Mind Power News No. 161: Chocolate and Sleep Are Good for your Brain


Mind Power News Issue No. 161 / Friday, March 2, 2007 www.MindPowerNews.com In this issue: CHOCOLATE IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN: As if people needed another excuse to like chocolate, new studies suggest a specially formulated type of cocoa may boost brain function and delay decline as people age. NO SLEEP MEANS NO NEW BRAIN CELLS: They found those who missed out on rest had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone. They also produced significantly fewer new brain cells in a particular region of the hippocampus. 77 BRAIN HACKS FOR ENHANCED LEARNING: Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning. HOW TO PROFIT FROM NON-CONFORMITY: There is one important aspect of creativity that this lesson addresses. It is the tendency we have to conform, and how this stifles our creativity. Learn when and how to step outside the lines, and you will be far more creative, and therefore potentially luckier in life. 5 SIMPLE STEPS TO CREATING WHATEVER YOU DESIRE: The process of creating anything and everything you could possibly desire is a natural, God given ability that everyone possesses, it is just that most simply do not know or realise it. The Universe is infinitely abundant; there are no limits on wealth or anything else. Chocolate Is Good For Your Brain By Julie Steenhuysen Source: Reuters As if people needed another excuse to like chocolate, new studies suggest a specially formulated type of cocoa may boost brain function and delay decline as people age, researchers said on Sunday. Scientists, speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, presented results from early studies testing the effects on the brain of flavanols, an ingredient found in cocoa. Funded by candy maker Mars Inc., which provided a specially formulated liquid cocoa concoction for the research, the studies suggest that flavanols increase blood flow to the brain and may hold promise for treating some vascular impairments. Mars, a private company, has made a study of the health benefits of cocoa. Its CocoaVia line of chocolates, made with a process that retains flavanols, have been shown in clinical trials to have benefits for the heart. The latest research also suggests benefits for the brain. Ian Macdonald of Britain's University of Nottingham Medical School, conducted a small brain imaging study on young, healthy women to see whether flavanol-rich cocoa helped boost cognitive function during challenging mental tasks. Although the beverage did not improve their performance on the tests, it did increase blood flow to their brains for a two to three-hour period, Macdonald said. He believes more research might show that increased blood flow could benefit older adults and those who have cognitive impairments, such as fatigue or even mini-strokes. A U.S. study of healthy adults over 50 also found a marked rise in blood flow. It was conducted by Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. Norman Hollenberg, who has studied the effects of cocoa and flavanols on Panama's Kuna Indian population. Hollenberg believes that, while promising, the brain benefit needs to be verified. "The only way we can prove something is working is a large clinical trial," he said. Meanwhile, the researchers cautioned against rushing out to binge on the special Mars line of chocolates. "It is a modest calorie load but it is a calorie load," Macdonald said. "As long as you are doing something to earn that 100 calories, then that's fine." No Sleep Means No New Brain Cells Source: BBC Missing out on sleep may cause the brain to stop producing new cells, a study has suggested. The work on rats, by a team from Princeton University found a lack of sleep affected the hippocampus, a brain region involved in forming memories. The researchers compared animals who were deprived of sleep for 72 hours with others who were not. They found those who missed out on rest had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone. They also produced significantly fewer new brain cells in a particular region of the hippocampus. When the animals' corticosterone levels were kept at a constant level, the reduction in cell proliferation was abolished. The results suggest that elevated stress hormone levels resulting from sleep deprivation could explain the reduction in cell production in the adult brain. Read the full story here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/NoSleep.htm 77 Brain Hacks For Enhanced Learning Source: Online Education Database If someone granted you one wish, what do you imagine you would want out of life that you haven't gotten yet? For many people, it would be self-improvement and knowledge. New knowledge is the backbone of society's progress. Great thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and others' quests for knowledge have led society to many of the marvels we enjoy today. Your quest for knowledge doesn't have to be as Earth-changing as Einstein's, but it can be an important part of your life, leading to a new job, better pay, a new hobby, or simply knowledge for knowledge's sake — whatever is important to you as an end goal. Life-changing knowledge does typically require advanced learning techniques. In fact, it's been said that the average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what we may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques. Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning. Read the 77 Brain Hacks here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/BrainHacks.htm How to Profit from Non-Conformity By Steve Gillman Excerpt from Secrets of Lucky People There is some evidence that more creativity results in more of what many would call luck. No real surprise here - more creative and new ideas obviously means more opportunities for good or "lucky" ideas to come about. But how do you become more creative? There are actually many techniques for generating more creative ideas. Books on creative problem solving, for example, are full of these techniques. You can use them in a given situation for immediate results, or train yourself to use them habitually for a permanently more creative mind. However, there is one important aspect of creativity that this lesson addresses. It is the tendency we have to conform, and how this stifles our creativity. Learn when and how to step outside the lines, and you will be far more creative, and therefore potentially luckier in life. Conformity To The "Rules" In 1999 Daniel Simons, from the University of Illinois, published a paper with C.F. Chabris, in the journal "Perception & Psychophysics." It was titled "Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events." It reported a simple experiment in which subjects watched a 30-second film of people playing basketball, to see if they noticed the guy in the gorilla suit on the court. Richard Wiseman, the expert on luck and creativity, took the idea and ran with it. He showed the following film to many groups of people. In the film, three basketball players are dressed in white t-shirts, and three in black. The are playing a game, but in the middle of the film, a man in a gorilla suit walks into the middle of the court and beats his chest for the camera. This is something very obvious, which most viewers would notice, right? However, viewers were instructed to watch for and count the number of passes made by one team. They were focusing on that task, so when later asked for their totals, and then asked if they noticed anything unusual in the film, only a small percentage ever said yes. In fact, when Wiseman introduced enough competitiveness to the process (for example, by pitting one side of the room against the other in a test of accuracy), the number of people who noticed the gorilla was as low as 5%. This is an example of how "in the box" we can be when we're in a given situation. We stay within the normal "rules" for the situation. It is a useful part of our psychology. Too much awareness of everything else going on can interfere with concentration on the task at hand. However, there are times when the task at hand is to think outside that box and see something new. Read the full story here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/Nonconformity.htm 5 Simple Steps to Creating Whatever You Desire By Adrian Cooper, Creator of The Mind Power Suite We will now look at the very important process of manifestation; the conscious creation of your own reality; the manifestation of your wishes and desires. Always remember; there is absolutely nothing that you cannot be, do or have. It is highly advisable before embarking on any manifestation project to meditate upon, or consider very deeply whether you really do need and desire any specific objective to manifest into your life and the life of those around you. Sometimes what seems to be a very good idea and desirable idea at the time turns out to be decidedly less than desirable once it manifests as a reality into your life. It is most important to think only in terms of genuine needs and never of greed or the demands of the ego, as for example would be the case if you were comparing yourself with others. Before you manifest money, for example, you should think or meditate very deeply on what this money, or anything else you wish to manifest will really add, not only to your own life but also to that of your family, loved ones and others around you. The process of creating anything and everything you could possibly desire is a natural, God given ability that everyone possesses, it is just that most simply do not know or realise it. The Universe is infinitely abundant; there are no limits on wealth or anything else. When you know beyond any doubt that you are indeed a creator, a co-creator within this magnificent Universe in which we live, an aspect of The Source, The First Cause, God, then you will know beyond any doubts in your very being that you can realise all of your wishes. Read the full story here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/CreateYourOwnReality.htm Special Offer from Adrian Cooper: Learn How to Apply "The Secret" If you've caught onto the recent hoopla surrounding "The Secret" you'll be very interested in this special offer from Adrian Cooper, who has collected most of the original writings which inspired the entire genre. Not only does it include 33 of the greatest Mind Power Books ever written, but The Mind Power Suite goes above and beyond by helping you implement "The Secret" with the powerful Mind Power Studio software. These programs are designed to enable you to take all you have learned from these great books to the next level by using the power of your PC to produce your own customised tools. Learn more here... More news at the Mind Power Blog The UK Tested Psychics for the Military The MoD defended the cost of the experiment, carried out in 2002, in which commercial researchers were contracted at a cost of £18,000 to test them to see if psychic ability existed in case it could be used in defence. Read more here... Can You Become Intoxicated By the Power of Suggestion? Mind over matter goes a long way. Reports of intoxication occurring merely through the power of suggestion and not through alcohol ingestion appear from time to time. Read more here... Brain Scan Reads Your Mind German, British and Japanese scientists were able to "read minds" using sophisticated functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) and computer programs. Read more here... The 3 Most Powerful Principles I Learned from Millionaires I believe if all these three traits were applied to your life, they would make such a dramatic change, that in a short time all the things you desire would show up in your life. Read more here... 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