By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

Do you want your brain’s molecules to revert to a youthful state? Keep taking, or start taking the anti-depressant fluoxetine (FLX, which is also known by trade names like Prozac, Sarafem, and Fontex) if you want to get a jump on brain-youth, as it has been found in research on mice to induce a juvenile-like state in the prefrontal cortex. But watch out, you just might start spending hours in front of the mirror analyzing your skin, hair style and dance moves.

By Guest Writer Samantha Zhang

Every night when we go to sleep, our brain transforms into something quite different from its daytime state.  Not only does our brain function differently at night, but our body’s internal clock, which resides in the midbrain, brings about a slew of changes that affect the whole body, including our skin. In this case, we look at how sleep and skin health are related.

In a study commissioned by Estée Lauder, physician scientists at University Hospitals Case Medical Center conducted a variety of skin tests on a volunteer group of women.  These women were between 30-49 years old. Half of them were poor sleepers while the other half got enough sleep most nights. The goal was to compare the skin conditions of the poor sleepers with that of the good sleepers. While there has been much anecdotal evidence that links sleep with beauty, this study was the first of its kind to demonstrate this relationship via the scientific method.

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

What a smart brain you have: it is directly connected to your taste buds!

If you’ve ever wondered why you just don’t want those artificial sweeteners in, or on, your food and drinks here’s why:Research from Professor Ivan de Araujo, at Yale University School of Medicine, found that mice don’t want that artificial stuff even when it is actually sweeter than sugar. The reason? Artificial sweeteners cause brain dopamine levels to drop. The brain wants the energy it gets from sugar. de Araugjo is suggesting that perhaps a combination of artificial sweeteners and sugar can reduce the obesity effects of eating sweet stuff while making those products more appealing to the brain. I say, learn to give up the junk food! Or just eat it in small amounts. I eat a wee bit of dark chocolate every day, sweetened with sugar.

Actually, chocolate is not junk food and the brain really likes it! According to a study published in the August 7, 2013 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, older people who drink two cups of hot chocolate a day keep their thinking skills sharp. It works for me — have you tried it? And what is your experience with artificial sweeteners?

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

Telomeres are all over the news these days. Those pesky little caps of DNA on our chromosomes shorten as we age and research shows that some cancers, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, depression, diabetes, obesity and heart disease are all more likely to arise in people with shorter telomeres. So it is fair to say that longer telomeres equal longevity.

By Guest Writer Samantha Zhang, Ph.D.

Parkinson’s is a terrible disease that eats away at the control of one’s body movements. As the dopamine-generating cells in the midbrain die, sufferers may continue to lose more of themselves with cognitive and behavioral issues such as dementia setting in. No one knows what causes the death of these cells.

Public figures such as Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali have increased awareness of the disease, which was first described in 1817. But while it’s been almost 200 years since English scientist Dr. James Parkinson published An Essay in the Shaking Palsy, there is still no cure.

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

Dr. Les Fehmi, Princeton Biofeedback Centre

What if your mind was like a clear pond, and the thoughts within it darting fish that don’t disturb the surface? What if you had a sense of mental lightness even when you are really busy? What if you could dissolve any physical or emotional pain with just 30 minutes of relaxed attention?

Thanks to the pioneering work of Les Fehmi, an electrical engineer turned psychologist thousands of people have experienced the above, and more.

Fehmi  is a pioneer in EEG technology and its application to human experience. He and Donald B. Lindsey, his mentor in graduate school, discovered how the brains of monkeys process information simultaneously at several sites, rather than linearly, as was previously thought. The ability of the brain to process information simultaneously is known as synchrony.

Building on his and Lindsey’s synchrony discoveries and that of research psychologist Joe Kamiya’s finding that profound states of mental quiet associated with alpha brain waves could be trained with EEG-based feedback, Fehmi hooked himself up to a self-made EEG feedback device and tried to generate alpha wave activity. After 12 two-hour sessions he was getting nowhere. Then, during the 13th session, he became frustrated and gave up in abject failure. As soon as he gave up, the EEG showed clear and significant alpha wave activity. In fact, Fehmi experienced a profound state of consciousness that has fueled his life and work ever since.

Read about Fehmi’s groundbreaking research in my book: Better Brain Better Life: Tips and Tales from the Tantalizing World of Brain Science.

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

In a stunning research ‘first’, the practice of meditation has been linked to cellular longevity. The discovery was made in a study that was part of the Shamatha project, which is housed within the Center for Mind and Brain at University of California, Davis (UCD).

Led by Clifford Saron, associate research scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain, the Shamatha project is one of the first long-term, detailed, matched control-group studies of the effects of intensive meditation training on mind and body.

Read more about this and other research into the incredible mind/body benefits of practicing meditation in my book: Better Brain Better Life: Tips and Tales from the Tantalizing World of Brain Science.

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

I was driving around southern Ontario with a dear friend last week. She has a classy SUV with a large GPS system mounted on the front dash. I don’t have one and so enjoyed seeing what it can do. My partner thinks we should get a GPS and I can see that it would come in very handy when searching for a specific location in an unknown city. Last winter, I literally ‘drove myself crazy’ trying to find Dr. David Dubin’s place in Los Angeles (we were going to do some LENS neurofeedback together and I did eventually find him after several phone calls back and forth).

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

Wow! As someone who suffers from chronic digestive problems, and who is also very interested in the brain, I’ve just had my socks knocked off by a study reported in JAMA(http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/292/7/852).

I turned to this study as a reference cited in The Ultra Mind Solution, by Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D, a book I picked up while in Vancouver interviewing Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose (see my post ‘Weight Training Improves Cognition’). I was intrigued by Hyman’s citation of the JAMA study and the work of Dr. Mark Pimental (UCLA).

Here’s what I’ve learned so far: harmful bacteria from the large intestine can invade the small intestine and appear to cause (of play a role in the development of) all kinds of surprising problems including mood disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression, in addition to fibromyalgia, and behavioral problems like inappropriate anger and violence, as well as intestinal gas, bloating, diarrhea and constipation.

It turns out that Dr. Mark Pimental has developed a treatment to clean up the small intestine bacterial problem. He uses a non-absorbed antibiotic–Xifaxin. Dr. Hyman also uses the drug with terrific results.

I headed straight for my doctor, book in hand, and requested the drug but unfortunately, it is not available in Canada. I hope to find a way to obtain it. My own private detective work on my body/mind has led me to the conclusion that digestion has an incredible impact on my cognition and I am excited to learn more.

By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com

My good friend Grace Dodds was telling me this morning about her experience teaching in a one room schoolhouse in rural Alberta back around 1944.

It was a very cold winter, too cold in fact, for the children to go outside to play at recess. Grace was shocked at the mayhem that ensued when the first recess period began and the kids, aged 6-14, began tearing around. The younger children were trying to avoid being bonked on the head with books, wielded as weapons by the older, bigger children. Grace quickly pounded on her desk bell, got the children’s attention and told them that blows to the head could cause serious injury. She said that the first person to do this again would face the strap.