Tag Archives: Health

High-Calorie Sports Nutrition | April 2026

High-Calorie Sports Nutrition

High-Calorie Sports Nutrition

High-calorie sports nutrition is integral for athletes and active individuals aiming to maximize their performance, endurance, and recovery. The fundamental concept revolves around providing the body with an ample amount of calories to fuel strenuous physical activities, promote muscle growth, and expedite recovery processes. Unlike casual exercisers, athletes often engage in intensive training regimens and competitions that demand significantly higher energy expenditure. Thus, understanding and implementing a high-calorie diet is crucial for maintaining efficacy and achieving peak performance.

A high-calorie sports nutrition plan primarily targets athletes who require increased caloric intake due to their rigorous physical demands. This includes but is not limited to endurance athletes such as marathon runners and cyclists, power athletes like weightlifters and sprinters, and team sport athletes such as football and basketball players. Each of these athletes has unique energy needs based on their specific sport’s intensity and duration, and a well-structured nutrition plan ensures they meet these needs efficiently.

Equally important is recognizing that high-calorie nutrition isn’t merely about increasing one’s food intake. It involves strategically consuming nutrient-dense foods rich in essential macronutrients; carbohydrates for energy, proteins for muscle repair and growth, and fats for sustained energy. Thus, fine-tuning one’s diet to balance these macronutrients is paramount to harnessing the full benefits of a high-calorie strategy.

Ultimately, the goal of high-calorie sports nutrition is to optimize the athlete’s overall physical output and recovery. By prioritizing a tailored high-calorie dietary approach, athletes can enhance their training results, reduce injury risks, and maintain higher energy levels throughout their activities. As we explore further into this subject, we will delve into specific dietary plans, food choices, and timing strategies that contribute to a successful high-calorie sports nutrition regimen.

Daily writing prompt
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?

Home Gym | humanityuapd.com | 2026 | HUMANITYUAPD

Home Gym

Home Gym

The concept of a home gym has garnered substantial attention and popularity in recent years. With the increasing emphasis on health and wellness, many individuals are seeking convenient and cost-effective alternatives to traditional gym memberships. A home gym offers the unique advantage of exercising within the comfort and privacy of your own space, thereby eliminating the need for commutes and gym schedules.

One of the primary benefits of having a home gym is its unparalleled convenience. Whether you are a morning person or prefer late-night sessions, a home gym is accessible 24/7. This flexibility ensures that your fitness regimen can seamlessly fit into your daily routine without the constraints of gym hours.

Moreover, the financial aspect cannot be overlooked. While the initial setup of a home gym might require a considerable investment, it can result in significant cost savings over time. By eliminating monthly membership fees and commuting costs, a home gym can be a more economical fitness solution in the long run.

Another compelling benefit of a home gym is the ability to personalize the workout environment entirely to your preferences and needs. From choosing the equipment that suits your fitness goals to creating an ambiance that motivates you, the customization possibilities are endless. This personalized touch often leads to a more enjoyable and effective workout experience.

Home gym setups can vary widely, accommodating a range of fitness levels and space constraints. A basic setup might include essential equipment like dumbbells, resistance bands, and a yoga mat, ideal for beginners or those with limited space. On the other hand, an advanced home gym might feature sophisticated machines like treadmills, rowing machines, and multi-functional workout stations. Regardless of the setup, the primary objective remains the same: to create a conducive environment for maintaining and enhancing physical health within the comfort of home.

Daily writing prompt
What job would you do for free?

Stretching For Men | New Update | HUMANITYUAPD | 29 March

Stretching for Men: 7 Powerful Benefits You Need

Stretching For Men: Why Men Should Stretch

Stretching is often an overlooked yet critical component of a well-rounded fitness regimen. For men, integrating stretching into daily routines can yield substantial physical and mental benefits, contributing not only to immediate well-being but also to long-term  health. One of the most significant advantages of stretching is increased flexibility. Improved flexibility enhances muscle function and joint range of motion, allowing for smoother and more efficient movement patterns in various activities, from daily tasks to athletic endeavors.

Performance enhancement is another compelling reason for men to embrace stretching. For athletes and fitness enthusiasts, better flexibility can lead to improved athletic performance. Stretching prepares the muscles for the mechanical demands they will face, optimizing their function and potentially enhancing overall sports performance. Additionally, consistent stretching can reduce the risk of injuries by maintaining the muscles’ suppleness and adaptability, thus preventing strains, tears, and other common exercise-related injuries.

Mental clarity and stress reduction are equally important benefits that stretching offers. Engaging in regular stretching routines can promote relaxation, decrease muscle tension, and elevate mood, fostering a sense of mental well-being. This aspect is particularly important for managing daily stresses and achieving a balanced lifestyle.

Despite its evident advantages, stretching is clouded by misconceptions. Many people assume that stretching is either unnecessary or only suitable for certain activities like yoga. In reality, stretching is beneficial regardless of one’s age or fitness level. It should complement all types of physical activities, including strength training, cardiovascular exercises, and even sedentary routines. This indispensable practice can and should be a part of every man’s fitness regimen.

Incorporating regular stretching not only enhances physical performance and reduces the risk of injury but also boosts mental focus and relaxation. By dispelling common misconceptions and understanding its multifaceted benefits, men can optimize their overall health and fitness through the simple act of stretching.

Daily writing prompt
What makes you laugh?

Who is Your Most Influential Teacher? HUMANITYUAPD

Daily writing prompt
Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

HUMANITYUAPD

What was. What is. What will be.

No politics. No pretense. No expense. Today and now. Direct approach.

HUMANITYUAPD: Health, Growth, Science, and Business

learn English in 28 days | english.humanityuapd.com

Free Online Tools – Fast, Simple, Accurate (HUMANITYUAPD)

Body Mass Index (BMI) – Free Tools (HUMANITYUAPD)

BMI (Body Mass Index)

Body Mass Index, commonly referred to as BMI, is a widely used tool designed to assess body weight relative to height. The calculation is straightforward; it divides an individual’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters. The formula is represented as follows: BMI = weight (kg) / (height (m) x height (m)). This simple mathematical equation provides a numerical value that can indicate a person’s weight status, which may be categorized as underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese.

The origins of BMI date back to the 1830s when the Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet developed this index to study the relationship between weight and height in the general population. Although initially intended for statistical purposes rather than individual health assessments, BMI gained traction as a method to evaluate body weight and its association with health risks.

BMI serves primarily as a population-level measure; it is not intended for clinical diagnosis or assessment of fat distribution in an individual. However, it offers a quick way to identify potential weight-related health risks and categorize individuals for further evaluation. Public health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), utilize BMI as a standard index for assessing overweight and obesity trends in populations, making it a vital tool in public health surveillance.

Given the wide acceptance of BMI, it is important to recognize its limitations. It does not account for factors such as muscle mass, bone density, and overall body composition. Consequently, while BMI is a useful initial assessment tool, it should be complemented by other health assessments for a comprehensive understanding of an individual’s health status.

How to Make Your Home Cozy: 10 Timeless Tips for Comfort and Calm

How to Make Your Home Cozy: Timeless Tips for Comfort, Calm, and Simple Living

In today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world, the desire to create a warm, cozy, and calming home environment has never been stronger. A cozy home is not just a place—it’s a feeling. It’s where you recharge, find peace, and connect with yourself and loved ones. Whether you’re living in a small studio apartment or a sprawling countryside house, these timeless tips will help you infuse your space with lasting comfort and calm.

1. Use Warm Lighting

Lighting plays a crucial role in setting the mood of your home. Opt for soft, warm lights instead of bright white overhead bulbs. Use floor lamps, table lamps, and candles to create gentle layers of light that feel inviting. Consider adding dimmers to control brightness based on the time of day or your mood.

2. Layer with Textures

One of the easiest ways to add coziness is through texture. Think soft throw blankets, chunky knit pillows, shag rugs, and natural fiber baskets. Mixing textures adds depth and tactile comfort that instantly transforms any room into a retreat.

3. Incorporate Natural Elements

Bring the outdoors in by adding houseplants, wooden furniture, stone accessories, or even a bowl of pinecones or seasonal fruit. Natural elements offer a grounding effect that makes your space feel more organic and alive.

4. Keep It Clean and Clutter-Free

Clutter can disrupt the calmness of a space. A tidy home allows your mind to relax and helps create a peaceful atmosphere. Use smart storage solutions to keep essentials organized and out of sight. Minimalism doesn’t mean empty; it means everything has a purpose.

5. Personalize Your Space

Fill your home with items that reflect your personality and tell your story. Family photos, meaningful artwork, travel souvenirs, or handmade crafts can make your space feel uniquely yours. These personal touches add emotional warmth and create a deeper connection to your environment.

6. Create Cozy Corners

Every home should have a corner for reading, relaxing, or just unwinding. All you need is a comfortable chair, a soft blanket, a small side table, and good lighting. These cozy corners become sanctuaries of calm when the world outside gets too loud.

7. Choose Calm, Neutral Colors

Soft, neutral color palettes such as beige, cream, gray, and pastels create a soothing environment. These tones help visually declutter a space and make rooms feel more open and peaceful. You can always add pops of color through accessories like cushions, flowers, or wall art.

8. Soothing Scents Matter

Scent is a powerful tool for creating atmosphere. Use essential oil diffusers, incense, or candles with fragrances like lavender, vanilla, or sandalwood. These calming aromas trigger the brain’s relaxation response and enhance the overall comfort of your home.

9. Use Sound Thoughtfully

The soundscape of your home affects how cozy it feels. Soft background music, nature sounds, or even a bubbling indoor fountain can promote relaxation. Avoid harsh or constant noise. Consider adding sound-absorbing curtains, rugs, or acoustic panels for peace and quiet.

10. Make the Bed Inviting

Your bedroom should be the coziest space of all. Invest in quality bedding—soft sheets, a weighted blanket, and a comfortable mattress. Add layers of pillows and throws. Keep the space cool, dark, and quiet for the best sleep possible.


Final Thoughts

Making your home cozy isn’t about buying expensive items or following trends. It’s about creating a space that feels safe, nurturing, and truly yours. These timeless strategies ensure that no matter where you live or how you decorate, your home remains a sanctuary for comfort and calm.

For more inspiration and timeless lifestyle insights, visit https://humanityuapd.com


Website Auctions ( Website Sale Or Buy ) – Types, Benefits and Process

The Exciting World of Website Auctions

Website Auctions ( Website Sale Or Buy ) - Types, Benefits and Process

Website auctions have become an increasingly popular method for buying and selling online properties. As the digital landscape continues to expand, the demand for established websites and domain names has soared, leading to a thriving marketplace where entrepreneurs and investors can explore lucrative opportunities. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the captivating realm of website auctions, exploring the intricacies of this dynamic industry and providing invaluable insights for both buyers and sellers.

Understanding Website Auctions

What Are Website Auctions?

Website auctions are platforms or events where individuals can bid on and acquire websites, domain names, and online businesses. These auctions can take place through dedicated online marketplaces, auction houses, or specialized platforms that cater to the digital asset trade.

Types of Website Auctions

  1. Domain Auctions: These auctions primarily focus on the sale of domain names, allowing participants to acquire memorable and brandable web addresses for their online ventures.
  2. Website Property Auctions: In these auctions, fully developed websites or online businesses are put up for sale, presenting buyers with the opportunity to invest in established online assets.
  3. Marketplace Auctions: Online marketplaces such as Flippa and Empire Flippers host regular auctions where a wide range of digital assets, including websites, domain names, and e-commerce stores, are made available for purchase.

The Benefits of Website Auctions

For Sellers

  • Maximized Returns: Website auctions often attract a pool of motivated buyers, resulting in competitive bidding that can drive up the final sale price.
  • Efficiency: Auctions offer a streamlined and time-bound selling process, allowing sellers to quickly offload their digital assets without prolonged negotiation periods.
  • Targeted Audience: By listing their properties on reputable auction platforms, sellers gain access to a pool of potential buyers actively seeking online investments.

For Buyers

  • Diverse Options: Website auctions present buyers with a diverse array of digital assets, ranging from niche affiliate sites to well-established e-commerce platforms.
  • Transparent Transactions: Participation in reputable website auctions ensures that buyers engage in transparent transactions with clear terms and conditions.
  • Opportunity for Value Acquisition: Buyers can often identify undervalued websites or domain names in auctions, presenting opportunities for profitable acquisitions.

Key Considerations for Website Auction Participants

Sellers

  1. Preparation: Prior to listing a website or domain for auction, sellers should conduct thorough due diligence, ensuring that their offerings are accurately represented and appeal to potential buyers.
  2. Documentation: Complete and organized documentation, including financial records, traffic statistics, and operational details, can significantly enhance the attractiveness of a property in an auction.
  3. Reserve Price: Setting a realistic reserve price is crucial for sellers, as it ensures that their assets are not undersold while also attracting genuine interest from bidders.

Buyers

  1. Research: Prospective buyers must conduct extensive research on the assets available in an auction, considering factors such as niche viability, traffic sources, and revenue streams.
  2. Budgeting: Establishing a clear budget and sticking to it is essential, as the competitive nature of auctions can lead to fervent bidding wars.
  3. Risk Assessment: Assessing the risks associated with a potential acquisition is vital, encompassing considerations such as industry trends, asset maintenance, and revenue sustainability.

Navigating the Auction Process

Bidding and Negotiation

In a website auction, participants engage in competitive bidding to secure their desired assets. This process demands strategic decision-making, as bidders must evaluate the value of the digital property and gauge their competitors’ interest. Additionally, post-auction negotiations may occur, allowing the winning bidder to finalize the transaction and address any outstanding queries.

Legal and Technical Due Diligence

Both sellers and buyers are advised to conduct thorough due diligence before participating in website auctions. From a seller’s perspective, ensuring that all legal documentation and ownership rights are in order is imperative. On the other hand, buyers should scrutinize the technical aspects of the website, such as its design, coding, and SEO practices, to make informed investment decisions.

The Future of Website Auctions

As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve, website auctions are poised to play an increasingly pivotal role in the online business landscape. The democratization of website ownership, the proliferation of e-commerce ventures, and the expanding relevance of digital branding are all factors that contribute to the sustained growth of website auctions. Moreover, as the pool of digital assets continues to expand, auction dynamics are expected to evolve, offering enhanced features and streamlined processes for all participants.

Conclusion

In conclusion, website auctions represent a compelling avenue for individuals and enterprises to engage in the vibrant digital marketplace. Whether you are a seasoned investor seeking new acquisitions or an entrepreneur looking to divest digital assets, website auctions offer an efficient, transparent, and dynamic platform for conducting transactions. By understanding the nuances of this thriving industry and staying informed about market trends, participants can capitalize on the myriad opportunities presented by website auctions, paving the way for profitable digital ventures and strategic online investments.

This comprehensive overview illuminates the captivating world of website auctions, providing valuable insights and strategic guidance for those looking to navigate this exhilarating terrain. With the digital economy flourishing and the demand for online assets reaching unprecedented levels, website auctions stand as a beacon of opportunity, drawing in astute investors and ambitious entrepreneurs alike.

➡️ Bid Now This Business

Flippa – Website Sale – Business – Invest – Entrepreneur

The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Selling Websites on Flippa

Flippa - Website Sale - Business - Invest - Entrepreneur

In the ever-evolving landscape of online business, the buying and selling of websites has become a prominent way for entrepreneurs and investors to enter or expand their presence in the digital marketplace. Flippa, a renowned platform for website transactions, has emerged as a go-to destination for those seeking to buy or sell web properties. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the intricacies of leveraging Flippa to navigate the world of website acquisitions and sales.

Understanding Flippa

Flippa has positioned itself as the premier digital asset marketplace, facilitating the trade of websites, domains, and apps. It offers a user-friendly interface, allowing buyers and sellers to engage in transactions with ease. The platform’s transparency and diverse range of listings have made it a magnet for individuals and companies seeking to capitalize on online opportunities.

The Advantages of Using Flippa

Whether you are looking to purchase a revenue-generating website or offload a digital asset, Flippa offers several advantages. For sellers, the platform provides a targeted pool of potential buyers, ensuring maximum visibility for their listings. On the buyer’s side, Flippa’s vast inventory presents opportunities in various niches, enabling investors to diversify their online portfolio.

Navigating the Buying Process

For aspiring website owners, Flippa offers a treasure trove of opportunities. To harness the platform’s potential, buyers should adopt a strategic approach. Conducting thorough due diligence is paramount when evaluating a potential acquisition. This includes scrutinizing the website’s traffic sources, revenue streams, and growth prospects. Furthermore, understanding the seller’s reason for listing the website can unveil valuable insights into the asset’s potential challenges and opportunities.

Selling with Success on Flippa

If you’re considering selling a website, Flippa empowers you to showcase your digital asset to a global audience. Crafting a compelling listing that highlights the strengths and potential of your website is crucial. From providing comprehensive financial data to detailing the website’s niche and target audience, transparently presenting the value proposition can attract serious buyers. Engaging with potential buyers and addressing their queries promptly can also instill confidence and hasten the sales process.

Mitigating Risks and Maximizing Returns

As with any investment, there are inherent risks associated with buying and selling websites. Thoroughly vetting a website’s traffic and revenue claims, scrutinizing its backlink profile, and assessing its search engine optimization (SEO) standing are fundamental steps to mitigate risks. Buyers must also evaluate the ongoing operational requirements and potential for scalability. Sellers, on the other hand, should strive to present a transparent and accurate portrayal of their website’s performance, fostering trust and facilitating a smoother transaction.

Tools and Resources for Website Transactions

Flippa provides a range of tools and resources to streamline the buying and selling process. From facilitating secure transactions to offering insights into market trends, the platform equips users with the necessary arsenal to make informed decisions. Furthermore, leveraging external analytics and due diligence tools can bolster the evaluation process, providing additional layers of assurance for both buyers and sellers.

The Future of Website Transactions on Flippa

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the significance of website acquisitions and sales is set to intensify. Flippa, with its commitment to transparency and user-centric design, is poised to remain a pivotal player in this space. The platform’s continuous refinement and adaptation to industry trends bode well for its relevance in facilitating seamless website transactions.

In Conclusion

Navigating the intricacies of buying and selling websites on Flippa demands a strategic mindset, meticulous evaluation, and a penchant for seizing online opportunities. Whether you’re an ambitious entrepreneur seeking to venture into the digital realm or a seasoned investor looking to expand your online portfolio, Flippa stands as an indispensable ally in your pursuit of digital asset transactions. By harnessing the platform’s resources and adhering to best practices, you can unlock the potential for lucrative acquisitions and sales in the dynamic world of website transactions.

With a multitude of opportunities awaiting, embrace the journey of website transactions on Flippa – where digital aspirations materialize into tangible outcomes.

Place Your Bid Or Buy Now

LEARNING LANGUAGE [ NEW BRAIN ( DEVELOPMENT ) ]

LEARNING LANGUAGE [ NEW BRAIN ( DEVELOPMENT ) ]

The enhancement and pruning of neural networks occurs most apparently as the baby begins to develop language. Spoken languages can sound very different from each other. In all, human languages produce about 200 different spoken sounds, called phonemes. Spoken English contains just over one-sixth of those possible sounds.

A Japanese-language keyboard suggests some of the potential complexity of learning language.
A Japanese-language keyboard suggests some of the potential complexity of learning language.

Brain scans of newborns reveal that in the first few months of life, their brain recognizes the subtle differences in phonemes other than those spoken at home. Japanese infants easily recognize the difference between the sounds made by the letters R and L. However, as the Japanese language has no sound like the letter L, adults raised speaking Japanese lose their ability to distinguish it from the letter R. Similarly, English speakers learning Spanish as adults struggle to separate the subtle sounds of the letters Band P in spoken Spanish.

But babies are able to tell such differences. That’s why it’s far easier to learn a variety of languages as a child. However, as infant brains focus on processing the auditory signals of their native languages, starting at about age 11 months they lose their ability to differentiate some nonnative phonemes. Children and adults who learn new languages after having undergone “phoneme contraction” speak with an accent.

CHANGES IN PLASTICITY OR ALBERT & THE RAT

CHANGES IN PLASTICITY OR ALBERT & THE RAT

CHANGES IN PLASTICITY

By the time a baby is three or four months of age, its behavior provides clues to its having reached new milestones in brain development. At that age, individual infants differ widely in their reaction to events and in their patterns of brain activity as measured in EEG scans.

Rs & Ls

JAPANESE WHO BEGIN studying the English language as adults struggle with the sound of the letters Rand L. It’s not the tongue that’s to blame-it’s the brain. Newborns can distinguish all phonemes, or language sounds. Between six months and one year of age, however, children lose the ability to process previously unheard language sounds. Their loss is called phoneme contraction. Since the Japanese language slurs Rand L phonemes, adults who are exposed to the separate sounds in English for the first time cannot hear, or articulate, the difference. It’s the same for English speakers learning Japanese. They can learn the words, but it’s too late for the neuronal circuits to get the sounds exactly right.

A pattern of responses known as behavioral inhibition, which includes shyness and fear when exposed to new people and experiences, occurs in one in five healthy four month olds. Their brains show higher levels of electrical activity in the right frontal lobes. Likewise, older babies who cry upon being separated from their mother have more activity in the prefrontal cortex of their right hemisphere than do children who remain calm when mom disappears from sight.

ALBERT & THE RAT

IN A 1913 manifesto, John B. Watson introduced the term behaviorism, which, he wrote, eliminated the “dividing line between man and brute” in asserting that emotions are determined not by DNA but by external stimuli. Watson built on Ivan Pavlov’s foundation of conditioned stimulus response. Foreshadowing the 1932 publication of Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, Watson theorized that “man and brute” alike can be made to order. He guaranteed, for instance, to rear any of 12 random infants to take on the occupation of his choosing. Yet Watson is remembered most, perhaps, for instilling in an infant boyan irrational fear of all things white and furry.

An 11-month-old called Little Albert plays his part in a famous behaviorist experiment.
An 11-month-old called Little Albert plays his part in a famous behaviorist experiment.

In 1919, Watson began to work with 11-month-old Little Albert, conditioning him to fear a white rat. To begin with, Albert liked his pet, trying to touch and even hold it. Watson believed this reflected a curiosity innate in all children. Later, a new stimulus was introduced: When Albert reached for the rat, Watson banged a metal bar with a carpenter’s hammer. Albert fell face-forward on the mattress, whimpering. The rat was shown repeatedly, with gong and without, until Little Albert’s congenital fear of loud noises was transferred to the rat. This phobia, Watson later learned, applied also to white rabbits, dogs, a fur coat, and even a Santa Claus mask. Presumably, Watson wrote, Albert could eventually become unconditioned, but the boy was adopted before further experiments could be performed.

NEURAL DARWINISM

NEURAL DARWINISM

Some scientists argue that as the brain incorporates new experiences and makes new connections among neurons, it expresses a form of evolution through the competition of its various neural networks. Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Gerald Edelman suggests that the brain’s many networks vie against each other in “neural Darwinism.”

A newborn’s brain (seen above in an MRI) is ready to begin making, remaking, and pruning neural connections by the million.
A newborn’s brain (seen above in an MRI) is ready to begin making, remaking, and pruning neural connections by the million.

While genes determine how the brain begins to grow in an embryo, the brain’s extreme complexity and plasticity make it nearly impossible to predict how it will develop in response to a particular stimulus. The complexity of the brain makes it like the weather. Short-term weather forecasts are possible with some degree of confidence, but long-range forecasts become more and more difficult because of the interaction of so many variables. The so-called butterfly effect, which was discovered during computer generated weather simulations in the 1960s, posits that under the right conditions, the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in China can be magnified until it causes a tornado in Texas. As expressed in the brain, a small change in biochemistry under sensitive conditions may have a tremendous impact on the brain’s future development.

PREMATURE births pose special challenges to the brain. The child emerges from the womb before its neural networks have been established and have gone through initial stages of pruning. Much of the brain development must occur in the buzzing confusion of the world rather than a calm womb, which psychologist Sigmund Freud called the baby’s stimulus barrier. Development of the preemie’s brain occurs without the nutrients and protection of the uterine environment. In addition to difficulties involving regulation of body temperaturedigestion of food, and weakened breathing, many preemies suffer brain hemorrhage. Babies who survive amid the chaos of lights and sounds in a hospital nursery may have their brain overstimulated and may develop problems such as attention disorders and learning disabilities later in life.

NEWBORN

Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has attempted to re-create the conditions of the womb in its neonatal intensive care unit. A preemie’s brain reacts with extreme sensitivity to light and loud noises, so the hospital keeps its NICU dark and quiet. Babies get plenty of skin-to-skin contact, to mimic the touch of the womb. They feed on demand. And they’re allowed some freedom of movement, as they would experience inside the womb, rather than being swaddled tightly The result: These babies leave the hospital earlier than those raised in a standard intensive care unit and have an accelerated developmental curve compared with other preemies.

Consider how neural Darwinism finds expression in the early stages of fetal brain growth. Neurons forming from stem cells move through the brain, guided by basic genetic coding. Genes determine how the neurons connect, axon to dendrite, to create the foundation and basic architecture of the brain. However, the precise chemical environment surrounding the newly formed neurons strongly influences how far they migrate and which neighboring neurons they link with. Exposure to substances in the womb, such as alcohol, can disrupt neuronal migration, but there is no guarantee that exposure will or won’t lead to fetal alcohol syndrome. The unpredictability of the complex system that is the human brain makes such precise calculations impossible.

Toys and a mentally stimulating environment help a baby’s brain grow complex neural connections.
Toys and a mentally stimulating environment help a baby’s brain grow complex neural connections.

Babies don’t learn to walk until about a year after birth, but they are born with the neural program already hardwired.

As people grow older, they take in new experiences. There may be changes in climate, social networks, formal education, and career. To get on in life, people have to adapt to change. Successful adaptation is a matter of rewiring the brain by creating new neuronal connections. Links that promote survival and well-being grow stronger. Those that lose their usefulness grow weaker. In a process that resembles natural selection, they lose the competition to stronger neural networks, and they die.

Neural Darwinism provides a new perspective on the brain’s plasticity: As neural networks compete, those that function best get stronger. Changes in the environment encourage changes in the brain by giving new neural networks a chance to flourish. Such evolution of a single brain continues over an entire lifetime.

NEWBORN NEURONS / ESTABLISHING NETWORKS

NEWBORN NEURONS

As a baby emerges from the womb, brain development expands to include processing responses to the baby’s new experiences sights, sounds, smells, actions, sensations, and emotions. Networks of neurons, primed to receive new stimuli,compete for survival. It’s a random battle at first, but soon becomes more organized as environmental stimuli strengthen some connections while others wither. If the baby is exposed to a broad vocabulary and a wide range of music, the connections for language and sound recognition grow stronger. If the baby is kept in an environment lacking in toys and visual stimulation, the baby’s analytical powers may be slow to develop.

ESTABLISHING NETWORKS

Defects in infants’ eyes illustrate the sensitivity of a newborn’s brain and the competing neural networks. When a child is born with a cataract in one eye, that eye is deprived of normal vision, and the portion of the brain that processes information from that eye suffers lack of stimulation. The baby’s one normally functioning eye begins to process all visual information.

NEWBORN NEURONS [ BRAIN ]

NEWBORN SIGHT

WE CAN’T KNOW for certain what the world looks like to a newborn; babies don’t answer interviewers’ questions. However, scientists who study the makeup of new-borns’ eyes and test for whether babies will gaze at objects believe that for the first months of life, children lack the ability to see fine lines and a full spectrum of colors. The world probably looks like a blurred, faded photograph as seen through a card-board tube.

New-borns appear to be hardwired for looking at faces. Shortly after birth, infants will look at faces longer than they will look at any other object.

The “use it or lose it” principle starts to work-with a vengeance. Neural connections develop for the good eye but fail to do so for the eye with the cataract. Unless the cataract is removed shortly after birth, the child will remain blind in that eye. Even if the cataract is removed later, the brain has lost its one chance to develop the neural circuitry to process visual signals from the eye; the eyeball may appear healthy, but it cannot communicate with the brain.

If surgery removes the cataract in time, the strong, already existing neural connections of the stronger eye give it a favored place in brain development. In order to make both eyes work with the same acuity, doctors often patch the stronger eye for a few hours every day. That way, for extended periods, all of the neural development for vision is processed via the weaker eye. Its brain circuitry grows stronger by not having to compete all the time with the good eye.

The process of establishing and strengthening connections in the brain to process vision underscores the fact that certain periods are absolutely critical to proper functional development. While the brain retains a measure of plasticity among existing networks, it also seldom offers a second chance for establishing those networks at an early age. In other words, the brain cannot expand and reconnect a neural network that doesn’t exist or one that exists, like a dead-end road, without functional traffic.

A GOOD START FOR THE PREGNANT MOTHER

A GOOD START FOR THE PREGNANT MOTHER – DIET/PREVENTION/RISK

EAT WELL

The first, and easiest, thing a mother to be can do is to eat for two: This doesn’t mean doubling up on servings it means remembering that the vitamins and minerals from a well-balanced diet not only nourish mom’s brain and body but the brain and body of her developing baby. Pregnant women need proper amounts of folic acid, vitamin B12 (crucial to the functioning of the central nervous system), fatty acids, iron, and other nutrients. She should consult her obstetrician about taking prenatal vitamins, which contain many of these substances and fill in any nutritional gaps in her diet.

A GOOD START FOR THE PREGNANT MOTHER - DIET, PREVENTION, RISK [ Getting plenty of exercise is important to both the mother and her developing baby. ]
Getting plenty of exercise is important to both the mother and her developing baby.

Good nutrition is vital for healthy brain development. Lack of nutrients at crucial moments in fetal brain development leads to a drop or even a halt in the creation of neurons. Babies born after suffering malnutrition often display a smaller brain and have cognitive disabilities. Lack of folic acid (found abundantly in bread, beans, pasta, spinach, and orange juice) raises the chances of a child being born with spina bifida. On the other hand, too much of a good thing can be bad. Overabundance of certain vitamins, including A and D, can cause toxic reactions in the fetal brain. The best advice for a mother to be is to consult her doctor about the best diet for her, one with lots of fresh fruits, leafY green vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and lean meats.

AVOID ALCOHOL

To decrease the chances of neurological defects, moms to be should also avoid many substances that can harm an unborn child’s brain, such as alcohol. In 1899, William Sullivan, a doctor who studied babies born in an English women’s prison, discovered much higher rates of still-births among mothers who drank heavily. He suspected a link between alcohol and fetal health when he noted that mothers who gave birth to babies with severe birth defects in the outside world had healthy babies in prison, where they were denied alcohol.

It would take more than seven decades before researchers at the University of Washington cataloged the recurring patterns of birth defects as fetal alcohol syndrome. When pregnant women drink heavily, their children are at high risk of having a malformed heart and limbs, a smaller brain, reading and math disabilities, hyperactivity, depression, and distinctive facial abnormalities. Mental retardation also is possible. Unfortunately, alcohol’s most devastating impact on a developing fetus occurs early in the pregnancy, when the mother may not even know she is carrying a child. And small amounts in the first trimester cause more damage than greater alcohol consumption later on, apparently because of alcohol’s impact on the migration of developing neurons In the fetal brain. Normally, neurons stop their travels when they reach their intended destinations. The presence of alcohol makes them overshoot and die.

JUST SAY NO

Other substances harmful to adults are even more so to a developing fetus, whose brain is especially sensitive to its chemical environment. Tobacco, illegal drugs such as cocaine, and environmental toxins, all of which do some level of harm to an adult’s body, deliver hammer blows to a developing fetus and can even cause harmful impacts on sperm cells, so men should consider their levels of exposure before trying to start a family. Sperm live for about three months. To minimize the chances of their sperm being adversely affected by alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and toxins, fathers to be should avoid exposure to such harmful substances for 90 days.

A GOOD START FOR THE PREGNANT MOTHER - DIET, PREVENTION, RISK [ Drugs taken by pregnant women can cause abnormalities in the developing fetus. ]
Drugs taken by pregnant women can cause abnormalities in the developing fetus.

For pregnant women, tobacco smoke is the most common environmental hazard to a fetus. Nicotine in tobacco causes blood vessels to constrict; an affected fetus gets less blood, and its heart rate decreases. Furthermore, nicotine becomes more concentrated in the fetus’s body than in that of the mother. Like alcohol, nicotine is believed to interfere with neuronal migration, connection, and development. Spontaneous abortion rates nearly double for mothers who smoke. Babies carried to term are more likely to be mentally retarded and have congenital abnormalities.

SEEK OUT HIDDEN RISKS

Toxins harmful to a fetus range from obvious hazards such as the poisons in pesticides to common and seemingly harmless substances such as vitamin A, which in high concentrations (such as in acne medication) harms a fetus’s brain. Lead particles, many over the counter and prescription medicines, x-rays, and some cancer drugs also poison a developing brain.

The jury is out on the possible impact of antidepressants. A pregnant woman’s use of Prozac, a common prescription only treatment for depression, so far has been shown to have no impact on her child’s 

NEW BORN BRAIN – SUPPORT & SURVIVAL

NEW BORN BRAIN – SUPPORT & SURVIVAL

Migrating neurons are helped along by glial cells. They support and nourish the neurons on their journeys. Some help regulate the neurons’ metabolism, and others coat the nerve cells’ axons with myelin, a fatty substance that provides electrical insulation and thus controls the speed of communication along neural networks.

Although the brain of a fetus at about eight months after conception weighs only a pound, or about a third of an adult’s, it contains twice as many neurons. Chemical signals called trophic factors influence how individual neurons connect to each other, but the survival of those connections depends on repeated communication across the synapses.

A fetal brain at 24 weeks, with spinal cord at left, has yet to develop characteristic cerebral folding.
A fetal brain at 24 weeks, with spinal cord at left, has yet to develop characteristic cerebral folding

The brain cannot possibly sustain biochemical reactions across all of its neural connections, and so the weakest connections begin to die, through a process known as pruning. In the last stages of fetal development in the womb, about half of all neurons die. The loss is normal; it eliminates many of the connections that are weak or improper for efficient brain function, leaving behind the strongest and fittest neurons.

FIRST DESCRIBED 4,000 years ago, spina bifida is a malformation of the fetal spinal column that has been linked to a diet deficient in folate, a B vitamin, in pregnant women.

From the Latin for “spine split in two,” the birth defect occurs in 1 to 2 births per 1,000. One or more vertebrae, particularly in the small of the back, don’t grow the bony projections called vertebral arches that point away from the center of the body. Often a cyst bulges outward from the spine, encompassing spinal tissues, cerebrospinal fluid and even parts of the cord itself. Large cysts likely signal severe neurological impairment; a portion of the body’s central nervous system, designed to be safely protected from the outside world behind walls of tissue and bone, lies exposed. When the spinal cord is so compromised as to lose function, the infant may suffer paralysis of the legs and bladder, as well as bowel incontinence.

A NEW BRAIN

As a preventative measure, since 1998 all bread, pasta, and flour produced In America contains supplemental amounts of folate. The vitamin, found in green, leafy vegetables, helps the body grow new cells, but how its lack can trigger the disorder remains unclear. Genetics playa role, as the highest incidence rates occur among the citizens of Ireland and Wales as well as their immigrant descendants.

Surgery often can close openings over the exposed portion of a spine and reconstruct misshapen vertebrae, but many impairments remain for a lifetime.

A NEW BRAIN – NEURON MIGRATION OR UNDERSTANDING MIGRATION

NEURON MIGRATION

The most dynamic growth occurs in the cerebral cortex, the largest and outermost layer of the brain.During the first months of fetal development, when 250,000 new nerve cells are being created every minute, neurons begin to take on specialized tasks.

First, they inch their way from where they were formed by cell division to their permanent home in other regions of the brain. Most go toward the cortex, but some move into the cerebellum and other portions of the brain. This process, known as migration, is quite remarkable for the distance the neurons must travel as well as their ability to navigate surely along the tangled pathways of the developing brain. Millions of neurons migrate a distance equivalent to a person hiking from Los Angeles to Boston. Amazingly, they manage to arrive at Paul Revere’s house, the U.S.S. Constitution, or Faneuil Hall without ever consulting a map.

NEURON MIGRATION UNDERSTANDING MIGRATION

Once the migrating neurons reach their destination, they developed axons and dendrites to reach out and make connections with other neurons. Like roads that connect to create a grid for traffic, neurons set up systems of communication that link all parts of the brain. Some pathways receive huge amounts of sensory traffic and become the equivalent of information highways. Others turn into dead ends or decay into crumbling blacktop from lack of use.

You can’t clone a brain. And even if you could, it wouldn’t turn out like the original. Sensitivity to initial conditions in the womb coupled with differences in environment after birth would significantly alter development despite the identical genetic code.

UNDERSTANDING MIGRATION

The brain reacts with extreme sensitivity to anything that influence neuronal migration. Only a few decades ago, neuroscientists believed that each neuron had its own special, predetermined location when it set out on its trek across the brain. Now, researchers have found that neurons take on different characteristics because of their journey and their destination. To take just one example, neurons that process oral communication are not inherently preprogrammed to be speech neurons. Instead, they become speech neurons by migrating to the areas of the brain associated with language.

This discovery prompted new understanding of a wide variety of brain disorders. If something interferes with neurons migrating to their intended destinations and not overshooting or undershooting their targets the results can be powerful. Such disorders as autism, schizophrenia, dyslexia, and epilepsy have been at least partly linked with abnormalities in neuronal migration.

Fetal alcohol syndrome has also been linked to problems in migration. The brain’s hypersensitivity to toxins that impede migration underscores the warnings given to expectant mothers to avoid exposing a developing baby to alcohol, tobacco smoke, drugs, or other chemicals that may interfere with healthy brain development.

NEW BRAIN – FROM THE WOMB TO CHILDHOOD

A NEW BRAIN FROM THE WOMB TO CHILDHOOD

WHEN SPERM meets egg, the merger of a father’s and mother’s DNA triggers the start of a new life. Encoded in the tens of thousands of genes that make up a human being are a substantial fraction that will create the brain and central nervous system. You won’t find the child’s personality, emotions, and ideas buried in the code; they arise instead as the brain develops and interacts with its environment after birth. Nevertheless, the explosion of cell development that begins with conception is the first step toward forming the brain and all of the hopes and dreams it will one day contain.

As an embryo develops into a fetus, the brain grows and differentiates rapidly.

As an embryo develops into a fetus, the brain grows and differentiates rapidly.

DIVISIONS & LAYERS

In its first phases of development, the fertilized egg, or zygote, undergoes a rapid series of divisions. One cell becomes two, two become four, four become eight, and so on until the exponential divisions Create a tiny, hollow ball of hundreds of cells nearly uniform in design. Two weeks after conception, the sphere of cells, still dividing, takes the first step in the series of physical changes to construct a differentiated body and begin the process of becoming human.

First, a dent appears in the sphere. Cells move into the indentation, which folds under the surface of the sphere. The folding creates three layers of cells: an outer layer called the ectoderm, an inner layer called the endoderm, and a middle layer called the mesoderm. In the following weeks, these three layers grow into the tissues that give rise to the body’s major systems: Endoderm becomes digestive tract; mesoderm creates muscles, skeleton, heart, and genitalia; and ectoderm forms brain, spine, nerves, and skin.

Lots of gentle handling produced increased serotonin, a neurotransmitter that dampens aggression, in baby rats. Grown into adults, the rats lived longer and handled stress better.

BUDDING BRAIN

The nascent brain makes its first appearance at about four weeks after conception, when a thin, spoon-shaped layer of cells called a neural plate emerges at the head end of the embryo. Major characteristics of the future brain already are in place just one month into fetal development. Hemispheres later will develop on either side of a groove down the center of the neural plate, creating the bilateral symmetry of the human brain.

As the fetus grows, the bowl of the spoon will become the brain itself, while its handle grows into the spinal cord. And as the neural plate folds to form a tube, swellings in the original spoon shape become the forebrain, midbrain, and hind brain. As they develop, they work together to form the major sections of the brain, from the cerebrum at the top of the head to the thalamus, hypothalamus, cerebellum, and spinal cord at the back and lower end.

SPECIALIZATION BEGINS / GENDER DIFFERENCES / PREPROGRAMMING

SPECIALIZATION BEGINS

As modern humans evolved from their hominid ancestors, their brain development continued with increasing specialization of regions and functions. One hypothesis suggests that the differences between the left and right hemispheres of the human brain can be traced to humans’ simian ancestors swinging through trees. Grasping one limb after another requires the arms to act independently instead of in unison. Perhaps the ancestors of humans began emphasizing the use of one arm over another, encouraging greater neuronal development in the hemisphere that controlled action on that side of the body.

One of the most pronounced differences between brain hemispheres can be observed in dissection of cadavers. The brain region mainly responsible for speech, the planum temporale, is larger in the left hemisphere of two-thirds of human brains. The left-handed nature of language is evident across time and stage of life. Full-term fetuses exhibit larger, speech-related regions in the left hemisphere than in mirror locations on the right hemisphere. The same was true of Neanderthals, according to the telltale marks on the inside of their 50,OOO-year-old skulls made by contact with their gyri and sulci.

GENDER DIFFERENCES

The two sexes also experience differences in brain function. Men are more likely to be left-handed, dyslexic, hyperactive, and autistic. Women are more likely to suffer migraines and, on average, have weaker spatial functioning. Women, though, generally outperform men in the fine motor skills of their fingers, and they learn to speak their native language earlier and foreign languages more easily than men. The bottom line, however, is that if you were to look at two brains on a laboratory table-one from a man, and the other from a woman-you probably wouldn’t be able to tell any difference.

Neuroradiologist Majorie LeMay examined the Sylvian fissures of human skulls 30,000 to 300,000 years old. These fissures revealed an asymmetry that suggested dominant left hemispheres. Perhaps the asymmetry provides evidence of an ancient capacity for language, which favors the brain's left side.

In men, the third interstitial nucleus of the hypothalamus typically is twice as big as it is in women’s brains. The hypothalamus is crucial to sexual behavior, as well as regulation of body temperature, eating, and drinking. Furthermore, women’s and men’s brains differ in response to orgasm. PET scans show less activity in a woman’s prefrontal cortex and in a man’s amygdala during sexual climax, while both sexes experience more neuronal firing in the cerebellum.

GENDERED BRAIN

THE SEXES DIFFER in cognitive ways. A big one involves spatial orientation. Men typically use mental maps, while women prefer landmarks. Men would likely give directions by saying, “Drive north 2.2 miles, turn east, and drive 1.5 miles,” whereas women would more likely say, “Drive toward the mountains until you see the barn, turn right, and go to the pond.” Small wonder that one sex may get frustrated giving directions to the other. Women take the prize for remembering objects’ locations-where are those keys?- while men win at abstract spatial reasoning, such as mentally rotating objects. As a group, men have a wider dispersal of scores on some mental tests.

PREPROGRAMMING

Much human behavior arises from culture and environment. Some, however, appears to be prewired into the brain. The capacity for language appears to be so strongly encoded that children raised without exposure to any language will make up their own.

Communication is an evolutionary favored social activity that helps humans compete with other animals for resources necessary for life. Similarly, the brain’s ability to process and integrate visual stimuli exists almost immediately after birth. At only a few weeks old, an infant raises its arms to protect itself from the approach of an object. Sight, texture, and size appear to be aspects of object recognition that the brain is prewired to bring together for self-defense.

THE THREE BRAINS – MACLEAN [ EVOLUTION ]

THE THREE BRAINS – MACLEAN [ EVOLUTION ]

THE THREE BRAINS

Neuroscientist Paul MacLean suggested in 1967 that the human brain functions as three separate “brains,” each of which represents a stage in evolutionary development. He referred to the three-way unity as humanity’s triune brain. Through evolution’s penchant for preserving genetic code that proves useful for survival and discarding mutations that prove useless, MacLean suggested that human brains evolved by adding to successful brain structures of earlier vertebrates. Thus, both fish and dogs have brain structures in common with people. But instead of the evolutionary structures being uniformly mixed throughout the human brain, they nest one inside another like Russian dolls. The most primitive lies deepest in the brain, under more modern layers.

Charles Darwin observed that domesticated animals have thinner cortical layers than their wild cousins in the forest. Wild animals’ exposure to a wider variety of environmental stimuli may create richer neural connections.

THE THREE BRAINS

FIRST BRAIN

MacLean’s first “brain” is the R-complex, which takes its name from its resemblance to the simple brains of reptiles. The R-complex formed from an extension of the upper brain stem. It’s enough to keep a snake or a salamander alive as well as ensure the continuation of the species. The R-complex oversees sleeping and waking, breathing and heartbeat, temperature regulation, and automatic muscle movements. It also plays a crucial role in the processing of sensory signals from the peripheral nervous system. MacLean’s experiments with a variety of animals demonstrated that the neural connections in the R-complex provide sufficient mental firepower for hunting, mating, establishing territory, and fighting. In other words, everything necessary for finding food, competing with other animals for survival, and passing along the genes of the dominant, strongest individuals. Humans may think of themselves as being far above turtles and alligators, but their brain shares the same mechanics for regulating basic body functions. Further-more, whenever humans engage in a schoolyard scuffie or compete for the affections of another, they’re exercising the reptilian cores of their brain.

SECOND BRAIN

The second “brain” is the limbic, or paleo mammalian, system. It’s common to all mammals, including humans, but is lacking in reptiles. The limbic system coordinates and refines movement. It gives rise to emotions and simple memory, as well as the rudimentary social behaviors they make possible. When MacLean destroyed part of the limbic system in the brain of young mammals, their behavior regressed toward the reptilian. They stopped playing and exhibited weaker mother-offspring bonds. Humans who flush with anger when they get slapped across the face, or glow with happiness when kissed, are using their limbic systems. If they choose to ignore the slap or the kiss, however, they need to exercise the third and highest level of the brain.

Swinging through forest has been linked in theory to brain hemisphere specialization.
Swinging through forest has been linked in theory to brain hemisphere specialization.
THIRD BRAIN

The third “brain” is the cerebral cortex. Many mammals possess a cortex, but it is most highly developed in humans. It adds the benefits of problem solving and both long-term and complex working memory to the lower two “brains.” The neomammalian brain, as MacLean dubbed it, gives humanity its capacity for language, culture, memory of the past, and anticipation of the future. It also makes humans the first species with empathy, the ability to see the world through the eyes of others.

“It is this new development that makes possible the insight required to plan for the needs of others as well as the self … In creating for the first time a creature with a concern for all living things, nature accomplished a 180-degree turn-about from what had previously been a reptile-eat-reptile and dog- eat-dog world,” MacLean said.

EVOLUTIONARY CLUES OR PAVLOV’S DOGS

EVOLUTIONARY CLUES OR PAVLOV’S DOGS

EVOLUTIONARY CLUES

Some of humanity’s evolutionary history can be observed in the development of a human fetus. As chicken and human embryos develop, for example, they experience a stage where they both have a tail, as well as arches and slits in their neck remarkably like the gill slits and arches found in fish. Thus, scientists in the late 20th century concluded that chickens and humans most likely shared a fish-like ancestor, based not only on visual evidence but also on DNA and fossil records. Not all ancestral characteristics become evident during fetal development, but enough similarities exist to suggest an evolutionary thread.

A few days after conception, a human embryo’s cells begin to specialize. Some form a simple neural plate, which changes into a groove and then a tube. The huge cerebral cortex that distinguishes the human brain develops last, in the final months before birth, just as it evolved from humanity’s simian ancestors two million years ago relatively late on the evolutionary tree. Like an hour-long film compressed into a few seconds, the pageant of growth and diversity in the fetal brain roughly condenses a half billion years of animal evolution into nine months of flesh and blood transformation.

The common animal ancestors of humans and other animals are suggested by common elements of animal brains. The more complex structures of the late developers overlie the simpler forms of creatures that evolved earlier, and thus lower on the evolutionary tree.

PAVLOV’S DOGS

AT FIRST; Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) wanted only to know the neural link between dinner and dog drool. To find out, he anesthetized his test subject and detached its salivary duct, lightly stitching this to the dog’s outer cheek. Then, placing food in the dog’s mouth, he could eaSily collect and calculate its salivary response. In this way he hoped to unlock the mysteries of the canine nervous system.

After repeated experiments, Unfortunately the dog seemed to catch on and began to salivate before the food had arrived. Clearly this was a problem. How could Pavlov understand salivary response to food in the mouth if the response occurred in the absence of food? Initially puzzled, Pavlov realized he’d stumbled upon something even more intriguing than his original objective. As environmental factors determine evolutionary adaptations within a species, he concluded, so too must external forces mold the behavior of an individual.

Ivan Pavlov observes one of the dogs he subjected to conditioned behavior experiments.
Ivan Pavlov observes one of the dogs he subjected to conditioned behavior experiments.

From a knee-jerk defense mechanism to the performing of Rachmaninoff, acquired reflexes are the building blocks of learning. And if dogs’ brains were sophisticated enough to make such connections, imagine what human brains could do.

Pavlov soon discovered he could condition animals to respond to arbitrary stimuli. If a snack was repeatedly paired with buzzer, whistle, or A-minor triad on the piano-he rarely used that legendary bell-the dog would begin to salivate at sound alone. But a slight variation-B-flat minor, perhaps or A minor in a different octave-triggered no response. The same held for shapes, clocks, shades of gray,melodic patterns, light and rotating objects.

GROWING COMPLEXITY [ EVOLUTION ( BRAIN DEVELOPMENT ) ]

GROWING COMPLEXITY [ EVOLUTION ( BRAIN DEVELOPMENT ) ]

GROWING COMPLEXITY

If 2,000 neurons are sufficient for simple learning, imagine the explosion of complex behavior that accompanied the growth of neural complexity about 530 million years ago. Larger clumps of neurons in the diverse animal population that seemingly emerged overnight encouraged the flourishing of new animal species. The variety of new species could better react to, and survive, changes in their environments. Ocean life diversified into the ancestors of today’s worms, mollusks, and crustaceans.

The forward tip of the neural cords in the first proto-vertebrates began swelling and folding to create primitive brains. Neural networks in those early brains began to diversifY. Some connections began to specialize in vision. Some took on the function of hearing. Among the sharks, neural connections specializing in smell became hypersensitive, empowering them to detect blood in concentrations as small as 1 part per 25 million of water. That allowed them to smell bloody prey a third of a mile away (and, not coincidentally, strengthened their chances for survival in the constant interspecies combat of evolution).

A developing spinal cord is already visible in a three-day-old chicken embryo developing inside its eggshell.
A developing spinal cord is already visible in a three-day-old chicken embryo developing inside its eggshell.

As animals began crawling out of the ocean onto the shore, around 360 million years ago, their brain didn’t begin anew. Instead, new experiences and new evolutionary developments were laid down atop their existing neural networks. Birds and reptiles added new levels of behavior, and new brain matter developed as well. Mammals put their own layers on top of their evolutionary predecessors. And finally, humans with their gigantic brain added the newest and most complex layers in the wrinkly pink walnut of the cerebral cortex.

Darwin explicitly put humans in the crosshairs of his theory with the 1871 publication of The Descent of Man. Human bodies and brains evolved and continue to do so.

The human brain differs physically from those of other mammals in its size, complexity, and dominance of its cerebral cortex. Just like speed and strength, early advantages in the brain such as analytical power (“How can I trap that animal?”) and capacity for speech (“How can I get others to help me trap that animal?”) improved the odds of early humans’ survival. Advantages spread to new generations and became common.

Networks of synapses constantly compete with each other; roughly like animal species fighting for limited food. Networks that get steady stimulation grow stronger; while others atrophy. Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman calls the process neural Darwinism.

EVOLUTION – GROWTH & ADAPTATION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN [ BRAIN DEVELOPMENT ]

EVOLUTION – GROWTH & ADAPTATION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN [ BRAIN DEVELOPMENT ]

FROM THE single celled product of conception, the human animal grows into a complex, uniquely cognitive being. Evolution has built upon older, more primitive animal brain forms to lead humanity to emotion and rational thought. Over eons of time, neural circuitry has developed to promote and continue to promote individual and collective survival. That’s because the human brain is “plastic,” primed from an extremely young age to learn and change.

A six-month-old girl examines her reflection. From birth, humans appear to be drawn toward faces.
A six-month-old girl examines her reflection. From birth, humans appear to be drawn toward faces.

EVOLUTION

THE DEVELOPMENT of the human brain is written in millions of years of evolution, its story still unfolding.

Neurons began to emerge with the appearance of multicellular animals. The earliest neural connections formed primitive networks of cells in tiny life-forms swimming in primordial oceans. Today, such systems can still be found in simple life-forms such as jellyfish.

SIMPLE BRAINS

Animals with only the barest collection of neurons can function with surprising sophistication. The marine snail Aplysia has only about 2,000 neurons, yet it is capable of movement, reaction to touch, sensation, and all of the things that make a snail live like a snail. It even can learn despite lacking a true brain. Aplysia’s neurons organize themselves into clumps called ganglia at various points on its tiny body, creating a maze of connections. These neural clumps can amplifY or tamp down electrochemical signals as they pass from neuron to neuron; its neural connections can be strengthened or weakened just as in human brains. Scientists have found that when they shock Aplysia’s tail, it reacts by reflexits neural network contracts the affected flesh to pull it away from the source of the shock. However, things get interesting when the shock is preceded by a light touch against the snail’s flesh. After a few repetitions, the lowly Aplysia has enough neural complexity to connect the two sensa- tions: touch, followed by pain. In time, the light touch alone, with no electric shock afterward, is enough to make the snail recoil as if in pain.

An octopus’s brain is dime size, but it can solve simple problems such as moving barriers to get food.

CHARLES DARWIN

CHARLES DARWIN KNEW he had opened a tinderbox when he published On the Origin of Species in 1859. He laid out a theory of evolution through natural selection: Individuals that have a biological advantage are more likely to outlive their peers and pass their edge to offspring. A gazelle that is a bit faster than another may outrun the lion and breed fast children the next day. Cuidado, Darwin wrote in his notebook, using the Spanish for “careful.” Taken toits logical conclusion, even humans fell under his theory-an idea Darwin down-played at first because he knew it would be unpopular.

WHY OUR DIETS ARE BADLY FAILING US / WHY WE NEED NUTRITION

WHY OUR DIETS ARE BADLY FAILING US AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

Right now, there’s a good chance that your diet is woefully inadequate when it comes to ensuring you are in the best possible health. In fact, there’s a good chance that your diet may be killing you.

And what is the culprit here? The answer is empty calories and processed foods.

UNLOCK YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

These days, a huge proportion of what we eat is ready prepared and ‘processed’. That means that it has spent a lot of time in a factory and thus bears little resemblance to what the ingredients originally looked like.

A good example is a bag of crisps, which doesn’t tend to have much potato left in it at all. Chocolate is made from a cocoa bean but the rest is purely processed. And ready made lasagne will have had all the goodness fried out of it and a ton of salt, sugar and bad fats added to try and keep it preserved.

All this means that you’re getting calories from your diet ‘ calories that will provide you with energy and make you gain weight ‘ but no nutrition.

WHY WE NEED NUTRITION

It is a mistake to think of food as fuel. Calories are fuel and they happen to be in our food. But food is more than that.

Apart from also being a social event and a hobby, food should also be a source of raw materials. The saying that you ‘are what you eat’ is literally true and when you eat any meal, your body will break it down into its constituent parts and then reassemble those parts in order to build your muscle, create enzymes and hormones and even produce neurotransmitters (the chemicals that make our brain work).

When you don’t get these things, you’ll find yourself feeling considerably worse. If you don’t get enough vitamin C for example, then your immune system won’t be able to perform at its best and you’ll be much more likely to get ill. Worse, vitamin C is also crucial for helping you to produce serotonin. Take that away and your mood will plummet. It also helps us sleep!

Similarly, when you don’t get enough omega 3 fatty acid, it can cause inflammation ‘ this makes your joints hurt, it creates brain fog and it can lead to illness.

A lack of amino acid will mean that your muscles are weaker and smaller. And it will result in your skin looking grey and your nails being brittle.

The short term issues are worthy of a lot of concern but more worrying still is what this does to your health in the long term. The damage here is cumulative and in the end you will be more likely to suffer with a range of diseases.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

The answer is to stop thinking of food as fuel and to instead think about the quality of the raw materials you’re putting into your system. Find ways to get more nutrition food in your diet -even if that means just adding a smoothie into your routine!

TOP TRICKS TO MAKE YOUR SMOOTHIE MORE EXCITING

TOP TRICKS TO MAKE YOUR SMOOTHIE MORE EXCITING

Once you’ve added the liquid, the base, the fruits and vegetables and blended them all into a smooth drink, you might think that your smoothie would be complete. And it can be, sure, but if you want to get more inventive and creative and make something really memorable and really healthy, then you can instead start experimenting with some exciting additional ingredients, tricks and tweaks.

TOP TRICKS TO MAKE YOUR SMOOTHIE MORE EXCITING

Here are some ideas to get you started

HERBS AND SPICES

You can add a herb on top of your smoothie as a garnish or drop it in in order to make it more attractive and add a nice flavor. Mint leaves are particularly popular and will go very well with green smoothies (for a mojito-like effect) as well as milky ones.

Better yet are spices. Cinnamon and vanilla are spices that can add a little sweetness and that might seem like a more logical choice for a smoothie but you can also get more adventurous and add cooking spices to your smoothies. Why not give your smoothie a spicy kick with a little cayenne pepper? This will make it spicier but it will also act as a thermogenic; increasing your heartrate and thus increasing your calorie burn!

HONEY

If you’re looking for a sweetener, then honey is a great choice. Sure, honey contains sugar and won’t work that well in a low calorie or low-sugar diet. But it’s also very healthy in a number of other ways, potentially fighting inflammation and certainly acting as an amazing hangover cure and a good source of antioxidants.

ICE

If you want to make an exciting smoothie for summer, then consider ice. You can add this at the end to have your smoothie fit around blocks of ice, or you can blend the ice to create a slushy. Either way, this will be a very nice way to chill your drink and also a fun way to make it a little like an icecream ‘ great for kids.

This too can actually enhance your metabolism as your body tries to warm itself back up. And what’s more, is that ice is a great way to wake yourself up in the morning!

PROTEIN SHAKE

Add protein shake to your smoothie if you want to turn it into a muscle building tonic. Protein shakes taste great in milk-based smoothies and in smoothies with bananas or strawberries in particular. This will help you to recover from training and can be useful as a way to reduce your diet in other areas as a quasi-meal replacement and thereby lose weight as well.

NUTS

If you want to garnish your smoothie with something pretty, then sprinkling a few nuts on top can be a great way to do so. You can add walnuts for a chistmassy smoothie for example and this can add to the look of the smoothie while also providing additional healthy fats, magnesium, zinc and protein!

Get creative and think about what else you can do to make your smoothie more exciting!

TOP TIPS FOR MAKING IT EASIER TO MAKE SMOOTHIES

TOP TIPS FOR MAKING IT EASIER TO MAKE SMOOTHIES

Top Tips for Making it Easier to Make Smoothies The great thing about smoothies and the main reason they’ve become so popular, is that they provide a very easy and convenient way to get a lot of extra nutrition in your diet. Eating healthily isn’t always easy and a lot of us will find we run out of time to prepare homemade meals and that it can even be quite expensive trying to eat fresh!

But then making smoothies isn’t always a walk in the part either and sometimes that can even seem like too much effort. The aim of this article then is to help you make it even easier to make smoothies, so that you stick with this healthy habit and don’t turn back to the soda any time soon!

TOP TIPS FOR MAKING IT EASIER TO MAKE SMOOTHIE

USE TINNED FRUITS

Some fruits and vegetables that you will want to include in your smoothie can take a lot of time and effort to prepare. Take peaches for example. You might want to remove the skin from these and you’ll certainly want to take out the stone and all that involves a lot of time when you’re in a hurry in the morning.

The solution? Use tinned peaches instead! These are soft and pealed and stoned and ready to go, so you can simply drop them into your blender and hit blend!

The thing to be cautious of here though, is that you need to avoid tins that contain a lot of added sugar or syrup. Be careful to choose the types that say ‘in juice’ and then drain it off unless you want to risk altering the flavor of your smoothie!

Purees can also work in a similar manner!

PRE AND PICK UP

If you are really in a hurry in the mornings, then you’re not going to want to slave over the chopping board no matter how quick it is to make your smoothie. The solution then is to prepare your smoothie in advance and then to just grab it on the way out. This is called ‘prep and pick up’ and you can do it by decanting your smoothies into bottles and dropping them into the fridge. Simple!

BULK BUY AND FREEZE

Another issue is that fruit can get expensive. It’s not expensive per unit but because your fruit is constantly going off, you might find you need to keep replacing it ‘ which is a waste.

One solution is to freeze certain fruits like bananas, which will also have the added bonus of making your smoothies nice and cool. Another tip is to bulk buy and order online. This way, you can set up a standing order so that you receive a regular selection of ingredients to your door and you don’t need to worry about constantly replenishing your fruit bowl!

Or instead of freezing, how about going the opposite route and sun drying your ingredients instead? They actually taste even sweeter this way and will last a lot longer ‘ just make sure you give them longer in the blender!

TOP LIQUIDS FOR YOUR SMOOTHIE

TOP LIQUIDS FOR YOUR SMOOTHIE

When you create your smoothie, you will likely be super excited as you think about all the different types of fruits and vegetables you can put in! This is what is going to dictate the main flavor of your drink and also provide most of the goodness, so no wonder it’s exciting letting those creative juices flow!

But while you’re at it, try not to overlook the ‘boring’ part of your smoothie either ‘ the liquid. This might just be ‘water’ but it’s actually one of the most important ingredients in there. And actually, this area allows for a little creativity too’

THE ROLE OF YOUR LIQUIDS

The role of your liquid is of course to provide the fluidity of your drink. This is what makes it a drink and otherwise it would be a kind of strange mash. Of course it’s up to you whether you prefer a smoothie to be very runny or a little thicker, so choosing the quantity of your liquid is going to be a big area where you can right away influence the outcome.

At the same time, your liquid will also make your smoothie hydrating while affecting the flavor itself. As we’ll see in a second, some liquids can have a big impact on the way a smoothie functions and tastes!

YOUR LIQUID PICKS

TOP LIQUIDS FOR YOUR SMOOTHIE
WATER

‘Boring’ old water is perhaps the best choice of liquid if you want your smoothie to be optimally hydrating. It also helps some elements to dissolve and improves your digestion. What’s more, is that it’s plain flavor allows you to be more experimental when combining fruits and vegetables later on. It’s a great pick for ‘green smoothies’.

TEA

Yep, you can also add tea to your smoothie! This might be an iced tea or it might be a green tea. Either way, this makes your tea more energising thanks to the caffeine content and that also has potent antioxidant and neuroprotective properties too. Oh and it tastes great!

ICE

Ice will make your smoothie much colder and almost like a cocktail to drink! When you blend the ice, you can make a kind of slush puppy that is a lot of fun and a great way for parents to get their kids to drink smoothies. What’s more, is that the coldness of ice actually gets your body’s metabolism working overtime. This in turn means that it will increase its metabolism and have a thermogenic effect leading to increased fat burning and weight loss. See, I told you that the liquid could be exciting too!

MILK

While we’re at it, adding milk to your smoothie is a great way to completely alter the flavor and make it much smoother and creamier. Because milk is a source of fat, this can improve your absorption of various nutrients too (the fat soluble vitamins in particular) and it can also provide you with a great source of protein, of healthy cholesterol (which boosts testosterone) and calcium!

THE TOP NUTRIENTS TO GET IN YOUR SMOOTHIES

THE TOP NUTRIENTS TO GET IN YOUR SMOOTHIES

When you create a smoothie, you might think of it in terms of what fruits and what ingredients you want to put in. Arguably though, you may be might be missing out on the real point of your smoothie by looking at it in this way. Instead, why not think about your smoothie in terms of what it can do for you? And more specifically, in terms of what amazing nutrients you can get from it?

This is really where the magic of the smoothie comes in and it’s how it delivers its amazing benefits for your energy, your immune system and more! So what nutrients can you expect to get from a smoothie and what are the best ones to hunt for? Let’s take a look at just a few example of amazing nutrients you can get from those fruits and vegetables’

THE TOP NUTRIENTS TO GET IN YOUR SMOOTHIES

OMEGA 3

Another benefit of omega 3 is that it can reduce inflammation. It does this by decreasing the amount of omega 6 ‘ which most of us have too much of. This can reduce brain fog, further enhancing omega 3’s status as a brain food. Better yet, it can also help to reduce swelling and combat a lot of aches and pains!

VITAMIN C

Omega 3 fatty acid is found in avocados as well as nuts and is a very important nutrient for our brain health. This is because it helps to improve the ‘cell membrane permeability’ of our brain cells. In short, this allows more things to pass through the walls of the neurons and this in turn means they can communicate more quickly and effectively.

Vitamin C is the one that everyone knows about but do you really know just how much good it can do for you?

Vitamin C is first and foremost a great tool for enhancing your immune system. That means fewer colds and flus and fewer illnesses in general. Vitamin C also helps to fight stress though by increasing levels of serotonin. This makes things like apples and oranges a great pick-me-up and highly beneficial for improving sleep and even enhancing muscle growth.

It’s also an antioxidant, just like

RESVERATROL

Resveratrol is a very powerful antioxidant, meaning that it can help to combat free radicals. This is seriously good news, because free radicals will otherwise roam around the body and damage cells, eventually leading to the signs of ageing and even causing cancer. Resveratrol is among many nutrients in your smoothies that can help to serve this role but it also has the ability to greatly enhance the function of mitochondria. This is important because mitochondria provide you with your energy and ATP. The more mitochondria you have, the more energetic and vibrant you feel! You can get this one from your red grapes.

ZINC

Zinc is an important mineral that boosts testosterone production, aids in neuroplasticity, helps us get to sleep and even improves our sense of smell!

These are just a few nutrients and there are countless others out there that have just as many benefits!

THE TOP BASES FOR YOUR SMOOTHIE

THE TOP BASES FOR YOUR SMOOTHIE

Many different elements go into a smoothie’s

The first of these is of course the fruit and this is what is going to give the smoothie most of its flavour and most of its goodness. Then there are added things like water and possibly honey.

But what’s also highly important is that your smoothie contains a base. The base is going to be a fruit or perhaps something else that provides a) a very strong flavor and b) a smooth and creamy texture. Choosing your base will often serve as the first building block of your smoothie which will define the strongest flavour and provide the ‘smoothness’ that gives the drink its name!

THE TOP BASES FOR YOUR SMOOTHIE

But what makes a good base for a smoothie? What options are there? Let’s take a look at some of the best

BANANA

Banana is perhaps the most popular smoothie base and is the key ingredient in the very most popular smoothie recipe: banana and strawberry. These two go perfectly together and also offer a large amount of potassium to keep cramps at bay. Banana is also a great source of vitamin B6 and is generally very delicious and creamy.

AVOCADO

The avocado is a very popular health food right now and this is down to numerous factors. Perhaps the biggest benefit of the avocado is that it is a healthy saturated fat. Fats have been vindicated recently as it has been shown that they have nothing to do with heart disease or many of the other conditions that they were previously accused of.

What’s more, is that avocado is delicious and very creamy. It also happens to be an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acid, which is one of the most impressive nutrients for its ability to improve the communication between cells, combat inflammation and more!

MANGO

Mango smoothies are perfect for summers days when you want something really sweet and delicious. Mango is very smooth and has a great texture and it also happens to be a great source of numerous vitamins and minerals. In particular, it is an excellent place to get your vitamin C.

PEANUT BUTTER

Not all your bases have to be fruits and vegetables. An option that is somewhat different is to choose peanut butter, which will provide you with lots of magnesium and zinc, lots of healthy sugar and good helping of protein. This is particularly useful for those looking to build muscle and if you combine it with other protein sources ‘ like protein shake ‘ then it can be highly effective in aiding with muscle building.

PROTEIN SHAKE

Why not add protein shake itself?

This will add even more protein to your mixture and will also often add a lot of delicious flavour. Note that a lot of protein shakes are high in fats and carbs, so you should check the back of your shake before you add it to your healthy drink. Choose a plain whey protein and then add your own flavour instead by making it into a delicious smoothies !

BEST NUTRIENTS AND FRUITS FOR RUNNERS

THE BEST NUTRIENTS AND FRUITS FOR RUNNERS

Looking to enhance your running performance? Believe it or not, a smoothie might just be exactly the secret weapon you’re looking for! In this post, we’ll look at some incredibly powerful ingredients that will taste great in any smoothie and that will help you to run a little further a little faster’s .

BEST NUTRIENTS AND FRUITS

CHIA SEEDS

Chia seeds are a common ingredient in smoothies that are used as a ‘base’. This means that they will help to give the smoothie the smooth and creamy texture that it is known for and prevent it from just being a fruit cocktail!

Chia seeds are of particular interest to runners because they help to hold water and hydration. Chia can absorb large amounts of water and swell to several times their normal volume. Then, once in the stomach, they will release that water into the body to hydrate you. This is one of the secrets that allows the Native American ‘Tarahumara Tribe’ to run huge distances on a regular basis without becoming tired or dehydrated.

BEETROOT JUICE

Beetroot juice is another powerful aid that might just let you run a little bit further and faster. That’s because beetroot juice is a natural vasodilator. This means that it can help to dilate the blood vessels ‘ the veins and arteries ‘ and thereby help more blood to find its way around your body. If you consume beetroot juice then you should find your body becomes much better at mobilizing fat stores, helping you to breathe heavily and take in large amounts of oxygen and more.

Beetroot juice is actually a favourite choice among a large number of athletes for these reasons and is broadly considered a performance enhancer!

RED GRAPES

Resveratrol is a substance found in red grapes. This is a highly powerful antioxidant and on top of that, it is also very good at enhancing the function of the mitochondria.

Mitochondria are small ‘energy factories’ that live inside your cells and allow you to use ATP. The more mitochondria you have and the more efficient they are, the longer and faster you’ll be able to run or otherwise exert yourself without tiring out. Red grapes are a great inclusion for this reason and might just give you an added edge!

PROTEIN SHAKE

While we normally think that protein shake is for bodybuilders, it can also be useful for runners and the reason is actually very similar.

That’s because running is highly catabolic. Not only does running burn fat, it also burns muscle to a great extent and this is something that most runners would rather avoid where possible. By consuming protein just before a run ‘ and especially a source with added BCAA (branch chained amino acids) ‘ you may be able to protect your muscles against being catabolized.

GREEN TEA

Green tea is a great source of caffeine which can increase the heartrate and metabolism and give you a big boost in energy. For this reason, caffeine is found in a large number of performance enhancing supplements and pre-workouts.

HOW TO MAKE A SMOOTHIES SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR GREAT RESULTS

HOW TO MAKE A SMOOTHIE’S SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR GREAT RESULTS!

You might have heard the buzz about smoothies.

Smoothies are simple drinks made up from a cocktail of different fruits and vegetables, often with a liquid and some kind of creamy base thrown in for good measures.

Smoothies taste delicious. And what’s more, is that they also contain a ton of goodness in the form of vitamins and minerals that are missing from our diets too often these days. By simply adding a convenient smoothie to your diet and having this once a day, you can massively increase your overall health, your body composition and your immunity and energy!

How to Make a Smoothie's Simple Instructions for Great Results!

SO HOW DO YOU MAKE THEM?

Your Weapon of Choice

The first thing you will need of course is a smoothie maker or a blender. This is what you are going to use to mush up your ingredients into a pulp and of course you need something powerful to ensure this can be done quickly and easily. Think too about how easy the smoothie will be to dispense and to wash afterward. The Nutribullet is a very popular product right now because it allows you to simply remove the top of your blender to take with you as a bottle!

YOUR LIQUID

Next, you need to choose a liquid. This is of course what will make your smoothie runny and what will make it a drink. The more liquid you add, the runnier your smoothie will be of course and this comes down to personal preference. The norm is to add somewhere between 1-2 cups. Good examples of liquids include juices, water, milk, ice and even tea. There are different benefits of each, so have a long hard think about which you want to try and how this will go with the other ingredients you have planned.

THE BASE

The next part is the base. This is the ‘main ingredient’ and it is what is going to provide the consistency of your smoothie’s i.e. what will make it smooth! You need to choose something that has the right creaminess while also offering a good flavour (as this will likely be the most overriding flavor in the drink) and also lots of health benefits.

Popular choices include banana, mango, peach, avocado, yogurt and ice!

THE FRUITS

From there, it’s then a matter of picking your fruits and vegetables! You can do this yourself and simply think about what is likely to work and what isn’t that likely to work against the base and liquid you’ve chosen. Otherwise, you might choose your fruits based on the different nutritional properties they can offer you.

If you aren’t willing to experiment on your own, then of course you can also try turning to a recipe instead. There are plenty on the web, so you shouldn’t be stuck for inspiration for too long!

EXTRAS

Finally, consider a few different extras to give your smoothie that extra kick. You can add garnishes for instance or even nuts to make it pretty, or how about sweetening it with a little honey?

SMOOTHIE FOR SLEEP

HOW TO MAKE A SMOOTHIE FOR SLEEP!

A lot of people are starting to drink smoothies because they’ve heard about their benefits online or from friends. The word is spreading fast that these amazing drinks not only taste great but also do wonders for our energy levels, our immune systems, our bones, our muscle and pretty much every other aspect of human health you can think of!

Fitness / Potential / Diet Package

But what is less common is for people to be truly scientific in their formulation of their smoothies. Smoothies are good for you, yes, but it goes well beyond that. The way in which smoothies are good for you depend entirely on what you put in them and that means you can devise a smoothie with a specific goal once you know what all the ingredients do!

To demonstrate this, here are a few ingredients that all have one particular benefit’s they greatly enhance your sleep. You can combine a few of these with some other ingredients to make a generally healthy smoothie that will also boost your sleep!

CHERRIES

Cherries are fantastic for enhancing sleep because they provide us with a natural source of melatonin. For those who don’t remember their high school biology, melatonin is the ‘sleep hormone’ that we produce in the brain when we’re ready for bed. The more of this you have, the sleepier you get and the deeper you sleep. Melatonin is what you get in a lot of the most powerful sleeping medications but by getting it from cherries, you can get it much more cheaply and without any of the unwanted side effects (like dependence!).

MILK

Milk is a great choice for your bed-time smoothie because it can make your sleep more restorative. That’s because milk contains healthy cholesterol and your body can use that to make testosterone. This is especially important for men because it helps with the formation of muscle’s but for everyone it can be very helpful in healing. A lot of us also associate milk with bedtime from our youth and thus it can be very soothing.

HONEY

Health and fitness guru Seth Rogen recommended honey for sleep based on his own observations and this trick quickly took the web by storm. The theory is that honey is a great choice because we need energy while we sleep, or else we wake up with low blood sugar and a headache to go along with it. Honey provides both fructose and sucrose’s two sugars that are fast and slow acting. This means that you’ll get energy right at the start of your sleep and also later on when you’re deeper into it. Try adding a little honey to your milk smoothie and see!

STRAWBERRIES

Finally, strawberries are a good source of vitamin C and any source of vitamin C can greatly enhance your sleep. That’s because vitamin C is known to increase serotonin and your body converts serotonin into melatonin. Serotonin itself also happens to be good for your mood, meaning you can feel rested and de-stressed before you doze off!

HOW TO GET MAXIMUM HEALTH BENEFITS FROM YOUR PROTEIN SHAKE

HOW TO GET MAXIMUM HEALTH BENEFITS FROM YOUR PROTEIN SHAKE

A protein shake is a drink that you can use to help you build muscle, improve your health or lose weight. The idea is that you’re providing yourself with a convenient way to increase your protein intake, which is useful because protein is what the body uses to make muscle, make neurotransmitters and also repair wounds.

HOW TO GET MAXIMUM HEALTH BENEFITS FROM YOUR PROTEIN SHAKE

But not all protein shake is made equal and if youre going to get the best benefits from it, you need to choose it wisely. Read on and well look at how you can go about getting the very most from your protein shake by choosing the very best form of protein and then turning it into a delicious smoothie!

TYPES OF PROTEIN

When you buy protein shake, you’ll have a ton of different options to pick from. You can choose whey protein, casein protein, egg protein or soy protein to name just a few!

Unless you are a vegan, the best option for your protein by far is whey protein. Thats because whey, which is a by-product of the cheese making process, is completely natural and healthy with the ability to be absorbed very easily into the body. Whey is more bioavailable when compared to soy or casein and cheaper when compared to egg!

The only exception to this rule is that casein may be more useful when choosing a shake to have before bed. That’s because casein absorbs more slowly, providing a steady release of its amino acids that the body can use to build muscle throughout the night.

You’ll also find that protein shakes come in a variety of mixtures. They come in all manner of flavors and with a ton of different added ingredients like creatine.

For our purposes, the best thing to do is to find a protein shake is that pure whey with nothing extra. This will cost a lot less (and you can source things like creatine cheaply if you want to add them) but it will also mean you aren’t getting heaps of carbs, sugars and fats added to your drink so you’ll be building more muscle and less fat!

And we’re then going to add it all to a nice smoothie!

MAKING YOUR SMOOTHIE

A plain whey is not a very tasty drink but the good news is that you can fix that by adding it to a smoothie and including your own flavors in the form of bananas, strawberries and various other ingredients. The key here is to think about the flavor but also the health benefits that you want to get from your smoothie.

Add whole milk to improve absorption and testosterone production for example. Add strawberries for vitamin C and antioxidants, or add avocado for more healthy fats and a dose of extra protein. All this will go down much more smoothly, provide a ton of extra health benefits and also be cheaper and more delicious. Go with the basic stuff and make your own mix, it’s the only way to really make the most of your shake!

GLUCOTRUST BLOOD SUGAR SUPPLIMENT

WHAT IS GLUCOTRUST ?

GlucoTrust is a new supplement manufactured in the USA that contains a formula of all natural ingredients. These ingredients work together to promote healthy blood sugar levels, safe and effective weight loss, and better sleep.

GlucoTrust is a new supplement manufactured in the USA that contains a formula of all natural ingredients. These ingredients work together to promote healthy blood sugar levels, safe and effective weight loss, and better sleep.

STARTLING STATISTICS 

According to the American Diabetes Association, 34.2 million Americans, or 10.5% of the population, have Type 2 diabetes.

Globally, 462 million individuals are affected by Type 2 diabetes. And these shocking numbers show no signs of slowing down! 

Diabetes treatment has exploded into a gigantic industry that grows every year, as more people require medication (and many never get off it.)

In the USA alone, $327 billion every year by men and women people trying to manage this condition.

WHAT IS TYPE 2 DIABETES?

Here’s the quick scientific explanation behind Type 2 diabetes. 

Blood sugar, or glucose, is the main sugar found in your blood. It comes from the food you eat and it is your body’s main source of energy.

Your blood carries glucose to your body’s cells, where it gets converted into energy. 

Diabetes is a disease in which your blood sugar levels are too high. This happens because of two problems that involve a hormone in your body called insulin. 

First, your body isn’t producing enough insulin. This is harmful because insulin regulates the movement of blood sugar into your cells. 

Second, your cells are responding poorly to insulin and are not absorbing sugar the way they should. This is also known as “insulin resistance.” 

As a result of these two things, too much sugar is circulating in your bloodstream. Over time, it builds up and your blood sugar levels become too high. 

Once your levels rise beyond a certain threshold (which can be shown by a blood test), you are classified as having Type 2 diabetes. 

Some symptoms of Type 2 diabetes include:

  • Increased thirst
  • Frequent urination
  • Increased hunger 
  • Fatigue
  • Blurred vision 
  • Slow-healing sores 
  • Frequent infections
  • Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet

Type 2 diabetes is often linked to being overweight or inactive. But for diabetics, losing weight can be extra challenging. 


You feel hungry and fatigued, so you want to eat more and exercise less. 

For many people, the only answer is to get on prescription medications that help to keep blood sugar levels under control. But this is only treating the symptoms of the disease, not fixing the root problem. 

GlucoTrust contains a combination of ingredients that support healthy blood sugar levels, while also addressing the problems that are keeping people overweight and inactive. 

We refer to it as being stuck in a “vicious cycle.” Being overweight and inactive is the primary cause of Type 2 diabetes. But when you have this disease, it makes it hard to lose weight because it causes you to feel hungry, thirsty and tired. 

GlucoTrust is designed to help people break this cycle by incorporating the following ingredients:  

GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE

The primary ingredient in GlucoTrust is Gymnema Sylvestre, aka gurmar, also known as “the sugar destroyer.” 

This herb comes from a shrub native to Africa, India, and Australia. The leaves of this plant have been used for thousands of years to treat a wide range of ailments—from diabetes to malaria and even snakebites. 

According to studies, Gymnema Sylvestre has blood sugar-lowering properties and can promote healthier levels in people with Type 2 diabetes

It also assists with losing weight by reducing sugar cravings. This is due to the gymnemic acid in this herb, which temporarily blocks the sugar receptors on your taste buds.

In addition, Gymnema Sylvestre has been shown to lower LDL (or “bad cholesterol”) levels, and reduce inflammation in the body. 

BIOTIN

The next ingredient is Biotin, which gets its name from the Greek word “biotos” which means “life.” 

Biotin helps your body to convert food into energy, manage blood sugar levels, and metabolize carbs, fats, and proteins. 

CHROMIUM

According to a study by Harvard Medical School, chromium can lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity.

When your body lacks chromium, your ability to lose weight is held back at a cellular level. But the right amount of chromium helps to activate your metabolism. 

MANGANESE

Manganese is another vital nutrient that stimulates insulin production, so that your body can convert blood sugar into energy. 

Manganese also improves bone strength and promotes healthy brain and nervous system function. 

LICORICE ROOT

Licorice root is one of the oldest herbal remedies used in traditional Greek and Chinese medicines.

It improves liver health and protects against fatty liver disease, which is found in at least 50% of people with diabetes.

This root is also rich in flavonoids, a compound that helps to controls your appetite.

CINNAMON

Known as “the king of spices” for thousands of years, cinnamon has been shown to enhance cell function and lower insulin resistance. 

Cinnamon also supports healthy blood pressure and digestion, and has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. 

JUNIPER BERRIES

Juniper berries were buried in the tombs of ancient pharaohs and used to boost the performance of athletes in the Roman Olympics. 

Their potent powers come from antioxidants that cleanse the body of toxins and strengthen the immune system. 

Juniper is also a natural stress reliever used by natural medicine practitioners to relax and calm the mind and body.

And GlucoTrust Promotes Better Sleep, Too… 

The importance of getting deep, uninterrupted sleep cannot be underestimated and it has a direct connection to diabetes and obesity.  

Yet many people with type 2 diabetes struggle to get a good night’s sleep. It causes a frequent need to urinate, which can mean waking up throughout the night to go to the bathroom. 

And because most people with type 2 diabetes are overweight, they often suffer from sleep apnea, which causes them to stop breathing temporarily during the night and then wake up gasping for air.  

Furthermore, when you aren’t sleeping properly, you’re never properly rested. You go through the day in a haze and are too fatigued to want to exercise or bother watching what you eat. 

On the other hand, when you sleep well and reach the deep sleep stage, your body is able to balance hormones such as cortisol. 

Lack of deep sleep elevates your cortisol, which causes your body to store fat. 

Getting deep sleep allows your body to keep your cortisol in check, while boosting leptin, your hunger-controlling hormone.

According to The National Library of Medicine, when leptin levels are low, your brain thinks you’re starving. 

You wake up hungry and feel hungry throughout the day because your brain thinks you need to eat more. 

But when your leptin levels are high thanks to a good night’s sleep, this sends a signal to your brain that you’ve got enough fat stored and no more is needed. 

This suppresses your appetite, making losing weight that much easier. 

In addition to all of these amazing ingredients, GlucoTrust also contains a proprietary blend of 15 herbs that regulate your natural hormonal balance and allow your body’s functions to run more smoothly. 

The recommended dosage is one capsule per day, and for optimal results GlucoTrust should be taken for a minimum of 90 days. 

Each bottle of GlucoTrust contains 30 capsules, enough for a 30-day supply.

Please note, GlucoTrust is not meant to be a replacement for any prescription medications you are currently taking. Always consult with your doctor before making any changes to how and when you take your medications. 

DIABETES INSIPIDUS / DIABETES MELLITUS [ CLASSIFICATIONS ]

DIABETES INSIPIDUS / DIABETES MELLITUS [ CLASSIFICATIONS ] – NERVOUS SYSTEM

DIABETES INSIPIDUS

When the nervous and endocrine systems get out of balance, the resulting dearth or overabundance of hormones can cause havoc. Consider just one hormone. The pituitary gland in the brain stores antidiuretic hormone (ADH), also called vasopressin, which is created by the hypothalamus. ADH helps regulate the body’s water content through its ability to prevent the formation of urine, which contains water expelled by cells.

Neurons in the hypothalamus monitor the water content of the blood and call for the release or withholding of ADH when the blood contains too much or too little water. The dry mouth you experience on the morning of January 1 may be a result of too much partying the night before; excessive alcohol consumption suppresses the release of ADH, causing excessive urination and thus dehydration and cotton mouth.

DIABETES INSIPIDUS / DIEBETES MELLITUS [ CLASSIFICATIONS ] - Blueberries are rich in acetylcholine and antioxidants, making them an excellent food for brain health.
Blueberries are rich in acetylcholine and antioxidants, making them an excellent food for brain health.

When the hypothalamus and pituitary fail to regularly create and release enough ADH, often through damage to the hypothalamus or the pituitary, the result is diabetes insipidus. Patients with this disorder urinate frequently and are constantly thirsty. Mild forms of diabetes insipidus can be treated simply: As long as the brain’s ability to recognize thirst is undamaged, patients can compensate for dehydration by drinking plenty of water whenever they feel the need.

DIABETES MELLITUS

Diabetes mellitus creates a lack of the hormone insulin, resulting in heavy losses of blood sugar through urination. Insulin arises in the pancreas, a gland that produces enzymes important for digestion. Insulin’s influence is most apparent just after a meal, as it works to take glucose out of the bloodstream to use it for energy in the body’s cells. Insulin also helps store fat and synthesize proteins.

Diabetes mellitus occurs when the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin. Its lack leads to excess blood sugar levels, resulting in dehydration through urination, fatigue, weight loss, nausea, abdominal pain, as well as extreme thirst and hunger. The most common treatment is for the afflicted to test their blood sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin when needed. Accidental overdoses are the most common cause of hypoglycemia, which occurs when too much insulin in the bloodstream lowers blood sugar dangerously. Eating a piece of candy or sipping a glass of orange juice helps restore sugar levels.

DIABETES INSIPIDUS / DIEBETES MELLITUS [ CLASSIFICATIONS ] - Regular tests help diabetics monitor levels of glucose in the bloodstream.
Regular tests help diabetics monitor levels of glucose in the bloodstream.

CLASSIFICATIONS

Diabetes formerly was classified into “juvenile onset” and “adult onset” varieties because of the typical time frame for diagnoses-ages eight to twelve in children, and forty to sixty in adults. The classification system changed when doctors analyzed symptoms that did not match up well with ages. Patients whose body produced no insulin at all were reclassified as “insulin dependent,” while those whose body made insufficient amounts became “non insulin dependent.” The former now is called Type 1, and the latter Type 2.

Type 1 diabetes IS commonly diagnosed in children, teens, and young adults. Symptoms usually come in a rush, shortly after the patient s Immune system turns on itself and destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Lack of insulin used to be a death sentence. Now patients survive with regular injections of insulin, either by syringe or an automatic pump and catheter.

Diabetes mellitus gets its modern name from the Greek for “overflow” (diabetes) and the Latin for “honey” ( mellitus). Overflow is a reference to the symptom of frequent urination, and honey refers to the glucose that appears in the urine. Ancient physicians would diagnose the condition by tasting urine for sweetness.

Type 2 is the more common variety and can begin at any age. It usually starts because the body’s liver, fat, and muscle cells fail to use insulin efficiently. That causes glucose levels to rise in the blood- stream. Feedback mechanisms in the peripheral nervous system detect the increase and trigger production and release of more insulin in the pancreas to offset the higher glucose levels and maintain homeostasis. However, the pancreas cannot keep up the extra production forever. Diet, exercise, weight loss, and medication are common methods of keeping Type 2 diabetes in check.

THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM 

The nervous system isn’t the only method by which the brain controls the body and maintains homeostasis. The direct, electrochemical means by which the nervous system collects information from stimuli and then formulates responses is augmented by the endocrine system, which works with the nervous system to regulate the body’s cells. The autonomic nervous system responds to changes in the body’s dynamic balance by releasing electrochemical impulses to the body’s endocrine organs. These include the testes and ovaries, pancreas, adrenal glands atop the kidneys, thymus and parathyroid glands, and three glands in the brain: the pineal, hypothalamus, and pituitary.

Endocrine glands respond to the nervous system’s orders by releasing hormones into the bloodstream. Hormones (from the Greek for “to excite”) bind to specific cell recep- tors and affect virtually every cell in the body. For example, instructions from the brain, given at the proper time, order the endrocrine glands to release the hormones responsible for sexual development to trigger puberty at adolescence. Other hormones maintain the body’s balance of energy, keep the blood’s supply of electrolytes in balance, and muster the immune defenses against infection. The nervous system and the endocrine system share a special relationship, as their functions can seem intricately intertwined.

Abnormal neuronal firing causes intense electrical activity of frontal lobe epilepsy.
Abnormal neuronal firing causes intense electrical activity of frontal lobe epilepsy.

FOR A HEALTHY BRAIN, good foods are a key part of optimizing your brain’s performance. Here are some foods your brain will welcome:

  • Fresh fruits and vegetables. These include blueberries, leafy vegetables, broccoli, and cauliflower. They contain high amounts of acetylcholine and useful vitamins. Certain vitamins, notably vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, act as antioxidants. They neutralize destructive molecules and atoms known as free radicals, which damage brain cells by stealing electrons from cellular molecules or atoms.
  • Unsalted nuts. Their omega-3 fats help keep the brain and nervous system healthy. Neurons require fats in their myelin sheaths to function properly.
  • Fish. It’s a better source of proteins than high-fat meat, and it’s another source of omega-3 fats.
  • Chicken without the skin and lean meats. Protein in the meat helps build tissue and supply the amino acids that form neurotransmitters .
  • Fruit juice. It’s a natural source of beneficial vitamins, including antioxidants. Be sure to drink plenty of water, too, to keep your brain and body hydrated .
  • Small amounts of alcohol, such as one glass of wine a day. This may increase blood flow to the brain and lower the risk of strokes .
  • Small amounts of caffeine. It activates the cerebral cortex and helps release the neurotransmitter epinephrine .
  • Pasta, cereal, and bread. They contain carbohydrates for energy as well as being rich in serotonin.

INFORMATION ABOUT EPILEPSY

EPILEPSY

On a summer day, storm clouds can suddenly gather and transform an afternoon of sunshine into a violent monster of rain, hail, lightning bolts, and the occasional twister. Sunlight and warmth get blotted out. So it is with the nervous system. The brain’s higher functions, working in harmony with the body, promote consciousness and a sense of well-being. But because the brain functions through the medium of electrochemical reactions, the occasional storm knocks the brain out of balance.

A woman wears an EEG sensor net that aids in epilepsy analysis.
A woman wears an EEG sensor net that aids in epilepsy analysis.

Epilepsy is a flood of electrical discharges in groups of cranial neurons. While the brain suffers through its own electrical storms, no other signals get passed through. Those who suffer an attack may fall to the ground, black out, foam at the mouth, and jerk about uncontrollably. Epileptic seizures can last from a few seconds to a few minutes, and can vary widely in their ferocity.

TYPES OF EPILEPTIC SEIZURE

The mildest used to be called petit mal, French for “little illness.” Now they’re referred to as absence seizures. Sufferers, usually young children, lose consciousness for a few seconds, often staring blankly into space. They typically do not know what has happened to them. Such seizures usually go away by age ten.

Stronger, convulsive seizures are called tonic-clonic, which replaces the old term, grand mal, French for “big illness.” Epileptics in the midst of a tonic-clonic seizure lose consciousness and may experience loss of bowel or bladder control, as well as muscle contractions so severe they have been known to break bones. After a few minutes, when a major seizure dissipates, the sufferer slowly regams awareness. Some tonic-clonic attacks give fair warning. Sensory hallucinations known as auras, including smells and bright lights, give the sufferer a chance to lie on the floor before the onset to avoid the potential injury of falling.

DIVINE ILLNESS

A NEUROSCIENCE JOURNAL article in 1997 listed religious figures thought to be linked with epilepsy because of recorded accounts that match its symptoms. The historical figures included:

  • Saint Paul, apostle and writer of much of the New Testament.
  • Joan of Arc, 15th-century saint and heroine of France.
  • Emanuel Swedenborg, 18th-century theologian.
  • Ann Lee, 18th-century leader of the “Shaking Quakers,” or Shakers.
  • Joseph Smith, 19th-century founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church.
CAUSES & TREATMENTS

Epilepsy has a variety of causes. Some are genetic in origin and caused by an inherent problem in the brain. Typically, the disease strikes far more men than it does women. Other cases have their onset after physical injuries to the brain, such as strokes, fevers, tumors, or head wounds.

About the size of an almond, the small hypothalamus plays a big role in both the nervous and endocrine systems.

Treatment options include anticonvulsive drugs and vagus nerve stimulation. In the latter, stimulators are implanted in the chest to send regular pulses of electricity through the vagus nerve to the brain. These pulses aim to keep the brain’s electrical activity from tipping from order to chaos.

New possibilities include the implantation of monitoring devices combined with electrical stimulators or drugs. The idea is to detect the subtle electrical changes that signal an oncoming epileptic seizure, then deliver a small shock or dose of medicine to ward off the attack before it strikes.

Epilepsy: The Electrical Storm in the Brain

HEADACHES ( THE BRAIN’S EQUILIBRIUM )

HEADACHES ( THE BRAIN’S EQUILIBRIUM )

HEADACHES In the waning days of the Civil War, Union general Ulysses S. Grant was suffering from a terrible headache. He stopped at a farmhouse in the rear of his army, which had been pressing the forces of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. “I spent the night in bathing my feet in hot water and mustard, and putting mustard plasters on my wrists and the back part of my neck, hoping to be cured by morning,” Grant wrote in his journal on April 9, 1865.

Shortly afterward, Grant was visited by a messenger who carried a note saying Lee, who had refused to surrender the previous day, had changed his mind and would be willing to meet to discuss a formal end of hostilities. “When the officer reached me,” Grant said, “I was still suffering from the sick headache; but the instant I saw the contents of the note I was cured.”

Red indicates pain in a map of common headache sites, none of which is in the brain itself
Red indicates pain in a map of common headache sites, none of which is in the brain itself

Grant probably suffered from a muscle-contraction, or “tension,” headache. Typically, a tension headache begins when the neck, scalp, and face muscles are tensely held stiff for a long time. The most usual source is prolonged anxiety, a debilitating form of stress. Grant needed Lee to surrender; Lee’s announcement of his plans took the worries, and the agony, away. “The pain in my head seemed to leave me the moment I got Lee’s letter,” Grant reportedly told an aide as he rode off to end the war.

HEADACHES CATEGORIES

Even as it serves as an indicator that homeostasis is being disrupted, a headache is not a disease per se. Instead, it maya symptom of some other problem. It can manifest itself in response to irritation of blood vessels in the head, or to an injury or imbalance, or to inflammation of bodily tissues, to disorders related to stress-or to a host of other possible triggers. While it may feel as if the brain screams in pain, a headache can only occur outside the brain itself, which contains no pain receptors.

Headaches come in dozens of varieties. An easy way to categorize them is by the ways they cause pain. Muscle contractions such as Grant’s are one of the most common sources, especially among those living with high levels of stress. Dilation of blood vessels is a second typical cause. When arteries expand in the head, they squeeze against surrounding tissues, producing viselike pressure and pain. Fever, migraines, drug reactions, changes in blood pressure, and carbon dioxide poisoning can provoke dilation. Internal traction an abnormal growth in the head, for example is a third trigger. When a tumor presses against other tissues, or the brain itself begins to swell, the pressure causes pain. Inflammation is a fourth common source. Allergic reactions and infections such as meningitis can irritate pain-sensitive receptors in the head. Finally, headaches can occur without an obvious physical cause. These headaches are called psychogenic, meaning they arise in the psyche. They may spring from an emotional problem, as the sufferer converts emotional pain into real, physical symptoms.

The word migraine evolved from the Greek word hemikrania, meaning “half-skull.”

HEADACHE CATEGORIES

Many of these disorders strike not next to the brain, but in the eyes, sinuses, and other facial organs and tissues. Cranial nerves intimately connect the face and neck muscles to the brain, so it is no wonder pain sensations can spread until they feel as if they overwhelm the entire head.

Treating chronic headaches requires a proper diagnosis. Given the wide range of headaches and their causes, as well as the possibility of triggers working in combination, medical treatment often relies on detective work. At least, however, the efficacy of treatment has advanced since humanity first tried to cure a headache. A thousand years ago, Arabs recommended applying hot irons to the head, while a French medical treatise written in Latin urged sufferers to mix the brain of a vulture with oil and shove it up the nose. Today, modern pharmaceuticals, relax- ation techniques, and proper diet target dilation, tension, and other causes. One of the most effective pain relievers is common aspirin.

BALANCING ACT ( THE BRAIN’S EQUILIBRIUM )

BALANCING ACT ( THE BRAIN’S EQUILIBRIUM )

Some feedback mechanisms suppress actions in the brain and body. Others excite them. Their delicate balance keeps the body between extremes. To have too much or too little of one can throw the system out of whack.

To take one example, the lack or overabundance of neurotransmitters such as dopamine causes health problems-Parkinson’s disease in one case, schizophrenia in the other. Because the brain and body are so closely interrelated you could think of the glands, organs, bones, muscles, and other parts of the body as functionally integrated appendages of the brain damage to the brain and the rest of the nervous system can knock the body dangerously out of homeostasis.

Transplants of fetal neurons producing dopamine show promise as a Parkinson's treatment.

Physical damage to the brain is an obvious source of homeostatic imbalance. Shrapnel from an artillery shell, tumors and lesions that anse organically, and atrophy or death of neural groups in the brain reduce and sometimes destroy the brain’s ability to monitor the body and respond to its needs. Headaches, seizures (and epilepsy in particular), diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease are examples of the consequences of a body getting out of a healthful dynamic balance.

BALANCING ACT

Treatments vary. Neurochemical treaments seek to replace the dopamine depleted by the death of the brain’s dopamine producing cells. Drugs like levodopa, also known as L-dopa, are able to pass through the blood-brain barrier. Once inside the brain, L-dopa is transformed into dopamine. It works only up to a point, and it can have side effects, including hallucinations. Furthermore, as the disease progresses, larger and larger doses are required to get the same benefits, with an increased risk of bad reactions. The drug interferes with other neurotransmitters, so large doses often have multiple reactions.

DELICATE BALANCE – THE BRAIN’S EQUILIBRIUM [ HEMOSTASIS ]

DELICATE BALANCE – THE BRAIN’S EQUILIBRIUM [ HOMEOSTASIS ]

THANKS TO THE autonomic nervous system, the human body pretty much takes care of itself without conscious effort. The weather changes but core temperature is maintained, food gets digested, cycles of sleeping and waking follow upon one another, and the body’s status remains fairly even from one day to the next. It’s a system in a delicate balance, self-regulating in an attempt to keep the entire body stable and healthy.

Buddhists in Java engage in meditation, which has been found to decrease stress and anxiety and promote calm feelings.
Buddhists in Java engage in meditation, which has been found to decrease stress and anxiety and promote calm feelings.

ABOUT ONE in a hundred Americans older than age 65 suffer from Parkinson’s disease, a neurological condition that mysteriously kills off cells in the brain. They include preacher Billy Graham and former Attorney General Janet Reno. Younger people, like actor Michael J. Fox, can also be stricken with the disease. Symptoms of the disease first appear with the onset of small tremors during voluntary movements. Over time, it becomes harder to initiate motion. Finally, muscles grow rigid, and even making the simplest movements takes extended time and effort. The condition is caused when cells in a region of the brain beneath the cortex that produces and stores the neurotransmitter dopamine die. This region, including the basal ganglia and an area called the substantia nigra (because it appears black in autopsies ), plays a key role in coordinating movement.

HOMEOSTASIS

American physiologist Walter Cannon came up with the word homeostasis to refer to the body’s ability to stay relatively stable while internal and external environments are changing. While homeostasis literally means “unchanging,” the body does indeed change when sensory receptors detect changes in the environment and automatically react, causing the release of appropriate neurotransmitters and hormones to help the body adapt to the world around it. The body then reacts to the changes, those alterations get fed back into the nervous system, and the process repeats itself.

This is known as dynamic equilibrium. It occurs when change after change keeps the body healthy. And it’s complicated. Think of the body’s constant need to adjust heartbeat and respiration, regulate temperature, as well as maintain the smooth functioning of neurons throughout it. Think of how distracting it might be if the brain didn’t adjust to our environment on a regular basis; hearts would beat rapidly long after a moment of fear had passed; the body wouldn’t adjust to changes in temperatute. The unconscious efforts of the brain go by virtually undetected as the body goes about its business.

GOOD FEELINGS / PLEASURE CENTERS [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ]

GOOD FEELINGS / PLEASURE CENTERS [ NERVOUS SYSTEM ]

GOOD FEELINGS

Pleasure also has its centers In the brain. A Tulane University neurologist stumbled across one such center in the 1950s when he tried to electrically stimulate the brains of schizophrenics to break them out of their passivity. His patients told him their implanted electrodes created pleasant sensations. The neurologist, Robert G. Heath, seized upon the results, focused his attention on the brain’s pleasure centers, and published the 1964 book The Role of Pleasure in Behavior.

Together with the discovery of pain centers in the brain, research on the physical causes of the sense of pleasure seemed to prove the ancient wisdom that humans seek to act in ways that bring them pleasure and reduce or avoid pain. New paths of investigation have led to innovative treatments for addiction, which is a form of behavior based on compulsive forms of pleasure seeking. PET scans reveal how drugs such as cocaine and heroin activate the brain’s pleasure centers. Cocaine, for example, blocks a neuron’s reuptake mechanism, which causes dopamine to linger in the synaptic cleft.

PLEASURE CENTERS

Joy, happiness, pleasure-what-ever you want to call the positive feelings that bring rewarding sensations and make life worth living-arise from the sensations of security, warmth, and social well-being combined with an awareness of the rightness of such feelings. A healthy brain recognizes the conditions that give rise to pleasure and responds to them appropriately. An unhealthy brain, or one that has learned negative behaviors such as addiction, can miss out on experiencing life’s joys. Both are primarily a matter of chemistry.

GOOD FEELINGS / PLEASURE CENTERS [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ]

The sensation of pleasure registers in several brain regions, including significant centers in the hypothalamus and nucleus accumbens , which lies below a portion of the basal ganglia linked to movement. All such pleasure centers rely on the chemical work performed by endorphins and neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine, to create and sustain a happy mood. Experiments with rats have demonstrated the key role of dopamine. In the 1950s, scientists wired rats’ brains so that when they pressed a bar, they received a mild electric shock to the hypothalamus. This stimulation registered as pleasure; the rats would rather press the bar than eat. However, in later experiments, rats wired for self-stimulation first received injections of drugs that block the receptors where dopamine normally binds, denying its pleasure-giving action. The rats no longer felt a pleasant reward from pressing a lever to stimulate their brain, and they stopped doing so. When humans take a similar dopamine-lowering medication, often in order to ward off hallucinations and other psychotic behavior, the drug’s success comes at a price. Delusions may leave, but so do joy and motivation. Conversely, drugs like amphetamines that increase the activity of dopamine in the brain lower the threshold for the perception of pleasure. Too much of a drug-induced pleasant sensation, however, can lead to addiction and manic moods.

When the skin warms, the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system dilates blood vessels near the surface and activates the sweat glands. When body temperature cools, the autonomic nervous system narrows surface vessels to send blood to deeper, more vital organs.

“The greatest pleasure of life is love,” said the Greek playwright Euripides nearly 2,500 years ago. Like other forms of pleasure, love is processed by brain chemistry, specifically by heightened levels of neurotransmitters in the pleasure centers. MRI scans of the brain relate the feeling of lust to estrogen and androgens; attraction-more emotional than physical-appears to be associated with serotonin and dopamine. The brain chemistry that supports long-term relationships such as lifelong commitment has been harder to pin down.

Playing key roles in the sensation of pleasure are oxytocin, endorphins, and phenylethylamine , or PEA, sometimes called the love drug. These chemicals help foster the “high” felt in the first stages of love, as well as the euphoria some-times reported by long-distance runners. Even a small pleasure, such as finding your lost car keys, begins with a tiny rise of these and similar neurotransmitters in the brain’s pleasure centers.

PATHWAYS/GRAY MATTER [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

PATHWAYS / GRAY MATTER [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

PATHWAYS

Pain signals take rwo tracks on their way to the brain. The express line, like a nonstop train between cities, sends signals through the spinal cord and connects directly to the thalamus. While some pain signals are diverted along the way, those that reach the thalamus are relayed to the cerebral cortex, where they quickly get analyzed.

When you cut your finger while slicing an onion, the quick pathway of pain activates the cortex to figure out how much pain you feel and where you feel it. The brain’s quick recognition of the danger may stop you from bringing down the knife blade again and slicing your finger a second time.

The other, slower pathway travels through slow, narrow nerve fibers with frequent synaptic connections, lumbering like a commuter train that stops at every little burg. These sensations register in the brain stem and hypothalamus, as well as in other deep brain regions, before a portion of them reach the thalamus. Effects include longer-lasting aches as well as emotional reactions to pain, such as the sheepishness of realizing you injured yourself through either clumsiness or negligence (or both). These slow-action pains include the unremitting discomfort of chronic diseases such as cancer.

GRAY MATTER

But not all pain sensations terminate in the thalamus. Many halt at a portion of the brain stem known as the mesencephalic central gray matter. It’s a tiny spot that is difficult to locate. But as a conver gence zone for pain impulses, this area is highly sensitive. When lab animals have their mesencephalic gray matter stimulated by electricity, they can be operated on without painkillers. Yet they maintain their sensitivity to touch, heat, and other sensations in the pain- affected body parts.

PATHWAYS / GRAY MATTER [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

CAPTAIN AHAB asked his ship’s carpenter for a special bit of work in the novel Moby-Dick. Ahab, who had lost a leg to the teeth of a white whale, hoped a replacement limb might expunge the feeling of “another leg in the same identical place with … my lost leg.” “Phantom” limbs, such as Ahab’s lost leg, have been reported since ancient times. American neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell cataloged many varieties in the Civil War. About 70 percent of phantom limbs proved excrUCiatingly and chronically painful. How could a missing leg create the illusion of existence, or even pain? The answer lies in the brain.

PAIN GATEWAY [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

PAIN GATEWAY [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

The nervous system does have natural responses that can ease minor pains, like the sting of a scrape or ache of a bump. When you were a child and trying to learn to roller-skate, perhaps you once fell and skinned your knee. To stop your tears, Mama may have given you a kiss, rubbed the area around the injured flesh, cleaned up the wound, and given you a bandage to show off to your friends. Miraculously, you felt better.

Turns out it was no miracle. Mama really did know best According to research published in the 1960s about the so-called gate control theory of pain, stimulation of the injured skin through rubbing temporarily overwhelms the brain. These tactile sensations send a second set of sensations along the bundles of nerve fibers whose neighbors are already sending pain signals to the brain. As the brain doesn’t have the ability to entirely focus on multiple tactile sensations at once, the second set of sensations (the mother’s touch) lowers the perceived intensity of the first set (the skinned knee). The gateway to pain closes a bit. Researchers call this competitive inhibition.

PAIN GATEWAY [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

Rubbing also results in the release of natural painkillers that act like opiates. They interact with receptors in the synapses of the amygdala and hypothalamus. Those collections of neurons, in turn, send signals via the medulla and spinal cord to offset the afferent pain signals from the nociceptors. The result: a decrease in the transmission of pain sensations. That’s great for a skinned knee. But what if the pain is more acute, or even life-threatening?

RECEPTION [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

RECEPTION [ MESSENGERS ( THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ) ]

A healthy brain needs a constant stream of incoming information. Picture what happens without it: When volunteers enter a sensory deprivation tank a body temperature pool of water in which they are forced to go without sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and skin sensations they begin to hallucinate; their brain creates stimuli to stay occupied. Insanity awaits those whose brain starves for external stimulation. Conversely, a healthy body needs the brain to send it signals. Deprived of adequate motion because of nerve damage or a sedentary lifestyle, for example, once strong muscles of the body will quickly atrophy.

Sensory receptors come in five types. The mechanoreceptors create nerve impulses when their physical shape changes in response to external force, such as pressure or touch.

Touching a devil's club thorn stimulates pressure-sensitive mechanoreceptors and, possibly, pain-sensitive nociceptors in the fingertips.
Touching a devil’s club thorn stimulates pressure-sensitive mechanoreceptors and, possibly, pain-sensitive nociceptors in the fingertips.

Photoreceptors respond to light. Curiously, not all photoreceptors exist in the eyes; some are found in the skin. Scientists at Cornell University and at White Plains, New York, found they could combat jet lag and insomnia by shining lights on the back side of the sufferer’s knees. Thermo receptors register heat and cold. Chemoreceptors register the presence of chemicals, such as the sugars in an orange when you bite into it.

Photoreceptors in the eye begin the neural circuitry that registers sensations of visible light.
Photoreceptors in the eye begin the neural circuitry that registers sensations of visible light.

And last are the nociceptors, which respond to external stimuli that have the potential to create, or do create, pain. The body needs to process painful feelings in order to warn it of possible larger dangers that pose threats to life and limb.

SENSORY RECEPTORS

Nociceptors are able to act in concert with other sensory receptors. For example, the warmth of a fire on a wickedly cold day feels good on the feet because it stimulates thermo receptors in the skin. If the toes get too close to the flames, however, extreme heat activates the nociceptors and the sensation changes from pleasure to pain.

MEGA GROW RAW WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE POWDER

MEGA GROW RAW WHEY 90% PROTEIN ISOLATE POWDER WITH SHAKER – Unflavoured | 27g Protein| Energy 111.81 Kcal |6.18g BCAA | L-Glutamic Acid 4.89g| for Growth of the muscles – Pack of 1kg (Total 33 Servings)

  • 👉🏻 90% ISOLATE PROTEIN: Mega grow Raw Whey Isolate is a 90% raw whey protein isolate that delivers 27 grams of protein, and 6.18 grams of naturally occurring BCAAs per 30 grams of serving that promote fast post-workout recovery.
  • 👉🏻 ENRICHED SOURCE OF PROTEIN AND ATTAIN MUSCLE GAINS: Each 1 serving scoop enriched with 30gm whey caters to the need of your body to get muscular potency. Raw protein powder for men and women is efficient to give instant recovery, forming lean muscles, eliminating muscle fatigue, raise the metabolic rate of the body with an average absorption digestive rate.
MEGA GROW RAW WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE POWDER
  • 👉🏻 PERFECT MUSCLE FUEL: The fast-acting Whey contains an amino acid profile-based protein and is particularly balanced in BCAA that makes it great for post-workout muscle recovery and to support the muscle synthesis. The Whey is low in fat and carbohydrates and is an ideal choice for people concerned about calories.
  • 👉🏻 WHEY IN PUREST FORM: Mega grow Raw Whey Isolate 90% delivers the ultimate whey in its most natural, clean, and minimally processed form i.e., free from additives, preservatives, flavours, sugars, sweeteners, amino spiking, or any other external ingredient
MEGA GROW RAW WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE POWDER
  • 👉🏻 FLAVOUR & MIXING FLEXIBILITY: Since this high protein supplement is unflavoured and unsweetened. It might not taste great but offers you the best possible flexibility. You can consume it with additional flavouring as per your likeness in a smoothie, protein shake or recipes like protein cakes, protein bars, etc
MEGA GROW RAW WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE POWDER
  • 👉🏻 WHO CAN CONSUME: Healthy adults aiming at quality nutrition. Individuals who want to fulfil their protein requirement. Vegetarians who are unable to meet their daily protein. Gym goers / athletes / sportsmen and others who are into physical training & intense physical activity.

THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM / TWO BRANCHES

THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM / TWO BRANCHES

THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

Much of what the brain does takes place beyond our ability to sense it-or appreciate it. In the midbrain’s pons and medulla lie the centers that regulate the vital, everyday functions of life. Think about it: How fortunate you are that you don’t have to concentrate in order to breathe, or make your heart pump blood.

The first rule of the living brain is to go on living. Thus, these crucial areas of the midbrain, called the autonomiC (“involuntary”) nervous system, are not easily overruled by the higher functions of the cortex. While it’s possible to hold your breath while underwater or throwing a tantrum, the midbrain will eventually overrule the efforts of the cortex and force the lungs to inhale. However, some drugs, such as tranquilizers and stimulants, can affect the autonomic nervous system, altering things like the heart rate and blood pressure for good or ill.

THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM / TWO BRANCHES [ HARMONY ]

TWO BRANCHES

Like day and night, the autonomic nervous system has two equally important halves. They are reciprocal and complementary. The day- light side of wakefulness and work is called the sympathetic branch. It works when the body’s sense of self-preservation, developed over eons of evolution, calls for energy. In extreme cases, the sympathetic branch triggers the so-called fight or flight response. When a threat looms, the body prepares to meet it or quickly escape from it. Blood pressure and heartbeat skyrocket, breathing speeds up, and in a multitude of other ways the midbrain signals to the body to prepare itself for action.

The parasympathetic branch is the calmer, quieter side of the nervous system. It’s responsible for the so-called relaxation response. The midbrain signals to the body to lower breathing rate, heartbeat, and blood pressure. As a result, the brain promotes and recognizes a feeling of well-being.

Modern pharmacology can bring about a similar result, but much of the self-help books of the past few decades have focused on meditation and other forms of stress management to stimulate the parasympathetic branch while soothing the sympathetic.

PHRENOLOGY [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ( HARMONY ) ]

PHRENOLOGY [ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ( HARMONY ) ]

PHRENOLOGY

As A SCHOOLBOY of nine, Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) was intrigued by a classmate with large, protruding eyes and a knack for rote memorization. The student’s appearance and skills made a lasting impression, one that years later Gall would trace to his theory of cortical localization. All the best memorizers, the German anatom ist recalled, seemed to share these bulging, “ox-like” eyes. So it followed, Gall concluded, that the function of verbal memory is governed by the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The better the memory, the larger the lobe, and hence the jutting eyes.

Though he did not coin the term- and shuddered at its Usage Gall would become a leading exponent of phrenology, the pseudoscience of interpreting personal characteristics and mental abilities from cranial knobs and knots.

In interviewing hundreds of personalities across the continent and amassing a collection of some 600 skulls-not the interviewees’, fortunately-he determined the human brain to house 27 faculties. Each, he said, is controlled by different areas of the brain.

An ivory phrenological head maps skull lumps for pseudo-scientific analysis
An ivory phrenological head maps skull lumps for pseudo-scientific analysis

Among those faculties we share with animals, Gall included “reproductive instinct” , “pride” , and” destructiveness, carnivorous instinct, or tendency to murder.” Unique to humans were “poetic talent,” “religious sentiment,” and “wisdom.”

Determining each faculty’s cortical coordinates was simple enough. A large percentage of pickpockets, for example, had a sizable bulge on the side of the head. This area, Gall assumed, was then location of a faculty he called “desire to possess things.” The logic of Gall’s classification system had made it widely appealing by the 1830s.

Phrenology has since been lumped with the likes of astrology, palm reading, and graphology (handwriting analysis). Yet Gall unwittingly contributed to true science. His theory of cortical localization would prompt future neuroscientists to rethink their concept of the brain, paving the way for ground- breaking discoveries at the turn of the century.

FAST & UP CREATINE MONOHYDRATE SUPPLIMENT

FAST & UP CREATINE MONOHYDRATE (100 gms, 33 Servings), Helps Sustain Longer Workout, Muscle Repair & Recovery – Unflavored

  • Supports muscle mass by limiting muscle breakdown and promotes muscle repair and new muscle growth.
  • Ultra micronized Creatine Monohydrate helps to provide instant and sustained energy for high intensity workouts and improves athletic performance
  • Helps replenish lost Creatine to support intense physical activity
FAST&UP CREATINE MONOHYDRATE
  • Creatine helps to convert Creatine Phosphate and elevates ATP levels in the body that encourages energy burst and provides sustained energy to carry out intense activity without being fatigued
  • How To Use: Add 1 Scoop (3g) Creatine Monohydrate in 300ml Water or any Healthy Beverage of Choice, Shake well to dissolve completely and Drink. Creatine Monohydrate can be consumed by Athletes, Body Builders, Boxers and Everyone who performs high intensity activities

SEEING THOUGHTS [ LOOKING INSIDE ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ]

SEEING THOUGHTS [ LOOKING INSIDE ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ]

SEEING THOUGHTS

MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY ( MEG ) also relies on magnetism to examine the brain. In this case, it’s the body’s ambient magnetic fields, not those generated by an external machine, that form the basis of brain imaging. These magnetic fields are extremely weak-perhaps only a billionth of the power that causes a compass needle to point toward the north magnetic pole. Yet, when read by sensors placed on the skull, MEG scans reveal the electrical currents created by neural discharges. The resolution is as fine as a thousandth of a second and as small as a cubic centimeter. The MEG scan and EEG are the only observational techniques capable of anything approaching real-time revelations. When a patient thinks a specific thought, it shows up, in progress, on an MEG.

Mental functions also can be localized with a technique called positron-emission tomography, or PET. A radioactive isotope is injected into a patient. Because all radioactive atoms decay into stable atoms at a known rate, the decay of the isotope, which is usually paired with glucose, is recorded and turned into images with computer programs. Like MRI and CT scans, PET scans let observers localize activity inside the brain.

The array of brain-imaging techniques serves like the variety of hammers, saws, and other tools in a mechanic’s toolbox. A scientist observing the brain chooses the right tool based on what kind of information is needed. A CT or MRl scan would be the choice if a doctor suspects the growth of a tumor or physical damage to part of the cerebrum. A PET scan might be the appropriate choice for investigation of deficiencies associated with language or reason. And lack of oxygen use in stroke- damaged sections of a brain would call for a functional MRI.

A patient receives a PET scan to pinpoint regions of the brain that are most active.
A patient receives a PET scan to pinpoint regions of the brain that are most active.

True to the rational and observational methods of Descartes and Willis, science has made great strides in describing how the brain’s parts, both large and small, function. But understanding any organ that is “wider than the sky” is not as easy as toting up small pieces of information. The brain is an integrated unit, with its complexity arising from the synergy created by the simultaneous functioning of its billions of neurons and trillions of synapses in nonlinear ways. Science has learned much about movement, sensations, emotions, and the sense of self. Yet much is yet to be gleaned about the most complicated object in the universe. There will always be more to learn about the brain.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN [ THE AMAGING BRAIN ]

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN [ THE AMAGING BRAIN ]

Scientists have long Dreamed of Exammmg how the brain works within a living body. The problem, though, was figuring out how to get inside the head without causing injury or even death. Doctors treating wounds from wars and accidents have been able to get glimpses of living brain tissue, but aside from poking or prodding, have had little to do with experimental observation.

Some early noninvasive attempts included phrenology, the pseudoscience developed in the early 19th century that measured the bumps on the outside of the skull as a means of analyzing the mental powers and characteristics. They stemmed from the theories of a German doctor, Franz Joseph Gall, who argued in the late 18th century that the separate faculties of the brain must manifest themselves in the shape of the overlying bone. Phrenology’s popularity peaked between the 1820s and the 1840s but soon waned as the century progressed.

Overall, at least half of all cases of dementia-formerly known as senility can be traced to Alzheimer’s disease.

Toward the end of the 19th century, a new method of probing the hidden workings of the brain arose, again in central Europe. Wilhelm Wundt, known as the founder of experimental psychology, created a laboratory in the mid-1870s in Leipzig to perform research into psychology. The word derives from the Greek psyche, meaning “mind” or “soul.” Wundt considered his research a way to get at the workings of the mind, which many still considered to be separate from the tissue of the brain.

An angio-MRI of a 27-year-old woman reveals the arteries that provide oxygen to her brain.
An angio-MRI of a 27-year-old woman reveals the arteries that provide oxygen to her brain.

In particular, Wundt aimed to examine the elements that made up consciousness and explain how they worked together to create the mind. Wundt concentrated on stimulus-response experiments, as he considered sensation the contact point between the external, physical world and the inner, psychological world. He recorded when and how sensations entered consciousness, including such mundane facts as whether one musical tone sounded higher or lower than another one did.


A contemporary of Wundt’s, the American William James, also took up psychology as a tool to probe the mind. India his famous 1890 textbook The Principles of Psychology, James described processes including the sense of self, memory, movement, and sensation.

Your brain uses about 12 watts of ” power-a fraction of the energy of a household lightbulb.

Assessing the brain’s performance through intelligence testing was another way science attempted to access the living brain. In the 1900s, French psychologist Alfred Binet created the first IQ test as a way to measure intelligence. That test, designed to see which French schoolchildren needed special assistance, became the genesis of all IQ tests that followed.

Meanwhile, in Austria, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, turned his interest in neurology into the study of the workings of the brain and the ways in which they affect behavior. He predicted, correctly, that someday the study of the physical workings of the brain would dovetail with his observations about unconscious drives.

HEALTHFARM [ HF ] WHEY PROTEIN PLUS [ BUILD LEAN & BIGGER MUSCLES ]

HEALTHFARM Whey protein plus with added vitamins|58 SERVINGS|24 G PROTEIN PER SERVING|5.29G BCAA|4.15G GLUTAMINE|Build Lean and Bigger Muscles (RICH CHOCOLATE, 2KG)

HEALTHFARM Whey protein plus with added vitamins|58 SERVINGS|24 G PROTEIN PER SERVING|5.29G BCAA|4.15G GLUTAMINE|Build Lean and Bigger Muscles (RICH CHOCOLATE, 2KG)
  • 100% WHEY BLEND – 24g blended protein consisting of whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, and whey peptides to support lean muscle mass
  • WHEY PROTEIN POWDER – HEALTHFARM Whey Protein Plus is the most powerful protein formula ever developed. It is a scientifically engineered whey + isolate lean muscle builder formula designed for more muscle, more strength and better performance
  • ABSORBS FAST AND DIGESTS EASILY – Whey peptides are an ultra-pure, rapidly absorbed and quickly digested whey protein powder that allows you to recover faster, build more lean muscle and get better results from your training sessions
  • Affordable supplements: HEALTHFARM is committed to the idea that your gains should be a result of the level of your dedication & commitment, not the size of your budget, so HEALTHFARM supplements are always the highest quality without being the highest price

HEALTHFARM DIET [ WHEY PROTEIN ] – WEIGHT LOSS PROTEIN FORMULA

HF Series Diet Whey 30g Protein |Weight Loss Protein Formula |For Lean Muscle Gain Protein |Protein for Women & Men|2kg|Flavour-Butter Almonds

STIMULATE WEIGHT LOSS: Carnitine works as a fat transporter, helping to move fat cells to the mitochondria where they are burned for energy.

  • ABSORBS FAST and DIGESTS EASILY – Whey peptides are an ultra-pure, rapidly absorbed and quickly digested whey protein powder that allows you to recover faster, build more lean muscle and get better results from your training sessions.

TASTES GREAT and MIXES EASILY – Two great, mouth-watering milkshake flavors: Vanilla Ice Cream and Double Rich Chocolate. Mixes instantly with cold water or milk in a shaker cup or glass. Also works well when blended in smoothies.

CONVERT FAT TO ENERGY: HF Series uses two popular ingredients that have been clinically shown to help with weight management. CLA and carnitine work synergistically to help the body convert fat cells into energy.

  • HIGH-QUALITY: Tested to meet industry standards.

Greenex Nutrition ISO Legend Whey Protein Isolate for Muscle Growth & Fat Loss

Greenex Nutrition ISO Legend Whey Protein Isolate for Muscle Growth & Fat Loss, Zero Carbs & Zero Fat Isolate Protein Supplement, Kosher USA Certified (Dream Chocolate, 4.4 Lbs (2Kg))

GREENEX NUTRITION
  • Making the best sports nutrition available to everyone: Greenex Nutrition is India’s leading sports nutrition brand with the largest range of premium sports nutrition products for healthy living and high performance. We pride ourselves in providing a broad selection of products at an exceptional value to power this, including a range of dietary needs including vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free.
  • Authenticity
  • Quality

GXN ISO LEGEND ISOLATE WHEY PROTEIN

  • GXN ISO Legend whey protein isolate is a leading, pure whey protein isolate formula that focuses on high protein with a low amount of fat and carbohydrates. An ideal formula for putting on lean muscle mass without adding unwanted body fat.
  • GXN ISO Legend whey protein isolate is a confidently fuel used for faster recovery, increased lean muscle building and accelerated fat burning.
  • GXN ISO Legend Whey protein provides 30 grams of protein per serving with no fat or carbs.
  • 30g of Protein & 6.9g of BCAA
  • Zero Carbs & Zero Fat
  • Build lean & Ripped muscles

Boost Muscle Endurance:

  • When you train hard, you definitely should give your body the nutrients it needs to grow. GXN ISO Legend is a whey protein isolate that increases your muscular endurance, it has been proven to increase strength and muscle size in resistance training.

Build Lean and Ripped Muscles:

  • GXN ISO Legend is one of the best isolate whey protein for bodybuilders to fulfill your nutritional requirement for optimum performance and build lean and ripped muscles. ISO legend includes a high ratio of Protein, EAA, and BCAA.

Zero Carb and Zero Fat:

  • Get stronger than ever before with GXN ISO legend whey protein. ISO legend provides 30g of protein per serving, 6.9g of BCAA(s), zero carbs and zero fat. It is designed to improve recovery rates and the growth of muscle tissue. With over 6 flavours to choose from, you can build your dream body in record time.

Place Your Order

Hey, we use Wise to send money abroad. Really easy and a lot cheaper than the bank! Give it a try with a fee-free transfer of up to 25,000 INR.

Create your Wise account now

GAME PRO Nutrition ( GPN ) 100% Whey Protein – HEALTHFARM

Gpn 100% Whey Protein Powder ,Whey Protein Concentrate + Whey Isolate Protein Powder|55 Servings (CHOCOLATE, 2kg-4.4lbs)From HEALTHFARM

GET 100% WHEY (ISOLATE+CONCENTRATE):Combination of Isolate and concentrate supplies 100% whey benefits every athlete, bodybuilder, or weightlifter by supplying the prime quality macronutrient protein formula with essential amino acids helps to get fasten post-workout recovery, removing muscle fatigue, increasing muscle growth, faster and healthier absorption rate along with delicious lip-smacking flavors-Double Chocolate, Vanilla, and Mango.

GET ATHLETIC FIT POWER MUSCLES:Get rid of muscle cramps and body fatigue after an intense workout. Each 1 serving scoop is a highly potent 25gm protein that delivers strong toughness to your muscles, maintains an optimum level of protein in your body, and provides maximum wellness.

HEALTHY METABOLISM RATE:Best to give a healthy metabolism rate, enhance blood circulation, elevate mood, increase oxygen flow, tighten skin, upgrade immunity system, enhance nerve system and give complete nourishment to your body.

OVER 5G OF BCAAS – help build lean and strong muscles with naturally occurring BCAAs

BANNED SUBSTANCE TESTED – highest quality control measures so you feel comfortable and safe consuming the product.

AFFORDABLE SUPPLEMENTS: GPN is committed to the idea that your gains should be a result of the level of your Dedication and Commitment, not the size of your budget, so our supplements are always the highest quality without being the highest price.

Place Your Order

Body First Essential Amino Acids Prime

Body First Essential Amino Acids Prime – The Ultimate Amino Recovery Formula containing 6.29g EAA with 3.95g BCAA for Muscle Building, Recovery, Strength, Energy & Endurance, Cola Flavour, 30 Servings

  • Muscle Recovery – Provides amino acids required for muscle synthesis, which are quickly transported into your muscles, resulting in increased muscle gains and tissue repair. EAAs contain BCAAs, which are known to reduce muscle damage, thereby reducing the length and severity of muscle cramps.
  • Prevents Muscle Soreness – Essential Amino Acids help in muscle protein synthesis which helps in reducing the fatigue and muscle soreness.
  • Energy Production – Essential Amino Acids consists of a blend of nine amino acids which helps to build stamina and increases the limit of body endurance.
  • L-leucine helps in regulation of blood glucose level and in wound healing. It also support growth and repair of the muscle tissue. L-leucine helps in protein synthesis.
  • L-lysine supports rebuilding of the muscle and improves recovery process after heavy training session. It helps to maintain optimal strength and performance. L-lysine support immune system and helps in the synthesis of protein.
  • L-isoleucine helps in the regulation of blood sugar and energy.It helps in improving athletic performance and alleviate muscle damage after exercise. L-isoleucine reduces the rate of protein degradation and maximise ability to mediate glucose update.
  • L-valine promotes muscular endurance and reduces fatigue during heavy exercise. It prevents the damage to the muscle & improves endurance.
  • L-threonine helps in the production of glycine and serine which are necessary for production of collagen, elastin and muscle tissue. It accelerate wound healing due to production of collagen. Threonine prevent fat accumulation in the liver
  • L-phenylalanine accelerate breakdown of fat consumed before exercise. It also helps in elevating the mood.

Place Your Order

PRE-X5 ULTIMATE [ DOCTOR’S CHOICE ]

Doctor’s Choice PRE-X5 Ultimate Professional Pre-Workout Formula 350g Powder [50 Servings – Cola Candy]Pre-workout: india’s first professional pre-workout formula designed to cater your body with support required to take your intense workout regime to advanced levelFocus and continuance for next level executionStorming energy and endurance: unique pre-workout blend is powered by caffeine anhydrous and beta alanine to boost focus, amplify the intensity of training with explosive energy supportPerformance: monstrous spikes in vitality levels, improved oxygen stream to muscle tissue results in improved strength.PRE X5 is an advance pre workout formula designed to pump in explosive energy and vitals in your body, required to push your weight lifting regime to next level and uplifts your endurance to train harder. Powered by citrulline dl malate, creatine nitrate, caffeine anhydrous, beta-alanine and taurine, PRE-X5 is must have for bodybuilders and athletes to deliver your muscles phenomenal power, pump and energy when working out. What is a pre-workout. Pre-workout is an unisex nutrition, bound to be taken before the workout which enables you to lift better and increases your endurance to train harder. Advantages of PRE X5, explosive instant energy, enhanced strength, extensive muscle pump, extended stamina and power, endurance direction to use: mix 1 serving with 250 ml of water and consume 25-30 minutes prior to intense exercise. Do not consume more than 2 servings in a day. Any side effects. No. It just has a tingling effect because of the ingredient beta alanine.PLACE YOUR ORDER