performing mental exercise or neurobics” as they are called, increases our brain power as we age and helps to keep the healthy connections going. So activities that challenge and stimulate our brains like puzzles, word games, reading and learning new skills on a regular basis boost that gray matter. Try some of these ideas for mental exercise:

http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html#mentalexercise

Be Drug Free
Avoiding risky behaviors such as smoking, recreational drug use and heavy drinking is highly
recommended since these behaviors not only diminish oxygen to the brain but also expose it to
toxic substances. Read more about brain function and drugs at
http://www.drugabuse.gov/scienceofaddiction/brain.html

Protect Your Noggin
Practicing “head safe” behavior at all times by wearing head protection while performing sports,
biking and “buckling up” when riding in a vehicle, can prevent head trauma which can lead to
cognitive dysfunction. Alzheimer’s studies demonstrate that patients with Alzheimer’s disease
were nearly 10 times more likely to have a history of a head injury that resulted in a loss of
consciousness.

Sleep It Off
Getting between 7 and 8 hours of sleep each night is crucial to healthy brain function. Find out
just how important sleep a good night’s sleep is to the brain health:
http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/sleep.html#howsleep

Stress-less
Stress increases circulating adrenalin, raises the blood pressure and pulse which in turn can
constrict blood vessels, thereby lowering oxygen to the brain cells. Learn how to manage your
stress levels throughout the day by taking mini stress breaks such as: walking rapidly for a
minute or two, climbing a set of stairs or doing stretches at your desk side. Also, regularly
relieving your brain of negative or stressful thoughts by practicing relaxation techniques each
day can keep stress at bay. Read more about stress and its effects on the brain at:
http://health.discovery.com/centers/brain-health/brain-disorders-conditions/dementia/stress.html
Then try some of these relaxation techniques for the University of Maryland Medical Center:
http://www.umm.edu/sleep/relax_tech.htm

So, wisdom can come with age, when you make brain health part of your daily plan.

Oedema and swelling

There are many plants that can help to reduce oedema, but none better than horse chestnut or Aesculus hippocastanum, which contains escin or aescin. This plant is excellent for conditions like leg ulcers and varicose veins. The chemistry is complexand varied.
Oedema is a critical component of cellulitis and in Germany the plant of choice would be butcher’s broom or Rucus aculeatus, which contains an active molecule called ruscogenin or hydroxyl diosgenin. This is a really fascinating molecule, since diosgenin was used as the precursor to may steroidal preparations such as hydrocortisone and corticosteroids. It was also the precursor to the female birth control pill. Diosgenin was originally extracted from the wild yam or Dioscorea villosa, but later from fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum). The discussion on plant sterols is a worthy debate, especially for mature skins or menopausal skin types and the sterols from soya or Glycine max are becoming available.
In Europe we have our own plant solution to oedema and cellulite and this would be ivy or Hedera helix, which contains hederagenin. It has always been a great disappointment to the author that hederagenin and ruscogenin were not more similar chemically.
Finally, the use of witch hazel or Hamamelis virginiana from the North American herbals, should not be excluded from the discussion on oedema. This material, which is pharmaceutically licensed for the treatment of haemorrhoids, is also excellent for contusions, bruises and other swellings. The most likely chemical responsible for this effect is the hamamelitannin present, though the plant contains a wealth of other components.