What are the Best Apps to Keep the Brain App-tivated ?

One of the best ways to keep your brain healthy is by the "strategic activation" of different parts of the brain .The brain is stimulated by learning new things which creates deeper connections and stronger pathways.

Proper mental stimulation can be a very important lifestyle factor for keeping your memory sharp. The process of learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language for example, is particularly beneficial.

With the “age of technology” there are also ways to use your personal smart phones or tablets to keep the brain activated. CNN Health recently listed "The 10 Best Apps to Train Your Brain."  These are programs that are designed to reduce stress and promote better mental health, while others are focused on increasing cognitive function.

Recommended App (s)

Lumosity - which uses games to train your memory, attention, problem solving, processing speed, and flexibility of thinking           

Brain Trainer Special - employs games involving letter, number, and sequencing memorization

CogniFit -  Brain Fitness also uses games designed to improve cognitive abilities such as memory and concentration 

Brain Fitness Pro - uses a variety of memory training exercises to increase focus, memory, and problem-solving skills

Personal Zen -  is a game designed to reduce anxiety by learning to focus more on that which is positive, rather than dwelling on the negative

Fit Brains Trainer - offers more than 360 games and puzzles to help improve your mental agility

Happify - is another app that helps you develop a more positive attitude, which can make you more resilient in the face of stress 

Eidetic - employs a spaced repetition technique to help you memorize just about anything. It will also notify you when it's time to test yourself, which helps ensure you're retaining the information

Positive Activity Jackpot - Originally developed for returning military service members, this app uses GPS to locate fun activities for those struggling with depression. If you're feeling indecisive, you can let the app decide which activity to do, using the "jackpot lever." According to CNN: "PAJ is based on a form of behavioral therapy called pleasant event scheduling, which encourages a daily schedule of enjoyable activities to improve moods and overcome despondent thoughts."      

ReliefLink -  was originally developed for suicide prevention, but can also be used to track your moods. According to CNN: "It also includes unique coping methods, such as voice-recorded mindfulness and relaxation exercises, or relaxing music. The map locator pinpoints nearby therapists, support groups and mental health treatment facilities, too, in case you ever need to talk to a professional."

Better Brain Tip:

It is my recommendation to wait to use electronic activation apps at least one hour after waking or no less than one hour before bedtime. Memory apps are best used during the peak time periods of your work day. 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. when blood sugars drop from main meals and the tired or restlessness can set in… Wake up your body and TRAIN Your Brain!

The Journey to Life Mastery

Discovering your clear purpose and finding passion in the journey toward life mastery, in my opinion, is one of the most powerful strategies. I see the biggest breakthroughs with my patients when they think beyond themselves and strive to help a BIGGER cause. I believe everyone has an innate purpose yet all too often the journey is never traveled.

Several years ago I had a goal to write a book before my 50th birthday. I love reading parables so I chose to create a story based on how kids from around the globe came together to change the world. I spent three years (often up all night) writing what I felt were the most important innate lessons I have learned in my own life.

My main focus each time I sat down to write was to ask myself this question…

What are the most important lessons I want to share in regards to raising my children to be great examples for future generations?

Asking this purposeful question gave me the rudder to steer my writing of the story. There was a huge feeling of accomplishment when I finished my book "Camp Silverheart  -The 8th day.” The book was completed one month before my actual 50th birthday.

I believe inside us all there is a seed of greatness that calls and guides us to realize an inspired purpose for living. It might be to write words that will change people's lives, create music that moves them, commit ourselves to a cause that will truly make a difference, find a cure for humankind's physical or social ills, or raise a family with such love and wisdom that the world benefits because our children are in it.

Over the past 30 years in private practice I have assisted thousands of people to understand the basics of innate living and how to use that understanding to transform their lives. The power of the mind is a truly miraculous resource and it is magnified exponentially with a clear purpose.

Looking back at the beauty of writing "Camp Silverheart" has enabled me to transform the story into personal empowerment excursions that inspire others to "find your why”. It is amazing to teach others how to use this understanding to clarify their unique purpose. At our 8^th- Day Excursions we teach how to strategize daily actions and live proactively towards each individual's most inspired goals and dreams.

There is something magical and powerful that happens when there is an alignment with life  goals, and action steps to continue to design a clearer life voyage. There is also great power when we overcome obstacles, manage our emotions and take charge of creating lifetime dreams. At our 8th day Excursions we call this transformational process "earning your wings".

What we have discovered is when we allow ourselves the time to reflect and retreat ,we open the doorway to dissolve feeling of frustration and limitations and find the deepest sense of our true life purpose .

Join us at an 8^th- Day Excursions and you will know at an innate level the importance of self empowerment, the power of vision and the essence of intention to live an inspired life.

Building Blocks for a Better Brain

“The brain has tremendous potential to learn during the early phases of development. If you take advantage of this principle, your children have a greater potential in their own future.”

Dr Robert Graykowski

Creating a healthier brain is like following a blueprint for any construction project or remodel — the design scheme leaves plenty of room for a variety or improvements.

With today's technology it is now possible to see the areas of the brain that are activated with different emotions or mental activities .Want some added functionality? Have a better memory? Enhanced math skills? Superior problem-solving abilities? Just make your request and the human brain will happily adjust to accommodate your command. 

The Challenge May Be Timing 

Most major brain construction takes place before we are actually born, leaving only a few key areas unfinished. Our ability to use vision to distinguish objects in the world around us isn’t hammered out for several months after birth. Likewise, our abilities to learn languages, coordinate movements and solve puzzles gradually mature as we age.

The question is… What can we do to influence the wiring in the areas of the brain that make these behaviors possible? And what’s the possibility of successful remodeling projects in adulthood, after construction has been officially completed?

 The brains rewiring capabilities (neuroplasticity) show that it is still possible to pick up new skills well into the golden years, especially if the brain is primed with the best early experiences. life experiences can physically alter the way the brain is constructed.

Laying Down a Great Foundation

The principles taught through the Better Brain Blueprint are built around a solid foundation that adding new knowledge is best when it is layered.  “If you learn something in a series of steps that are always within your capacity, then you can drive the brain much further.”

Before birth almost 250,000 new nerve cells are being formed every minute .Early in the brain’s formation, the neurons interconnect to form a communications web. This network allows the brain to quickly carry out complicated information-processing tasks. For an example, look at vision. These neural connections allow signals to travel from the eye to the vision center in the back of the brain and on to other brain regions to react or coordinate emergency responses.

Each connection, called a synapse, adds to the brain’s computing power, so it’s no surprise that humans generally have more synapses than our less-intellectual cousins in the animal kingdom.

But despite their obvious importance, the molecules that allow these new synapses to form were unknown until only recently.

Modifying the Blueprint

The connections that form as the brain develops aren’t hard-wired. Rather than providing a precise blueprint, our genes simply lay out which groups of neurons should probably keep in touch. A PhD researcher ,Stephen Smith and Stanford professor of molecular and cellular physiology  has discovered some rules that govern why one neuron makes a certain connection and its neighbor doesn’t. It all comes down to noise.

According to Smith, human brains form and react based upon experiences. Neurons that are regularly active — such as those getting called upon to solve tasks or make particular language-related sounds — will then form more extensive connections throughout the brain. A nerve with more connections will  then use those neurons when they are developing creating more total brainpower available.

What About the Room for Kids

Discoveries about how the brains of animals and humans develop hold important lessons for child care and education. With this in mind, neurobiology professor Eric Knudsen and the other 11 members of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child are translating their research into a series of working papers and sharing them with educational policy-makers.

The first two papers, focus on children’s relationships with adults and on emotional development. “These are the building blocks that eventually allow you to do higher order functions,” Knudsen says.

A healthy relationship with adults won’t teach a child to speak French, but it can develop brain circuits that make it easier for the child to learn languages or chemistry or social skills later on in life. More research is proving that early experiences can permanently change the brain’s architecture and make it easier or harder for a person to form normal relationships as an adult.

Be Conscious of Timing when Building

No amount of teaching a newborn multiplication will help the child’s math skills — the math-processing neurons just aren’t developed yet. The brain can’t respond to certain stimuli until they are at the right developmental stage. At this time ,determining the precise moment a particular person is ready to learn any particular skill is virtually impossible.

The best possible Better Brain Strategy is all about preparation. We all know a child can’t learn geometry until the brain is ready. But how well the child picks up that new skill can be altered by early experiences that prime the brain and their connections for action.

Those fancy colored toys that make sounds, or puzzles aren’t exactly the same as teaching a child to play Mozart. But the extra synapses formed because of those experiences might help with both Mozart and math later on in life. Research over the past few decades also shows that kids who have the richest environment growing up are also more emotionally stable and able to form normal relationships.

Better Brain Tip

I recommend that kids spend time in environments to stimulate all parts of the brain.

“Exposing young kids to enriching experiences is perfect,” .There’s no timeline for these experiences. It’s the cumulative impact of a rich childhood that adds up to developing a better brain

Do Cell Phones Affect Brain Function?

One of the most important tools in today's modern society is the cell phone. We have become so dependent on these smart mini computers that it is estimated we spend on average 4 hours a day gazing into their tiny screens or talking through them. The question is "how are cell phones and the microwaves they emit affecting our health?".

The problem is the nobody wants to hear that something as “indispensable” as our cell phone could be very harmful to our health, but that’s exactly what's continued research and increased evidence is showing.

Smart phones and other personal gadgets have the potential to cause a plethora of health problems, from dizziness and headaches to brain tumors. The continued link between brain cancer and cell phone use has been a particularly controversial one but mounting evidence has only made this assumption a strong possibility.

The latest research has shown that those who begin using cell phones heavily before age 20 have four to five times more brain cancer by their late 20s, compared to those whose exposure is minimal.

In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared cell phones a Class B Carcinogen, meaning a “possible cancer-causing agent,” based on the available research. This places cell phones in the same category as diesel engine exhaust, some pesticides, and some heavy metals.

The research panel ruled that there was “strong evidence” that regular cell phone use increased the risk of two types of tumors – brain tumors (gliomas) and acoustic neuromas.When you consider the fact that your body is bioelectric, it’s easier to understand how and why biological damage from wireless phones might occur.

Our body uses electrons to communicate, and inside every cell are mitochondria, the “power plants” of the cell, and these mitochondria can be adversely impacted by electromagnetic fields, resulting in cellular dysfunction. Other mechanisms of harm have also been discovered in recent years.

The conclusion was that the more hours spent with a cell phone pressed against the ear, and the more years spent using a mobile phone, the higher the odds were for developing neurological problems. Those who logged the most amount of hours on their cell phones were twice as likely to develop a tumor as compared to those who used them the least.

There are signs that technology is progressively getting more harmful.

The findings show that 3G phones may cause more harm than earlier versions, raising the risk of brain cancer four-fold. It also appears to have shorter latency period—just five to 10 years, compared to about 25 years for earlier mobile phone versions.

One theory is that the electromagnetic fields emitted from cell phones can damage your cells and DNA by inducing a cellular stress response. Studies show that no heat is required for this DNA damage to occur.

A review of 11 long-term studies published in the journal Neurology in 2009 revealed that using a cell phone for 10 years or longer approximately doubles your risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same side of the head where the cell phone is typically held.

Another important study, funded by the US government, was published in JAMA8, 9 in 2011. Using a specialized brain scanner capable of detecting alterations in glucose, the researchers determined that cell phone radiation triggers your brain cells to metabolize glucose at an increased rate.

Glucose metabolism equates to cell activation, so the findings indicate that radiation from your cell phone has a well-defined measurable influence on your brain. Essentially, each time you put a cell phone up to your ear, you’re artificially activating your brain cells. While that much is clear, it’s still unknown whether this excess glucose production is harmful, or can cause a cascade of problems down the line.

Prevention Guidelines to Protect Your Brain

It’s important to note that research is showing that there is a general agreement that there’s a delayed period of time of about 10 years or more before the damage shows up, which places children at greatest risk—a risk that is potentially exacerbated with more modern 3G technologies, which appear to be even more harmful than earlier versions.

From my perspective, the evidence clearly indicates that we need to take more precautionary measures until the industry starts taking this matter more seriously. We as parents must take the responsibility to keep our children safe . To minimize the risk to your brain, and that of your child, please pay attention to the following advice:

Better Brain Tips

1) Don’t let your child use a cell phone. Barring a life-threatening emergency, children should not use a cell phone, or a wireless device of any type. Children are far more vulnerable to cell phone radiation than adults, because of their thinner skull bones.

2) Keep your cell phone use to a minimum especially pressed against your head. Do not sleep with it under your pillow or next to you and turn your cell phone off more often. Reserve it for emergencies or important matters. As long as your cell phone is on, it emits radiation intermittently, even when you are not actually making a call. Use a land line at home and at work for longer conversations

3) Limit cell phone use to areas with excellent reception. The weaker the reception, the more power your phone must use to transmit, and the more power it uses, the more radiation it emits, and the deeper the dangerous radio waves penetrate into your body. Ideally, you should only use your phone with full bars and good reception.

4) Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body, and ideally, put it in your purse or carrying bag. Placing a cell phone in your bra or in a shirt pocket over your heart is asking for trouble, as is placing it in a man's pocket if he seeks to preserve his fertility. The most dangerous place to be, in terms of radiation exposure, is within about six inches of the emitting antenna. You do not want any part of your body within that area while the phone is on.

5) Don't assume one cell phone is safer than another. There's no such thing as a "safe" cell . Some people who have become sensitive can feel the effects of others' cell phones in the same room, even when it is on but not being used. If you are in a meeting, on public transportation, in a courtroom or other public places, such as a doctor's office, keep your cell phone turned off out of consideration for the “secondhand radiation” effects.

6) Use a well-shielded wired headset: Wired headsets will certainly allow you to keep the cell phone farther away from your body. However, if a wired headset is not well-shielded -- and most of them are not -- the wire itself can act as an antenna attracting and transmitting radiation directly to your brain. So make sure the wire used to transmit the signal to your ear is shielded. One of the best kinds of headsets use a combination of shielded wire and air-tube. These operate like a stethoscope, transmitting the sound to your head as an actual sound wave; although there are wires that still must be shielded, there is no wire that goes all the way up to your head.

Vitamin D and Brain Health

In the middle of the winter is the most important time to supplement Vitamin D3 to create an environment for optimum brain and heart health. We all know that vVtamin D is a critically important component in building strong bones and strong teeth. It turns out that Vitamin D has a vast number of additional functions.

For example, recent research shows that low Vitamin D levels is related to increased risk for diabetes as well as cardiovascular disease. Insufficient Vitamin D during pregnancy can lead to gestational diabetes as well as pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension), which may be life-threatening. Links between low Vitamin D levels and development of cancer have been studied for many years.

Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with mild depression, Alzheimer's disease, and stroke, as well as with peripheral neuropathy, lupus, and fibromyalgia. It seems that Vitamin D has a huge impact on almost every aspect of our physical health. It makes sense for everyone to ensure they are getting enough Vitamin D on a daily basis.

How to get enough Vitamin D? The best source of this powerful vitamin is sunlight. The sun's rays stimulate skin cells to produce the activated form of Vitamin D, cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3). Activated Vitamin D helps regulate levels of calcium and phosphate in the blood stream, helps maintain normal bone mineralization, and helps regulate nerve function, the immune response, and genes responsible for cell growth, differentation, and cell death. These genetic regulatory functions are associated with Vitamin D's role in cancer prevention.

Back in the day, people were outdoors much more than they are in the 21st century. There were no text messages, no multiplayer games, no social networking sites (people actually "networked" by meeting each other in physical space), and definitely no computers that occupied less than entire room's worth of square feet.

Our modern lifestyle causes us to stay indoors, far away from the healthful rays of the sun. Oh wait - the sun's rays aren't that healthful anymore because of pollution and radical degradation of the ozone layer by excessive accumulations of free radicals in the atmosphere. The resulting increased exposure to ultraviolet-B radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer in those who are susceptible and do not protect themselves with sunscreens.

To balance the daily requirement for Vitamin D with the opposing need to avoid undue exposure, most studies recommend getting 15 to 30 minutes of unprotected sunlight several times per week (two to four such expeditions each week are sufficient). Importantly, studies demonstrate that three out of four Americans have Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency affects more than one billion people worldwide.

Vitamin D supplementation may also be recommended, particularly for those who live in sun-deprived climates and for most people in winter. Two thousand IU of Vitamin D3 is typical daily dose.

Better Brain Tip:

Supplement Vitamin D3 during the winter months

References:

ReSwales HH, Wang TJ: Vitamin D and cardiovascular disease risk: emerging evidence. Curr Opin Cardiol July 7, 2010 (Epub ahead of print)

Lapillonne A: Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy may impair maternal and fetal outcomes. Med Hypotheses 74(1):71-75, 2010

Edlich R, et al: Scientific documentation of the relationship of vitamin D deficiency and the development of cancer. J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 28(2):133-141, 2009