FATIGUE, DEPRESSION OR MEMORY LOSS ANYONE?

If you have any of the symptoms of fatigue, depression or memory loss, you may have a Vitamin B12 deficiency. Of 26 to 49 year olds, 17% were completely deficient in B12 while another 40% had low to normal levels. So before you start taking medications, experiment with some Vitamin B12.

A BRAIN POWER SUPPLEMENT

In a past issue of the Teplitz Report, I One of my readers wrote in about a formula that contains these and many other ingredients to improve memory. It's called Brain/Memory Formula #75 and it's made by Country Health Formula. Ask your local health food store to order it for you.

BUILDING BRAIN POWER

Here are three supplements to help your brain be sharp while reducing the loss of your brainpower.

gingko biloba
vinpocetine
phosphaidylserine

All three boost memory function. Now if I can only remember to buy some. Since there is not one formula that contains all three, you need to read labels to make sure you're getting what you want

IRON MAY BE NECESSARY FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

A study done by the International Conference on BioIron found that college students might be iron deficient. College women who were diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia took tests requiring memory and logic. After taking an iron supplement for 3 months their test scores improved with some increasing 10 to 20 percent. So if memory and logic are issues for you, get your iron levels tested.

VITAMIN B12 CAN HELP KEEP YOUR MEMORY

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that out of 3,000 American adults ages 26 to 83 one of five were deficient in vitamin B12. For people who took a multi-vitamin that contained vitamin B12, only 1 of 12 were deficient. A deficiency of B12 can show up as a memory loss. So if someone you know is having memory loss, make sure to check out their B12 levels.

MEMORY ENHANCEMENT... NOW IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER

An herbal extract called vinpocetine exerts powerful memory-enhancing effects. Vinpocetine enhances blood circulation and oxygen utilization in the brain and protects brain cells from the devastating effects of disrupted oxygen delivery. Researchers administered vinpocetine or a placebo to 203 patients with mild to moderate dementia. After 16 weeks significantly greater improvements were observed in measures of cognitive performance and overall quality of life in the patients taking vinpocetine compared to the placebo group.

MEMORY ENHANCEMENT = NOW IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER

An herbal extract called vinpocetine exerts powerful memory-enhancing effects. Vinpocetine enhances blood circulation and oxygen utilization in the brain and protects brain cells from the devastating effects of disrupted oxygen delivery. Researchers administered vinpocetine or a placebo to 203 patients with mild to moderate dementia. After 16 weeks significantly greater improvements were observed in measures of cognitive performance and overall quality of life in the patients taking vinpocetine compared to the placebo group.

How Stress Affects Memory

Stress is now linked to memory loss. Researchers have found that stress can destroy our brain’s synapses which seems to be the main cause of memory problems.

More specifically, stress negatively impacts the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex areas in the brain. Instead of loss of memory being a function of aging, it may be coming from the stress that’s going on in your life.

Some interesting research done several years ago found that when people meditated regularly they experienced lower levels of stress and over time their hippocampus membrane actually increased in thickness.

Other ways to reduce your stress and keep your brain functions include exercising, socializing with friends, keeping doing what you love to do, and sleeping well. So…reducing your stress is up to you!

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

It turns out only a tiny portion of your mind is dedicated to conscious behavior. The rest is the subconscious mind regulating our organs, digestion, breathing and even the flashes of insight we get.

The best way to mess up this finely tuned system is to attempt to do even simple things consciously. Some simple examples: if you play the piano, concentrate on your fingers: and if you are a golfer, analyze your swing while you are doing it. This type of memory is called implicit memory, which means that your brain holds this knowledge and your mind cannot explicitly access it. These two types of memory are so distinct you can damage one without hurting the functioning of the other.

An illustration would be research that has been done with patients who cannot consciously recall new experiences in their lives. The researchers spent the afternoon teaching the patients a video game. The next day, the patients said they had no recollection of learning the game and that they had never see it before. When the researchers looked at the patient’s performance, they found the patients improved as much as a group of controls who had no memory problems. This means the implicit part of their brain learned the game and it allowed them to improve their skills.

Another example is with dementia patients. If you read them a story one day and then read the same story the next several days, the dementia patients will become bored even though they have no conscious memory of having heard the story before.

So…if you know someone with dementia, make sure to continue to give them varied activities to do.
 

(Reported Discover September 2011)