Can Exercise Help People Learn?

It’s an exciting idea, and one that’s being tested in the U.S. and Canada. One pilot program took place in the spring of 2008, when Saskatoon teacher Allison Cameron put her Grade 8 students on treadmills during class. She tracked their results, not just in behavior, but in academics, and the results were astonishing. Find out about her experiment, and much more on this subject, by clicking on this link: http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/

Here is an edited excerpt from Dr. John Ratey, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in which he explains how sustained aerobic exercise promotes learning.

The First Way
The first big way that exercise is very important for (students at City Park Collegiate in Saskatoon) is that it helps address the systems of the brain; the attention system, the impulse control system, the memory and learning system, and the part of the brain that’s involved with learning and memory, the part of the brain that’s what we call the executive functioning area of the brain, or the frontal cortex. Exercise really activates this area of the brain. So what you see, and what you get, are people who are sharper. They’re more attentive, they’re less impulsive, they’re less fidgety. They can sustain their attention longer, and it promotes their ability to sort through information and take it in.

The Second Way
The second big way that exercise works on the brain is it promotes the internal environment of the brain, of our hundred billion nerve cells that are swimming around in this soup, if you will. Exercise causes a release of all kinds of good things that are known as neurotransmitters, as hormones, as growth factors that actually make our cells more ready to do their job. And our brain cells’ major job, in terms of learning and memory, is to change - adapt we call it. And that means grow. Exercise promotes the best optimal environment for us to do this, to change and grow.

The Third Way
The third way that exercise helps with learning and with the brain to grow and to learn better, is it promotes a process which we call neurogenesis, or growing new brain cells. There’s nothing that we know of that does that better than exercise. We do it anyway, and there are drugs and there are ways of increasing it when we stress our brains, by learning or by stressing them in a variety of ways, that promotes the growth of new brain cells. However exercise does this better than anything else that we know of.

Conclusion
So the three ways help the learner learn better. We improve the environment for the cells to grow and change and cement in the information. And we also add more brain cells specifically in the area of the brain that has to do with learning and memory, an area called the hippocampus, which we think of as Grand Central Station for memory. And this is the area that adds cells every day anyway. When we learn, we add more cells, but when we exercise, we add many, many more cells than any other activity that we’re aware of. Exercise is the best stimulus for the brain to be ready to learn and grow.

Now the biggest problem with our new world, with the cyberworld, is it allows us to sit. We are a sedentary culture. The top ten reasons why we die are contributed to greatly from our sedentary living. Also, by not moving, by sitting, our brains are not as active, and they start to erode much quicker. Just for instance, if middle-aged people are sedentary, and they begin to exercise three to four times a week, they will stave off cognitive decline later in their life by ten to fifteen years. And some studies suggest that if they do this, they will cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in half, just if they begin to get moving. Now for our kids, it’s even more important that they try to optimize their brains as much as possible, so that they can be much more well adjusted and ready to take on the new information that they are presented.

You can learn more about Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. John Ratey, an expert on brain function and exercise, on his website: http://www.johnratey.com/newsite/index.html

Natural Sweetener

Have you tried Suncrystals? 100% natural sweetener using stevia and cane juice. Get free samples or coupons at www.suncrystals.com.

Revisiting Superfoods

This is an excerpt from our April Creating What Matters Health Newsletter.

Principle 1: A SuperFood Focused Intake is the Best Diet in the World
Sophisticated computer analysis has enabled researchers to determine which populations are the healthiest and live the longest. Highly respected database studies and sets of recommendations including those of the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute have looked at the same information. The data shows the particular foods eaten by these healthiest populations. Superfoods show up over and over again when you look at these diets.

Principle 2: SuperFoods are Whole Foods
There will always be some disagreement regarding the term wholefood. But in general, whole foods are those that are unprocessed or are minimally processed in such a way that none of their nutritional characteristics have been intentionally modified. Whole foods are complex. They contain hundreds of unidentified compounds and nutrients. A growing body of research from laboratory and human studies suggests that these nutrients work best in concert with each other. Moreover, just as the nutrients in a particular food team up to work better, nutrients from a wide range of foods also work together to promote good health.

Principle 3: SuperFoods Equal SynergyFood. Synergy is critical to health.
Food synergy refers to the interaction of two or more nutrients and other healthful substances in foods that work together to achieve an effect that each is individually unable to match. Nutrients work in a precisely calibrated relationship; the kind of relationship that nature has provided when the nutrients are obtained from food. There are, after all, thousands of chemicals present in food and researchers have only identified a fraction of this number. Surely with this many chemicals present, interactions are taking place that science doesn't fully understand. You simply can't shortcut your way to good nutrition; you must rely on a variety of wholefoods.

Principle 4: Eating SuperFoods is Simple and Positive
A healthy diet is the essential core of a healthy life. We all live busy complicated lives. Nutrition recommendations that are complicated or challenging can't become a regular part of our routine. The best approach to any health change is one that is positive. Regimes that forbid foods or make eating satisfying meals a challenge are counterproductive. Once most people understand the SuperFoods principle, they feel liberated. It's not about what you shouldn't do. It's about what you should do.

Source: www.superfoodsrx.com

Spring Cleaning Your Home and Your Body

You probably have a pretty good routine for spring cleaning your home. Daily and weekly cleaning take place year round but once or twice a year, extra effort goes into getting rid of dust and dirt. Moving furniture to vacumn where you don't usually bother, clearing out closets and reorganizing cabinets, washing baseboards and door frames are common tasks we do in order to provide a healthy environment for living.

What about spring cleaning your body?

Daily and weekly I try to eat foods that help eliminate toxins in my body, drink plenty of water and exercise. I routinely do a lemon juice with essential oils cleanse so that my liver is not overloaded with toxins and can function well.

This year I am doing a spring cleaning for my body using a product with zeolite. Zeolites are a natural detox product, which help attract heavy metals from within the body on a molecular level. Eliminating toxins can cleanse the body and support a healthy immune system.

How do you spring clean?

Have you thought about your "Total Load" of toxins?

Very interesting article on accumulation of toxins in the body and how they may be passed on during pregnancy and affect the development of children.

http://www.bodyecology.com/archive/understanding-total-load-patricia-lerner.php

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

Paraben information from Arbonne

Arbonne's newest skin care line - FC5 and the very popular RE9 anti-aging lines do not contain parabens. Some of the cosmetics do contain parabens. Below is information from Arbonne on parabens.

PARABENS - (Methyl, Ethyl, Propyl and Butyl)

question
Why does Arbonne use parabens Instead of “natural” preservatives

what are they
Parabens are esters of p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid. They are used as safe and effective reservatives in cosmetic, food and drug formulations and protect against yeast, molds and bacteria.

why they’re included
When it comes to complex formulations, Arbonne prides itself on safety as part of its pure, safe, beneficial philosophies. Preservatives are essential in maintaining the integrity of these formulations and we formulate with “broad spectrum” preservative systems to protect against oxidation as well as contamination.

When formulating with both oil and water based ingredients, you must use two types of preservative systems to ensure long term safety. Antioxidants, commonly known as “natural preservatives” protect oils from oxidizing or going rancid. Where many natural ingredients have some antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, they do not meet the stringent guidelines stipulated by the FDA for consumer safety.

Because Arbonne’s unique formulations are oil-in-water emulsions, we must use the parabens to offer broadspectrum protection from the yeast, molds and bacteria that are common in our environment and naturally occurring in water. It is absolutely necessary to support natural antioxidants, which protect the oils, with broad-spectrum preservatives that protect the water phase. Only these complex and safe systems ensure long-term safety for the consumer.

the facts
Parabens are practically non-irritating and non-sensitizing in the human population with normal skin and are safe for use in cosmetic formulations as outlined by the governing institutions, FDA, CTFA & CIR. However, paraben sensitization has been reported when paraben-containing medicaments have been applied to broken skin, specifically, or when used in concentrations exceeding 1%. Arbonne uses less than 0.5%.

for more information
Please refer to the following:
Cosmetic Ingredient Review Board @ www.cir-safety.org
Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association @ www.ctfa.org
U.S. Food and Drug Administration @ www.fda.gov

Developing Healthy Children

I am concerned about my community and its future. Our children are our future and high poverty, teenage pregnancy, high school drop out and illiteracy rates cause me to wonder what our community will be in the future.

Through a couple of different organizations, I have heard about the 40 Developmental Assets and today in a email from Focus on the Family, I discover they are offering family assessments around these important developmental assest.

I encourage you to visit this website to learn more: http://www.parentingcompass.com/Home.asp

The 40 Developmental Assets are important for you as a parent of pre-teens or teenagers. In addition it is great information to you realize how you impact other children.