AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Wise up! Simple strategies to re-model, re-fire and re-gain your brain.(extra credit)
For years, people have believed that we are born with a certain number of brain cells and that those brain cells die off as we age, with no hope of ever getting them back. Today, scientists are proving that not only can we generate new brain cells but we can also branch them out and make new pathways in our thought and learning processes. What does this mean to the average person? That anyone at any age can continue to build brain strength, and that being mentally "sharp" isn't something reserved for the young anymore.
The act of building brain power is called "neurobics." And just like the name implies, it's all about doing aerobics for your brain. Fortunately, these types of aerobic workouts don't involve 6:00am gym sessions or buying workout gear. Neurobics is something anyone can do anywhere in just minutes a day. Consider making the following neurobics principles a part of your daily routine to help your brain branch out.
Act Happy
Method acting is an acting technique in which actors try to replicate real life emotional conditions under which the character operates, in an effort to create a life-like, realistic performance. Whether you are an actor or not, everyone's life is a stage play. So bring a bit of the theatre onto the stage of your daily life and purposefully act happy ... get your brain's ACT together.
Method actors who play happy roles have a chemistry that keeps them more active and more involved in life. Scientifically, acting happy has a chemistry that is measurable with such things as T-cells, gamma globulins, serotonins, endorphins, melatonin and cortisol, just to name a few. We can even do a PET scan of the brain and see what the emotional map of the brain looks like, because there is a physiology that goes with the emotions. That means we can actually see what anger, sadness and even happiness looks like. Even more important, acting happy, whether through deep belly laughter or a simple smile, activates positive chemicals in the brain that keep us alert and physically healthy. So act happy in order to keep your brain more alive and functional.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Sharpen Your Senses
- New understanding of why brain cells die after stroke will lead to new...
- Newspaper article from: Drug Week January 16, 2004 700+ words
...found a major mechanism that causes brain cells to die from stroke. They discovered that when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and vital...channel on the surface of those brain cells is activated, triggering a lethal...
- Snail brain cells on chips point toward brain/device products.
- Newspaper article from: Medical Device Daily August 5, 2004 700+ words
...shown for the first time that brain cells placed on a silicon chip can...themselves. The use of snail brain cells, instead of brains cells from rats or other higher...a significant step forward in brain research that could eventually...
- Do old brain cells die?
- Magazine article from: Science News Travis, John September 7, 1996 700+ words
...Angeles stresses that the human brain differs significantly from the rat brain and that the new results will be...similar data are found in human brains available for autopsy. If hippocampal brain cells are not dying, what causes the...
- What are men doing with extra brain cells? Gray-matter discovery leads to gray...
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times Price, Joyce July 30, 1997 700+ words
...examined the brains of 94 adult...we collected brain cells from the whole...recognized that male brains are heavier...number of [brain] cells" between men...cells in female brains. "Maybe we...billion more brain cells to function...
- Scientists show adult blood stem cells can transform into brain cells in people.
- Newspaper article from: Biotech Week June 2, 2004 700+ words
...blood stem cells evolved into male brain cells in three women who underwent bone...able to isolate nearly 10,000 brain cells of various types, and discovered...marrow had somehow converted into brain cells. Scientists think this might have...
- Growth of New Brain Cells Requires 'Epigenetic' Switch.
- News wire article from: Ascribe Higher Education News Service January 8, 2009 700+ words
...also turns on Gadd45b in brain cells. To find out if Gadd45b is required for new brain-cell growth, the research...ability to generate new brain cells after ECT. They injected...containing that dye in brains from mice with and without...
- Stimulating clue hints how lithium works.(research indicates lithium keeps...
- Magazine article from: Science News Travis, John March 14, 1998 700+ words
...have found that lithium protects brain cells from being stimulated to death...provocatively, preserve the life of brain cells whose presence guards against manic...response of various types of rat brain cells to glutamate. Many normal cells...
- Creating brains of mice and men.(planting human brain cells in mice...
- Magazine article from: Chemistry and Industry March 5, 2001 700+ words
...of mice whose brains are made entirely...The native mouse brain cells would be programmed...human and animal brains cells can grow...introducing human brain cells into the brain of an animal would...all, it is our brains that make us who...
Source: HighBeam Research, Wise up! Simple strategies to re-model, re-fire and re-gain your...