7 Great Foods to Boost Your Brain Power

Our addiction to work and the internet is slowly wearing us down, and with that it’s dragging down our ability to think clearly and creatively.

Luckily there is the help at hand, and thankfully it comes in the form of food. Here are seven great foods that can get your brain back on track.

1. Seeds

Seeds, namely pumpkin and sunflower seeds, are fantastic sources of vitamin, with a quarter of a cup of the latter containing over 60% of your recommended daily allowance.

What’s the benefit of eating a food so rich in vitamin E? People with diets rich in the vitamin have been shown to have 67% less chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease in later life, and could even reduce or prevent brain damage in stroke victims.

Our tip: Sprinkle sunflower seeds on top of your salad and fried vegetables.

2. Avocado

Great news for the fans of the creamy fruit. Avocado is not only rich in vitamin E, but also in oleic acid. This fatty acid plays a key part in our cognitive power by building myelin in the brain, which helps boost the speed at which information travels in the brain.

Our tip: Crush some avocado on to toast and sprinkle either feta or goat cheese on top.

3. Cinnamon

Perhaps the most unexpected food (well, sort of food) on the list, but the power of this spice can’t be underestimated.

A study found that cinnamon helped improve participants’ performances in memory tests as well as visual-motor tests.

Additionally, cinnamon is high in a powerful antioxidant called manganese. In fact, just two teaspoons contains half of your recommended daily amount. Manganese is vital for good brain health.

Our tip: Sprinkle some on top of your breakfast oats to get your brain going first thing in the morning.

4. Oregano

Another surprise here comes in the form of the beautiful herb, oregano.

In a study in the British Journal of Nutrition, participants who took oregano extract twice daily for five days had noticeable increases in the brain waves associated with better mood and greater relaxation.

These brainwaves (beta-1) are also associated with greater cognitive processing performance and alertness.

Furthermore, the antioxidants present in oregano are greatly associated with protection and neuronal damage.

Our tip: Mix minced oregano into a marinade for chicken before roasting.

5. Sweet potato

Often regarded as a healthier source of carbohydrate than their white counterparts, there is now another fantastic reason to start stocking up on sweet potatoes: Carotenoids.

See, sweet potatoes’ rich orange comes from its abundance of carotenoids. Low levels of this powerful antioxidant are often associated with cognitive decline and impairment, particularly in the elderly, and so it’s thought that higher levels of carotenoids will see the opposite effect.

Our tip: Slice up some sweet potato and mix together with some apple and crushed kale to create a brain-boosting super salad.

6. Green tea

It’s no secret that green tea is good for you, with lower risks of diabetes and various types of cancer attributed to it, and its positive effects on your metabolism and skin complexion.

But now there’s strong evidence that green tea also increases blood flow, and therefore neural activity, in the key areas of the brain responsible for memory, reasoning and comprehension.

Our tip: Skip your morning coffee and have green tea with a bit of lemon to get both your metabolism and brain kick-started.

7. Dark chocolate

Rejoice – there are benefits to eating the dark stuff after all! No longer just the less fatty version of its milk counterpart, dark chocolate has now been proven to boast a string of health benefits, including better brain function.

Dark chocolate’s high flavanol content makes it easier for blood to flow to your brain, and has also been shown to significantly boost test participants’ scores in memory tests.

Our tip: Snack on a couple of squares of dark chocolate as a mid-afternoon snack for a quick kick to your energy and mood levels.
Start introducing these to your diet regularly and you’ll start to feel fresher, energized and inspired in days. Get going and enjoy your life

Source: dumblittleman

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What is My Maximum Heart Rate?

by Rushfitnessgym

Hi Doc!

I started training for marathons four years ago and I’m running my fourth this fall. My question is -- how high is too high for a heart rate?

I'm almost 52 years old, 5’10” and 186 lbs. I run relatively slow (5:44 marathon last year) and never ran distance before I started four years ago.

Most of the time my Garmin shows me at about 160 beats per minute during a work out - a few times it’s inched over 170. I use the Galloway walk-run method and during the walk breaks my heart rate drops to 140 or below.

My wife (not a runner) is convinced I'm going to blow up my heart and die. Can you set her straight?

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Pat

Dear Pat,

Maximum heart rate for age is an elusive number. The usual equation is 220 – age = maximum heart rate (MHR), but that does not play out well when you look at individuals as many can tolerate higher heart rates and others cannot attain the formula driven number. This formula was empirically derived from young athletes. A study by Tanaka in 2001 looking at a broader age distribution showed that this formula often underestimated the MHR in older subjects and a revised formula fitted to the data resulted in this formula: MHR = 208 – 0.7(age). Another look at this by Gellish in 2007 showed good correlation to stress testing results using MHR = 207 – 0.7(age) with a p value of <0.001.

So calculating your MHR using the 3 formulas we get 168, 172, and 171 respectively. These numbers probably do not seem very different to you and they seem the same to me too.

In reality, the heart rate tolerance is specific to each individual and is best determined by experience. The role of MHR for runners is to provide a guide for training. The role in medicine is often to provide an end point for exercise stress testing; some stress tests are terminated at calculated MHR or a predetermined percentage of MHR. In clinical testing of athletes, the standard is to push the exercise load to a symptom limited test to exhaustion which may drive the maximum heart rate well above the calculated number.

The closer you are to your MHR during your workouts and races, the shorter the duration of exercise that you will be able to maintain at that pace. If you can maintain a rate of 160 during your workouts and races, your MHR is well above that.

The Garmin is pretty good at detecting heart rates and your numbers are probably accurate. You can hand count your pulse to cross check the Garmin’s accuracy during your workouts.

To summarize, you are unlikely to “blow up your heart” as you have a proven load tolerance. If your heart rate increases at the same work load or your exercise tolerance drops off unexpectedly, you should consult with your physician. If you develop chest pain, pounding heart beats, increased heart rate, or dizziness during your workouts, you should stop and seek medical advice because something has changed. It is never a bad idea to discuss your exercise, health, and risk factors with your physician; and at age 52, you should be meeting with your physician every year or two to look at health and prevention issues.

I hope this helps.

Source : runnersworld

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What are the benefits of malunggay for you and your family?

by Rushfitnessgym

What are the benefits of malunggay?

In the Philippines, malunggay grows almost everywhere. It's not uncommon to see people asking their neighbors if they could get some malunggay leaves because they're cooking tinola or ginisang monggo for dinner.

And surprisingly, not a lot of people are aware of the amazing benefits of malunggay! Here are just a few of the amazing things that malunggay can do for you and your family's health:

1. It has a lot of antioxidants

Antioxidants are compounds that help fight off free radicals in our bodies.

Free radicals can cause oxidative stress, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes. That's why eating a lot of malunggay that's rich in antioxidants can not only prevent this from happening, but it can also lower your blood pressure, and your chances of developing heart disease and diabetes.

2. Helps combat malnutrition

Malunggay is also full of essential nutrients and vitamins that your children need. It contains protein, vitamin B6, vitamin C, iron, riboflavin, vitamin A, and magnesium.

Adding malunggay to the dishes you cook can significantly boost your family's health, and provide them with much-needed vitamins and nutrients!

3. It can lower blood sugar levels

High blood sugar is the main culprit for people who suffer from diabetes.

Studies have found that adding even just 50g of malunggay to every meal can have a positive effect on a person's blood sugar levels. It does that since malunggay contains compounds called isothiocyanates that reduce blood sugar levels.

4. It's anti-inflammatory

Did you know that you can also eat malunggay pods and seeds along with the leaves?

Malunggay pods and seeds have been found to have anti-inflammatory properties, also because they contain isothiocyanates.

This means that eating more malunggay can help your body better protect itself against illness or injury.

5. It strengthens the immune system

As a result of the vitamins and minerals that malunggay has, it can help strengthen the body's immune system, especially against infections such as coughs or colds.

Malunggay is also high in vitamin C, which is integral for regulating the body's immune system.

6. It increases milk supply for moms

This should come as no surprise, since malunggay is widely known to increase a mother's milk supply. Add to that the nutrients that it provides, and it's definitely something that moms and moms-to-be should definitely add to their diet!

7. It helps lower cholesterol

Many kinds of food such as oatmeal, almonds, and flax have been found to lower blood cholesterol. Recent studies have discovered that malunggay also has this property.

Lower blood cholesterol also means that a person has a lower risk for heart disease, so malunggay is definitely something that families should be eating more of!