Everyone has a sleep issue from time to time and I’ve found a surprising solution that helps – it’s called “Digital Sandman” by a company called Holothink (http://www.digitalsandman.com). You listen to an audio program that helps your mind calm down into a “sleep ready state”. Works great and they probably have no idea how much it’s improved my own sex life!

Many factors affect sleep quality, and therefore sex frequency and quality. Proper diet, enough exercise, mental stimulation, adequate fluid intake—basically all the things we know make us healthy make us sexually potent as well. Healthy bodies are sexy bodies.

But in today’s society, attention to exercise, diet and all the rest, don’t always provide complete support for sound, refreshing sleep. Stress and worry can keep us tossing and turning even though we’re otherwise super-healthy. All these factors are involved. Sex is a built-in, god-given desire, the realization of which floods the body with feel-good hormones that improve our quality of life and ability to cope with what’s coming next. Deep sound sleep is similarly hard-wired into us. It is the setting for regeneration of cells and electro-chemical resetting for the next day of awakeness.

Anything that makes it easier to get good quality sleep has equal potential to improve your sex life.

Holothink offers many products designed to help you improve your mental functioning. Their Digital Sandman package (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) covers the full range of sleep issues with tracks including Power Napper, Sleep Support, Overcoming Insomnia and Digital Sandman to help you sleep better (and improve your sex life!).

Visit http://www.Holothink.com to try a free demo.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Crossword Puzzles Are Great Mental Exercises

I love doing crossword puzzles. Every morning I rush outside to get my newspapers anticipating those puzzles. As I read through the local and national news, the business, lifestyle and theater sections, I look forward to those puzzles - saving them for the very end, like some great reward or delicious, tempting dessert. What? You don’t do that?

Most newspaper crossword fans know that the difficulty level of a particular puzzle is distinctly related to the day of the week - as we get closer to the weekend, the puzzles steadily become more challenging. Crossword puzzles are a good example of mental aerobics, tasks or exercises that involve mental effort.

The goal of these exercises is to “shake up” our usual mental assumptions and force us to think of novel solutions. A successful brainteaser or puzzle often gives us a moment of pleasure and satisfaction when we stumble upon the solution - at that moment a “light bulb” of understanding and insight turns on in our brain. Some experts believe this process correlates with the actual “stretching and toning” workout we are aiming to achieve for our brain cells.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Cells & Memory: A Science Lesson

The memories that concern us in everyday life, whether they are explicit memories or implicit memories, are far removed from nerve cells, just as our everyday world of food, cars, and people is far removed from the atoms that make them up.

Activity is electrical, nerve cells communicate with each other by releasing chemicals. This chemical release is a heritage of our past. When our ancestors were all just single cells, the only way to communicate was by releasing chemicals into primordial oceans. Later, as collections of multiple cells organized into primitive animals, the easiest way for cells to get messages across to one another was still to put out chemicals into the fluid that bathed them all.

When nerve cells developed, it appears that they adopted this existing transmission system for their own use. In some cases, these chemicals have retained some of the functions that they once had. In others, the functions have been modified beyond recognition. For example, the chemical people commonly know as adrenaline is actually a neurotransmitter as well. But it can get released into the blood when a special gland, the adrenal gland, gets stimulated. Adrenaline signals all the cells of the body to get ready for an emergency. It forces sugar into muscle cells, and slows down the digestive system. But adrenaline also operates deep within the brain, in the connections between some sets of nerve cells.

Memory at the nerve cell level is thought to involve changes in the strengths of connections between nerve cells. These changes can be both increases and decreases in the strength of connections. Since neurotransmitters are the major Way nerve cells communicate from one to another, changes in the way neurotransmitters are released, and changes in tie way neurotransmitters are received or interpreted by the nerve cell at the other end, must clearly be important in the formation of memory.

However, because we are concerned with the memories that come into our conscious experience, it is important to place our current knowledge of “memory” at the nerve cell level in the proper context. The memories that we are conscious of are not discrete files or pages inside our heads. Instead, they are a product of the electrical activity of an enormous number of nerve cells and nerve cell endings.

Some of these nerve cells and nerve cell endings are probably clustered together, and we identify them as specific regions of the brain. Other nerve cells involved in what we feel is a single memory probably are scattered widely all over the brain. The firing of the nerve cells is also probably spread out over time, as well. A single nerve cell takes about one-thousandth of a second to fire. However, the memories we see with techniques such as direct electrical recording seem to occupy a period of time at least two hundred times longer than this.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Excessive Use Of Alcohol Or Drugs

Many people find that alcohol makes them feel better and increases their confidence. It is not unusual for someone to have a few drinks to become more comfortable at a social event; as we mentioned earlier, some people have a few drinks before the event even starts. Despite some temporary reduction of symptoms, however, using alcohol to relieve anxiety can lead to alcohol abuse. While alcohol’s immediate effect is often to reduce anxiety, later that day or the next it can produce feelings of increased anxiety, irritability, or depression. This can happen even at moderate levels of social drinking. The person may not consume enough to experience a hangover, but mood and anxiety may still be affected. The person may not notice this pattern because the sick feelings that accompany a hangover may be mild, or even absent.

One warning level that has been established is regular consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks in a day. This level of consumption puts you at risk of motor vehicle accidents, interpersonal problems, and needing increasing amounts of alcohol over time to produce the desired relaxation effect. People are strongly encourage to limit their alcohol intake to one or two drinks at a social occasion and to avoid using alcohol to reduce anxiety.

If you think you are using alcohol excessively, you should do something about it. If heavy alcohol use has become a part of your routine, you are likely to find it tough to stop drinking on your own. There are many excellent organizations whose mission is to help people quit drinking and regain control of their lives. The best known, of course, is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). There are AA groups in virtually every city, town, and hole-in-the-wall in the United States, Canada, and around the world. You can also seek help from mental health counselors (if you are still in school); from your church, synagogue, mosque, or other religious organization; and from employee health organizations. The bottom line is, if you’re motivated to deal with your drinking problem, there is a group out there eager to help you accomplish your goal.

If you have a drinking problem, it is wise to try to tackle it before you invest much effort in dealing with social anxiety. The reason is simple: if you’re still drinking, particularly as a crutch to cope with anxiety, you’re unlikely to get better until you can give it up.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Does Everyone Have Equal Brain Power?

Are all memories created equal? It is virtually certain that different people have different brain abilities for different things. One of these differences must be in memory. But most of the differences in memory abilities that we see in everyday life do not seem to be due to differences in the brains we are born with, but to differences in how well we use the brains we are born with.

Our brains are probably somewhat like our muscles: everybody is born with different amounts of muscle. And this is probably particularly true of the muscle that is your heart. So it is likely that some people have bigger, stronger hearts than others do at birth. But it is also true that many people can take whatever amount of heart they are born with - large or small—and train themselves up from couch potato to marathon runner. The differences we find in everyday memory probably are comparable. They are probably still mostly based on how much we exercise what we have, not how much memory we are born with.

This is not to minimize the fact that different people may be born with different memory abilities. We know or suspect that there are genetically-based differences in brains. Some of the evidence comes from identical twins. Identical twins are almost exactly alike in their genetic composition. And identical twins show remarkably similar intelligence and memory abilities, even when they have been separated at birth and reared by different parents, in different environments. They even show remarkably similar patterns of how those intellectual abilities develop childhood and adolescence. These similarities suggest that there is a genetic program for intelligence and memory, that partly determines the intelligence and memory that we have in later life.

At the brain level, less is actually known about actual individual differences in the brain, and even less is known about individual differences in nerve cell connections. But these also certainly exist. One known example: an area of the cortex of the brain - the gray matter - is the first stop for information coming from the eyes. This area of the brain is clearly important in vision. Species with good vision have more of it; species that lose their vision (such as some that live in caves without light) lose this brain region. In humans, on the average, this brain region is three to four times larger than it is in monkeys - some reflection of our superior brain power, we would hope. But we also know that in some people, this area can be three times larger than it is in other people.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Food Allergies May Cause Forgetfulness

Food allergies or sensitivities can trigger brain fog and forgetfulness in a number of ways. A food particle may leak from the digestive system into the bloodstream without being fully digested, and the immune system sees this harmless food particle as a potential invader.

White blood cells, blood vessels, and even distant organs, such as the adrenal glands,respond to the intrusion by releasing a torrent of biochemicals, including histamines, which produce allergic symptoms. An allergic reaction and its brain symptoms can occur within minutes or hours of eating the offending food, as the chemicals build up in the brain and cause inflammation.

Allergies to foods can trigger a variety of other symptoms, such as headache, sinus congestion, runny nose, cramping, diarrhea, and skin eruptions. Lesser known reactions include edema, sore throat, heart palpitations, anxiety, fatigue, mood swings, joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraine. Many people who have food allergies can eat the food to which they are allergic, but no more than once every three days—this is called a rotation diet.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Stress and Cortisone

Most people do not realize how many of the common day-to-day sicknesses and illnesses are initially sparked off from stress. Stress then causes an entire chain reaction of bodily functions, with the first event being the release of cortisone.

A natural response to stress is the release of cortisone from the adrenal glands. The original benefit of this bodily function is protection from an instant allergy reaction, such as asthma or closing of the eyes, from dust that pops up from those items that irritate us. But if chronically elevated , cortisone destroys the body’s resistance to the stresses of cancer, infection, surgery, and illness. Every lymph gland in the body shrivels up and immune response weakens. The ability to fight off even the smallest of colds, especially any major illnesses, is greatly impaired.

Ailments caused from stress

As a common example, young kids are typically brought to the doctor with one series of infection after another for the first five or six years after starting daycare or kindergarten school. Now of course this is partially due to catching other germs and viruses from the children at school, but the truth is that most of the sickness that children get are caused from their immune system being overloaded with cortisone. This is due to the stress of leaving the “womb-like” comfort of the home for the general self-conscience and strangeness of being thrown into a society with their peers.

Adults will also notice this phenomenon when in a new environment. Teachers suffer frequent colds caught from their pupils during the first five years on the job. Pediatricians, however, have it even worse. They often go through five years of diarrhea while getting their training!

Stress reduces the stomach’s resistance

Chronic cortisone elevation also dramatically reduces the stomach’s resistance to its own acid, leading to gastric and duodenal ulcers. And farther along the bowels, colitis can be aggravated.

Bones are made more brittle by cortisone. Thus they could fracture much more easily. Blood pressure can be elevated by the retention of sodium, which can also push a borderline heart failure case into trouble. A most direct example of this is the common response of eating a diet high in fast foods, rich in salt, which is thus even more harmful than usual. Adrenalin is also released by the adrenal glands, and mediates a host of bodily reactions.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Vitamin E: A Miracle Brain Food

Vitamin E is a very multi-talented nutrient that aids a healthy mind. As an antioxidant, vitamin E helps minimize free-radical damage. Since it is fat soluble, it is stored in the fatty parts of your cell membranes; thus, it is uniquely capable of preventing the fat molecules so abundant in brain tissue from turning rancid. Vitamin E protects both the fatty outer membrane and inner membrane of your nerve cells, thereby increasing your brain’s ability to transmit messages from cell to cell, and create energy within the cells.

Vitamin E also reduces free-radical damage to your artery walls, helping to protect you against cardiovascular disease and its choking effect on blood flow to the brain. Numerous studies show that vitamin E supplements reduce the risk of stroke by 53 percent. It also reduces the inflammatory effects of pollution toxins, allergies, and infections, which can eventually reach the brain and wreak havoc there.

Autopsies have given us visible evidence that vitamin E deficiencies cause the delicate axons of nerves to degenerate. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies show that low levels of vitamin E in the blood are associated with brain damage due to impaired blood vessels in the brain or free-radical assault. In these studies, subjects ranged in age from forty-five to seventy-five, and those with the lowest levels of vitamin E had seven times the damage of those with the highest levels. An amazing study of 341 patients with Alzheimer’s showed that 1,000 IU of vitamin E slowed the progression of the disease in more than half the people who took it - the vitamin had even better results than the Alzheimer drug it was being compared to. In a Chicago study of 633 people sixty-five years or older, ninety-one people developed Alzheimer’s. But none of the twenty-seven people who were taking vitamin E supplements (200-800 IU per day) developed it. Statistically, researchers would have expected four of them (15 percent) to have developed the disease by, the end of the four-year study.

It’s no wonder so many brain researchers are taking vitamin E themselves. And it’s no wonder that the American Institute on Aging believes vitamin E shows such promise as a brain saver that it has launched a study to investigate its effects. The study involves 720 Americans aged fifty-five to ninety who have what is called mild cognitive impairment (MCI); the study is designed to determine if vitamin E will delay further memory loss and prevent or delay Alzheimer’s in these people. About 75 percent of those with MCI are expected to progress to Alzheimer’s. Even if vitamin E supplements only cut this rate in half, it will be a significant step toward reining in the occurrence of this devastating disease. The best food sources for vitamin E are cold-pressed vegetable oils, whole grains, nuts, dark green leafy vegetables, and legumes.

Popularity: 24% [?]

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