To: Ms. Darlene

Ms. Darlene:

Because I have posted and commented on more articles than what I was asked, I have chosen the articles I want you to read. Please grade the posts and comments of the following articles:

1. How does food affect our moods?
2. Intelligence in the Internet Age
3. Growing as a student: Develop your study plan
4. Angriness
5. Why We Forget Our Dreams

Thanks, Gracia Elena

How does food affect your moods?

It was once thought that the only connection between ones emotions and food was the tendency of some people to eat when they were depressed or under stress. Recent findings have changed our thinking in this area. There is now an understanding that the foods we eat can actually cause certain moods.

Our brains produce chemicals, called neurotransmitters, that regulate our moods, emotions and even how we experience pain. Nutrients in the foods we eat trigger certain amino acids that, in turn, produce or decrease production of emotional neurotransmitters such as dopamine, epinephrine and serotonin. In addition, minerals such as folic acid, choline and selium have an effect on mood.

Let us take a look at protein. Say you are feeling tired and still have half the day to go. The best thing to do is have a high-protein snack. Protein contains an amino acid known as tyrosine. Once tyrosine enters your system, it stimulates the release of dopamine and epinephrine, which are two neurotransmitters that increase energy and alertness. Another benefit of protein is that it balances blood sugar levels so you don’t get the fluctuations that can cause you to feel energetic one minute and tired the next.

This is exactly what happens when you choose a snack high in sugar. Initially, you feel an increase of energy as blood sugar levels rise. Quickly, however, this level drops as insulin is produced and you end up feeling as tired, if not more so, than when you started.

Protein can be found in a variety of foods. Usually, we think immediately of meat, poultry and fish, but these are only some of the protein rich foods. Dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and cheese, contain protein and so do beans of all types. Two other sources are tofu and that good old favorite, peanut butter. Another source of protein, eggs, has an additional benefit. Eggs contain choline, which is a B complex vitamin that helps improve memory and concentration.

Complex carbohydrates increase the release of serotonin, which has an entirely different purpose. Serotonin alleviates depression, calms your nerves and induces sleep. A snack of complex carbohydrates in the evening will enable you to get a more restful sleep. They cause your body to release insulin. The insulin cleans your blood of all amino acids except tryptophan. Tryptophan then converts to the neurotransmitter serotonin, which creates a sense of peace within your mind. Serotonin also reduces your appetite and helps reduce physical pain.

Complex carbohydrates can be found in many forms. Whole grains and starchy foods, such as pasta and potatoes, all fall into this category, as do fruits and vegetables. Folic acid, which can be found in spinach and orange juice, helps to decrease depression. As depression can cause insomnia, increasing folic acid will also aid in getting better sleep.

Many people eliminate fats from their diets entirely, but this can increase the chance of depression. There are certain essential fats that promote the absorption of nutrients into cells and allow waste to escape these cells. When this natural cleansing does not take place, depression increases. These essential fats can be found in nuts, seeds, oily fish such as tuna and oils such as olive.

Two other substances are worth mentioning here; they are ascorbic acid and selium. Studies have shown that ascorbic acid increases the both intercourse frequency and mood, both beneficial outcomes. The lack of selium in your system can cause anxiety, irritability and hostility. Foods such as tuna, Brazil nut, sunflower seeds and whole grain cereals help increase your supply of selium and make you calmer.

The study of how food effects our moods is fairly new. While we have learned much over the past few years, there are still mysteries involved in this connection. There is hope that one day we will be able to eliminate many negative emotions with nature’s own medicine, food.

Article from: http://www.essortment.com/family/mindbodyfooda_svda.htm

Keeping Your Brain Young

The No. 1 Thing You Can Do?

1. Move It
Quick -- what's the No. 1 thing you can do for your brain's health? Differential calculus, you say? Chess? Chaos theory? Nope, the best brain sharpener may be ... sneakers? Yup. Once they're on your feet, you can pump up your heart rate. "The best advice I can give to keep your brain healthy and young is aerobic exercise," says Donald Stuss, PhD, a neuropsychologist and director of the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto.

Mark McDaniel, PhD, professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, agrees, but adds, "I would suggest a combined program of aerobics and weight training. Studies show the best outcomes for those engaged in both types of exercise."

As we age, our brain cells, called neurons, lose the tree-branch-like connections between them. These connections, or synapses, are essential to thought. Quite literally, over time, our brains lose their heft. Perhaps the most striking brain research today is the strong evidence we now have that "exercise may forestall some kinds of mental decline," notes McDaniel. It may even restore memory. Myriad animal studies have shown that, among other brain benefits, aerobic exercise increases capillary development in the brain, meaning more blood supply, more nutrients and -- a big requirement for brain health -- more oxygen.

The preeminent exercise and brain-health researcher in humans is Arthur Kramer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In a dozen studies over the past few years, with titles such as "Aerobic Fitness Reduces Brain Tissue Loss in Aging Humans," Kramer and his colleagues have proved two critical findings: Fit people have sharper brains, and people who are out of shape, but then get into shape, sharpen up their brains. This second finding is vital. There's no question that working out makes you smarter, and it does so, Kramer notes, at all stages of life. Just as important, exercise staves off heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other maladies that increase the risk of brain problems as we age.

2. Feed It
Another path to a better brain is through your stomach. We've all heard about antioxidants as cancer fighters. Eating foods that contain these molecules, which neutralize harmful free radicals, may be especially good for your brain too. Free radicals have nothing to do with Berkeley politics and everything to do with breaking down the neurons in our brains. Many colorful fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants, as are some beans, whole grains, nuts and spices.

More important, though, is overall nutrition. In concert with a good workout routine, you should eat right to avoid the diseases that modern flesh is heir to. High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol all make life tough on your brain, says Carol Greenwood, PhD, a geriatric research scientist at the University of Toronto.

If your diet is heavy, then you're probably also heavy. The same weight that burdens your legs on the stairs also burdens your brain for the witty reply or quick problem solving. The best things you can eat for your body, Greenwood notes, are also the best things you can eat for your brain. Your brain is in your body, after all. Greenwood's recommendation is to follow the dietary guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (available at diabetes.org).

3. Speed It Up
Sorry to say, our brains naturally start slowing down at the cruelly young age of 30 (yes, 30). It used to be thought that this couldn't be helped, but a barrage of new studies show that people of any age can train their brains to be faster and, in effect, younger. "Your brain is a learning machine," says Michael Merzenich, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco. Given the right tools, we can train our brains to act like they did when we were younger. All that's required is dedicated practice: exercises for the mind.

Merzenich has developed a computer-based training regimen to speed up how the brain processes information (positscience.com). Since much of the data we receive comes through speech, the Brain Fitness Program works with language and hearing to improve both speed and accuracy. Over the course of your training, the program starts asking you to distinguish sounds (between "dog" and "bog," for instance) at an increasingly faster rate. It's a bit like a tennis instructor, says Merzenich, shooting balls at you faster and faster over the course of the summer to keep you challenged. Though you may have started out slow, by Labor Day you're pretty nimble.

Similarly, Nintendo was inspired by the research of a Japanese doctor to develop a handheld game called Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, which has sold more than two million copies in Japan. No software out there has yet been approved by the FDA as a treatment for cognitive impairment, but an increasing number of reputable scientific studies suggest that programs like Merzenich's could help slow down typical brain aging, or even treat dementia. The biggest finding in brain research in the last ten years is that the brain at any age is highly adaptable, or "plastic," as neurologists put it. If you ask your brain to learn, it will learn. And it may speed up in the process.

To keep your brain young and supple, you can purchase software like Merzenich's, or you can do one of a million new activities that challenge and excite you: playing Ping-Pong or contract bridge, doing jigsaw puzzles, learning a new language or the tango, taking accordion lessons, building a kit airplane, mastering bonsai technique, discovering the subtleties of beer-brewing and, sure, relearning differential calculus.

"Anything that closely engages your focus and is strongly rewarding," says Merzenich, will kick your brain into learning mode and necessarily notch it up. For his part, Merzenich, 64, has "4,000 hobbies," including a wood shop and a vineyard.

Stop, Breathe & Relax

4. Stay Calm
So you may be saying to yourself, I have to sign up right now for Swahili and calculus and accordion lessons before my brain withers away! Stop! Breathe. Relax. Good.

While challenging your brain is very important, remaining calm is equally so. In a paper on the brain and stress, Jeansok Kim of the University of Washington asserts, in no uncertain terms, that traumatic stress is bad for your brain cells. Stress can "disturb cognitive processes such as learning and memory, and consequently limit the quality of human life," writes Kim.

One example is a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is a primary locus of memory formation, but which can be seriously debilitated by chronic stress. Of course, physical exercise is always a great destressor, as are calmer activities like yoga and meditation. And when you line up your mental calisthenics (your Swahili and swing lessons), make sure you can stay loose and have fun.

5. Give It a Rest
Perhaps the most extreme example of the mental power of staying calm is the creative benefit of sleep. Next time you're working on a complex problem, whether it be a calculus proof or choosing the right car for your family, it really pays to "sleep on it."

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have looked at the conditions under which people come up with creative solutions. In a study involving math problems, they found that a good night's rest doubled participants' chances of finding a creative solution to the problems the next day. The sleeping brain, they theorize, is vastly capable of synthesizing complex information.

6. Laugh a Little
Humor stimulates the parts of our brain that use the "feel good" chemical messenger dopamine. That puts laughter in the category of activities you want to do over and over again, such as eating chocolate or having sex. Laughter is pleasurable, perhaps even "addictive," to the brain.

But can humor make us smarter? The jury is still out and more studies are needed, but the initial results are encouraging. Look for a feature on exciting new research about humor and intelligence in the September issue of Reader's Digest.

7. Get Better With Age
In our youth-obsessed culture, no one's suggesting a revision to the Constitution allowing 20-year-olds to run for President. The age requirement remains at 35. You've heard about the wisdom and judgment of older people? Scientists are starting to understand how wisdom works on a neurological level.

When you are older, explains Merzenich, "you have recorded in your brain millions and millions of little social scenarios and facts" that you can call upon at any time. Furthermore, he notes, "you are a much better synthesizer and integrator of that information."

Older people are better at solving problems, because they have more mental information to draw upon than younger people do. That's why those in their 50s and 60s are sage. They're the ones we turn to for the best advice, the ones we want to run our companies and our country.

As Barry Gordon, a neurologist at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and author of Intelligent Memory: Improve the Memory That Makes You Smarter, puts it, "It's nice to know some things get better with age."

Article from: http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/7-anti-aging-tips-to-keep-your-brain-young/article28203.html

Intelligence in the Internet Age

It's a question older than the Parthenon: Do innovations and new technologies make us more intelligent?

A few thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher, as he snacked on dates on a bench in downtown Athens, may have wondered if the written language folks were starting to use was allowing them to avoid thinking for themselves.

Today, terabytes of easily accessed data, always-on Internet connectivity, and lightning-fast search engines are profoundly changing the way people gather information. But the age-old question remains: Is technology making us smarter? Or are we lazily reliant on computers, and, well, dumber than we used to be?

"Our environment, because of technology, is changing, and therefore the abilities we need in order to navigate these highly information-laden environments and succeed are changing," said Susana Urbina, a professor of psychology at the University of North Florida who has studied the roots of intelligence.

If there is a good answer to the question, it probably starts with a contradiction: What makes us intelligent--the ability to reason and learn--is staying the same and will never fundamentally change because of technology. On the other hand, technology, from pocket calculators to the Internet, is radically changing the notion of the intelligence necessary to function in the modern world.

Take Diego Valderrama, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. If he were an economist 40 years ago, he may have used a paper, pencil and slide rule to figure out and chart by hand how the local economy might change with a 1 percent boost in taxes. But because he's a thoroughly modern guy, he uses knowledge of the C++ programming language to create mathematical algorithms to compute answers and produce elaborate projections on the impact of macroeconomic changes to work forces or consumer consumption.

Does that mean he's not as bright as an economist from the 1950s? Is he smarter? The answer is probably "no" on both counts. He traded one skill for another. Computer skills make him far more efficient and allow him to present more accurate--more intelligent--information. And without them, he'd have a tough time doing his job. But drop him into the Federal Reserve 40 years ago, and a lack of skill with the slide rule could put an equal crimp on his career.

Intelligence, as it impacts the economist Valderrama, is our capacity to adapt and thrive in our own environment. In a Darwinian sense, it's as true now as it was millions of years ago, when man's aptitude for hearing the way branches broke or smelling a spore affected his power to avoid predators, eat and survive.
But what makes someone smart can vary in different cultures and situations. A successful Wall Street banker who has dropped into the Australian Outback likely couldn't pull off a great Crocodile Dundee impression. A mathematical genius like Isaac Newton could be--in fact, he was--socially inept and a borderline hermit. A master painter? Probably not so good at balancing a checkbook.

What's undeniable is the Internet's democratization of information. It's providing instant access to information and, in a sense, improving the practical application of intelligence for everyone.

Nearly a century ago, Henry Ford didn't have the Internet, but he did have a bunch of smart guys. The auto industry pioneer, as a parlor trick, liked to claim he could answer any question in 30 minutes. In fact, he had organized a research staff he could call at any time to get him the answer.

Today, you don't have to be an auto baron to feign that kind of knowledge. You just have to be able to type G-O-O-G-L-E. People can in a matter of minutes find sources of information like court documents, scientific papers or corporate securities filings.

"The notion that the world's knowledge is literally at your fingertips is very compelling and is very beguiling," said Vint Cerf, who co-created the underlying architecture of the Internet and who is widely considered one of its "fathers." What's exciting "is the Internet's ability to absorb such a large amount of information and for it to be accessible to other people, even if they don't know it exists or don't know who you are."

Indeed, Doug Engelbart, one of the pioneers of personal computing technology in the 1960s, envisioned in the early '60s that the PC would augment human intelligence. He believes that society's ability to gain insight from information has evolved with the help of computers.

"The key thing about all the world's big problems is that they have to be dealt with collectively," Engelbart said. "If we don't get collectively smarter, we're doomed."

The virtual memory
According to at least one definition, intelligence is the "ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn." Yet intelligence is not just about book learning or test scores; it also reflects a deeper understanding of the world. On average, people with high IQs are thought to live longer, earn more money, process information faster and have larger working memories.

Yet could all this information provided by the Internet and gadgets dampen our motivation to remember anything?

Working with the Treo handheld computing device he helped create, Jeff Hawkins can easily recount exactly what he did three years ago on Sept. 8, factor 9,982 and Pi, or describe a weather system over the Pacific Ocean. But without his "smart" phone, he can't recall his daughter's telephone number offhand.

It's a familiar circumstance for people living in the hyper-connected Internet age, when it has become easier to program a cell phone or computer--instead of your brain--to recall facts or other essential information. In some sense, our digital devices do the thinking for us now, helping us with everything from calendar scheduling and local directions to in-depth research and "Jeopardy"-like trivia.

"It's true we don't remember anything anymore, but we don't need to," said Hawkins, the co-founder of Palm Computing and author of a book called "On Intelligence."

"We might one day sit around and reminisce about having to remember phone numbers, but it's not a bad thing. It frees us up to think about other things. The brain has a limited capacity, if you give it high-level tools, it will work on high-level problems," he said.

Only 600 years ago, people relied on memory as a primary means of communication and tradition. Before the printed word, memory was essential to lawyers, doctors, priests and poets, and those with particular talents for memory were revered. Seneca, a famous teacher of rhetoric around A.D. 37, was said to be able to repeat long passages of speeches he had heard years before. "Memory," said Greek playwright Aeschylus, "is the mother of all wisdom."

People feared the invention of the printing press because it would cause people to rely on books for their memory. Today, memory is more irrelevant than ever, argue some academics.

"What's important is your ability to use what you know well. There are people who are walking encyclopedias, but they make a mess of their lives. Getting a 100 percent on a written driving test doesn't mean you can drive," said Robert Sternberg, dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University and a professor of psychology.

Article from: http://news.cnet.com/Intelligence-in-the-Internet-age/2100-11395_3-5869719.html