Key Messages
Unlock Your Brainpower: How To Harness Your Mind Using The Latest Research In Neuroscience And Neurobiology
Do you want to maximize your brain’s potential? Unlock your full cognitive potential and be the best version of yourself? If so, then you need to understand the power that comes with making small changes in dietary and lifestyle routines.
Head Strong, a book based on the latest findings of neuroscience and neurobiology, provides clear, straightforward advice for improving mental clarity, focus and productivity.
In these sections, you’ll learn why cutting milk from your diet but ramping up on butter is beneficial to your brain; how LED lights can harm our brains; plus tips on how sex and chocolate can help us concentrate better!
By following these simple yet effective steps provided in Head Strong you’ll soon gain control of your mental faculties – all while unlocking the untapped potential of your brain!
Unlocking Peak Brain Performance: How Healthy Mitochondria Keep Us Sharp
Most of us strive to stay sharp and efficient, but it can be hard with the demands of life.
With busy schedules, it’s hard to focusu and think clearly.
To ensure our brains operate at optimal capacity, healthy mitochondria are the key!
Mitochondria are tiny cellular structures found in each cell in our bodies, playing a pivotal role in providing energy to our brains.
The brain’s prefrontal cortex has the highest concentration of mitochondria in the body – except for the ovaries – making them powerful players in powering up your mental capabilities.
These powerhouses produce energy by breaking down adenosine triphosphate (ATP), just for us!
This gives us all the fuel we need for a super powered brain!
The bad news is that too often we overtax our mitochondria without even knowing it, leading to foggy thinking and fatigue.
How does this happen? We expose ourselves to toxins from food, light, or air more than we realize – which requires extra energy from the mitochondria that would normally be used for cognitive functions like attention and focus.
By taking steps like avoiding environmental toxins or eating fresh whole foods rich with nutrients, you can help support healthy mitochondria – leaving you with long-lasting brain energy!
Boost Your Brain Power With Healthy Fats And Regular Exercise
The key to enhancing your cognitive performance is to improve the health of your neurons.
Neurons are the basic building blocks of the brain and they help form pathways called neural networks, which influence how we think, learn, and respond to our environment.
If these networks are underperforming, it can make it difficult to memorize and recall information.
Luckily, the health of our neurons isn’t set in stone – with the right lifestyle choices we can fine-tune them for optimal performance.
To do this begins with making sure that we have well-functioning myelin membranes that surround our neurons.
This is why consuming healthy fats such as those found in grass-fed butter or meat can be beneficial – they’re essential for creating robust cell membranes.
It’s also important to increase neurogenesis – the rate at which new neurons are created – in order to gain cognitive enhancement, rapid learning, and emotional resilience.
We can do this by reducing sugar intake and focusing on eating polyphenols found in coffee, chocolate, grapes or blueberries; and finally getting exercise and having sex regularly which have been proven to boost neurogenesis!
Boost Your Brain Power By Balancing Omega-3 And Omega-6 Fatty Acids To Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation that lasts too long affects more than just our physical health—it can also take a toll on our mental performance.
Even for young people, unchecked inflammation can erode their ability to learn and pay attention.
To tackle the inflammation that’s sapping your brain power, Head Strong suggests making dietary changes to reduce your risk of chronic inflammation.
At its core is the concept of eicosanoids—these are molecules that are made using omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, but each produce different results.
Omega-6 produces pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, while those made from omega-3 are anti-inflammatory.
It’s essential to have an equal number of pro and anti-inflammatory eicosanoids in our bodies.
The problem is, most of us consume far too many omega-6 fatty acids which skews the ratio into favor of pro-inflammatory ones.
To address this and bring back balance to your body’s system, it’s recommended to up your intake of wild caught seafood like salmon and cut down on vegetable oils as they contain high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids.
Unlock Your Brain’s Full Potential By Eating The Right Foods For Neurotransmitters And Polyphenols
If you want to maximize your brain’s full potential, then it’s essential to enrich your diet with some brain-boosting foods.
Thankfully, many of these can be found right in the supermarket or aisles in your very own fridge!
For instance, polyphenols such as those found in coffee and dark chocolate, as well as purple and dark red vegetables will help protect our bodies from free radical damage.
Additionally, grape seed extract is loaded with supercharged antioxidants that can boost our mental capacity even more.
To ensure we are getting enough of these key micronutrients for our neurotransmitters, adding a few nutrient-rich foods such as beef, turkey, almonds, and salmon can do wonders for getting neurotransmitters moving.
When all is said and done, if you truly want to unlock your mind’s full potential start adding in some delicious brain-building snacks and meals into your diet today!
Avoid These Foods To Unlock Your Brain’s Full Potential
If you’re looking for ways to increase your brainpower, then look no further than the foods that you are eating.
Many unknown ingredients and foodstuffs can actually have a detrimental effect on our cognitive abilities than good.
One of them is trans fats, which can be found in baked goods, fried foods, margarine and more.
Trans fats damage the mitochondria in our body and impair our mental functioning.
To make matters worse, they also greatly increase our risk of developing cancer and other forms of dementia – all mitochondrial disorders.
Another seemingly harmless food to watch out for is milk protein as it causes inflammation, leading to weakened mitochondrial function and slowed down brain activity.
Not to mention, it also binds polyphenols which prevents them from being utilized by the body’s cells.
The exception here is butter which contains almost no milk protein so feel free to add that to your shopping list!
Finally, try minimizing your intake of gluten as much foods that contain glutamate do not provide any benefits for your brain as they can cause inflammation and reduce blood stream flow leading to weaker performance levels for your noggin!
So go ahead, ditch those foods that limit your brain power and maximize the effects of positive items with Natures Nutrition’s Superfoods supplements!
Protect Your Brain From The Hidden Dangers Of “Junk” Light
It’s clear that we should all avoid junk food to maintain our cognitive abilities and our overall health.
But did you know that the “junk” light that we’re exposed to nowadays can be just as unhealthy as junk food? Our cells’ mitochondria are especially sensitive to light, and the artificial illumination of modern life is filled with potentially damaging short wavelengths—known as blue light.
When mitochondria get too much blue light, they have to work overtime, which leads to an excess production of free radicals in the body.
These free radicals provide a drag on our mental focus and energy levels.
So what can you do about this issue? One of the best ways to start is by reducing the amount of blue-light emitting electronics around you.
Download an app like ‘f.lux’ on Android devices or iPhones which will automatically turn down blue light late at night–or any time throughout the day.
Additionally, you should strive to spend more time outside in natural sunlight where possible—this will help enrich your cells with beneficial long-wavelengths!
By taking these steps, you’ll be helping protect yourself from “junk” light while improving brain function and boosting stamina!
Wrap Up
Head Strong by John Ratey covers the essential components of a healthy brain, from diet to sleep and light exposure.
The key message be found in these sections is that your mitochondria plays an important role in maintaining an optimal functioning brain and that you need to nourish them with a balanced diet containing saturated fat, polyphenols, and fewer toxins.
Furthermore, too much blue light should be avoided or at least balanced out with periods in the sun.
Actionable advice stemming from this book can be summed up as follows: make sure your bedroom is pitch black since a good night’s sleep is vital if you want to perform well the day after.
If necessary, invest in blackout curtains or use extra fabric to keep out any intruding light sources.
