Message:
Today, we’ll experiment with breathing awareness again (see also). We’ll breathe while standing in the basic posture, controlling position of the rib muscles and diaphragm. We’ll watch how the tiny muscles that move the eyeball influence breathing, making it slow when the eyes are lifted up.
Breathing control, Pranajama, from the very beginning was an important part of the Yoga system. Elsa Gindler (1885-1961) developed a holistic approach to the human body-mind functions via the movement of breathing. Subsequently, she founded a school for breathing and body awareness.
Elsa Gindler wrote “The biggest breathing muscle in the human body is the diaphragm, the lowering of which can only take place when the jaw and the throat are relaxed, the belly is free, and hip joints allow free leg-movement and flexibility in the lower back. When these conditions do not obtain, the body compensates by lifting the shoulders, pulling up the chest bone, and contracting the sphincter muscles in the throat, movements which weaken the muscles which assist the breathing process.”
Exercise
- Straighten the body watching yourself in the mirror
- Lift up the shoulders
- Rotate them back and down
- Keep them as far back and down as you can
- Relax the arms
- Make the neck long and straight, do not pull the head backward
- Make it sure the pelvic is well aligned vertically and does not curl back or forward
- Slowly put the palms to the sides of the rib cage, make it sure that the chest does not work during breathing
- Look up and close the eyes
- Gradually limit the breathing until you feel an endurable lack of air
Message: It is shown that the Western environment pushes calories into our bodies through the sweet-addiction gateway
“There is evidence that the brain favors consumption of carbohydrates (CHO) rather than fats, this preference resulting in glycolysis-based energy metabolism domination. This metabolic mode, typical for consumers of the “Western diet” (Cordain et al., 2005; Seneff et al., 2011), is characterized by over-generation of reactive oxygen species and advanced glycation products both of which are implicated in many of the neurodegenerative diseases (Tessier, 2010; Vicente Miranda and Outeiro, 2010; Auburger and Kurz, 2011). However, it is not CHO but fat that is often held responsible for metabolic pathologies.”
Source: Carbohydrate-biased control of energy metabolism: the darker side of the selfish brain
>> Read why: click here (it’s not too technical).
Message: It is thought that exercising “crossing” and “number eight” movements (e.g., in Tai-Chi) helps to improve the balance between the right and left brains. Here’s an exercise that you can do even if you don’t know how to do Tai-Chi.*
The hemispheres of human brain are asymmetric, operating in difference contexts: the left is mostly logical and the right side is mostly intuitive. It is possible, by exercising inter-hemispheric interaction, to balance these two aspects of one’s cognition.
Read more –> click here
Number eight figure
Basic posture. Extend the right arm in front of you at the level of eyes. Don’t move the head.
- Draw horizontal #8 figure, moving the right wrist. Follow your fingertips with eyes only
- Increase the amplitude of the movement, including elbow, then the whole arm
- Further increase the amplitude in horizontal direction, making steps to the right and to the left
- Increase the amplitude in vertical direction, reaching up and lifting on the tiptoes and down, squatting
- Combine vertical and horizontal components
- Same with both hands, palms directed to each other
- Feel the “body” of the number eight figure between your palms
———
* This exercise is a part of the Therapeutic Movement classes taught by T. Zilberter at the MetroSport Athletic club, Durham NC in 1992-1995
Message: ATM classes are effective in improving health and functional measures (1). It is believed that they are most efficient when the exercises are done in groups. However, next best is doing the basic exercises on your own. For example, here is an exercise combining body awareness and guided imagery. A tip from people’s feedback: Read these instructions aloud, then play it when doing this exercise.*
The healing and educational method “Awareness through movement” (ATM) has been developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, a physicist and the first Judo Master in the West. Dr. Feldenkrais developed the ATM method trying to copy the amusement and curiosity he observed in healthy infants. The ATM method encourages adults to replenish the kind of body awareness they had as infants and thus to create new or forgotten ways to move and behave.
Source:
1. The Open Rehabilitation Journal, 2010, 3, 62-66
Body awareness exercise
Starting position: supine, the arms along the body, palms turned up, fingers comfortably half-bent.
1. Flatten the back, close the eyes and relax
2. Direct your awareness to the toes: feel how they are becoming heavy and warm
3. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but feeling your toes warm, heavy and relaxed
4. However, don’t be anxious about your feelings, simply sign slightly and say internally, ‘Oh well”, then continue the exercise
5. Move your awareness to the ankles: feel how they are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
6. Move your awareness to the knees, then thighs, hips and buttocks
7. Concentrate on the entire lower body relaxation, watch for a while how the flow of heat and blood pulsation is spreading through the lower body
8. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but feeling your lower body warm, heavy and relaxed
9. Slowly move your awareness up along the spine: feel how the spinal muscles are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
10. Take also under control of your attention the abdominal muscles: feel how they are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
11. Concentrate on the ribs: they should not move noticeably
12. Move your awareness to the shoulders: feel how they are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
13. Concentrate on the entire trunk body relaxation, watch for a while how the flow of heat and blood pulsation is spreading through the trunk
14. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but those of feeling your entire body warm, heavy and relaxed
15. Move your awareness along the right arm: feel how it is becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
16. Move your awareness along the left arm: feel how it is becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
17. Concentrate on the palms: feel how they are becoming the most hot part of the body, the total body’s energy flows toward the palms
18. Feel the heat of the palms with your fingertips
19. Feel how the energy exits the palms in a form of rays of light
20. Watch how the heat of the whole body is being transformed into this light
21. Watch how the body continues to generate the energy for the light
22. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but the generation of the light
23. Feel joy and freedom
24. Slowly close the fingers and thus stop the light flow
25. Gradually direct the wave of gentle contraction backward to those of the previous relaxation
26. Rock slightly the head
27. Turn the palms down
28. Open the eyes
29. Arch the low of the back
30. Stretch the total body
———
* This exercise is a part of the Therapeutic Movement classes taught by T. Zilberter at the MetroSport Athletic club, Durham NC in 1992-1995
Message: Women, you are at a higher risk of stroke! Whole grains can protect you.
As a part of the famous Nurses’ Health Study, over 755000 women (who are at greater risk of stroke then men are) were followed up for 12 years; 352 had ischemic stroke over these years. The risk of having stroke has been calculated after excluding the factors influencing cardiovascular health (both positively and negatively) such as smoking, drinking alcohol, exercising, consuming saturated fat and trans-fats, diabetes, heart disease or vascular diseases. The results showed that the highest intakes of whole grains – but not refined grains – was associated with the lowest risk of ischemic stroke.
This protective effect may be due to multiple factors and their combination (see synergetic effects) such as antioxidants, minerals, phytochemicals, and fibers, which are removed during grain processing and not present in refined grains. Out of constituents characteristic for the whole grain, folate, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, and fibers are considered most probable protectors.
Source:
JAMA. 2000 Sep 27;284(12):1534-40
Message: “The neuroprotective efficacy of caffeinated coffee was similar to that of decaffeinated coffee, indicating that active compounds present in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, such as chlorogenic acid, may drive the effects” (1)
We wrote before that caffeine is good for your brain (2,3), now it turns out that coffee keeps working even after it’s decaffeinated.
- Neurochemistry International 60 (2012) 466–474
- Caffeine protect against neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease
- Coffee, tea, and chocolate can help to avoid Parkinson’s disease
Message: Think of these natural cognitive enhancers
In a mice model of Alzheimer’s disease, dietary supplementation with fish oil (or omega-3 fatty acids), curcumin, or a combination of both has the potential to fight insulin deficiency characteristic for Alzheimer’s disease and improve cognitive cognitive performance.
Source
J Neurosci (2009) 29, 9078-9089
Related: Resveratrol and curcumin, plant’s own weapons that protect the brain
Message: Think green
The natural antioxidants in green tea are candidates to be qualified as neuroprotective drugs because of their pharmacological activities. Green tea is particularly rich in flavanols named catechins and, compared to black tea, contains four times more of the catechin fraction.
Source: J Agric Food Chem 2002, 50, 565-570
Message: The sense of balance is important for intelligence
Exercise can help maintain balance, and balance in the elderly has been highly correlated with performance measures of mental abilities such as general intelligence, memory, and reaction time. Balance thus serves as a biomarker of cerebroarterial blood flow and age-related global neurophysiologic status.
Source: Neuropsychologia 2006;44:1978–1983).
Most fats seem to be protective against Alzheimer disease
In 1989-99, an association was found, between dietary fat composition and cognitive performance in later adult years: the higher intake of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and the lower intake of saturated fat — the higher cognitive performance. Another, epidemiologic study conducted in 1997 suggested that high intake of total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol may increase the risk of dementia.
However, researchers at St Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, Ill found increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease among people with high intakes of saturated and trans-unsaturated fats and decreased risk with high intakes of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Consumption of vegetable fat and a high ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fats were also protective, whereas total fat, animal fat, and dietary cholesterol had no association with Alzheimer disease.
Sources
Brain Res. 1989;505:302-305
Behav Neurosci. 1996;110:451-459
Behav Brain Res. 1999;101:153-161
Am J Epidemiol. 1997;145:33-41.
Arch Neurol. 2003;60:194-200
Message: Do not fear the fat
In 1989-99, an association was found, between dietary fat composition and cognitive performance in later adult years: the higher intake of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and the lower intake of saturated fat — the higher cognitive performance. Another, epidemiologic study conducted in 1997 suggested that high intake of total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol may increase the risk of dementia.
However, researchers at St Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, Ill found increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease among people with high intakes of saturated and trans-unsaturated fats and decreased risk with high intakes of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Consumption of vegetable fat and a high ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fats were also protective, whereas total fat, animal fat, and dietary cholesterol had no association with Alzheimer disease.
Sources
- Brain Res. 1989;505:302-305
- Behav Neurosci. 1996;110:451-459
- Behav Brain Res. 1999;101:153-161
- Am J Epidemiol. 1997;145:33-41.
- Arch Neurol. 2003;60:194-200
