Brain Train.

Have you ever felt stupid? Seriously, in any given situation, you jst feel like you’re a complete moron. We all have, unless of course pride gets in the way. What about pride? Do you have enough pride to warrant self-denial? Probably not if that’s true. However, these are, in fact very common. Everyone of us experiences things like this on a daily basis. Yes, even you.

It’s all about brain cells. Until about 10 or so years ago, researchers didn’t actually know the brain created new neurons all the time – this is true, and you can encourage it. The usual “exercise and eat well” blah blah advice is included, but it’s only a portion of the training you can start doing to, literally, get smarter.

Ask yourself this: “If I could see my brain right now, would it have any holes in it?” If you sit down and think about the fact that it is possible, it’s a pretty scary thought. I’m sure we’ve all heard or seen the “this is your brain on drugs” ad campaign of old, where the young woman smashes an egg with a frying pan. Well it hit the nail right on the head.

This is your brain due to various events that may affect or have affected your life:

http://amenclinics.com/bp/atlas/

Doctor Daniel Amen is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable brain doctors today. With 25 years of experience and a passion to informing people on how to heal their brain, rest assured this stuff is solid gold.

I stumbled upon his research when a family member told me about his program on Public Television. I watched the latter hour of his 1 1/2 hour speaking session, and it was brilliant.

To summarize what I saw, I’ll tell you a little about the parts of the brain he talked about.

First in his talk was the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain deals with things like, judgment, social behavior, personality, reasoning; general emotional type activity. If you’re an awkward or angry person, there’s a chance, not 100%, but still a chance that this part of the brain isn’t getting enough exercise.

Yes. Exercise can heal your brain. It increases blood flow, and we all know how blood is needed throughout the body, so why not boost the travel of it? Attention problems, people with ADD and like issues could have a damaged prefrontal cortex – that has been proven to be taken to a more mild level just with a 15 minute job per day. Procrastination is another related thing to the prefrontal cortex.

Another very interesting thing he mentioned was he mentioned research that flat out showed the advantages of exercise over Zoloft. Not only that, but fish oil, or Omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and a supplement called Coromega (I take this, I highly recommend it – it’s not gross at all!) does wonders to brain healing. Everyone should definitely be taking Coromega (NOTE: talk to your doctor first).

Second, what is called the cingulate area of the brain, has influence on things like opposition without reason and error detection. Error detection, meaning when someone starts to see all of the negative things in someone or life in general, or they pick out everything that’s wrong. One thing he said is if you know someone like that and you want to get back at them for something, just move something on their desk, they’ll freak out. Of course he was joking about doing that, but it was worth the laugh. Reverse psychology is something that works very well on people with low cingulate activity. He suggested telling the person the opposite of what you want them to do, of course not in an obvious way. Be tactful about it.

Seratonin levels was something he emphasized when talking about the cingulate functions. If you recall my article on sleep when I joined The Underground, I talked about seratonin. When it gets dark, seratonin is released in our brains, causing us to get tired. If you force yourself to stay up, there’s a good chance you’re dealing damage to your cingulate. That is to say, you don’t necessarily have to go to bed when it gets dark out. Also, exercise majorly boosts seratonin levels. Work hard and rest well!

What about food and diet? Absolutely important! He listed 10 things that you can fit very easily into your diet, none of this crazy stuff from special markets and organic food stores – every day regular stuff. I didn’t catch the whole list, but I got most of it. Number one in my opinion was the green tea. While he said caffeine actually is not good for your brain, he said to drink green tea – obviously caffeine free is better than the caffeinated, though both are very good for you. It provides you with energy, and relaxation of focus, so he said it’s like a perfect supplement! Which I agree. My suggestion is, carry a few sticks of honey with you to give it some flavor.

Also on the list were oranges, avocados, spinach, red bell peppers and of course fish oil, found in salmon especially. Most of us probably eat something from this list quite often – though you shouldn’t over do it either. “Everything in moderation.” Balance is vital. He said that red bell peppers actually have a significant amount of vitamin C over oranges, if I recall correctly, and are much healthier for you than green peppers, which is sometimes more common in restaurants and fast food.

He also talked about another area of the brain, but I missed that section. I plan to re-watch it sometime and pick up what I didn’t see, but until then keep this information dear to you, because if you do feel you suffer from any thing like depression, bad attention span, personality issues like anger or awkwardness, you should definitely implement some of these steps. Of course, make sure that you talk to your doctor before taking or eating things you haven’t taken before. I’m personally allergic to avocados, even though I love guacamole.

Finally, it’s very important that you note:

THIS IS ALL FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. Get a medical exam if you feel something needs to be done. Also:

SUFFERING FROM THE MENTIONED ISSUES DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE. It certainly can’t hurt to take at least some of these steps to improve your brain health though.

Either way, don’t do drugs, get good sleep, get exercise, but most importantly:

Take care.

[ Source: http://amenclinics.com/ ]

P.S.: My apologies for all the head and brain cliche, I seemed to let them get aHEAD of me…..

God speed, and Best wishes.

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The Original, The American Gangster.

American Gangster; “the original O.G. in chinchilla” – the story of Frank Lucas is being released on the silver screen November 2nd of this year starring the one and only Denzel Washington.

Frank Lucas led the most successful drug trafficking ring in the history of New York City, specifically Harlem. By dealing direct with Southeast Asian suppliers, cutting out the middle man, and transporting his purchases by military plane in the coffins of the KIA soldiers of the Vietnam War, Lucas was able to sell his “Blue Magic” for half the price, with twice the quality as his competitors. His business model shot him up (no pun intended) to the top above every one of the other “families” in town, grossing $1 million a day.

Lucas was convicted in 1975 on federal and state charges and sentenced to 70 years in prison in ’76, but later information he provided to authorities led to the conviction of over 100 drug lords, as well as the fall of three quarters of the New York Drug Enforcement Agency. This helped reduce his sentence and he was released from prison 15 years later, in 1991.

I personally have had a chance to see this movie, and it is a solid four stars. With the two and a half hours Ridley Scott put together, the story of the American Gangster is told in a brilliant way from Frank’s rise to his fall.

Denzel nails this role to the art that was the American Gangster. He captures the very essence, as well as leaving behind the exact charm that Lucas had, and still does today. Russell Crowe also does a fantastic job of entering Richie Roberts in his hunt of this hustler.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone and everyone, as it is not only a very well told story, but an incredible tale of American history.

Sources: [http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/3649/] ; [http://nymag.com/guides/money/2007/39948/] ; [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E3D81038F932A2575AC0A962948260]

Trailers: YouTube (low quality): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOSOYSLDuQE] Yahoo! Movies (medium/good quality): [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809745897/video/2950512/standardformat] Gearcritech High definition trailers: [http://www.gearcritech.com/index.php/2007/06/06/american-gangster-hd-trailer.php]