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Antioxidant Brain Cleaner

By On · Add Comment · In antioxidants, brain fog, free radicals, insulin resistance, memory, mental function, oxidative damage, type 2 diabetes

Want to know which natural substances have been shown to clear the mind of brain fog and improve mental function and memory? Antioxidants, that’s what.

An interesting study out of the University of Toronto found that antioxidants, like vitamins C and E, can clear mental sluggishness, confusion and forgetfulness in people with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by insulin resistance and high blood sugar. This type of diabetes is known as adult-onset diabetes because it is usually related to lifestyle–that is, poor diet, lack of exercise and obesity.

People with type 2 diabetes often get brain fog following a fatty meal. This mental sluggishness, the researcher have found, is due to oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals damage cells, tissues, and DNA, which can lead to cancer. They also speed up the aging process. Case in point, according to the Canadian scientists, brain fog in type 2 diabetics “makes the 50-year-old brain more like the 75-year-old brain.”

So what makes this study important? If brain fog is caused by oxidative damage from free radicals, don’t you think everybody might benefit from antioxidant supplementation? Yeah, so do I. Once again, that’s vitamins C and E, as well as vitamin A and selenium. And if you’ve read my book, The Six Keys To Optimal Health, then you know I really like alpha-lipoic acid (ALA). ALA is known as the universal antioxidant because it is both water and fat soluble, and it crosses the blood-brain barrier easily. It’s powerful and I highly recommend it. Research conducted at UC Berkeley showed alpha-lipoic acid to improve brain function and memory.

I don’t know about you guys but my mind is important to me, so I’m all about supplementing with antioxidants. If supplements aren’t your thing–and I’d strongly advise you to reconsider–then at least pound the real fruit juices I talked about in an earlier post. But for those of you who supplement regularly, don’t forget to include vitamins C, E and ALA in your nutritional regimen.

Fuhgeddaboudit

By On · Add Comment · In brain cells, dementia, enzyme inhibitor, long-term memory, memory, memory storage, mental function, PKMzeta

New research shows that long-term memory storage is not as secure as once thought. In fact, it is now evident that memory can be erased. You heard me right. All those fond recollections of our youth can be whisked away forever by just blocking a protein that controls information flow between brain cells.

U.S. and Israeli researchers found these results by feeding rats saccharine, which made them sick, and then teaching the rats to associate the taste of saccharine with feeling ill. The scientists then injected the rats with an enzyme inhibitor called ZIP, blocking the protein PKMzeta, which controls memory. As a result, the rats were unable to remember the association with saccharine (feeling ill), regardless of how long they were trained. This suggests that a key mechanism in the brain works like a piece of machinery to store long-term memory. According to Yadin Dudai who led the study, “Long-term memory can be erased.”

This study is being touted as a breakthrough for the understanding and future treatment of dementia, a progressive decline of mental function well beyond that associated with normal aging. I certainly think that this is one potential use for these recent findings; however, I can’t help but feel a little creeped out by the possibility that we may be seeing the future with regard to some Orwellian “mind control”, a la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And it’s not lost on me that this study was conducted by two groups that could greatly benefit from a few erased memories in the world of politics and national security. Although I’m not usually one to subscribe to conspiracy theories, I still feel a bit uneasy about any research that leads to tampering with brain function. I mean, we think therefore we are, right? Oh well, I guess we’ve got to take the good with the bad with every situation, and that includes with science. Let’s just hope human trials won’t be taking place anytime soon.

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