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Six Ways to Boost Brainpower: Exercise, Diet, Stimulants, Video Games, Music, & Meditation
- anovaskulk 18y ago> Of course, all this research does nothing to help explain dumb jocks. Wasn't expecting to see that there :-)
- lallysingh 18y agoI'd account for dumb jocks under my 'understimulated brain' column.
- chris11 18y agoThere is some research out that says that the Dual n Back test can increase fluid intelligence.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-back_task http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-back_task So that's another way to increase your brainpower. Cognitive fun has a good free version. http://cognitivefun.net/test/8 http://cognitivefun.net/test/8
- nihilocrat 18y agoVideo games activate the brain’s reward circuits but do so much more in men than in women, according to a new study. Researchers hooked men and women up to functional MRI machines while the participants played a video game designed for the study. I wonder if a video game could be designed that would have the opposite effect; women would feel more compelled by the rewards system in place versus men.
- JMiao 18y agohttp://www.pogo.com http://www.pogo.com
- Mystalic 18y agoAnything that promotes health or provides active or interactive stimulus to the mind fits. Sci Am just picked out six from a giant bucket. Crosswords, reading Hacker News, and (trying to) solve P = NP all have similar effect.
- wallflower 18y ago> and (trying to) solve P = NP http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/futurama/futuramatalk10min_files/Slide0002.gif http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/futurama/futuramatalk10...
- robg 18y agoBut that big bucket is sort of like the old axiom about filling a jar with stones. First you have to put in the biggest ones. And here I think they've ranked them pretty well in the list. Exercise and nutrition come first and are easy to forget especially with classical notions of Reason and what our daily demands are. They did forget sleep however.
- chadgeidel 18y agoFrom the section on coffee: "Try to limit yourself to fewer than 100 cups a day." Ok, I'll try. 8*D
- yan 18y agoThe thing with drinking that much coffee, most people like sugar in theirs. That much sugar is not good for anyone.
- icey 18y agoThat's 25 quarts (6.25 GALLONS) of coffee in one day (assuming an 8 ounce cup of coffee). I'm not sure if it's even physically possible to drink that much coffee in a day.
- wallflower 18y ago> I'm not sure if it's even physically possible to drink that much coffee in a day. Comedian/Filmmaker Mark Malkoff attempts to visit 171 Starbucks stores in Manhattan in one day... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYxuV2dVzw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYxuV2dVzw It's quite motivating and scary at the same time.
- icey 18y agoHe's just drinking part of the coffee, not the whole thing.
- wallflower 18y agoYes, it was to point out that it is not possible to drink 100 cups of coffee in a day but it is entertaining nonethless. However, some drinking world records are beyond the realm of health and sanity: "As the plane arrived in London, Walters raised his 44th can to his lips and drained it as thought it were his fourth. From all accounts, he wasn’t in bad shape. not if you consider he’d had 44 beers at high altitude and a couple of unofficial palate cleansers during the stopovers. He was all right just says O’Keeffe. He was lighting cigarettes filter-first. I guess that’s all right. You can do that sober." http://www.thefanatics.com/content.php?id=330 http://www.thefanatics.com/content.php?id=330
- jackchristopher 18y agoWe hear a lot about the benefits of antioxidants, but I get the sense that people think they're only found in special foods. Here's an overview of antioxidants, and foods high in them: http://www.ific.org/publications/factsheets/antioxidantfs.cfm http://www.ific.org/publications/factsheets/antioxidantfs.cf... And a well-cited list of the benefits of many common foods: http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php
- gravitycop 18y agoWe hear a lot about the benefits of antioxidants, but I get the sense that people think they're only found in special foods. Antioxidants are found in high levels in hundreds of different culinary herbs and spices. The point, throughout human history, of adding herbs and spices to foods, besides flavoring those foods, was to preserve.
- silentbicycle 18y agoAlso, one of the biggest sources of antioxidants in the foods Americans commonly eat is coffee. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9105892/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9105892/)
- jodrellblank 18y agoThe whole foods list is quite interesting, but I'm getting alarm bells from the contradiction between: "Healthiest Way of eating as long as it is a whole, natural, nutrient-rich food" And the "reduced fat cheese, skimmed milk". Cheese is not "natural" food and skimmed milk is certainly not "whole".
- jackchristopher 18y agoI don't approve of every food there, but it's still a good resource. But I think they're minor aberration, particularly over the meaning of "whole" and "natural". Point being, while he is promoting a book and website, I don't see an agenda behind the foods he's recommending. I'm vegan actually, but I don't think it's appropriate to give a personal dietary rundown in HN.
- old-gregg 18y agoCan anyone suggest a good resource to read up on meditation? (besides wikipedia). I'm just having a hard time believing that meditation is any different from just sitting idle bored, so I'm naturally curious and excited to prove myself wrong.
- pxlpshr 18y agoI think feeling the benefits of deep meditation is difficult for your first few months to years. It requires a lot of dedication. If your research makes you interested, you may even try Yoga as a good bridge into the practice.
- dood 18y agoMindfulness in Plain English: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html A good place to start.
- aaronblohowiak 18y agoKusula Bishku's podcast is pretty good, too!
- nihilocrat 18y agoFriendly correction: it's Bhikshu You can find it here: http://zencast.wordpress.com/category/kusala-bhikshu/ http://zencast.wordpress.com/category/kusala-bhikshu/
- inovica 18y agoHi there. Sorry I can't provide you with a good online resource, but my suggestion would be to find a good teacher local to you. I found meditation via yoga and it has had a profound effect on my mental state - how I deal with crisis, day-to-day tasks and dealing with people. I'm more focused and calm. I started my first business over 10 years ago and quickly (as I worked near the kitchen) ballooned to look like the Goodyear blimp. It took me a few years to recognise that I needed a healthy diet and my girlfriend introduced me to yoga. It was a revelation and, although I'm in danger of getting all evangelical on you, the combination of yoga, a healthy diet and meditation transformed me so that I can run my business more effectively. I would never try an online resource, book or audio book first though. Its much better to experience it with a good trainer until you can do it yourself. Good luck
- electromagnetic 18y agoI love the video game section: I just love it when people blame the video games for becoming violent and not the kids. I mean the first sign of a serial killer used to be the abuse of small animals, which is usually why the police take some kid shooting a cat with a BB gun seriously because they want the kids DNA and finger prints before he goes pro. I prefer to play strategy/god games, RPG's and, where I can find them, a good physics applet. You can do cruel things in them, especially ones like Black & White, but I always associate it more with burning ants because I know there's no one real on the other side. I dislike FPS primarily because there is someone on the other side, so when I play them I nearly always play single player or co-op.
- baltoo 18y ago> Luckily for babies, breast milk is 50 percent fat. My memory and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_milk#Composition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_milk#Composition) disagree. It about a magnitude lower than that. (In humans that is, of course. Not that breast milk is therefore bad.) And that is so easy to check. Wonder what other tidbits of facts are wrong? Not that the gist of the article is therefore bad, but I think it better not to mention facts rather then mentioning wrong ones.
- xiaoma 18y agoUsually when people state that a food is X% fat, they are talking about its nutritional information values, and your link does in fact confirm that about 50% of the calories derived from breast milk come from fat: "Human milk contains 0.8% to 0.9% protein, 3% to 5% fat, 6.9% to 7.2% carbohydrates" Excluding alcohol, essentially 100% of the calories of any food come from those three macronutrients-- 4Kcal per gram of protein or carbohydrate and 9Kcal per gram of fat. 9(3 to 5) / (9(3 to 5)+4((.8 to .9) + (6.9 to 7.2))) = 45% to 59% Assuming the data in the wiki you linked to is correct, 45% to 59% of breast milk is fat, in nutritionist lingo.
- mmmurf 18y agoYou are correct. One example that makes it obvious: Take 100 calories of lettuce (which is quite a lot). Now take 100 calories of oil (which is not much at all). Combine the two into a salad, which contains 200 calories and 50% of calories from fat.
- baltoo 18y agoYou learn something new every day. Though I must say that "usually" doesn't really ring true to my ears. Perhaps it's the way nutrisionists talk, but is it really "usually" that way? If someone presents a jug of a liquid and says "luckily for babies, liquid X is 50 percent fat", then I'd think that about half of the jug would be fat. Would most people where you come from think "half of the nutritional value of this liquid is made up from fat"? That's sounds impressively educated! Where do you come from?
- pxlpshr 18y agoI made an iPhone application for me cause most exercise apps are for gym rats, overly complicated and I just don't have time for a gym nor interested in looking bulky and lifting weights. I was inspired after using HundredPushups. I'm blogging the progress of the "Hacker Workout" — speaking of, today I'm suppose to workout! Week 1 results http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/ http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/ Week 2 http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge-2/ http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge-2/
- blackguardx 18y agoXML Parsing Error: syntax error Location: http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/ http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/ Line Number 1, Column 1:4ffc ^
- pxlpshr 18y agohmmm that's weird. it's not doing it for me in Safari or FF. Try this: http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/?flush=1 http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/?flush=1
- blackguardx 18y agoIt works in IE, but not in firefox. That is strange.
- pxlpshr 18y agoIndeed, I use SilverStripe CMS which is a relatively new open source CMS that is pretty awesome... but buggy at times. Eagerly awaiting 2.3. http://silverstripe.org http://silverstripe.org
- jodrellblank 18y agoYour iPhone App looks very slick. Have you found that it helps? As useful as you imagined before building it?
- enra 18y agoI wish it had more depth and some actual references. Especially the diet section is quite lame and inaccurate.
- dominik 18y agoI found the Hacker's Diet a useful reference for both diet and exercise. I found its engineering-minded explanation of how the body uses food resonated with me. (I lost about 50 lbs. in 6 months). Link: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/ http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/ There's also a small section on practical daily exercises that can be done quickly, without need for equipment. I'll link directly to that: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/exercise.html http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/exercise.html The key to both diet and exercise, however, lies in consistency -- you have to apply yourself every day.
- enra 18y agoThanks for the links. I appriciate the exercise advice since it's something that I'm still working on. My diet homever is in a quite good shape, its mostly paleo/low carb. For almost a year I have completely opted-out grains and sugar and moderating carbs, prosessed foods and omega6. Keeping insulin levels low is linked to longevity and greater neural processing http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16482-eat-a-little-less-remember-more.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16482-eat-a-little-les... http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2008/01/13/5617/insulin-leptin-diabetes-and-aging-not-so-strange-bedfellows/ http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2008/01/13/5617/insulin-l... I have never been overweight so I'm just trying to maximize my current health, cognitive performance and longevity. With my current diet, I seem to have more clearer mind, can eat less often and don't have desire for snacks or sugar. Green tea seems to have relaxing effect(it's also measured that l-theanine increases alphawaves) on me and alcar+ala has a slight energizing effect.
- chris11 18y agoDragon door has a really good selection of articles on body weight exercises. Most can be done with only your body or common items like dowels, or on things like a tree branch. Linkhttp://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode2/Workouts http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode2/Workouts Body weight exercises seem to be really underrated right now by most people. One of my exercise goals, once I start working out regularly, is to be able to pull off planche push-ups. It's like a normal push-up, only your feet are kept off the ground for the entire time.
- critic 18y agoI knew all that killing and blowing things up wasn't for nothing!
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]