B vitamins keeps your brain’s neurotransmitters up to snuff.
Vitamin B will sharpen your memory
November 18, 2008
How we know: College students were asked to don a Barry Manilow T-shirt before entering a crowded room. Despite the students' worst fears, only about half the people they expected to notice did so. Doctors dub this situation the "spotlight effect" – in social situations, people tend to grossly overestimate how much others are paying attention to their actions or appearance. So, if you're having a bad hair day or living with a little coffee stain on your shirt, know that all eyes are not upon you.
But if you still feel nervous going into the party, stand by the group that's having the most fun. Sounds of laughter or cheering trigger strong brain activity in listeners, which means listeners are primed to smile or laugh, too.
B is for brains: Wondering what happened to that thingy you had on top of the whatchamacallit yesterday? A pair of vitamins plus one renegade might be able to help you out with that. Seems older people who are short on B-12 have more trouble recalling certain words, and low levels of folate (B-9) may add to the brain drain.
Without B vitamins, your brain's neurotransmitters don't work perfectly. To compound the problem, levels of homocysteine in your blood rise, doubling your risk of developing Alzheimer's.
But getting enough Bs to keep your mind sharp takes effort. Even one serving of salmon and one of mahi mahi a day, plus an egg, a cup of milk and a cup of yogurt – all B-12 sources – won't get you to 25 micrograms of that vitamin. To guard against a shortfall, especially if you're a vegetarian, it's smart to take a supplement.
Folate is in lots of foods, including cereals, breads and pastas, so you may get plenty in your diet; we recommend 400 micrograms. Don't take a supplement unless your doctor tests your B-12 levels. High levels of folate may mask a B-12 deficiency.
Those Bs are the pair; the renegade is vitamin D, which also helps your brain. Get at least 1,200 IU a day and up to 2,000. You'll have to use supplements, but you shouldn't have trouble remembering them.
forget that grain of salt: Prehypertension is when blood pressure numbers are just a bit high – 120 to 139 systolic or 80 to 89 diastolic – but not high enough to be officially classified as hypertension. But research shows even slightly elevated pressure now boosts your risk of heart trouble in the future.
The solution? Dropping your numbers to or below the optimum 115/76 can slash your risk of cardiovascular disease as much as 25 per cent. Drive your numbers down by getting active. And try reducing your salt intake by:
Eating home more often and, when dining out, choosing meals with an eye to lower sodium.
Relying on fresh foods, but when you do buy premade, prepackaged or canned foods, watch for these ingredients on the label: sodium chloride, monosodium glutamate, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), baking powder, disodium phosphate, sodium nitrite, sodium propionate and sodium sulfite. If the sodium content of any serving is more than 200 mg, forgo it.
Cooking with a variety of spices and ingredients – pepper, garlic, curry, lime or lemon juice and red wine vinegar – rather than adding salt for flavour.
old patterns die hard: We make myopic decisions about money because, deep down, we are Fred Flintstones. They had a reasonable chance of dying during the course of any given day, so the choice to go with a smaller, surer, instant reward was hardly irrational.
But what was smart then doesn't work so well now, when it can cause you to overspend and be burdened with financial stress.
Luckily, you can overwrite these instinctual habits with such strategies as: Do the math. People can be swayed into paying more for items if they come with "free" stuff, even if the extra they're paying is more than the price of the "free" item.
Pause and reflect. Make sure it's something you really, really need.
Write it down. Record your daily purchases for a month (or just save your receipts). Consider how to cut back by 10 per cent. You'll be amazed at what you can live without.
Timing is everything: If you never skip a stretch before your workout, consider bending your rules. There's no good evidence that static stretching – the type where you hold a stretch for half a minute or so – reduces your risk of injury when you do it before a workout. And "ballistic" stretching, or bouncing, is a definite no-no, because it can actually hurt you.
Start a workout by doing a less-intense version of the activity. But that doesn't mean you can skip the stretch. Stretching increases flexibility, which is essential in keeping your body young.
Since stretching works best for muscles while they're warm, it makes the most sense to do it after your workout. Protect your muscles by working to the point of moderate tension but not to the point of pain. You should feel the stretch, but it shouldn't hurt. And 30 seconds for each does the trick; more time isn't better.