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Candida - Herbs for Healing

Sun, 27 May 2007 14:04:59 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

More and more people are tracing various health problems to stubborn, yeastlike fungi called Candida albicans.

There are a number of herbs that can help control Candida.

cloves, cinnamon, allspice, tea tree, lavender, garlic and chamomile.

Echinacea, valerian and berberine (from goldenseal, barberry or Oregon grape root) have been shown to inhibit Candida in various studies.

Candida Tincture

1 ounce tincture of black walnut husk (must be fresh)

½ ounce each tinctures of lavender flowers, valerian root and pau d'arco

10 drops tea tree essential oil

Combine ingredients and shake well before using. Take 2 to 3 dropperfuls a day. You may find similar formulas sold in natural food stores. A tincture is the best way to take black walnut. Tea tree is currently sold only as an essential oil.

Tags: candida, kandida, lečenje, bilje, healing, herbs

Creativity and Mental illness

Tue, 22 May 2007 20:32:01 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment.

Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs.

Previously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli with psychosis.

However, Peterson and his co-researchers

hypothesized that it might also contribute to original thinking, especially when combined with high IQ.

For example, during the early stages of diseases such as schizophrenia, which are often accompanied by feelings of deep insight, mystical knowledge and religious experience, chemical changes take place in which latent inhibition disappears.

Tags: creativity, kreativnost, psychology, psihologija, psychosis, psihoze, pamet, intelligence, latent inhibition

Attention seeking

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:37:06 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

The brain's attentional state is controlled by the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin. Dopamine encourages a persistent, goal-centred state of mind whereas noradrenalin produces an outward-looking, vigilant state. So not surprisingly, anything that raises dopamine levels can boost your powers of concentration.

One way to do this is with drugs such as amphetamines and the ADHD drug methylphenidate, better known as Ritalin. Caffeine also works. But if you prefer the drug-free approach, the best strategy is to sleep well, eat foods packed with slow-release sugars, and take lots of exercise. It also helps if you are trying to focus on something that you find interesting.

The second step is to cut down on distractions. Workplace studies have found that it takes up to 15 minutes to regain a deep state of concentration after a distraction such as a phone call.

Music can help as long as you listen to something familiar and soothing that serves primarily to drown out background noise.

Tags: attention, pažnja

Physical exercise can boost brain

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:31:04 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Simply walking sedately for half an hour three times a week can improve abilities such as learning, concentration and abstract reasoning by 15 per cent.

There's another reason why your brain loves physical exercise: it promotes the growth of new brain cells. Until recently, received wisdom had it that we are born with a full complement of neurons and produce no new ones during our lifetime. Fred Gage from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, busted that myth in 2000 when he showed that even adults can grow new brain cells. He also found that exercise is one of the best ways to achieve this.

In mice, at least, the brain-building effects of exercise are strongest in the hippocampus, which is involved with learning and memory. This also happens to be the brain region that is damaged by elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol. So if you are feeling frazzled, do your brain a favour and go for a run.

Tags: vežbanje, exercise, mozak, brain

Sleep

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:26:46 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

If you have been awake for 21 hours straight, your abilities are equivalent to someone who is legally drunk

SKIMPING on sleep does awful things to your brain.

Sleep is when your brain processes new memories, practises and hones new skills - and even solves problems.

There is also some evidence that sleep can help produce moments of problem-solving insight. The famous story about the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev suddenly "getting" the periodic table in a dream after a day spent struggling with the problem is probably true. It seems that sleep somehow allows the brain to juggle new memories to produce flashes of creative insight. So if you want to have a eureka moment, stop racking your brains and get your head down.

Tags: sleep, spavanje, učenje, study

The Mozart effect

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:15:30 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Frances Rauscher, a psychologist now at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, and her colleagues made waves with the discovery that listening to Mozart improved people's mathematical and spatial reasoning.

Not everyone who has looked for the Mozart effect has found it. What's more, even its proponents tend to think that music boosts brain power simply because it makes listeners feel better - relaxed and stimulated at the same time - and that a comparable stimulus might do just as well.

Tags: mozart effect, pamet, intelligence, memorija, memory

Food for the brain

Tue, 22 May 2007 11:10:51 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

The brain is best fuelled by a steady supply of glucose

Beans on toast is a far better combination,

Eggs are rich in choline, which your body uses to produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

A salad packed full of antioxidants, including beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, should also help keep an ageing brain in tip-top condition by helping to mop up damaging free radicals.

yogurt contains the amino acid tyrosine, needed for the production of the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin,

Brains are around 60 per cent fat, so if trans-fats clog up the system, what should you eat to keep it well oiled? Evidence is mounting in favour of omega-3 fatty acids, in particular docosahexaenoic acid or DHA. In other words, your granny was right: fish is the best brain food.

Finally, you could do worse than finish off your evening meal with strawberries and blueberries.

Tags: brain, mozak, hrana, food, učenje, study, memorija, memory, koncentracija, concentracion

Modafinil - smart drug

Tue, 22 May 2007 10:53:57 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

A few drugs that might do the job, known as "cognitive enhancement", are already on the market, and a few dozen others are on the way. Perhaps the best-known is modafinil. Licensed to treat narcolepsy, the condition that causes people to suddenly fall asleep, it has notable effects in healthy people too. Modafinil can keep a person awake and alert for 90 hours straight, with none of the jitteriness and bad concentration that amphetamines or even coffee seem to produce.

Military research is finding that people can stay awake for 40 hours, sleep the normal 8 hours, and then pull a few more all-nighters with no ill effects.

Tags: modafinil, spavanje, sleep, memorija, memory, ucenje, study

Formula za uspeh u učenju

Mon, 21 May 2007 13:11:23 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.super-memory.com

Sve veći deo populacije pati od Sindroma zamora informacijama, tj. stresa vezanog za pretrpanost ogromnim količinama informacija koje se ne mogu obraditi.

Postanite gladni znanja

Identifikujte šta vam zapravo treba

Ne postanite opsednuti učenjem samo jedne oblasti

Pronađite vaše izvore informacija

Ograničeno vreme daje prednost inkrementalnom pristupu.

Možete studirati mnogo izvora paralelno i izabrati samo informaciju najvišeg prioriteta.

Formulišite znanje za aktivno prisećanje

Efikasno učenje mora biti zasnovano na obnavljanju.

Obnavljajte materijal u pravilno izabranim vremenskim intervalima

Obnavljanja naučenog materijala moraju postati standardna obaveza u vašem dnevnom rasporedu rada.

Tags: učenje, learning, obrazovanje, education, memorija, memory

Learning French (and other languages)

Sun, 20 May 2007 22:40:34 GMT

clipped by: nikmil

Clip Source: www.linguaguide.com

When you are using a language actively, like listening, reading or talking French, you are using your language intuition - a superfast language processor built into your brain. This part of your mind is made for interpreting a language superfast, so you in real-time can understand what is being said, and produce sentences yourself in that language.

To learn facts about a language - like memorizing grammar rules - does not help you much in your practical use of the language.

So how do I then learn French the fastest?

Then answer according to the research: by listening to and reading large amounts of understandable French.

Reading large amounts of French texts, listening to it spoken, watching movies, and so on.

Tags: jezik, language, francuski, french, learn, foreign, strani, učenje