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Chocolate, sex, avoiding whiners boost brain power8 December, 2007 Want to improve the power of your brain? Have a lot of sex, eat dark chocolate, cold meat, and be optimistic. These tips, based on research from experts around the world, are contained in a new book entitled Teach Yourself: Training Your Brain, written by Terry Horne, a lecturer in business at the University of Central Lancaster, the United Kingdom. The book gives top priority to dark chocolate and plenty of cold meat for breakfast for boosting grey matter. The studies have also shown that sex is essential for keeping the brain fit in later life. Also, to improve mental power one should avoid smoking cannabis, watching soap operas, and hanging out with people who moan, the book recommends. Cuddling a baby, cheating at school, reading out loud and doing a business degree at university are all good for an efficient mind, says the book. Terry Horne, the author, says, “For decades we have thought that the cognitive capacity of our brains is genetically determined, whereas it’s now clear that it’s a lifestyle choice. What we eat and drink, how we learn at school and what type of moods we have are all crucial. People can make lifestyle choices that will not only prevent what used to be seen as an inevitable decline in cognitive ability after the age of 17 but will constantly increase our cognitive capacity throughout our adult lives.” Teach Yourself: Training Your Brain includes mental exercises and radical thinking on how diet, the environment, stress and other aspects of modern life affect one’s mental capacity. Sex, the book says, has a positive impact on the mind and that seven different chemical reactions take place in the brain during sexual intercourse. These reactions improve the brain’s functioning ability. According to the book, the raised levels of oxytocin – or, the “trust” hormone – during sex boosts a person’s readiness to think of innovative solutions to a problem. And, the rise in serotonin levels after coitus aids creative thinking and decision-making. Magnesium and antioxidant flavonols or chemicals in chocolate increase the supply of oxygen to the brain and reduce the chances of brain damage due to a stroke. Other recommendations by the book to enhance performance of the brain is avoiding a low-fat diet as well as working with classmates or colleagues (as opposed to working alone), and reading aloud. Also helping the brain is a happy confident and optimistic nature, and avoiding negative, depressed people and those who are in the habit of whining. Instead of trying to find “perfect happiness,” the book recommends that people should, instead, seek BLISS, a new concept that involves body-based pleasure, laughter, involvement, satisfaction and sex (BLISS). Research has shown that most people only use only 3% to 4% of their total supply of brain cells.
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