HOW TO INCREASE BRAIN POWER

Brain is like a muscle which can develop and expand with regular exercise like other body muscles. But exercise of brain is different from body exercise. Here are some ways by which we can make our brain develop and function up to its best capacity:-

1. Drink lots of water: At least 4 liters of water should be taken in a day. 40% of our water intake is used by brain alone. Higher supply of water to brain means it functioning more smoothly as the connection between the brain-brain cells and brain-body cells is improved.

2. Body exercise improves body as well as brain, due to higher blood supply and nutrients.

3. Take balanced diet. Balanced diet ensures supply of all nutrients to body and brain.

4. Brain Exercise: Learn new things like new language, music, swimming etc. Any new thing or activity, if learned, creates new programmes in the brain (our supercomputer) which increases its overall capacity to think more.

5. Lateral thinking: Lateral thinking is thinking in a different way. While trying to solve a problem, we normally think of all recognized possible ways to solve it. But we should sometimes also try to think in a totally different manner. For instance if one says that there are three ants moving in a straight line behind each other. The foremost ant says that there are two ants behind her. The middle ant also say so. How is it possible? No reasonable answer is there to it. But by lateral thinking one can say that the middle ant is lying. It was due to lateral thinking that Newton saw an apple falling from a tree and thought why it was falling down and not up. It was an absurd thinking at that time, but it gave us the famous law of gravitation.

6. Brain increasing medicines: There are numerous websites which promise that certain medicines or foods, they provide, which can increase brain muscle or brain functioning tremendously. There is no harm in trying some of these if you can afford that. If you can increase your brain activity or power by spending some money, you can create a thousand times more money than that you spent.

7. Connect your brain to internet: We all know that a PC can function according to the programming in it. You can type, save, calculate, draw tables, statements and some other functions. You can make drawings also. But these functions are very limited. But when the same PC is connected to internet, its capacity increases a thousands times. You can get information/ideas from thousands websites available on the net on any subject you chose. That means you can share ideas with millions of people in the whole world. Same is the case with brain. If you keep your brain open to have ideas of others, by personal contacts, books, television and other means, you can increase its capacity a thousandfold.

8. Meditation: Meditation means concentration and regularizing inhaling/exhaling of breath. By meditating you train your brain in such a way that it throws away wasteful programmes and retains useful programmes. It is ultimately helpful in increasing your capacity at work and at home.

9. Some of the websites claim to increase your brain power through waves generated by their software. There is no harm in trying that and if their claim is genuine, you get a very beneficial deal. Brain power is the costliest thing in the world and any price given for it cannot match its benefits.

10. Make your brain think fast: This can be achieved by strenuous exercises. Thus solving a problem is one thing and solving it quickly is another thing. This can come through a habit. Our brain is very much accustomed to forming habits. Repetition of a thing or exercise makes it a habit. So repeated exercise or solving mathematical or other puzzles quickly ultimately leads to a habit of your brain to think fast.

EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT ON MIND

Our minds are affected by many aspects of technology like fluorescent lighting, highly processed foods, pollutants in air and water, the background roar of highway and industry etc. Off all the brain numbing forms of stress and pollution, noise is the toughest to exclude from our life. The physical harm caused by loud noise is widely acknowledged today. A study has also revealed that it is the noise that wears down our ears in later age, and not the time factor. Otherwise, the elders would also have a near-perfect hearing. But all sounds are not bad. There is evidence that certain sounds can help us feel better and work more efficiently. Music for example has a very pleasing effect on brain. But not all types of music and songs. It depends from person to person. Some like rock music, whereas others may like jazz, fast classical, slow classical or so. Now, even in the operation theaters the doctors prefer to have some light music during operation which serves as a soothing background both for the doctors and patients. Music seems to work by placing people in what is called the 'concert state' in which they are physically passive but mentally alert. When we are in the concert state, learning becomes a relaxed process, rather than an exercise in cramming facts into an unreceptive brain.

As regards effect of light on brain, studies have revealed that our bodies need to be exposed to full-spectrum light - not just the few parts of the spectrum radiated by most lamps - if we are to feel energetic and to perform our best. When ultraviolet rays fall on humans it enables the skin to synthesize vitamin D, and blue light is the most effect color for preventing jaundice, a condition that can cause brain damage in infants. Our mood and performance suffer when the doses of light are either too little or too irregular. Similarly, fresh air induces fresh thoughts and increases efficiency of the brain. Our brains have inbuilt natural internal clocks, which wake us each morning unless an alarm clock intervenes.

Then there are certain allergies which our minds have to something in the environment. Anything is capable of triggering an allergic reaction. Those reactions may be suppressed by increasing exposure to the allergen, with the result that a person becomes addicted to it.Many people with brain allergies may show behavioral inconsistence. They may be pleasant one moment and suddenly turn irritable, hostile and aggressive. Allergens in the workplace may be harder to control unless you own the company. Similarly, there may be certain foods to which brain may be allergic. There is a saying that one man's food is another man's poison. Therefore, same medicine cannot be given to all persons.

YOU THINK WHAT YOU EAT

You might have noticed that after eating a large, starchy meal, a mental lethargy tends to set in. This is because carbohydrates have been found to indirectly raise levels of a brain chemicals that retards the firing of neurons and promotes relaxation. Therefore, a starchy diet is most suitable if you plan to got for a snooze or sleep. But if you tend to launch into a challenging task like studying a textbook or some project, you would better have a diet which is protein rich and less carbohydrates.

When we go to sleep and are ready to take meals at breakfast time, the level of our blood sugar has already dropped considerably. The brain burns two-thirds of the body glucose and it is highly dependent on the blood for a steady spply of this fuel, day and night. Its billions of electrical circuits are always turned on, whether or not we happen to be involved with a complicated problem. Glucose generates the 20 or 25 watts of electricity needed to conduct the brain's electric business. But another fact is that brain keeps very little glucose in its store. This is because glucose is stored as glycogen, a bulky substance for which there is very little room in the brain. The actual glycogen storehouse is liver. If our brains had to accommodate their own fuel, we would probably walk away from a big meal with balloonlike heads.
Thus coming to recouping the brain for its sugar level drop, do you think we should eat a lots of sugary and starchy foods in morning. The answer is no. This would in fact foul up the delicate mechanisms that the body employs to iron out extreme levels of sugar in the blood. In order to better maintain a constant level of blood sugar, youshould choose protein foods(meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, tofu and other soyabean products) over starch and sweet foods. Moreover, instead of restricting yourself to two or three big meals in a day, eat protein rich snacks between the meals.

In addition to glucose, brain requires other nutrients as well to make the neurotransmitters that regulate the thought processes. Tryptophan is an active ingredient in food from which brain synthesizes serotonin. This amino acid is particularly plentiful in meat and dairy products and we can plan our meals and working hours so that we won't be drowsy at work, or full of ideas when our head is on the pillow. Another neutrient in the vitamin B complex, known as Choline, has been identified as a key to memory function. Levels of choline characteristically drop as we age. Good sources of choline include eggs, beef liver, lecithin granules, fish etc.Vitamines and minerals also have their own importance for the brain function.

SUBLIMINAL POWERS OF BRAIN

One of the methods to increase or enhance your brain power is by increasing subliminal powers of brain. Subliminal means below the threshold of consciousness. There are many websites which claim to immediately increase the superpowers of brain through their software which sends subliminal messages to your brain from your computer as and when you want. You can also chose which type of powers of the brain you want to increase. Whether you want to increase your concentration, or creative ideas, or any field in which the brain can play a leading role. For details you can study one such website namely, http://www.subliminal-power.com . The website also claims that at present about 220000 persons are using their software successfully, and they have the testimonials from many of those users. For more study on the subject, you can also look into the following links:

www.selfdevelopmentforum.com

www.bruceeisner.com/mindware/2005/09/subliminal_powe.html

www.increasebrainpower.com/brainpower-products.html

www.amazon.com/Double-Your-Brain-Power-Increase/dp/0131867199

HOW THE HUMAN BRAIN FUNCTIONS

Brain is an ever growing organ. It continues to grow irrespective of the age. So far, it was believed that the brain's growth is maximum till one enters in his twenties. Thereafter, the growth rate slows down and after sixties, one has a negative growth, i.e. the deterioration starts. But the modern scientific discoveries have established that growth of Brain is not affected by the age factor. The brain will continue to grow as long as it is stimulated by effortto learn new things, environment and proper foods etc. On the other hand, our mental powers can wither away by disuse, boredom and lack of self-confidence and improper diet.

Our brain consists of about 100 billion cells, strung together by electric fibers and axions. Dendrites make electrical impulses into the nerve cells and axions carry signals from cells to other neurons. The all neurons (brain cells) taken together, equate to 20 watts of electric power, the amount consumed by a dim light bulb.

The circuits between each cell are broken by a minute gap, known as a synapse and there are about 100 trillion of synapses. Both depression and Parkinson's disease are linked to a problem with transmitters at synapses and drugs are sometimes prescribed to control neurotransmitters. Other naturally occurring chemicals also play a role in regulating the brain. Hormones, for example, are chemical messengers that travel through the blood to regulate organs and tissues. In fact, the brain acting through the pituitary gland is itself the hormone producing gland in the body. By releasing chemicals into the bloodstream, it can reach sites that are beyond the network of local nerves. The brain itself can also be influenced by the hormones it is responsible for releasing. On such chemical is adrenaline, which prepares the body for action by speeding up heart rate and prompting release of blood sugar from the liver, and also gears us up mentally and focuses and narrows attention. There are other such brain chemicals such as neuropeptides, which influence memory and sexual behaviour, endorphins which affect the experience of pain and pleasure etc.

STRUCTURE OF BRAIN

The brain has three main parts, the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The brain is divided into regions that control specific functions. The cerebrum controls our behaviour, problem solving, creative thinking, emotions, intellectual qualities, judgment, eye movements, skilled movements, sexual behaviour, vision, reading skills.

Thus the Brain is a very complex, rather a super-super-computer, of only 1300-1400 gms weight, which is normally 2% of our body weight, but it consumes about 20% our blood flow and 20% of oxygen supply.It is surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid. The cells of the nervous system are quite fragile and need extensive protection from various types of infection,being crushed, and other types of harm. The brain and spinal cord are covered by a tough, translucent membrane, called the dura matter. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear, watery liquid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, and is also found throughout the ventricle (brain cavities and tunnels). CSF cushions the brain and spinal cord from jolts.

Human skull surrounds and protects the brain. The spinal cord is surrounded by vertebrae (hollow spinal bones). Also, some muscles serve to pad and support the spine.

More subtly, the blood-brain barrier protects the brain from chemical intrusion from the rest of the body. Blood flowing into the brain is filtered so that many harmful chemicals cannot enter the brain.

Thus it all shows that the brain has been prepared and protected by God or Nature in a very meticulous way and taken all precautions to keep it safe.