Brain Health Food

You'll love these next foods for brain health. I've spoken about most of them before, but this is in relation to brain health and keeping your brain functioning at a high level.

These three things should be taken in moderation, so a little is good, but a lot is not. The reason they are good is because of the antioxidants that they contain. The first of these is coffee. You can see back in August on the 21st, I talked about the effects of coffee. This was mostly focused on the caffeine effects of coffee. So this is the important thing to know. Again, there is some good in a little coffee. A lot of coffee is not so good. For brain health 1-2 cups a day maximum. This does not mean 1-2 of the extra large grande sizes. This means 1-2 of the 6-8 ounce size cups.

The second food here is red wine. Red wine is loaded with antioxidants. Again, this does not mean you drink a bottle of red wine every day. If you are aware of the Mediterranean diet, this diet is to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, beans, and nuts and then wash it all down with a glass of red wine. Remember though, if you are trying to lose weight, it may be better for you to not do the alcohol every day.

The last food in this high antioxidant grouping is chocolate. Now I have your attention. The best is to eat raw cacao as it is highest in antioxidants. I have a couple of entries in the blog on chocolate, just click on the word chocolate to see those.

Brain Health

I said I would talk more about foods that help your brain stay healthy and functioning at it's best. One of the things that really helps brain health is to reverse or minimize oxidation and inflammation. Oxidation occurs because of free radicals, so there is a huge need for us to decrease this potential damage to the DNA in our brain cells. The way to do this is with antioxidants.

The best antioxidants for the brain are the darker colored vegetables and fruits. Vegetables include spinach, brussels sprouts, beets, and eggplant. Fruits include berries, plums, prunes, cherries, red grapes, and oranges.

For the anti-inflammatory foods, go back and review the anti-inflammatory diet information starting on 2/13/09.

Keep Your Brain Healthy

Want to know how to keep your brain functioning at it's highest and best level? I think we all want to go here. If you have had a relative or known someone who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease, then you have probably already wondered how you can keep your brain functioning at it's best.

I believe there are 5 things you can do to keep you brain functioning at it's very best. The first thing is to eat well. I have written a few things about brain foods. If you look in the key word list on this blog under Brain Food, you will find them. One of the things that I have found to be most helpful in clearing my thinking is to actually cleanse the body which in turn cleans out the bad chemicals from the brain as well. I just recently did a series on cleansing, but if you are interested in cleansing the mind, respond to this post and I will send you more information.

Just some simple basics that clog up your brain are things like sugar and flour. Better to look to foods with natural sugars and whole grains or nuts. Researchers describe brain food diets as those that include fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, fish and poultry.

There are some specific foods which help the brain. Berries, especially blueberries improve short term memory, help clear arteries and improve blood flow to the brain.

More on brain foods tomorrow.

Decreasing Your Cancer Risk

We all have cancer cells in our bodies every day. However, our immune system recognizes them as not normally part of us and destroys them. So keeping the immune system absolutely as strong as you can is the most important thing you can do.

There are some other things you can do to decrease your exposure or risk from cancer causing chemicals. Some of the chemicals to avoid are sodium nitrite found in processed meats (hot dogs, bacon, sausage, etc.) and artificial chemical sweeteners. You should also be aware of the chemicals found in personal care items like shampoo, soaps and lotions. You will absorb these chemicals through the skin and they can be just as harmful as those that you ingest.

The World Cancer Research Fund promotes healthy foods and exercise as a way of decreasing the risk of cancer.

Antibiotics - When Should You Take Them?

I was asked the other day about whether a person should take antibiotics for a cold. This has been a source on consternation for me for years. Colds are caused by viruses. Antibiotics only help with bacterial infections and the antibiotics cannot do it alone. Your immune system in fact has to do most of the work. So having a healthy immune system is by far the most important thing in keeping you well.

Usually when the immune system is compromised by stress, lack of sleep, or something else is when you become sick with a cold. You can be healthy, but stress will really knock your immune system down and open the door for a virus to take hold.

The other thing to be aware of is that viruses usually last 10-14 days. Most people get impatient and want to be better right now. That is not going to happen with antibiotics, so don't rush off to the doctor in search of a magic pill. Rather boost up your immune system so that it can handle the virus.

Vitamins Good, Bad, or No Effect

As a researcher, I always go crazy when the news media picks up on some bit of research and runs with it, without really looking at whether the study is valid or not. A prime example is the Women's Multiple Vitamin study. I was some what surprised to see that this was actually published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Of course what the media picked up on was that the study "showed" that multivitamins are useless against cancer and heart disease in women.

Now, let's take a look at the study. This was actually a survey, which means that the results are only as good as the questions asked of the participants and the truth of the answers. What am I talking about here. If you really want to know if vitamins work, then you need to design a study in which you actually give the participants vitamins. This published study did not give anyone vitamins, merely asked the question, "do you take a multivitamin?" Most people would answer this question yes. But if you go look and count how many times a week they actually take the vitamin, it will likely not be every day. Now I know there are us out there who would rather not eat than to miss our vitamins, I'm one of those, but this is not the average person out there. The other question you have to ask is what kind of vitamins were they taking. Was it the cheapest brand they could get? Was there any quality control behind the vitamin they were taking to say that they were actually getting what it said they were getting in that vitamin. Oh, and here's another thing, were the components in the vitamin actually able to be absorbed by the body.

The interesting thing about all of this is that here is a "study" that says vitamins have no effect towards cancer and heart disease. The conclusion is that if vitamins don't have an effect, then you must need to take the expensive, toxic medications of big pharma. Well, I for one am not buying this one. Until they can put together a decent study, this does not show me anything and there are far more studies that do show the effects of vitamins.

Lastly, Detoxifying the Skin

The skin is the last organ I'll talk about cleansing. I'm not talking about soap and water here, although that is important as well. The skin has to be able to breathe in order to cleanse itself. If you are applying oils, the skin's pores become clogged and it is not able to breathe. The first thing to do is to stop applying creams or lotions which contain oils. Oil is not what lubricates the skin. What lubricates the skin is water. The skin should be kept moist and supple with creams or lotions that are water based.

Also look at the cream or lotion that you are using. Does it contain alcohol? There are actually some good alcohols and there are bad alcohols. The molecular weight of the alcohol will determine if it is a drying or moisturizing alcohol. Cetyl and stearyl alcohol both are of a molecular weight such that they actually attract water. If you cream just says alcohol or ethyl alcohol, then it will be more drying than moisturizing.

Eating fruits and vegetables will also help cleanse the skin. The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables as well as supplements actually end up coming out through the skin. This will help remove toxins that have built up in the skin.

Of course bathing is important. Use care with the types of soaps and cleansers that you use on the skin. Again, soaps can be drying which can inhibit the skin from functioning normally. I talked a little about this previously.