Q Is there any problem in taking vitamins a year or so past the expiration date? Are there specific vitamins that would deteriorate so much that one shouldn’t take them?
A This is a commonly asked question, and the answer must be qualified. Regarding drugs, the FDA has monitored what they call the shelf life extension program (SLEP) of drugs for the past 20 years for the United States Department of Defense.1 Extensive pharmaceutical stability data indicate that in 88% of the drugs tested (122 in all, representing 3005 different lots), shelf life was extended for at least one year beyond the originally indicated expiration date—and by an average of 66 months! However, there was a lot of variability during the extended period, and the FDA reported that the only way to be assured of continuing potency was through periodic testing and systematic evaluation of each lot.
Regarding supplements such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other nutrients, no large study has ever been undertaken, as far as I know. (With all that testing, the cost of the SLEP study must have been staggering!) But we do know, from stress and stability studies of individual supplements, that there is a great deal of variability, just as there was in the SLEP study.
The principal factor that determines shelf life is initial quality. The supplement must have essential material as much as is reasonably possible and, by the same token, low levels of nonessential material. It must also have low levels of prooxidative residues, as little moisture as possible, and, if synthesized (as most vitamins are), great chemical stability. Herbal materials must have nearly unmeasurable levels of bacteria or be sterilized. The supplement must be packaged in opaque and secure containers in a clean or sterile, dust-free, air-conditioned, dehumidified environment and not be subjected to extremes in temperature. Finally, as you have undoubtedly seen on the labels, the supplements should be stored in a cool, dark, dry place.
Products made under the above conditions, if stored properly in unopened bottles, should last at least two years before any loss of potency occurs, and, once opened, they should hold up for at least one year.
Initial quality is paramount. For example, the vitamin C developed by Hoffmann-La Roche has been found to outlast other vitamin C products by many years (unopened samples have maintained their purity and potency for up to 20 years). Other vitamin C products have been found to darken, changing color from brown to gray to black in only a few years. This darkening reflects the formation of dehydroascorbic acid, an oxidized form of vitamin C that is undesirable to ingest. Life Enhancement Products uses only vitamins manufactured by the successor company to Hoffmann-La Roche, as well as amino acids, hormones, herbs, and other supplements from the world’s premium producers.
Lyon RC, Taylor JS, Porter DA, Prasanna HR, Hussain AS. Stability profiles of drug products extended beyond labeled expiration dates. J Pharm Sci 2006 Jul;95(7):1549-60.
Supplement Expiration Dates: How Reliable Are They?
Nootrópicos (smartdrugs, drogas inteligentes, potenciadores cognitivos) son sustancias artificiales (medicamentos como piracetam, hydergina, citicolina, fosfatidilserina, vinpocetina, etc.) o naturales (suplementos nutricionales, vitaminas, aminoácidos, hormonas, hierbas, etc. como vitaminas B, piroglutamato, Gingko Biloba, fenilalanina, DHEA, pregnenolona, etc.) que se utilizan para mejorar la capacidad cognitiva (memoria, atención, etc.) en personas con trastornos o normales.
viernes, agosto 25, 2006
jueves, agosto 17, 2006
BBC - Radio 4 Memory Experience - Improve your memory
BBC - Radio 4 Memory Experience - Improve your memory: "Tips and techniques to improve your memory
Memory Strategies - do what the experts do!
Memory isn't like a muscle, something specific you can exercise. It's a way of organising information in your brain. So to improve your memory, you need to change and re-organise the way you think and this will help to support how your memory works."
Memory Strategies - do what the experts do!
Memory isn't like a muscle, something specific you can exercise. It's a way of organising information in your brain. So to improve your memory, you need to change and re-organise the way you think and this will help to support how your memory works."
martes, agosto 08, 2006
Curcuma para el Alzheimer
En hipocampo.org hay una nota en Español que pongo abajo sobre lo que mencioné antes de la curcumina y el Alzheimer:
El pigmento del curry, nueva esperanza para el Alzheimer
La curcumina (Curcuma longa, azafrán de Las Indias), pigmento amarillo utilizado en la elaboración del polvo de curry, podría constituir una nueva esperanza en el tratamiento de la enfermedad de Alzheimer. La revista Journal of Biological Chemistry publica en su edición preliminar online un estudio de investigadores de la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles que muestra cómo la curcumina inhibe in vivo la formación de ß-amiloide (ßA).
La curcumina ya ha demostrado con anterioridad fuertes propiedades antiinflamatorias y antioxidantes, siendo capaz de suprimir el daño oxidativo, la inflamación, los déficit cognoscitivos y la acumulación de amiloide.
Dado que la estructura molecular de la curcumina sugería su potencial de ligarse al ßA, los autores de este estudio decidieron investigar si su eficacia en modelos de enfermedad de Alzheimer podría explicarse mediante sus efectos sobre la agregación del ßA.
Bajo condiciones de agregación in vitro, la curcumina no sólo inhibe la agregación, sino que también muestra poder de desagregación del ßA(40) fibrilar, indicando una estequiometría favorable para la inhibición. Demostró ser mejor inhibidor de la agregación del ßA(40) que el ibuprofeno y el naproxeno, e impidió la formación y toxicidad del oligómero ßA(42). Estos efectos de la curcumina no dependían de la secuencia del ßA, sino de su conformación fibrilar. Unos cortes cerebrales incubados con curcumina, procedentes de ratones transgénicos modelo de enfermedad de Alzheimer, revelaron un marcado preferencial de la placas de amiloide.
Los estudios in vivo demostraron que la injección de curcumina por vía periférica atravesaba la barrera hematoencefálica y se ligaba a las placas de amiloide en ratones transgénicos de avanzada edad. Usada como alimento en viejos ratones transgénicos Tg2576 (un modelo transgénico de enfermedad de Alzheimer) con avanzada acumulación de amiloide, la curcumina marcaba las placas y reducía tanto los niveles de amiloide como la carga de placas.
Por lo tanto, la curcumina se liga al ßA bloqueando su agregación y su conformación fibrilar, tanto in vitro como in vivo.
Los autores afirman en sus conclusiones que ". . . Estos datos sugieren que la curcumina a dosis bajas desagrega eficazmente el ßA evitando también la formación de fibrillas y oligómeros, respaldando la argumentación para el uso de la curcumina en ensayos clínicos de prevención o tratamiento de la enfermedad de Alzheimer".
F. Yang et al. Curcumin inhibits formation of Aß oligomers and fibrils and binds plaques
and reduces amyloid in vivo. J Biol Chem 2004, 10.1074/jbc.M404751200
hipocampo.org
El pigmento del curry, nueva esperanza para el Alzheimer
La curcumina (Curcuma longa, azafrán de Las Indias), pigmento amarillo utilizado en la elaboración del polvo de curry, podría constituir una nueva esperanza en el tratamiento de la enfermedad de Alzheimer. La revista Journal of Biological Chemistry publica en su edición preliminar online un estudio de investigadores de la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles que muestra cómo la curcumina inhibe in vivo la formación de ß-amiloide (ßA).
La curcumina ya ha demostrado con anterioridad fuertes propiedades antiinflamatorias y antioxidantes, siendo capaz de suprimir el daño oxidativo, la inflamación, los déficit cognoscitivos y la acumulación de amiloide.
Dado que la estructura molecular de la curcumina sugería su potencial de ligarse al ßA, los autores de este estudio decidieron investigar si su eficacia en modelos de enfermedad de Alzheimer podría explicarse mediante sus efectos sobre la agregación del ßA.
Bajo condiciones de agregación in vitro, la curcumina no sólo inhibe la agregación, sino que también muestra poder de desagregación del ßA(40) fibrilar, indicando una estequiometría favorable para la inhibición. Demostró ser mejor inhibidor de la agregación del ßA(40) que el ibuprofeno y el naproxeno, e impidió la formación y toxicidad del oligómero ßA(42). Estos efectos de la curcumina no dependían de la secuencia del ßA, sino de su conformación fibrilar. Unos cortes cerebrales incubados con curcumina, procedentes de ratones transgénicos modelo de enfermedad de Alzheimer, revelaron un marcado preferencial de la placas de amiloide.
Los estudios in vivo demostraron que la injección de curcumina por vía periférica atravesaba la barrera hematoencefálica y se ligaba a las placas de amiloide en ratones transgénicos de avanzada edad. Usada como alimento en viejos ratones transgénicos Tg2576 (un modelo transgénico de enfermedad de Alzheimer) con avanzada acumulación de amiloide, la curcumina marcaba las placas y reducía tanto los niveles de amiloide como la carga de placas.
Por lo tanto, la curcumina se liga al ßA bloqueando su agregación y su conformación fibrilar, tanto in vitro como in vivo.
Los autores afirman en sus conclusiones que ". . . Estos datos sugieren que la curcumina a dosis bajas desagrega eficazmente el ßA evitando también la formación de fibrillas y oligómeros, respaldando la argumentación para el uso de la curcumina en ensayos clínicos de prevención o tratamiento de la enfermedad de Alzheimer".
F. Yang et al. Curcumin inhibits formation of Aß oligomers and fibrils and binds plaques
and reduces amyloid in vivo. J Biol Chem 2004, 10.1074/jbc.M404751200
hipocampo.org
La curcuma mejora el cerebro en ancianos
Popular curry spice is a brain booster
04 August 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Call it yellow ginger, haldi, turmeric or E100, the yellow root of Curcuma longa, a staple ingredient in curry, is turning out to be gratifyingly healthy. Now Tze-Pin Ng and colleagues at the National University of Singapore have discovered that curry eating seems to boost brain power in elderly people.
Curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, is an antioxidant, and reports have suggested that it inhibits the build-up of amyloid plaques in people with Alzheimer's. Ng's team looked at the curry-eating habits of 1010 Asian people unaffected by Alzheimer's and aged between 60 and 93, and compared their performance in a standard test of cognitive function, the Mini Mental State Examination. Those people who consumed curry "occasionally" (once or more in 6 months but less than once a month) and "often" (more than once a month) had better MMSE results than those who only ate curry "never or rarely" (American Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwj267).
"What is remarkable is that apparently one needs only to consume curry once in a while for the better cognitive performance to be evidenced," says Ng, who says he wants to confirm the results, possibly in a controlled clinical trial comparing curcumin and a placebo.
From issue 2563 of New Scientist magazine, 04 August 2006, page 18
04 August 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Call it yellow ginger, haldi, turmeric or E100, the yellow root of Curcuma longa, a staple ingredient in curry, is turning out to be gratifyingly healthy. Now Tze-Pin Ng and colleagues at the National University of Singapore have discovered that curry eating seems to boost brain power in elderly people.
Curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, is an antioxidant, and reports have suggested that it inhibits the build-up of amyloid plaques in people with Alzheimer's. Ng's team looked at the curry-eating habits of 1010 Asian people unaffected by Alzheimer's and aged between 60 and 93, and compared their performance in a standard test of cognitive function, the Mini Mental State Examination. Those people who consumed curry "occasionally" (once or more in 6 months but less than once a month) and "often" (more than once a month) had better MMSE results than those who only ate curry "never or rarely" (American Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwj267).
"What is remarkable is that apparently one needs only to consume curry once in a while for the better cognitive performance to be evidenced," says Ng, who says he wants to confirm the results, possibly in a controlled clinical trial comparing curcumin and a placebo.
From issue 2563 of New Scientist magazine, 04 August 2006, page 18
lunes, agosto 07, 2006
Caidas en ancianos pueden indicar problemas cerebrales
Hay una interesante nota en que explica que ciertas lesiones cerebrales como hemorragias producidas por golpes (aún golpes leves o movimientos bruscos de la cabeza en un cerebro que ya está afectado por el encojimiento, lo que produce tensión en los vasos sanguíneos que pueden sangrar), pueden ser la causa de caídas o cambios del comportamiento. Se requiere atención para evitar el paso de tiempo sin atender el problema de base.
As the years go by, the adult brain slowly atrophies, like a desiccated orange detaching from its rind. The shrinkage can cause problems. Cerebral veins are tethered to the superior sagittal sinus, the large blood vessel that runs front to back along the underside of the skull. As the brain contracts, these bridging veins must stretch, making them vulnerable to shearing forces caused by rapid head movements or even modest contusions. Without sufficient brain tissue to support and compress the bleeding site, small, low-pressure venous leaks may go unstanched. The blood seeps into the gap between the arachnoid membrane that encloses the brain and the lining of the skull, or dura mater. Bleeding into this space is called a subdural hematoma.
Acute subdural hematomas result from severe head trauma and expand quickly. Chronic subdural hematomas, on the other hand, often spread slowly—and without visible symptoms. What really scares emergency physicians—and has me repeating to patients and their families, "Return if there's any change in behavior"—is that older people who have fallen can look fine for weeks before the bleeding causes symptoms. By then, relatives will have forgotten the long-ago head knock, attributing Granddad's confusion to the heat, the cold, or a dizzy spell. Without that critical, sometimes lifesaving clue, precious time is lost.
Vital Signs: Why is Grandpa Falling?
A seemingly simple stumble provides clues to serious injury.
By Tony Dajer
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 08 | August 2006 |
As the years go by, the adult brain slowly atrophies, like a desiccated orange detaching from its rind. The shrinkage can cause problems. Cerebral veins are tethered to the superior sagittal sinus, the large blood vessel that runs front to back along the underside of the skull. As the brain contracts, these bridging veins must stretch, making them vulnerable to shearing forces caused by rapid head movements or even modest contusions. Without sufficient brain tissue to support and compress the bleeding site, small, low-pressure venous leaks may go unstanched. The blood seeps into the gap between the arachnoid membrane that encloses the brain and the lining of the skull, or dura mater. Bleeding into this space is called a subdural hematoma.
Acute subdural hematomas result from severe head trauma and expand quickly. Chronic subdural hematomas, on the other hand, often spread slowly—and without visible symptoms. What really scares emergency physicians—and has me repeating to patients and their families, "Return if there's any change in behavior"—is that older people who have fallen can look fine for weeks before the bleeding causes symptoms. By then, relatives will have forgotten the long-ago head knock, attributing Granddad's confusion to the heat, the cold, or a dizzy spell. Without that critical, sometimes lifesaving clue, precious time is lost.
Vital Signs: Why is Grandpa Falling?
A seemingly simple stumble provides clues to serious injury.
By Tony Dajer
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 08 | August 2006 |
miércoles, agosto 02, 2006
Suplementos para el deterioro mental
Monday, July 31, 2006
Dietary supplements for mental decline (Alzheimer's)
Knowledge of Health, Inc., Blog – August 1, 2006: So mom’s in the nursing home, loaded up with ineffective drugs to help overcome signs of senility and memory loss, plus other drugs for blood pressure and circulation. A small study of 35 such patients (average age 71 years) shows that the addition of dietary supplements (multivitamin, vitamin E, lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, omega-3 oils) along with physical exercise and sound dietary measures slowed the decline in brain function and actually improved memory and other brain functions. [American Journal Alzheimer’s Disease 20: 21-26, 2005] Now all you have to do is get the doctor to go along with the idea. –Copyright 2006 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
knowledgeofhealth.com
Dietary supplements for mental decline (Alzheimer's)
Knowledge of Health, Inc., Blog – August 1, 2006: So mom’s in the nursing home, loaded up with ineffective drugs to help overcome signs of senility and memory loss, plus other drugs for blood pressure and circulation. A small study of 35 such patients (average age 71 years) shows that the addition of dietary supplements (multivitamin, vitamin E, lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, omega-3 oils) along with physical exercise and sound dietary measures slowed the decline in brain function and actually improved memory and other brain functions. [American Journal Alzheimer’s Disease 20: 21-26, 2005] Now all you have to do is get the doctor to go along with the idea. –Copyright 2006 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
knowledgeofhealth.com
martes, agosto 01, 2006
Alimentos que deprimen o estimulan
Según la Médico naturista Albertinazi (en una entrevista con Chiche Gelblung por radio) hay alimentos de deprimen o estimulan.
Deprimen (o mejor dicho sedan):
Azúcar blanco
Demasiada proteína cansa
vegetales verdes, sedantes por contener vitamina B6
tronco de la lechuga
Estimulan, ponen alegre:
ácidos grasos Omega 3, de pescado de aguas frías (que comen Krill) o de semillas de lino, semillas de chía u hojas verdes. Las semillas agregadas al pan pierden los omega en la cocción.
alimentos crudos dan energía (fruta, zanahorias, repollo crudo, no el repollo fermentado que sin embargo mejora la digestión)
jengibre da energía pero eleva la presión, se puede tomar una cucharadita por día o en té para los resfríos
Deprimen (o mejor dicho sedan):
Azúcar blanco
Demasiada proteína cansa
vegetales verdes, sedantes por contener vitamina B6
tronco de la lechuga
Estimulan, ponen alegre:
ácidos grasos Omega 3, de pescado de aguas frías (que comen Krill) o de semillas de lino, semillas de chía u hojas verdes. Las semillas agregadas al pan pierden los omega en la cocción.
alimentos crudos dan energía (fruta, zanahorias, repollo crudo, no el repollo fermentado que sin embargo mejora la digestión)
jengibre da energía pero eleva la presión, se puede tomar una cucharadita por día o en té para los resfríos
viernes, julio 28, 2006
Ampakinas revierten perdida de memoria
Drug triggers body's mechanism to reverse aging effect on memory process
A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the
brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug
itself has left the body, according to researchers at UC Irvine.
Professors Christine Gall and Gary Lynch, along with Associate Researcher
Julie Lauterborn, were among a group of scientists who conducted studies on
rats with a class of drugs known as ampakines. Ampakines were developed in
the early 1990s by UC researchers, including Lynch, to treat age-related
memory impairment and may be useful for treating a number of central
nervous system disorders, such as Alzheimer�s disease and schizophrenia. In
this study, the researchers showed that ampakine drugs continue to reverse
the effects of aging on a brain mechanism thought to underlie learning and
memory even after they are no longer in the body. They do so by boosting
the production of a naturally occurring protein in the brain necessary for
long-term memory formation.
The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.
This is a significant discovery,� said Gall, professor of anatomy and
neurobiology. �Our results indicate the exciting possibility that ampakines
could be used to treat learning and memory loss associated with normal aging.�
ver nota
A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the
brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug
itself has left the body, according to researchers at UC Irvine.
Professors Christine Gall and Gary Lynch, along with Associate Researcher
Julie Lauterborn, were among a group of scientists who conducted studies on
rats with a class of drugs known as ampakines. Ampakines were developed in
the early 1990s by UC researchers, including Lynch, to treat age-related
memory impairment and may be useful for treating a number of central
nervous system disorders, such as Alzheimer�s disease and schizophrenia. In
this study, the researchers showed that ampakine drugs continue to reverse
the effects of aging on a brain mechanism thought to underlie learning and
memory even after they are no longer in the body. They do so by boosting
the production of a naturally occurring protein in the brain necessary for
long-term memory formation.
The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.
This is a significant discovery,� said Gall, professor of anatomy and
neurobiology. �Our results indicate the exciting possibility that ampakines
could be used to treat learning and memory loss associated with normal aging.�
ver nota
miércoles, julio 19, 2006
Nos linkea Alamut
Nos linkea el blog Alamut en gregorius.blogia.com : Grietas en la realidad consensuada y Cultura Pop No aristotélica, donde hay una serie de links a otros sitios interesantes.
No, no sé qué quiere decir Alamut...
No, no sé qué quiere decir Alamut...
martes, julio 11, 2006
Cafiaspirina vs. Cafiaspirina Plus
Las tabletas de aspirina de bayer se venden sueltas y no traen la composición como antes, cosa que me parece muy mal.
Por eso se me ocurrió buscar la composición en kairosweb.com
CAFIASPIRINA PLUS - BAYER CONSUMER
Cada comprimido contiene: ácido acetilsalicílico 650mg, cafeína 65mg, en un excipiente de: almidón de maíz csp 850mg.
CAFIASPIRINA - BAYER CONSUMER
Cada comprimido contiene: ácido acetilsalicílico 500mg, cafeína 40mg, en un excipiente de: almidón de maíz csp 650mg.
Según lo que me dijo un farmacéutico, el agregado de cafeína potencia el efecto analgésico de la aspirina (ácido acetil salicílico). La publicidad no apunta a eso sino al efecto estimulante, como bien se ve en la frase "el dolor pare, vos no". ¡Dale dale sin parar, tomate un par de Cafiaspirinas como se ve en el aviso de la tele y seguí laburando y jodiendo y haciendo como que tu estómago es de acero inoxidable (y como que la naturaleza creó el dolor y la temperatura para molestar nomás y que no avisan de nada)!.
Para malestares comunes a mí me alcanza y sobra con una baya o cafia común.
Por eso se me ocurrió buscar la composición en kairosweb.com
CAFIASPIRINA PLUS - BAYER CONSUMER
Cada comprimido contiene: ácido acetilsalicílico 650mg, cafeína 65mg, en un excipiente de: almidón de maíz csp 850mg.
CAFIASPIRINA - BAYER CONSUMER
Cada comprimido contiene: ácido acetilsalicílico 500mg, cafeína 40mg, en un excipiente de: almidón de maíz csp 650mg.
Según lo que me dijo un farmacéutico, el agregado de cafeína potencia el efecto analgésico de la aspirina (ácido acetil salicílico). La publicidad no apunta a eso sino al efecto estimulante, como bien se ve en la frase "el dolor pare, vos no". ¡Dale dale sin parar, tomate un par de Cafiaspirinas como se ve en el aviso de la tele y seguí laburando y jodiendo y haciendo como que tu estómago es de acero inoxidable (y como que la naturaleza creó el dolor y la temperatura para molestar nomás y que no avisan de nada)!.
Para malestares comunes a mí me alcanza y sobra con una baya o cafia común.
martes, julio 04, 2006
Como realizar la respiracion Sudarshan Kriya de Ravi Shankar
Si no tiene los varios $ necesarios para hacer el curso de respiración Sudarshan Kriya según las enseñanzas de Sri Ravi Shankar (que no es el músico) que dicta la Fundación El Arte de Vivir (que por como lo divulgan parece gratis), aquí tiene la base de la técnica, tal cual la describe Jon Steinberg quien tomó uno de los cursos de cinco días en New York:
Estos son los pasos para realizar la respiración profunda abdominal y obtener sus beneficios de relajación de cuerpo y mente:
1- Siéntese en una posición confortable con su columna vertebral tan derecha como sea posible o acuéstese en el piso o en su cama. Cierre sus ojos y coloque sus manos sobre el abdomen, justo por debajo de las costillas.
2- Respire despacio y profundamente por la nariz, concentrándose en llenar la base de los pulmones de manera que su estómago se expanda suavemente. Sus manos deberán moverse hacia afuera junto con su estómago y su pecho se elevará, pero no demasiado.
3. Al final de la inhalación, haga una breve pausa y luego exhale lentamente por la nariz, permitiendo a su estómago desinflarse y a su pecho y espalda liberarse de toda tensión.
4. Haga una breve pausa y repita el ejercicio por un total de diez respiraciones. Cuando haya terminado, mantenga los ojos cerrados y respire normalmente por un minuto aproximadamente permitiendo que su respiración vuelva a su ritmo natural.
Una vez que aprendió la técnica puede realizar la respiración abdominal en cualquier parte: la oficina, el auto o en la cama por la noche. Recuerde canalizar la respiración por el estómago y no el pecho. Esto produccirá el reflejo de relajación.
alternativemedicine.com
Nota editada:
El artículo original ahora está disponible en http://www.naturalsolutionsmag.com/article-display/8814/subTopicID/170/Can-Deep-Breathing-Save-the-World
Los cursos no son gratis. Agregado: ver este comentario sobre arrepentidos del Arte de Vivir
Estos son los pasos para realizar la respiración profunda abdominal y obtener sus beneficios de relajación de cuerpo y mente:
1- Siéntese en una posición confortable con su columna vertebral tan derecha como sea posible o acuéstese en el piso o en su cama. Cierre sus ojos y coloque sus manos sobre el abdomen, justo por debajo de las costillas.
2- Respire despacio y profundamente por la nariz, concentrándose en llenar la base de los pulmones de manera que su estómago se expanda suavemente. Sus manos deberán moverse hacia afuera junto con su estómago y su pecho se elevará, pero no demasiado.
3. Al final de la inhalación, haga una breve pausa y luego exhale lentamente por la nariz, permitiendo a su estómago desinflarse y a su pecho y espalda liberarse de toda tensión.
4. Haga una breve pausa y repita el ejercicio por un total de diez respiraciones. Cuando haya terminado, mantenga los ojos cerrados y respire normalmente por un minuto aproximadamente permitiendo que su respiración vuelva a su ritmo natural.
Una vez que aprendió la técnica puede realizar la respiración abdominal en cualquier parte: la oficina, el auto o en la cama por la noche. Recuerde canalizar la respiración por el estómago y no el pecho. Esto produccirá el reflejo de relajación.
alternativemedicine.com
Nota editada:
El artículo original ahora está disponible en http://www.naturalsolutionsmag.com/article-display/8814/subTopicID/170/Can-Deep-Breathing-Save-the-World
Los cursos no son gratis. Agregado: ver este comentario sobre arrepentidos del Arte de Vivir
Otro estudio sobre el chocolate
"Chocolate contains many substances that act as stimulants, such as theobromine, phenethylamine, and caffeine," Dr. Bryan Raudenbush from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia noted in comments to Reuters Health.
"These substances by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention and what we have found is that by consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance."
...
"Composite scores for verbal and visual memory were significantly higher for milk chocolate than the other conditions," Raudenbush told Reuters Health. And consumption of milk and dark chocolate was associated with improved impulse control and reaction time."
Reuters
¿Será el azúcar o el chocolate?.
"These substances by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention and what we have found is that by consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance."
...
"Composite scores for verbal and visual memory were significantly higher for milk chocolate than the other conditions," Raudenbush told Reuters Health. And consumption of milk and dark chocolate was associated with improved impulse control and reaction time."
Reuters
¿Será el azúcar o el chocolate?.
miércoles, junio 21, 2006
Trophic Factors Generate Functioning New Neurons for Brain Repair
Trophic Factors Generate Functioning New Neurons for Brain Repair : " To increase BDNF levels using safe, available measures, see [.../see/drugs/bdnfdrugs.htm](http://hdlighthouse.org/see/drugs/bdnfdrugs.htm), [.../treatment-care/care/hdltriad/exercise/updates/1243bdnf.php](http://hdlighthouse.org/treatment-care/care/hdltriad/exercise/updates/1243bdnf.php), and [.../TreatmentNow/updates/0085-SSRItreatment.php](http://hdlighthouse.org/TreatmentNow/updates/0085-SSRItreatment.php).)"
martes, junio 13, 2006
scyllo-inositol para el Alzheimer
In the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease, small proteins called
amyloid â aggregate into plaques, and a protein called tau clumps into
neurofibrillary tangles. The brain becomes inflamed and neurons atrophy and
die. It's not completely clear what kind of amyloid â peptide (monomers,
oligomeric aggregates, or fibrillar aggregates) is responsible for the
onset of disease, said St George-Hyslop of the University of Toronto.
"Because we were able to show that scyllo-inositol specifically dispersed
the high-molecular-weight oligomeric aggregates, this study confirms that
the initiating event is the accumulation of oligomeric aggregates of
amyloid â peptide,” he said.
A Sweet Solution to Alzheimer's Disease?
amyloid â aggregate into plaques, and a protein called tau clumps into
neurofibrillary tangles. The brain becomes inflamed and neurons atrophy and
die. It's not completely clear what kind of amyloid â peptide (monomers,
oligomeric aggregates, or fibrillar aggregates) is responsible for the
onset of disease, said St George-Hyslop of the University of Toronto.
"Because we were able to show that scyllo-inositol specifically dispersed
the high-molecular-weight oligomeric aggregates, this study confirms that
the initiating event is the accumulation of oligomeric aggregates of
amyloid â peptide,” he said.
A Sweet Solution to Alzheimer's Disease?
viernes, junio 02, 2006
Plan de 14 dias para mejorar el cerebro
Un plan de ejercicios y nutrición saludable de 14 días puede mejorar el funcionamiento cerebral según una reciente investigación.
En el abstract se puede ver que los sujetos eran de 35 a 69 años (promedio 53): Seventeen nondemented subjects, aged 35–69 years (mean: 53 years, standard deviation: 10) with mild self-reported memory complaints but normal baseline memory performance.
El plan incluyó ejercicios mentales como crucigramas y juegos de ingenio, caminatas, pequeñas comidas cinco veces al día para mantener adecuados niveles de glucosa y ejercicios de relajación para combatir el stress (que libera el dañino cortisol).
El resultado fue un cerebro más eficiente mostrado por un menor metabolismo en las áreas activadas durante el procesamiento de memoria activa (cortex prefrontal dorso lateral).
Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Posted: May 22, 2006
Simple Lifestyle Changes May Improve Cognitive Function And Brain Efficiency
A UCLA research study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that people may be able to improve their cognitive function and brain efficiency by making simple lifestyle changes such as incorporating memory exercises, healthy eating, physical fitness and stress reduction into their daily lives.
"We've known for several years that diet and exercise can help people maintain their physical health and live longer, but maintaining mental health is just as important," said lead investigator, Dr. Gary Small, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "The UCLA study is the first to show the impact of memory exercises and stress reduction used together with a healthy diet and physical exercise to improve brain and cognitive function."
Researchers found that after just 14 days of following healthy lifestyle strategies, study participants' brain metabolism decreased in working memory regions, suggesting an increased efficiency -- so the brain didn't have to work as hard to accomplish tasks.
For the two-week study, 17 subjects with normal baseline memory performance scores were randomly assigned to two groups: a control group did not make any behavior modifications, while a test group incorporated healthy longevity strategies to improve physical and mental function.
Details of the healthy strategies employed in the study also are highlighted in Small's new book to be published today, "The Longevity Bible: 8 Essential Strategies for Keeping Your Mind Sharp and Your Body Young" (Hyperion, New York, 2006).
Participants on the healthy longevity plan incorporated the following into their daily routine:
* To stimulate the brain, memory exercises such as crossword puzzles and brainteasers were conducted throughout the day.
* To improve physical fitness, participants took daily walks, which have been found to increase life expectancy and lower the risk of Alzheimer disease.
* To improve their diet, study participants on the plan ate five small meals a day, which prevents drops in blood glucose levels since glucose is the main energy source for the brain. In addition, they ate a balanced diet full of omega-3 fats, antioxidants and low glycemic carbohydrates like whole grains.
* To manage stress, participants performed daily relaxation exercises. Small notes that stress causes the body to release cortisol, a hormone that can impair memory and damage brain memory cells.
Brain function was tested before and after the 14-day study, using positron emission tomography (PET) scans to measure brain activity. Participants who followed the healthy longevity lifestyle plan demonstrated a five percent decrease in brain metabolism in the part of the brain directly linked to working memory called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex.
"The finding suggests that for participants who had followed the healthy longevity program, the brain functioned more efficiently and didn't need to use as much glucose to perform effectively," Small said.
In addition, compared to the control group, participants also performed better in verbal fluency, a cognitive function controlled by the same brain region.
"The research demonstrates that in just 14 days, simple lifestyle changes can not only help overall health, but also improve memory and brain function," Small said. "Our next step is to assess the individual effects of each lifestyle strategy, which may help us develop an optimal combination.
The study was funded by the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation Fund for Alzheimer's Disease Research, the Judith Olenick Elgart Fund for Research on Brain Aging and the Parlow Solomon Professorship on Aging.
Study co-authors also were from UCLA and included Dr. Daniel Silverman, Prabha Siddarth, Linda Ercoli, Karen Miller, Dr. Helen Lavretsky, Dr. Benjamin Wright, Susan Bookheimer, Jorge Barrio and Michael Phelps.
The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, published monthly, is the official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and can be found online at ajgponline.org
En el abstract se puede ver que los sujetos eran de 35 a 69 años (promedio 53): Seventeen nondemented subjects, aged 35–69 years (mean: 53 years, standard deviation: 10) with mild self-reported memory complaints but normal baseline memory performance.
El plan incluyó ejercicios mentales como crucigramas y juegos de ingenio, caminatas, pequeñas comidas cinco veces al día para mantener adecuados niveles de glucosa y ejercicios de relajación para combatir el stress (que libera el dañino cortisol).
El resultado fue un cerebro más eficiente mostrado por un menor metabolismo en las áreas activadas durante el procesamiento de memoria activa (cortex prefrontal dorso lateral).
Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Posted: May 22, 2006
Simple Lifestyle Changes May Improve Cognitive Function And Brain Efficiency
A UCLA research study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that people may be able to improve their cognitive function and brain efficiency by making simple lifestyle changes such as incorporating memory exercises, healthy eating, physical fitness and stress reduction into their daily lives.
"We've known for several years that diet and exercise can help people maintain their physical health and live longer, but maintaining mental health is just as important," said lead investigator, Dr. Gary Small, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "The UCLA study is the first to show the impact of memory exercises and stress reduction used together with a healthy diet and physical exercise to improve brain and cognitive function."
Researchers found that after just 14 days of following healthy lifestyle strategies, study participants' brain metabolism decreased in working memory regions, suggesting an increased efficiency -- so the brain didn't have to work as hard to accomplish tasks.
For the two-week study, 17 subjects with normal baseline memory performance scores were randomly assigned to two groups: a control group did not make any behavior modifications, while a test group incorporated healthy longevity strategies to improve physical and mental function.
Details of the healthy strategies employed in the study also are highlighted in Small's new book to be published today, "The Longevity Bible: 8 Essential Strategies for Keeping Your Mind Sharp and Your Body Young" (Hyperion, New York, 2006).
Participants on the healthy longevity plan incorporated the following into their daily routine:
* To stimulate the brain, memory exercises such as crossword puzzles and brainteasers were conducted throughout the day.
* To improve physical fitness, participants took daily walks, which have been found to increase life expectancy and lower the risk of Alzheimer disease.
* To improve their diet, study participants on the plan ate five small meals a day, which prevents drops in blood glucose levels since glucose is the main energy source for the brain. In addition, they ate a balanced diet full of omega-3 fats, antioxidants and low glycemic carbohydrates like whole grains.
* To manage stress, participants performed daily relaxation exercises. Small notes that stress causes the body to release cortisol, a hormone that can impair memory and damage brain memory cells.
Brain function was tested before and after the 14-day study, using positron emission tomography (PET) scans to measure brain activity. Participants who followed the healthy longevity lifestyle plan demonstrated a five percent decrease in brain metabolism in the part of the brain directly linked to working memory called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex.
"The finding suggests that for participants who had followed the healthy longevity program, the brain functioned more efficiently and didn't need to use as much glucose to perform effectively," Small said.
In addition, compared to the control group, participants also performed better in verbal fluency, a cognitive function controlled by the same brain region.
"The research demonstrates that in just 14 days, simple lifestyle changes can not only help overall health, but also improve memory and brain function," Small said. "Our next step is to assess the individual effects of each lifestyle strategy, which may help us develop an optimal combination.
The study was funded by the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation Fund for Alzheimer's Disease Research, the Judith Olenick Elgart Fund for Research on Brain Aging and the Parlow Solomon Professorship on Aging.
Study co-authors also were from UCLA and included Dr. Daniel Silverman, Prabha Siddarth, Linda Ercoli, Karen Miller, Dr. Helen Lavretsky, Dr. Benjamin Wright, Susan Bookheimer, Jorge Barrio and Michael Phelps.
The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, published monthly, is the official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and can be found online at ajgponline.org
miércoles, mayo 31, 2006
Omega3 y crecimiento neuronal en el cortex frontal
"According to the Times, a study in Finland revealed that prisoners with a record of violent crimes tended to have low levels of omega-3 fatty acids. In a follow up study, symptoms of anger were cut in half when omega-3 supplements were given to subjects with a history of substance abuse.
The Finland team theorizes that omega-3s prompt neuron growth in the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that manages impulsive behavior."
life-enthusiast.com
The Finland team theorizes that omega-3s prompt neuron growth in the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that manages impulsive behavior."
life-enthusiast.com
lunes, mayo 29, 2006
Why sex matters for neuroscience : Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Why sex matters for neuroscience : Nature Reviews Neuroscience: "Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7, 477-484 (June 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrn1909
Why sex matters for neuroscience
Larry Cahill1 About the author
Top
of page
Abstract
A rapidly burgeoning literature documents copious sex influences on brain anatomy, chemistry and function. This article highlights some of the more intriguing recent discoveries and their implications. Consideration of the effects of sex can help to explain seemingly contradictory findings. Research into sex influences is mandatory to fully understand a host of brain disorders with sex differences in their incidence and/or nature. The striking quantity and diversity of sex-related influences on brain function indicate that the still widespread assumption that sex influences are negligible cannot be justified, and probably retards progress in our field."
Why sex matters for neuroscience
Larry Cahill1 About the author
Top
of page
Abstract
A rapidly burgeoning literature documents copious sex influences on brain anatomy, chemistry and function. This article highlights some of the more intriguing recent discoveries and their implications. Consideration of the effects of sex can help to explain seemingly contradictory findings. Research into sex influences is mandatory to fully understand a host of brain disorders with sex differences in their incidence and/or nature. The striking quantity and diversity of sex-related influences on brain function indicate that the still widespread assumption that sex influences are negligible cannot be justified, and probably retards progress in our field."
domingo, mayo 28, 2006
La importancia de las celulas gliales
Las neuronas no son las únicas células reguladoras de la comunicación cerebral, tal como se creía hasta ahora, ya que científicos europeos han descubierto que las células gliales, principales componentes del sistema nervioso central, intervienen también, aunque indirectamente, en los procesos de la memoria y del aprendizaje.
...
Las células gliales, sin embargo, son los principales componentes del sistema nervioso Las células gliales pueden ser de varias clases: astrocitos, oligodendroglia y microglia.
...
De este descubrimiento se desprende un nuevo concepto: la sinapsis tripartita, que añade un tercer elemento, la célula glial, a la comunicación entre neuronas. Los dos únicos elementos reconocidos hasta ahora en la representación sináptica son el elemento presináptico, que origina la información, y el elemento postsináptico, que recibe la información.
El tercer elemento es la célula glial, que interviene en el proceso de la memoria porque no sólo detecta e integra la señal sináptica, sino que además puede reaccionar liberando sustancias activas llamadas gliotransmisores, que estimulan directamente a la neurona postsináptica.
tendencias21.net
...
Las células gliales, sin embargo, son los principales componentes del sistema nervioso Las células gliales pueden ser de varias clases: astrocitos, oligodendroglia y microglia.
...
De este descubrimiento se desprende un nuevo concepto: la sinapsis tripartita, que añade un tercer elemento, la célula glial, a la comunicación entre neuronas. Los dos únicos elementos reconocidos hasta ahora en la representación sináptica son el elemento presináptico, que origina la información, y el elemento postsináptico, que recibe la información.
El tercer elemento es la célula glial, que interviene en el proceso de la memoria porque no sólo detecta e integra la señal sináptica, sino que además puede reaccionar liberando sustancias activas llamadas gliotransmisores, que estimulan directamente a la neurona postsináptica.
tendencias21.net
jueves, mayo 25, 2006
Nootropicos en otros idiomas
Gracias a Google trends: piracetam nos podemos dar cuenta de que la difusión de los nootrópicos no está en los países de habla inglesa o española:
Top regions (normalized)
1. Czech Republic
2. Romania
3. Indonesia
4. Philippines
5. Colombia
6. India
7. Brazil
8. Poland
9. Belgium
10. Taiwan
Por lo tanto buscar por piracetam site:cz o site:ro nos da interesantes resultados. Lo más interesante es que el rumano se entiende mucho y desafortunadamente el checo nada.
Palabras que usan para referirse en checo (por ejemplo en este foro) a los nootrópicos: nootropiky, nootropikách, chytré drogy. Para drogas: Cholin, Cholinem, Piracetam, piracetamu,
Habrá que empezar a buscar referencias en los lugares donde abundan (por ejemplo con Google.ro), que no parecen ser los nuestros.
Claro que por ciudades no es mucha sorpresa que san Francisco a pesar de todo esté tercera, la costa oeste siempre se hizo notar:
Top cities (normalized)
1. Prague Czech Republic
2. Bucharest Romania
3. San Francisco, CA USA
4. Houston, TX USA
5. Sao Paulo Brazil
6. Los Angeles, CA USA
7. Seattle, WA USA
8. Brussels Belgium
9. Taipei Taiwan
10. New York, NY USA
Los primeros puestos de estas estadísticas de búsqueda en Google son por mucha diferencia.
Top regions (normalized)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Por lo tanto buscar por piracetam site:cz o site:ro nos da interesantes resultados. Lo más interesante es que el rumano se entiende mucho y desafortunadamente el checo nada.
Palabras que usan para referirse en checo (por ejemplo en este foro) a los nootrópicos: nootropiky, nootropikách, chytré drogy. Para drogas: Cholin, Cholinem, Piracetam, piracetamu,
Habrá que empezar a buscar referencias en los lugares donde abundan (por ejemplo con Google.ro), que no parecen ser los nuestros.
Claro que por ciudades no es mucha sorpresa que san Francisco a pesar de todo esté tercera, la costa oeste siempre se hizo notar:
Top cities (normalized)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Los primeros puestos de estas estadísticas de búsqueda en Google son por mucha diferencia.
miércoles, mayo 24, 2006
Somniferos despiertan del coma
Sleeping pills offer wake-up call to vegetative patients
Michael Hopkin
Clinical researchers have discovered that they can rouse semi-comatose
patients by giving them, bizarrely, a common sleeping drug. If more
wide-ranging tests are successful, the drug could become the first
effective treatment for 'persistent vegetative state', the condition at the
centre of the US legal battle over sufferer Terri Schiavo last year.
British and South African doctors have reported the cases of three
semi-comatose patients who were revived for several hours at a time by
zolpidem, marketed to millions of insomniacs under the brand name Ambien.
The drug allows the semi-comatose patients to talk with friends and family
for several hours before the effect wears off, they report in the journal
NeuroRehabilitation1.
The patients, two of whom suffered severe head injuries in motor accidents
and a third who was left brain damaged by a near-drowning incident, have
been taking the pills every day for several years, with no severe side effects.
"The effect is amazing to say the least," says Ralf Clauss of the Royal
Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, UK, who discovered it along with his
colleague Wally Nel of the Family Practice in Pollack Park, Springs, South
Africa. "They can interact, make jokes and speak on the phone." One of them
even mastered catching a baseball.
Michael Hopkin
Clinical researchers have discovered that they can rouse semi-comatose
patients by giving them, bizarrely, a common sleeping drug. If more
wide-ranging tests are successful, the drug could become the first
effective treatment for 'persistent vegetative state', the condition at the
centre of the US legal battle over sufferer Terri Schiavo last year.
British and South African doctors have reported the cases of three
semi-comatose patients who were revived for several hours at a time by
zolpidem, marketed to millions of insomniacs under the brand name Ambien.
The drug allows the semi-comatose patients to talk with friends and family
for several hours before the effect wears off, they report in the journal
NeuroRehabilitation1.
The patients, two of whom suffered severe head injuries in motor accidents
and a third who was left brain damaged by a near-drowning incident, have
been taking the pills every day for several years, with no severe side effects.
"The effect is amazing to say the least," says Ralf Clauss of the Royal
Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, UK, who discovered it along with his
colleague Wally Nel of the Family Practice in Pollack Park, Springs, South
Africa. "They can interact, make jokes and speak on the phone." One of them
even mastered catching a baseball.
lunes, mayo 22, 2006
Animacion cerebro y efecto de drogas
Animación de cómo funciona el cerebro y lo afectan distintas drogas como cannabis, cocaína, tabaco, alcohol, éxtasis, speed.
Es en Flash y tarda en cargar, se puede seleccionar idioma Español.
ver animación cerebro y drogas
Es en Flash y tarda en cargar, se puede seleccionar idioma Español.
ver animación cerebro y drogas
domingo, mayo 21, 2006
Influencia paterna en el desarrollo profesional
Tendencias 21 - Art�culo TENDENCIAS SOCIALES - El padre es crucial para el desarrollo profesional de hijos e hijas - : "El �xito, el fracaso o la actitud que tengamos en nuestras carreras profesionales en la edad adulta depende del tipo de padre que hayamos tenido. Al menos, eso es lo que afirma el psic�logo estadounidense [Stephan Poulter](http://www.fatheryourson.com/about.html), un estudioso de las relaciones padre-hijo desde hace veinticinco a�os, que acaba de sacar un libro al respecto, titulado “[The father factor](http://www.fatheryourson.com/the-father-factor-book.html)”.
Seg�n Poulter, que tambi�n trabaja en Los Angeles con adolescentes en edad escolar, existen cinco tipos de padres: el super-triunfador, el bomba de relojer�a, el pasivo, el ausente y el mentor/clemente. Todos ellos influyen poderosamente en la vida laboral futura de sus hijos e hijas."
Seg�n Poulter, que tambi�n trabaja en Los Angeles con adolescentes en edad escolar, existen cinco tipos de padres: el super-triunfador, el bomba de relojer�a, el pasivo, el ausente y el mentor/clemente. Todos ellos influyen poderosamente en la vida laboral futura de sus hijos e hijas."
Dosis de cortisol bloquean miedos
Sin Dioses - Ciencia : Una pastilla para sus miedos: "La hormona cortisol puede bloquear su pánico"
De acuerdo con los investigadores, las personas que recibieron dosis de la hormona [cortisol], no sólo lograron bloquear el miedo en los pacientes sino que además les permitió finalizar con las técnicas conductuales durante el tratamiento psicológico.
...
Los científicos en Zurich utilizaron 40 voluntarios que sufrían de fobias sociales (hablar en público, tomar exámenes) y 20 personas con miedo extremo a las arañas. La mitad de los participantes recibieron dosis de la hormona cortisol mientras que la otra mitad recibió un placebo. Una hora después, los voluntarios comenzaron una terapia agresiva donde los aracnofóbicos eran enfrentados con una gran fotografía de una amenazante araña y los otros tenían que presentar una pequeña charla frente a desconocidos luego de pasar por una prueba sorpresa de matemáticas. Las personas que recibieron la hormona no sentían el pánico inicial y se sometieron a las pruebas hasta el final de las terapias. Precisamente, luego de realizar las pruebas pertinentes, proponemos que la hormona se use con estos fines, dijo de Quervain.
...
Sin embargo, no todo es beneficioso; la hormona está relacionada con la pérdida de memoria, especialmente la de largo plazo, y los científicos creen que precisamente esta cualidad es lo que la hace tan efectiva al momento de enfrentar el miedo. De la misma forma, el uso regular de esta hormona puede cambiar la presión sanguínea, el metabolismo y producir diabetes.
---
Por los efectos indeseables del cortisol, supongo que el propranolol sigue siendo una buena opción, pero todo habría que estudiarlo y siempre usarlo estratégicamente.
De acuerdo con los investigadores, las personas que recibieron dosis de la hormona [cortisol], no sólo lograron bloquear el miedo en los pacientes sino que además les permitió finalizar con las técnicas conductuales durante el tratamiento psicológico.
...
Los científicos en Zurich utilizaron 40 voluntarios que sufrían de fobias sociales (hablar en público, tomar exámenes) y 20 personas con miedo extremo a las arañas. La mitad de los participantes recibieron dosis de la hormona cortisol mientras que la otra mitad recibió un placebo. Una hora después, los voluntarios comenzaron una terapia agresiva donde los aracnofóbicos eran enfrentados con una gran fotografía de una amenazante araña y los otros tenían que presentar una pequeña charla frente a desconocidos luego de pasar por una prueba sorpresa de matemáticas. Las personas que recibieron la hormona no sentían el pánico inicial y se sometieron a las pruebas hasta el final de las terapias. Precisamente, luego de realizar las pruebas pertinentes, proponemos que la hormona se use con estos fines, dijo de Quervain.
...
Sin embargo, no todo es beneficioso; la hormona está relacionada con la pérdida de memoria, especialmente la de largo plazo, y los científicos creen que precisamente esta cualidad es lo que la hace tan efectiva al momento de enfrentar el miedo. De la misma forma, el uso regular de esta hormona puede cambiar la presión sanguínea, el metabolismo y producir diabetes.
---
Por los efectos indeseables del cortisol, supongo que el propranolol sigue siendo una buena opción, pero todo habría que estudiarlo y siempre usarlo estratégicamente.
sábado, mayo 20, 2006
Formula con fosfatidilcolina para presentaciones
Para reducir el stress y la fatiga de dar presentaciones orales esta es una
fórmula que vi en un foro:
fosfatidilcolina 1600 mg (de fuente lecitina)
500-1000 mg GABA
complejo de vitaminas B en 50mg, vitamina C
siberian ginseng
Tomada durante el día y antes de las presentaciones (hora y media).
Creo que tiene sentido porque la colina ha mostrado en investigaciones de
Wurtman (si mal no recuerdo y también hay estudios uando la tirosina para
afrontar el estres) que disminuye la fatiga y se supone que podría ayudar
con la memoria y lo verbal, el GABA calmar la aprehensión y los demás
ingredientes contribuir, como el ginseng siberiano que es un adaptógeno
menos estimulante que el coreano.
Esta podría ser también una buena fórmula para exámenes.
Si alguien la prueba me gustaría saber cómo le fue.
jueves, mayo 18, 2006
Potions may hold hidden healing links
icNewcastle - Potions may hold hidden healing links: "Potions may hold hidden healing links
May 15 2006
By Jane Picken, The Evening Chronicle
From ginseng to glucose, there are thousands of substances we take for their supposed health properties. Professionals on Tyneside are working to come up with concrete evidence these potions actually work. Jane Picken has the details."
May 15 2006
By Jane Picken, The Evening Chronicle
From ginseng to glucose, there are thousands of substances we take for their supposed health properties. Professionals on Tyneside are working to come up with concrete evidence these potions actually work. Jane Picken has the details."
lunes, mayo 15, 2006
Sobre mi experiencia con piracetam
Como saben he estado tomando piracetam e hydergina en dosis más bien bajas. También algunas vitaminas y aceite de pescado. Últimamente agregué un poco de DMAE (dimetilaminoetanol).
Como algunos otros miembros de la lista de discusión sobre nootrópicos han mencionado he notado algunos efectos positivos, como más alerta, rapidez (noto eso al escribir en el teclado). También he notado más disposición para tareas que tienen que ver con algo más lógico y cierta intolerancia para lo que no lo parece (incluido tal vez personas). En discusiones he podido argumentar más fácil (no me gusta discutir).
En estos días he decidido suspender por un tiempo dado que noto una tendencia a la preocupación y a un ánimo bajo (debido en parte a situaciones adversas). Es algo que me suele pasar cuando hay estimulación. Tengo una tendencia a la serotonina baja, tal vez tuviera que suplementar con precursores pero son caros.
Además creo que la técnica de tomar descansos (cycling dicen los fisicoculturistas para sus stacks y tengo entendido que en la medicina tradicional china se toma el ginseng por ejemplo de esta manera, por períodos y no en forma continua) es algo que deberíamos analizar bien para que estas cosas funcionen mejor y sigan haciéndolo por más tiempo.
Espero comentarios y sugerencias.
Como algunos otros miembros de la lista de discusión sobre nootrópicos han mencionado he notado algunos efectos positivos, como más alerta, rapidez (noto eso al escribir en el teclado). También he notado más disposición para tareas que tienen que ver con algo más lógico y cierta intolerancia para lo que no lo parece (incluido tal vez personas). En discusiones he podido argumentar más fácil (no me gusta discutir).
En estos días he decidido suspender por un tiempo dado que noto una tendencia a la preocupación y a un ánimo bajo (debido en parte a situaciones adversas). Es algo que me suele pasar cuando hay estimulación. Tengo una tendencia a la serotonina baja, tal vez tuviera que suplementar con precursores pero son caros.
Además creo que la técnica de tomar descansos (cycling dicen los fisicoculturistas para sus stacks y tengo entendido que en la medicina tradicional china se toma el ginseng por ejemplo de esta manera, por períodos y no en forma continua) es algo que deberíamos analizar bien para que estas cosas funcionen mejor y sigan haciéndolo por más tiempo.
Espero comentarios y sugerencias.
Ser experto no es cuestion de talento sino de entrenamiento
Freakonomics
A Star Is Made
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT
Extracto:
This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In other words, whatever innate differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person "encodes" the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
...
Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer, golf, surgery, piano playing, Scrabble, writing, chess, software design, stock picking and darts. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.
Their work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.
nyt.com
A Star Is Made
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT
Extracto:
This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In other words, whatever innate differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person "encodes" the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.
Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
...
Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer, golf, surgery, piano playing, Scrabble, writing, chess, software design, stock picking and darts. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.
Their work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.
nyt.com
miércoles, mayo 10, 2006
ebook: 10 Unsolved Questions of Neuroscience
10 Unsolved Questions of Neuroscience
Professor: David Eagleman, PhD
http://nba.uth.tmc.edu/homepage/eagleman/10Q/book/
viernes, mayo 05, 2006
Combinacion de DHA con fosfatidilserina (PS-DHA)
En el último número de LE Magazine May 2006 hay una nota sobre varios suplementos para mantener las capacidades cognitivas y uno de ellos es una combinación de DHA (omega de los aceites de pescado) y fosfatidilserina (otro fosfolípido, presente en la lecitina). Parece que han logrado una forma de combinarlos de manera que actúen mejor sobre el cerebro y lo incluyeron en sus productos (supongo que Cognitex).
Combining DHA and Phosphatidylserine
In response to an increasing body of research showing the intricate relationship between DHA and phosphatidylserine (PS), scientists have developed a phosphatidylserine (PS)-DHA compound designed to be incorporated directly in the membranes of brain cells. The acronym for this novel compound is PS-DHA.
To evaluate the effects of PS-DHA on memory loss, a study was conducted on middle-aged rats with laboratory-induced accelerated brain aging. Administering traditional sources of DHA did not have an effect on this experimental model, but the group receiving the PS-DHA compound was able to attain a great deal of protection against this neurological challenge. When the brains of these animals were analyzed, there was more DHA incorporated in the cells of the group receiving the PS-DHA than in those receiving other omega-3 agents.3
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of humans with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was conducted using PS-DHA. The aim of the study was to improve behavioral and learning disabilities in patients with ADHD. The psychological evaluation included the Connor’s scoring test and computer-based analysis (T.O.V.A.). At the end of three months, the group receiving the PS-DHA showed a total response of 47% compared to only 19% in the placebo group.3
Combining DHA and Phosphatidylserine
In response to an increasing body of research showing the intricate relationship between DHA and phosphatidylserine (PS), scientists have developed a phosphatidylserine (PS)-DHA compound designed to be incorporated directly in the membranes of brain cells. The acronym for this novel compound is PS-DHA.
To evaluate the effects of PS-DHA on memory loss, a study was conducted on middle-aged rats with laboratory-induced accelerated brain aging. Administering traditional sources of DHA did not have an effect on this experimental model, but the group receiving the PS-DHA compound was able to attain a great deal of protection against this neurological challenge. When the brains of these animals were analyzed, there was more DHA incorporated in the cells of the group receiving the PS-DHA than in those receiving other omega-3 agents.3
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of humans with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was conducted using PS-DHA. The aim of the study was to improve behavioral and learning disabilities in patients with ADHD. The psychological evaluation included the Connor’s scoring test and computer-based analysis (T.O.V.A.). At the end of three months, the group receiving the PS-DHA showed a total response of 47% compared to only 19% in the placebo group.3
miércoles, mayo 03, 2006
El virus de Epstein-Barr y la Esclerosis Multiple
Epstein-Barr Virus Might Kick-Start Multiple Sclerosis
Scientists think that MS (Multiple Sclerosis) which can cause vision problems, muscle weakness, and difficulty with coordination and balanceis a result of the immune
system attacking the body's own nervous system. Not everyone who is
infected with Epstein-Barr develops MS, but the results of the new study,
published in the June 2006, issue of the journal Brain, suggest that some
individuals' unusually strong reaction to the virus may trigger the
disease. The findings could lead to new therapeutic strategies for better
control of the damage caused in this autoimmune disorder.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Scientists think that MS (Multiple Sclerosis) which can cause vision problems, muscle weakness, and difficulty with coordination and balanceis a result of the immune
system attacking the body's own nervous system. Not everyone who is
infected with Epstein-Barr develops MS, but the results of the new study,
published in the June 2006, issue of the journal Brain, suggest that some
individuals' unusually strong reaction to the virus may trigger the
disease. The findings could lead to new therapeutic strategies for better
control of the damage caused in this autoimmune disorder.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
domingo, abril 30, 2006
Identifican gen que influye en la inteligencia
Feinstein researchers identify intelligence gene
GLEN OAKS, NY -- Psychiatric researchers at The Zucker Hillside Hospital
campus of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have uncovered
evidence of a gene that appears to influence intelligence. Working in
conjunction with researchers at Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and
Genomics in Boston, the Zucker Hillside team examined the genetic
blueprints of individuals with schizophrenia, a neuropsychiatric disorder
characterized by cognitive impairment, and compared them with healthy
volunteers. They discovered that the dysbindin-1 gene (DTNBP1), which they
previously demonstrated to be associated with schizophrenia, may also be
linked to general cognitive ability. The study is published in the May 15
print issue of Human Molecular Genetics, available online today, April 27.
"A robust body of evidence suggests that cognitive abilities, particularly
intelligence, are significantly influenced by genetic factors. Existing
data already suggests that dysbindin may influence cognition," said
Katherine Burdick, PhD, the study's primary author. "We looked at several
DNA sequence variations within the dysbindin gene and found one of them to
be significantly associated with lower general cognitive ability in
carriers of the risk variant compared with non-carriers in two independent
groups."
The study involved 213 unrelated Caucasian patients with schizophrenia or
schizoaffective disorder and 126 unrelated healthy Caucasian volunteers.
The researchers measured cognitive performance in all subjects. They then
analyzed participants' DNA samples. The researchers specifically examined
six DNA sequence variations, also known as single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs), in the dysbindin gene and found that one specific pattern of SNPs,
known as a haplotype, was associated with general cognitive ability:
Cognition was significantly impaired in carriers of the risk variant in
both the schizophrenia group and the healthy volunteers as compared with
the non-carriers.
eurekalert.org
GLEN OAKS, NY -- Psychiatric researchers at The Zucker Hillside Hospital
campus of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have uncovered
evidence of a gene that appears to influence intelligence. Working in
conjunction with researchers at Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and
Genomics in Boston, the Zucker Hillside team examined the genetic
blueprints of individuals with schizophrenia, a neuropsychiatric disorder
characterized by cognitive impairment, and compared them with healthy
volunteers. They discovered that the dysbindin-1 gene (DTNBP1), which they
previously demonstrated to be associated with schizophrenia, may also be
linked to general cognitive ability. The study is published in the May 15
print issue of Human Molecular Genetics, available online today, April 27.
"A robust body of evidence suggests that cognitive abilities, particularly
intelligence, are significantly influenced by genetic factors. Existing
data already suggests that dysbindin may influence cognition," said
Katherine Burdick, PhD, the study's primary author. "We looked at several
DNA sequence variations within the dysbindin gene and found one of them to
be significantly associated with lower general cognitive ability in
carriers of the risk variant compared with non-carriers in two independent
groups."
The study involved 213 unrelated Caucasian patients with schizophrenia or
schizoaffective disorder and 126 unrelated healthy Caucasian volunteers.
The researchers measured cognitive performance in all subjects. They then
analyzed participants' DNA samples. The researchers specifically examined
six DNA sequence variations, also known as single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs), in the dysbindin gene and found that one specific pattern of SNPs,
known as a haplotype, was associated with general cognitive ability:
Cognition was significantly impaired in carriers of the risk variant in
both the schizophrenia group and the healthy volunteers as compared with
the non-carriers.
eurekalert.org
lunes, abril 24, 2006
Sudoku
Sudoku es un juego de lógica que puede servir como ejercicio mental.
Pure Sudoku 76 K (en Español)
PbSuDoku 106 K
Hay otros en softonic.com
Sobre el juego Sudoku en Wikipedia:
Sudoku es un rompecabezas matemático de colocación que se popularizó en Japón en 1986 y se dio a conocer en el ámbito internacional en 2005. El objetivo es rellenar una cuadrícula de 9×9 celdas (81 casillas) dividida en subcuadrículas de 3×3 (también llamadas "cajas" o "regiones") con las cifras del 1 al 9 partiendo de algunos números ya dispuestos en algunas de las celdas. No se debe repetir ninguna cifra en una misma fila, columna o subcuadrícula. Un sudoku está bien planteado si la solución es única. La resolución del problema requiere paciencia y ciertas dotes lógicas.
Pure Sudoku 76 K (en Español)
PbSuDoku 106 K
Hay otros en softonic.com
Sobre el juego Sudoku en Wikipedia:
Sudoku es un rompecabezas matemático de colocación que se popularizó en Japón en 1986 y se dio a conocer en el ámbito internacional en 2005. El objetivo es rellenar una cuadrícula de 9×9 celdas (81 casillas) dividida en subcuadrículas de 3×3 (también llamadas "cajas" o "regiones") con las cifras del 1 al 9 partiendo de algunos números ya dispuestos en algunas de las celdas. No se debe repetir ninguna cifra en una misma fila, columna o subcuadrícula. Un sudoku está bien planteado si la solución es única. La resolución del problema requiere paciencia y ciertas dotes lógicas.
Para aprender hay que dormir
Es lo que demuestra el estudio del Dr Philippe Peigneux, University of Liege in Belgium.
Mediante un scan cerebral comprobaron que durante el sueño la actividad pasa del hipocampo (memoria de instrucciones) al striatum (coordinación de movimientos). Los sujetos a quienes se los privó de sueño siguieron usando el hipocampo, lo que se interpreta como falta de consolidación de la memoria a largo plazo.
ver nota
Mediante un scan cerebral comprobaron que durante el sueño la actividad pasa del hipocampo (memoria de instrucciones) al striatum (coordinación de movimientos). Los sujetos a quienes se los privó de sueño siguieron usando el hipocampo, lo que se interpreta como falta de consolidación de la memoria a largo plazo.
ver nota
viernes, abril 21, 2006
Piperine multiplies the strength of many supplements and drugs
It inhibits a number of enzymes responsible for metabolizing drugs and nutritional substances; it stimulates the activity of amino-acid transporters in the intestinal lining; it inhibits p-glycoprotein, the ‘pump’ protein that removes substances from cells; and it decreases the intestinal production of glucuronic acid, thereby permitting more of the substances to enter the body in active form. Consequently, some of these substances are able to reach, enter, and remain within their target cells for longer periods of time than would otherwise be the case. Of course, this can be a mixed blessing — if one is using a drug for which the therapeutic level is not substantially lower than the toxic level, piperine supplementation might raise the bioavailability of the drug until its intracellular concentration exceeds the toxic threshold. On the other hand, piperine supplementation can sometimes turn a marginally effective therapeutic substance into a highly effective one simply by increasing its bioavailability and intracellular residency time.
...
Piperine may reduce bioavailability of some substances
...
Dosage
The usual recommended dose of piperine is 5-15 mg/day. It is absorbed quickly and well from the digestive tract. Effects on absorption of other substances begin around 15 minutes after dosing and last for an hour or two. Blood levels peak about 1-2 hours after dosing but effects on metabolic enzymes can last much longer — from one to many hours, depending upon the enzyme type.
...
The most reliable method for ensuring piperine’s effectiveness is to take a piperine dose about half an hour before taking the substance whose bioavailability one wants to enhance.
Theoretically, using piperine on a daily basis can put the body in a continuous state of altered metabolism for certain substances.
delano.com
Leantodo el artículo. precaución, sobre todo si toman medicamentos.
La piperina se consigue a bajo precio en beyond-a-century.com
...
Piperine may reduce bioavailability of some substances
...
Dosage
The usual recommended dose of piperine is 5-15 mg/day. It is absorbed quickly and well from the digestive tract. Effects on absorption of other substances begin around 15 minutes after dosing and last for an hour or two. Blood levels peak about 1-2 hours after dosing but effects on metabolic enzymes can last much longer — from one to many hours, depending upon the enzyme type.
...
The most reliable method for ensuring piperine’s effectiveness is to take a piperine dose about half an hour before taking the substance whose bioavailability one wants to enhance.
Theoretically, using piperine on a daily basis can put the body in a continuous state of altered metabolism for certain substances.
delano.com
Leantodo el artículo. precaución, sobre todo si toman medicamentos.
La piperina se consigue a bajo precio en beyond-a-century.com
jueves, abril 13, 2006
Las legumbres prolongan la vida
Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004;13(Suppl):S126.
Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people
of different ethnicities.
Conclusions: This longitudinal study shows that a higher legume intake is the most
protective dietary predictor of survival amongst the elderly, regardless
of their ethnicity. The significance of legumes persisted even after
controlling for age at enrolment (in 5-year interval), gender, and
smoking. Legumes have been associated with long-lived food cultures such
as the Japanese (soy, tofu, natto, miso), the Swedes (brown beans, peas),
and the Mediterranean people (lentils, chickpeas, white beans).
Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people
of different ethnicities.
Conclusions: This longitudinal study shows that a higher legume intake is the most
protective dietary predictor of survival amongst the elderly, regardless
of their ethnicity. The significance of legumes persisted even after
controlling for age at enrolment (in 5-year interval), gender, and
smoking. Legumes have been associated with long-lived food cultures such
as the Japanese (soy, tofu, natto, miso), the Swedes (brown beans, peas),
and the Mediterranean people (lentils, chickpeas, white beans).
domingo, abril 09, 2006
Bloggers que usan piracetam
Usando blogsearch.google.com encontré blogs que con icerocket no.
Me interesaba saber si alguien usaba piracetam.
Encontré algunos, pero el que me interesó fue el de MOBIUS Frame en http://mobiusframe.blogspot.com/
Comenta su experiencia con piracetam y da buenas sugerencias. Además se hace interesantes preguntas sobre otros temas.
Calcular la dosis de piracetam
Aunque las dosis de piracetam son muy discutibles (he leído reportes de gente que usa desde 200 mg hasta varios gramos), encontré este buen recurso en un sitio sobre síndrome de Down (para los que algunos usan piracetam).
Piracetam Dosage Calculator
Se ingresa el peso en libras y la dosis deseada y calcula las dosis diarias.
Piracetam Sources & Cost
Permite calcular el costo por cantidad de producto según proveedor.
Hay otros proveedors que no figuran, como relentlessimprovement.com, bulknutrition.com, biologicsonline.com y posiblemente otros como axiombiologicals, 1fast400.com, customnutritionwarehouse.com (se recomienda averiguar confiabilidad).
Algunos datos interesantes en la página:
The recommended starting dosage per Lawrence G. Leichtman, M.D. FAAP, FACMG is 75 mg per body weight in kilograms per day. Select from drop down, target mg/kg/day and desired weight to calcuate daily dosage.
Reduce dosage if hyperactivity is noticed. Dosages under 30 mg are below the threshold for a positive outcome. Start dosage after age six months: dosages for babies under six months, although harmless, are too small to be effective, i.e., not enough lipid peroxidation for Piracetam to be effective.
Piracetam has a half life of 6 to 8 hours, i.e., half of the ingested amount is metabolized in the first 6 to 8 hours. There is no known storage mechanism for Piracetam. Because of the short half life, it is desirable to dose three times a day, about 6 hours apart (never less than 4 hours), to keep a steady state level.
Many children and adults report sleep-related problems taking Piracetam before bed because it does seem to increase general CNS (central nervous system) activity.
Do not store liquid Piracetam above 25° Celsius (77° Fahrenheit). Keep the solution our of the reach of children. Refrigeration is not necessary, else crystallization will occur; store in cool, dark place. For flavored Piracetam follow the storage recommendation of the compounding pharmacy. Saturation point of Piracetam is 1 gram per cc.
Piracetam Dosage Calculator
Se ingresa el peso en libras y la dosis deseada y calcula las dosis diarias.
Piracetam Sources & Cost
Permite calcular el costo por cantidad de producto según proveedor.
Hay otros proveedors que no figuran, como relentlessimprovement.com, bulknutrition.com, biologicsonline.com y posiblemente otros como axiombiologicals, 1fast400.com, customnutritionwarehouse.com (se recomienda averiguar confiabilidad).
Algunos datos interesantes en la página:
The recommended starting dosage per Lawrence G. Leichtman, M.D. FAAP, FACMG is 75 mg per body weight in kilograms per day. Select from drop down, target mg/kg/day and desired weight to calcuate daily dosage.
Reduce dosage if hyperactivity is noticed. Dosages under 30 mg are below the threshold for a positive outcome. Start dosage after age six months: dosages for babies under six months, although harmless, are too small to be effective, i.e., not enough lipid peroxidation for Piracetam to be effective.
Piracetam has a half life of 6 to 8 hours, i.e., half of the ingested amount is metabolized in the first 6 to 8 hours. There is no known storage mechanism for Piracetam. Because of the short half life, it is desirable to dose three times a day, about 6 hours apart (never less than 4 hours), to keep a steady state level.
Many children and adults report sleep-related problems taking Piracetam before bed because it does seem to increase general CNS (central nervous system) activity.
Do not store liquid Piracetam above 25° Celsius (77° Fahrenheit). Keep the solution our of the reach of children. Refrigeration is not necessary, else crystallization will occur; store in cool, dark place. For flavored Piracetam follow the storage recommendation of the compounding pharmacy. Saturation point of Piracetam is 1 gram per cc.
sábado, abril 08, 2006
Cortical development occurs differently in extremely clever kids
Smarty Brains: High-IQ kids navigate notable neural shifts
Bruce Bower
The road to exceptional intelligence is paved with dramatic neural
alterations, a new brain-imaging study finds.
Critical parts of the brain's outer layer, or cortex, thicken more rapidly
during childhood and thin more drastically during adolescence in
individuals with extremely high IQ scores compared with peers of average or
moderately above-average intelligence, say neuroscientist Philip Shaw of
the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., and his colleagues.
The scientists propose that distinctive brain growth in superior-IQ youth
reflects prolonged development of neural circuits that contribute to
reasoning, planning, and other facets of analytical thinking.
"Cortical thickness at any one age tells you next to nothing about
intelligence," Shaw says. "What's important is that cortical development
occurs differently in extremely clever kids, possibly as a result of
particularly efficient sculpting of the brain." The report appears in the
March 30 Nature.
The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging scanner to track brain
changes in 307 children and teenagers deemed free of psychiatric or
neurological disorders. Most volunteers submitted to two or more brain
scans at intervals averaging 2 years. Participants also completed a
verbal-and-nonverbal IQ test upon entering the study as children or teenagers.
Bruce Bower
The road to exceptional intelligence is paved with dramatic neural
alterations, a new brain-imaging study finds.
Critical parts of the brain's outer layer, or cortex, thicken more rapidly
during childhood and thin more drastically during adolescence in
individuals with extremely high IQ scores compared with peers of average or
moderately above-average intelligence, say neuroscientist Philip Shaw of
the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., and his colleagues.
The scientists propose that distinctive brain growth in superior-IQ youth
reflects prolonged development of neural circuits that contribute to
reasoning, planning, and other facets of analytical thinking.
"Cortical thickness at any one age tells you next to nothing about
intelligence," Shaw says. "What's important is that cortical development
occurs differently in extremely clever kids, possibly as a result of
particularly efficient sculpting of the brain." The report appears in the
March 30 Nature.
The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging scanner to track brain
changes in 307 children and teenagers deemed free of psychiatric or
neurological disorders. Most volunteers submitted to two or more brain
scans at intervals averaging 2 years. Participants also completed a
verbal-and-nonverbal IQ test upon entering the study as children or teenagers.
martes, abril 04, 2006
Exploratorium Webcast: Memory Lectures: Dr. Robert Sapolsky
Exploratorium Webcast: Memory Lectures: Dr. Robert Sapolsky: "Dr. Robert Sapolsky - 'Stress and Memory: Forget It!'
Can stress make you forget? Dr. Robert Sapolsky will present an overview of the disruptive effects of stress on memory and brain aging. Dr. Sapolsky, Professor of Neuroscience at Stanford University, is a MacArthur Fellow and author of numerous articles and books.
This lecture will be moderated by Sedge Thompson, host of KALW FM's popular show West Coast Live. November 18th, 1998. Wednesday, 7PM PT
Requires the RealAudio Player."
Can stress make you forget? Dr. Robert Sapolsky will present an overview of the disruptive effects of stress on memory and brain aging. Dr. Sapolsky, Professor of Neuroscience at Stanford University, is a MacArthur Fellow and author of numerous articles and books.
This lecture will be moderated by Sedge Thompson, host of KALW FM's popular show West Coast Live. November 18th, 1998. Wednesday, 7PM PT
Requires the RealAudio Player."
martes, marzo 21, 2006
Buddha machine: sonidos para meditar
De vez en cuando viene bien relajarse. Además mucho se habla de la música y los sonidos como modificadores del estado psíquico.
Buddha machine es un pequeño aparatito que está de moda y en el tamaño de una radio a pilas tiene 9 bandas de sonido de tipo ambient realizado por el grupo musical japonés FM3.
El sitio del grupo es http://www.fm3.com.cn/ y los sonidos están disponibles en MP3
Entrevista a uno de los creadores.
Simulación en flash
Me enteré por kk.org
Actualización 1/4/07: Usar www.archive.org para el sitio de los MP3.
Ahora, en la era de YouTube podemos ver la Buddha Machine en:
Buddha machine es un pequeño aparatito que está de moda y en el tamaño de una radio a pilas tiene 9 bandas de sonido de tipo ambient realizado por el grupo musical japonés FM3.
El sitio del grupo es http://www.fm3.com.cn/ y los sonidos están disponibles en MP3
Entrevista a uno de los creadores.
Simulación en flash
Me enteré por kk.org
Actualización 1/4/07: Usar www.archive.org para el sitio de los MP3.
Ahora, en la era de YouTube podemos ver la Buddha Machine en:
Problemas con Blogger
No sé qué pasa con el sistema del blog que no se ve la columna de la izquierda y se desordena todo. Ojalá Google cuidara más las cosas. Ideas?
Mentat Wiki
Mentat Wiki: Mentat Wiki
"This wiki is a collaborative environment for exploring ways to become a better thinker. Topics that can be explored here include MemoryTechniques, MentalMath, CriticalThinking, BrainStorming, ShorthandSystems, NotebookSystems, and SmartDrugs. Other relevant topics are also welcome. How have you made yourself smarter ?"
"This wiki is a collaborative environment for exploring ways to become a better thinker. Topics that can be explored here include MemoryTechniques, MentalMath, CriticalThinking, BrainStorming, ShorthandSystems, NotebookSystems, and SmartDrugs. Other relevant topics are also welcome. How have you made yourself smarter ?"
lunes, marzo 20, 2006
Cafe con chocolate
El otro día vi el programa Un Café Con Paul Bassett episodio 12 en Travel & Living de Discovery.
Entrevistaba al Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki quien hablaba de los efectos de la cafeína. Lo interesante es que decís que los efectos vasoconstrictores de la cafeína podían ser "neutralizados" si se tomaba el café junto con una pequeña porción de chocolate amargo.
Busqué en medline y parece haber algunas referencias sobre los efectos del chocolate sobre el endotelio y la vasodilatación, pero no sé si son muy significativos. No cuesta nada probar. Yo creo que se podía agregar cacao amargo en polvo al café si no se consigue chocolate amargo que es caro.
Karl Kruszelnicki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lo que dijo en el programa es similar a esto ,también mostró unos libros interesantes (sobre mitos del saber y otros, ver Wikipedia o su sitio):
The “Half Life”, T1/2, of a drug is the time taken for your body to metabolise, or break down, half the amount that you have in your blood stream. After another T1/2, the level of the drug in the blood stream has dropped to half of its previous level - or 25% of the original level. After the third half life, the drug is down to 12.5% of its peak level.
In humans, the caffeine half life, Caff-T1/2 varies from 3.5 to 100 hours - depending on what kind of human you are.
If you’re an adult, half the caffeine has gone from your system after 5-6 hours. But if a woman uses the oral contraceptive pill, her caffeine half life doubles to about 12 hours.
Pregnant women, have the same half life as your regular adult - until they get to about three months pregnant. Then from four to nine months, the Caff-T1/2 increases to about 10-18 hours. So for this pregnant woman, a little coffee goes a long way. But by one week after birth, the Caff-T1/2 is back down to around six hours.
Caffeine can leave the blood stream of the nursing mother, and go into her breast milk to the baby - and sometimes keep it awake, and inconsolable. The caffeine hangs around in the baby for a long time. The half life of caffeine in a premature or a new-born baby is around 100 hours. But the time the babies are 8 months old, they’re really good at getting rid of caffeine, and the Caff-T1/2 is down to four hours.
Smokers also have a very short Caff-T1/2 (3.5 hours), so they can also clear the caffeine out of their bodies rapidly. This might explain why smokers tend to drink more coffee than non-smokers. Also, when smokers give up tobacco, they become more sensitive to the effects of caffeine. They may need to cut down their coffee intake, when they give up smoking. (That’s a bit unfair - having to drop your intake of two drugs at the same time.)
http://www2.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/december1999/posts/topic14651.shtm
Entrevistaba al Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki quien hablaba de los efectos de la cafeína. Lo interesante es que decís que los efectos vasoconstrictores de la cafeína podían ser "neutralizados" si se tomaba el café junto con una pequeña porción de chocolate amargo.
Busqué en medline y parece haber algunas referencias sobre los efectos del chocolate sobre el endotelio y la vasodilatación, pero no sé si son muy significativos. No cuesta nada probar. Yo creo que se podía agregar cacao amargo en polvo al café si no se consigue chocolate amargo que es caro.
Karl Kruszelnicki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lo que dijo en el programa es similar a esto ,también mostró unos libros interesantes (sobre mitos del saber y otros, ver Wikipedia o su sitio):
The “Half Life”, T1/2, of a drug is the time taken for your body to metabolise, or break down, half the amount that you have in your blood stream. After another T1/2, the level of the drug in the blood stream has dropped to half of its previous level - or 25% of the original level. After the third half life, the drug is down to 12.5% of its peak level.
In humans, the caffeine half life, Caff-T1/2 varies from 3.5 to 100 hours - depending on what kind of human you are.
If you’re an adult, half the caffeine has gone from your system after 5-6 hours. But if a woman uses the oral contraceptive pill, her caffeine half life doubles to about 12 hours.
Pregnant women, have the same half life as your regular adult - until they get to about three months pregnant. Then from four to nine months, the Caff-T1/2 increases to about 10-18 hours. So for this pregnant woman, a little coffee goes a long way. But by one week after birth, the Caff-T1/2 is back down to around six hours.
Caffeine can leave the blood stream of the nursing mother, and go into her breast milk to the baby - and sometimes keep it awake, and inconsolable. The caffeine hangs around in the baby for a long time. The half life of caffeine in a premature or a new-born baby is around 100 hours. But the time the babies are 8 months old, they’re really good at getting rid of caffeine, and the Caff-T1/2 is down to four hours.
Smokers also have a very short Caff-T1/2 (3.5 hours), so they can also clear the caffeine out of their bodies rapidly. This might explain why smokers tend to drink more coffee than non-smokers. Also, when smokers give up tobacco, they become more sensitive to the effects of caffeine. They may need to cut down their coffee intake, when they give up smoking. (That’s a bit unfair - having to drop your intake of two drugs at the same time.)
http://www2.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/december1999/posts/topic14651.shtm
domingo, marzo 19, 2006
Tomorrow's People conference, Oxford 2006
Tomorrow's People: The Challenges of Technologies for Life Extension and Enhancement
Es una conferencia y hay videos y foros, incluye nootrópicos:
Thursday 16 March 0845am Discussion Board
Smarter?-webcast
Nick Bostrom (tiene sitio personal)
Danielle Turner
George Poste
Foro Smarter?
Es una conferencia y hay videos y foros, incluye nootrópicos:
Thursday 16 March 0845am Discussion Board
Smarter?-webcast
Nick Bostrom (tiene sitio personal)
Danielle Turner
George Poste
Foro Smarter?
jueves, marzo 16, 2006
Ginkoba M/A: ginkgo biloba + ginseng
cache: Product Details - @StrictlyNatural.com: "A specific combination product containing 60 mg of Ginkgo biloba (GK501), standardized at 24% ginkgo flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones, and 100 mg Panax ginseng (G115) standardized at 4% ginsenosides. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center, 14-week trial, two dosing regimens of this combination product were tested in 256 healthy middle-aged volunteers. On each study day (weeks 0, 4, 8, 12, and 16) the volunteers performed the Cognitive Drug Research computerized cognitive assessment system prior to morning dosing and again at 1, 3 and 6 hours later. The tests in the system assessed various aspects of attention and memory. On each study day the volunteers also completed questionnaires about mood states, quality of life and sleep quality. The ginkgo/ginseng combination (Ginkoba M/E) was found to significantly improve different aspects of memory, including working and long-term memory as measured by the Index of Memory Quality (an average of 7.5% improvement)."
Directions:
As a dietary supplement, take two capsule daily, one with breakfast and one with lunch.
Ingredients:
Ginkgo biloba extract GK501™ 60 mg (double standardized, to 24% ginkgo-flavone-glycosides and 6% terpene lactones) 60 mg per capsule
Standardized Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer extract G115™ 100 mg per capsule
Technorati tag:nootropic
Directions:
As a dietary supplement, take two capsule daily, one with breakfast and one with lunch.
Ingredients:
Ginkgo biloba extract GK501™ 60 mg (double standardized, to 24% ginkgo-flavone-glycosides and 6% terpene lactones) 60 mg per capsule
Standardized Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer extract G115™ 100 mg per capsule
Technorati tag:nootropic
miércoles, marzo 15, 2006
The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Brain-Healing Nanotechnology - Technology Review
The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Brain-Healing Nanotechnology - Technology Review: "'We think this is the basis of reconstructive brain surgery -- which is something nobody has ever heard of before,' says Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, a researcher on the project and a brain and cognitive sciences researcher at MIT.
The treatment, described online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and performed at MIT, Hong Kong University, and Fourth Military Medical University in China, may be available to humans in trials in as little as three years if all goes well in large-animal studies, the researchers say.
In their experiments, the researchers first cut into a brain structure that conveys signals for vision, causing the small lab animals to be blinded in one eye. They then injected a clear fluid containing chains of amino acids into the damaged area. Once in the environment of the brain, these chains, called peptides, bind to one another, assembling into nano-scale fibers that bridge the gap left by the damage. The mesh of fibers prevents scar tissue from forming and may also encourage cell growth (the researchers are still investigating the mechanisms involved)."
The treatment, described online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and performed at MIT, Hong Kong University, and Fourth Military Medical University in China, may be available to humans in trials in as little as three years if all goes well in large-animal studies, the researchers say.
In their experiments, the researchers first cut into a brain structure that conveys signals for vision, causing the small lab animals to be blinded in one eye. They then injected a clear fluid containing chains of amino acids into the damaged area. Once in the environment of the brain, these chains, called peptides, bind to one another, assembling into nano-scale fibers that bridge the gap left by the damage. The mesh of fibers prevents scar tissue from forming and may also encourage cell growth (the researchers are still investigating the mechanisms involved)."
Hack: Oxigeno y glucosa
Mind Performance Hacks
Overclock Your Brain
#72
Chapter 8, Mental Fitness | 285
HACK
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/chapter/hack72.pdf
[con comentarios]
...
Oxygen is used as part of glucose metabolism to provide brain cells with a number of important chemicals that allow them to support themselves and communicate with other neurons.
Mental performance relies on the functioning of the brain, and like with any
other organ, this performance is linked to how many resources are avail-
able. Research has shown that in some instances, mental performance is
rate-limited by the available glucose and oxygen. In other words, you can
increase the rate of mental processing by increasing the available fuel.
...
One of the most reliable findings is that increasing available glucose and
oxygen seems to have a beneficial effect on memory. Importantly, the effect
is usually found for memory encoding but not memory recall. [así que aumentar oxígeno y glucosa sirve para memorizar pero no para recordar, sin embargo debemos tener en cuenta que se recomienda hacer los exámenes en las mismas condiciones en que se estudió, por lo que debería cuidarse tener el mismo aporte]
...
Increasing glucose and oxygen supplies to the brain seems to allow informa-
tion to be committed more accurately and fully to memory; in other words,
you learn better. This means when you come to recall it at a later stage, you
will undoubtedly do better, because the information there is clearer and
more comprehensive. The reverse does not seem to be true, however. If you
first encoded something without the aid of extra oxygen and glucose, sud-
denly making more oxygen and glucose available when you try to recall it
will not improve your overall memory performance.
Boost oxygen levels. The improvement in oxygen levels on memory
typically lasts for a few minutes only (five is about the limit), so you need to
time your learning to happen shortly after an increase in oxygen, or ensure
that you maintain a slightly increased level for the duration of the learning
period. Oxygen canisters are available in some shops, although they are
often expensive and unwieldy. More usefully, deliberately taking some deep
breaths will increase blood oxygen levels for a short time, as will light exer-
cise. Going for a walk while listening to something you want to remember
on an MP3 player should do the trick, as long as the environment is not so
distracting that you cannot concentrate. [acá podría entrar la posibilidad de usar nootrópicos que favorecen el aporte de oxígeno al cerebro: vinpocetina, hydergina, nicergolina, gingko biloba, picamilon, posiblemente pirytinol y otros]
Optimize glucose supplies. Glucose has a much longer-term effect, as shown
in Figure 8-1.
Here the maximum available glucose peaks at about an hour,
although it rapidly becomes available after it has been ingested. All energy-
giving foods are broken down into glucose at some stage, although at differ-
ent rates. This graph charts the rate of pure glucose absorption, so it best
matches the effects of sugary drinks. [por lo tanto hay que tener en cuenta qué se toma y el momento, si se requiere un tiempo extendido de trabajo podría combinarse un carbohidrato de asimilación más rápida con uno más lento]
Glucose is important as a simple fuel, but it is also used in the creation of
the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This brain chemical is particularly linked
to memory, and it’s no accident that, like oxygen, extra glucose is linked to
an increase in memory and learning ability.
Again, timing is crucial, but not so much effort is needed to constantly maintain
glucose levels. A well-timed sugary drink, 30 minutes to an hour before you want
to remember or take notice of something particularly closely, should improve how
well you remember it.
Overclock Your Brain
#72
Chapter 8, Mental Fitness | 285
HACK
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/chapter/hack72.pdf
[con comentarios]
...
Oxygen is used as part of glucose metabolism to provide brain cells with a number of important chemicals that allow them to support themselves and communicate with other neurons.
Mental performance relies on the functioning of the brain, and like with any
other organ, this performance is linked to how many resources are avail-
able. Research has shown that in some instances, mental performance is
rate-limited by the available glucose and oxygen. In other words, you can
increase the rate of mental processing by increasing the available fuel.
...
One of the most reliable findings is that increasing available glucose and
oxygen seems to have a beneficial effect on memory. Importantly, the effect
is usually found for memory encoding but not memory recall. [así que aumentar oxígeno y glucosa sirve para memorizar pero no para recordar, sin embargo debemos tener en cuenta que se recomienda hacer los exámenes en las mismas condiciones en que se estudió, por lo que debería cuidarse tener el mismo aporte]
...
Increasing glucose and oxygen supplies to the brain seems to allow informa-
tion to be committed more accurately and fully to memory; in other words,
you learn better. This means when you come to recall it at a later stage, you
will undoubtedly do better, because the information there is clearer and
more comprehensive. The reverse does not seem to be true, however. If you
first encoded something without the aid of extra oxygen and glucose, sud-
denly making more oxygen and glucose available when you try to recall it
will not improve your overall memory performance.
Boost oxygen levels. The improvement in oxygen levels on memory
typically lasts for a few minutes only (five is about the limit), so you need to
time your learning to happen shortly after an increase in oxygen, or ensure
that you maintain a slightly increased level for the duration of the learning
period. Oxygen canisters are available in some shops, although they are
often expensive and unwieldy. More usefully, deliberately taking some deep
breaths will increase blood oxygen levels for a short time, as will light exer-
cise. Going for a walk while listening to something you want to remember
on an MP3 player should do the trick, as long as the environment is not so
distracting that you cannot concentrate. [acá podría entrar la posibilidad de usar nootrópicos que favorecen el aporte de oxígeno al cerebro: vinpocetina, hydergina, nicergolina, gingko biloba, picamilon, posiblemente pirytinol y otros]
Optimize glucose supplies. Glucose has a much longer-term effect, as shown
in Figure 8-1.
Here the maximum available glucose peaks at about an hour,
although it rapidly becomes available after it has been ingested. All energy-
giving foods are broken down into glucose at some stage, although at differ-
ent rates. This graph charts the rate of pure glucose absorption, so it best
matches the effects of sugary drinks. [por lo tanto hay que tener en cuenta qué se toma y el momento, si se requiere un tiempo extendido de trabajo podría combinarse un carbohidrato de asimilación más rápida con uno más lento]
Glucose is important as a simple fuel, but it is also used in the creation of
the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This brain chemical is particularly linked
to memory, and it’s no accident that, like oxygen, extra glucose is linked to
an increase in memory and learning ability.
Again, timing is crucial, but not so much effort is needed to constantly maintain
glucose levels. A well-timed sugary drink, 30 minutes to an hour before you want
to remember or take notice of something particularly closely, should improve how
well you remember it.
martes, marzo 14, 2006
oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Mind Performance Hacks
oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Mind Performance Hacks: "Mind Performance Hacks
Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain
By Ron Hale-Evans
First Edition February 2006
Series: Hacks
ISBN: 0-596-10153-8
330 pages, $24.99 US, $34.99 CA, �17.50 UK
Buy two books, get the third FREE! Use discount code 'OPC1'
Free shipping on all orders of $29.95 and above See details.
Mind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively. [Full Description]
Sample Hacks and Code Examples
Hack 1: Remember 10 Things to Bring (PDF)
Hack 15: Speak Your Brain’s Language (PDF)
Hack 19: Seed Your Mental Random-Number Generator (PDF)
Hack 35: Put Down That Calculator (PDF)
Hack 53: Learn Morse Code Like an Efficiency Expert (PDF)
Hack 57: Learn Your Emotional ABCs (PDF)
Hack 72: Overclock Your Brain (PDF)
Download the code examples from this book. The complete set of examples is available at: http://examples.oreilly.com/mindperfhks/
Related Books
Mapping Hacks (O'Reilly)
Hackers & Painters (O'Reilly)
Mind Hacks (O'Reilly)
Astronomy Hacks (O'Reilly)"
Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain
By Ron Hale-Evans
First Edition February 2006
Series: Hacks
ISBN: 0-596-10153-8
330 pages, $24.99 US, $34.99 CA, �17.50 UK
Buy two books, get the third FREE! Use discount code 'OPC1'
Free shipping on all orders of $29.95 and above See details.
Mind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively. [Full Description]
Sample Hacks and Code Examples
Hack 1: Remember 10 Things to Bring (PDF)
Hack 15: Speak Your Brain’s Language (PDF)
Hack 19: Seed Your Mental Random-Number Generator (PDF)
Hack 35: Put Down That Calculator (PDF)
Hack 53: Learn Morse Code Like an Efficiency Expert (PDF)
Hack 57: Learn Your Emotional ABCs (PDF)
Hack 72: Overclock Your Brain (PDF)
Download the code examples from this book. The complete set of examples is available at: http://examples.oreilly.com/mindperfhks/
Related Books
Mapping Hacks (O'Reilly)
Hackers & Painters (O'Reilly)
Mind Hacks (O'Reilly)
Astronomy Hacks (O'Reilly)"
jueves, marzo 02, 2006
Propiedades del mani
de Wikipedia
Nutritional benefits
Peanuts are a rich source of proteins (roughly 30 grams per cup after roasting) and Monounsaturated fat. Recent research on peanuts and nuts in general have shown their health benefits. [1] Peanuts are a significant source of resveratrol. A handful of peanuts contains approximately 70 micrograms of this curative substance. Resveratrol is also present in red wine, grape and the Chinese plant Polygonum cuspidatum (cholican).
Suplementos ayurvedicos
Una nota en medios de India sobre los suplementos y las exigencias de los estudiantes. Menciona varios suplementos ayurvédicos.
Uno sugiere que el maní es una buena fuente de proteína (y económica). Lástima que engorda y una vez que uno empieza no para de comer.
Chandigarh News
Need a trip to ‘memory’ lane?
Puneet K Pardal
Chandigarh, March 1: “A memory enhancer for children and adults - it increases your concentration and grasping power, helps improve learning, responsiveness and mental alertness.’’
Reading this advertisement, one can be easily enticed to try these products which claim to boost your memory and hence, get you better results in exams. With exams lurking over students’ heads, city markets are brimming with these ‘memory enhancers’, ‘smart pills’ or ‘brain boosters’ or, pharmaceutically-cognitive enhancers. Their market offers a range of options - pick a Brahmi, Ashvagandha, Musli, Malkangni or Turajbeen; in syrup or capsule form, and what not.
Says Mayank, a Class XII student, ‘‘Most of my friends are giving it a try. It helps improve our confidence level to some extent. Moreover, Ayurvedic stuff doesn’t have any side effects.’’
Amit, a chemist in Sector-28, says, ‘‘These memory tonics, especially Baidyanath Shankhapushpi Syrup and Brahmi, are quite popular with students, but regular intake is necessary for favourable results. However, we don’t recommend the use of tablets without consulting the doctor.’’
Another chemist, Mohan, says, ‘‘Students want something that boosts retention and recalling power. They prefer Ayurvedic tonics for zero side effects.’’
Dr H.V. Jindal, Medical Officer, Panjab University Dispensary, believes that if a balanced, protein-rich diet is taken throughout year, it will certainly help students. Moreover, these tonics and tablets are quite expensive. Groundnuts are a good and cheaper substitute.
Eating lots of fresh fruit or taking B-Complex supplements, along with vitamin B-12, also helps improve memory. It is actually the concentration of mind that is the most important.’’
Dr B.S. Chavan, head, Psychiatry Department, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector-32, says, ‘‘During exams, all you need is a good diet and good sleep, and one must be focussed. Emphasis on grades prompts students to seek memory enhancers. But they have a placebo effect, whereby you feel better. Students should maintain their hobbies and not pressurise their minds.’’
Manvinder Bajwa, vice-principal, Bhavan Vidhalaya, Sector-27, shares, ‘‘We are living in extremely competitive times. Students are on tenterhooks, the pressure drives them to taking memory tablets and tonics. But these have a negative effect on one’s health as these are drugs only. Meditation and exercising are better options and help students to perform better during exams.’’
Uno sugiere que el maní es una buena fuente de proteína (y económica). Lástima que engorda y una vez que uno empieza no para de comer.
Chandigarh News
Need a trip to ‘memory’ lane?
Puneet K Pardal
Chandigarh, March 1: “A memory enhancer for children and adults - it increases your concentration and grasping power, helps improve learning, responsiveness and mental alertness.’’
Reading this advertisement, one can be easily enticed to try these products which claim to boost your memory and hence, get you better results in exams. With exams lurking over students’ heads, city markets are brimming with these ‘memory enhancers’, ‘smart pills’ or ‘brain boosters’ or, pharmaceutically-cognitive enhancers. Their market offers a range of options - pick a Brahmi, Ashvagandha, Musli, Malkangni or Turajbeen; in syrup or capsule form, and what not.
Says Mayank, a Class XII student, ‘‘Most of my friends are giving it a try. It helps improve our confidence level to some extent. Moreover, Ayurvedic stuff doesn’t have any side effects.’’
Amit, a chemist in Sector-28, says, ‘‘These memory tonics, especially Baidyanath Shankhapushpi Syrup and Brahmi, are quite popular with students, but regular intake is necessary for favourable results. However, we don’t recommend the use of tablets without consulting the doctor.’’
Another chemist, Mohan, says, ‘‘Students want something that boosts retention and recalling power. They prefer Ayurvedic tonics for zero side effects.’’
Dr H.V. Jindal, Medical Officer, Panjab University Dispensary, believes that if a balanced, protein-rich diet is taken throughout year, it will certainly help students. Moreover, these tonics and tablets are quite expensive. Groundnuts are a good and cheaper substitute.
Eating lots of fresh fruit or taking B-Complex supplements, along with vitamin B-12, also helps improve memory. It is actually the concentration of mind that is the most important.’’
Dr B.S. Chavan, head, Psychiatry Department, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector-32, says, ‘‘During exams, all you need is a good diet and good sleep, and one must be focussed. Emphasis on grades prompts students to seek memory enhancers. But they have a placebo effect, whereby you feel better. Students should maintain their hobbies and not pressurise their minds.’’
Manvinder Bajwa, vice-principal, Bhavan Vidhalaya, Sector-27, shares, ‘‘We are living in extremely competitive times. Students are on tenterhooks, the pressure drives them to taking memory tablets and tonics. But these have a negative effect on one’s health as these are drugs only. Meditation and exercising are better options and help students to perform better during exams.’’
miércoles, marzo 01, 2006
Terapia combinada para el Alzheimer
Recommended Combination-Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
From the book Smart Drugs II: The Next Generation
by Ward Dean, M.D., John Morgenthaler, and Steven Wm. Fowkes
Lo interesante es que lista una larga serie de sustancias y brevemente describe su acción.
From the book Smart Drugs II: The Next Generation
by Ward Dean, M.D., John Morgenthaler, and Steven Wm. Fowkes
Lo interesante es que lista una larga serie de sustancias y brevemente describe su acción.
martes, febrero 28, 2006
Wikipedia inaugura portales de psicologia y mente-cerebro
La enciclipedia libre Wikipedia inauguró dos nuevos portales con mucha información.
Portal de Psicología:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Mind_and_Brain
Portal de Mente-Cerebro ( philosophy of mind, neuroscience, linguistics, and psychology):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Psychology
Portal de Psicología:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Mind_and_Brain
Portal de Mente-Cerebro ( philosophy of mind, neuroscience, linguistics, and psychology):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Psychology
viernes, febrero 24, 2006
Creatina y minociclina para el parkinson
Preliminary Study Shows Creatine and Minocycline May Warrant Further Study
In Parkinson�s Disease
A National Institutes of Health-sponsored clinical trial with 200
Parkinson's disease patients has shown that creatine and minocycline may
warrant further consideration for study in a large trial, according to Karl
Kieburtz, M.D., M.P.H., University of Rochester, who spoke today at the
World Parkinson Congress on behalf of the trial investigators.
link medline
In Parkinson�s Disease
A National Institutes of Health-sponsored clinical trial with 200
Parkinson's disease patients has shown that creatine and minocycline may
warrant further consideration for study in a large trial, according to Karl
Kieburtz, M.D., M.P.H., University of Rochester, who spoke today at the
World Parkinson Congress on behalf of the trial investigators.
link medline
lunes, febrero 20, 2006
Otro comentario sobre Hofmann, los huevos y la hydergina
Buscando encontré en el foro cannabiscafe.net otra referencia al comentario de Hofmann sobre los huevos y su uso de la hydergina:
Yo estuve presente en la rueda de prensa celebrada en Basilea, en la que Albert Hofmann dijo lo de los "huevos crudos" en contestación a la séptima pregunta, de las diez a las que contestó y por el tono irónico en que dio su respuesta me parece que Hofmann se salió por la tangente, harto de que siempre se le pregunte lo mismo: "¿Doctor, ha llegado usted a edad tan longeva por ingerir LSD?"
En realidad, lo que Hofmann contestó, fue que el consumo de vitaminas (A, B, C y otras) es vital para mantener la salud en todas las personas, y que él desde siempre se ha desayunado con huevos frescos, frutas, müsli y mantequilla. Como también ha dicho en varias ocasiones que el tanino y los sulfitos de un vaso de buen vino tinto en las comidas alarga la vida entre dos y cinco años.
Sin embargo, a la siguiente pregunta que se le hizo, respondió que el "LSD es una droga sagrada contenedora de vitaminas..."
Personalmente, cuando hace tres años estuve en su casa y cené con él, junto a otros dos amigos y su mujer Anita, a mi capciosa pregunta (la de todos y a la que está cansado responder) de si era el LSD causa de su excelente y longeva salud, Albert me miró sonriente eludiendo su respuesta, pero durante la cena, cuando volví a insistirle sobre ello, entonces, más directamente, me contestó que uno de sus descubrimientos, otro derivado ergotínico, la Hydergina, podría ser el verdadero responsable de ese efecto benéfico en su salud.
La Hydergina (dihidroergotoxina mesilato) se vende sin receta médica en las farmacias españolas y cuesta ocho euros la caja de 30 pastillas.
Es un modificador de la neurotransmisión cerebral, estimulante de receptores doaminérgicos y bloqueador de los adrenoreceptores, que mejora la función metabólica cerebral alterada y reduce los síntomas del deterioro mental propios de la edad (involución senil, arterioesclerosis cerebral y otros transtornos cerebrovasculares agudos). Extraido de revista Cáñamo, nº61, en notas de la entrevista a Albert Hofmann "Atardecer en Rittimatte", pág. 44 y ss.
A veces los sabios también se permiten las bromas en medio de tanta seriedad.
Yo estuve presente en la rueda de prensa celebrada en Basilea, en la que Albert Hofmann dijo lo de los "huevos crudos" en contestación a la séptima pregunta, de las diez a las que contestó y por el tono irónico en que dio su respuesta me parece que Hofmann se salió por la tangente, harto de que siempre se le pregunte lo mismo: "¿Doctor, ha llegado usted a edad tan longeva por ingerir LSD?"
En realidad, lo que Hofmann contestó, fue que el consumo de vitaminas (A, B, C y otras) es vital para mantener la salud en todas las personas, y que él desde siempre se ha desayunado con huevos frescos, frutas, müsli y mantequilla. Como también ha dicho en varias ocasiones que el tanino y los sulfitos de un vaso de buen vino tinto en las comidas alarga la vida entre dos y cinco años.
Sin embargo, a la siguiente pregunta que se le hizo, respondió que el "LSD es una droga sagrada contenedora de vitaminas..."
Personalmente, cuando hace tres años estuve en su casa y cené con él, junto a otros dos amigos y su mujer Anita, a mi capciosa pregunta (la de todos y a la que está cansado responder) de si era el LSD causa de su excelente y longeva salud, Albert me miró sonriente eludiendo su respuesta, pero durante la cena, cuando volví a insistirle sobre ello, entonces, más directamente, me contestó que uno de sus descubrimientos, otro derivado ergotínico, la Hydergina, podría ser el verdadero responsable de ese efecto benéfico en su salud.
La Hydergina (dihidroergotoxina mesilato) se vende sin receta médica en las farmacias españolas y cuesta ocho euros la caja de 30 pastillas.
Es un modificador de la neurotransmisión cerebral, estimulante de receptores doaminérgicos y bloqueador de los adrenoreceptores, que mejora la función metabólica cerebral alterada y reduce los síntomas del deterioro mental propios de la edad (involución senil, arterioesclerosis cerebral y otros transtornos cerebrovasculares agudos). Extraido de revista Cáñamo, nº61, en notas de la entrevista a Albert Hofmann "Atardecer en Rittimatte", pág. 44 y ss.
A veces los sabios también se permiten las bromas en medio de tanta seriedad.
martes, enero 31, 2006
Albert Hofmann y el ejercicio
En el sitio lsd.virtuale.org podemos ver una imagen animada de Albert Hofmann haciendo ejercicio (549 K). No dice la fecha en que fue tomada.
Parece que a Hofmann le gusta ejercitarse porque en hofmann.org se puede leer que su urgencia por ejercitarse lo perjudicó en una operación que después salió bien (2002):
"Report on Dr. Albert Hofmann: Dr. Hofmann was 96 years old last January 12. In the last few months he has experienced some serious injuries. He unfortunately fell and disabled a hip replacement procedure he had done in the past. A new surgery corrected this. While he was recovering in the hospital, he was urged to exercise excessively, and the new surgery failed."
http://www.hofmann.org/about/presmsg.html
Parece que a Hofmann le gusta ejercitarse porque en hofmann.org se puede leer que su urgencia por ejercitarse lo perjudicó en una operación que después salió bien (2002):
"Report on Dr. Albert Hofmann: Dr. Hofmann was 96 years old last January 12. In the last few months he has experienced some serious injuries. He unfortunately fell and disabled a hip replacement procedure he had done in the past. A new surgery corrected this. While he was recovering in the hospital, he was urged to exercise excessively, and the new surgery failed."
http://www.hofmann.org/about/presmsg.html
lunes, enero 30, 2006
Hay limites a la reingenieria humana?
Una interesante nota sobre la tecnología y las drogas de perfeccionamiento. Comienza con una descripción de lo ue puede ser un futuro n tan lejano y las implicaciones éticas:
There is no stop button in the race for human re-engineering
Science will soon give some of us the tools to make ourselves cleverer and stronger. What will it mean for our humanity?
Madeleine Bunting
Monday January 30, 2006
ver nota en The Guardian
Fragmentso:
"Five years later, my little grand-daughter is starting school. Again her parents have talked over the pros and cons of cognitive enhancement. A pharmcogenetic package is now routinely offered on the NHS after the government decided that, given international competition in the global knowledge economy, there was no option but to ensure the nation's schoolchildren had better powers of memory and concentration."
...
"What we've been unhappy about is that my daughter has been very tired trying to hold down her job and be a mum, and she's come under a lot of pressure from her boss to get help. What they mean is that she should go on to Provigil. They point out that if she was taking it, she could miss several nights of sleep without any problem. Her colleagues call her a bio-Luddite for refusing."
There is no stop button in the race for human re-engineering
Science will soon give some of us the tools to make ourselves cleverer and stronger. What will it mean for our humanity?
Madeleine Bunting
Monday January 30, 2006
ver nota en The Guardian
Fragmentso:
"Five years later, my little grand-daughter is starting school. Again her parents have talked over the pros and cons of cognitive enhancement. A pharmcogenetic package is now routinely offered on the NHS after the government decided that, given international competition in the global knowledge economy, there was no option but to ensure the nation's schoolchildren had better powers of memory and concentration."
...
"What we've been unhappy about is that my daughter has been very tired trying to hold down her job and be a mum, and she's come under a lot of pressure from her boss to get help. What they mean is that she should go on to Provigil. They point out that if she was taking it, she could miss several nights of sleep without any problem. Her colleagues call her a bio-Luddite for refusing."
jueves, enero 26, 2006
Hofmann y la hydergina
Seguí buscando referencias sobre Hofmann y la Hydergina y encontré otro que
dice que Hofmann la toma:
Now, Wilson can use his iMac to communicate with the world
outside--including students, fans and colleagues. Among the latter category
are people like Albert Hoffman, the inventor of LSD as well as a drug
called Hydergine, which Wilson describes as his "current panacea."
"It's a dendrite stimulant," explains Wilson. "Your nervous system has more
dendrites than muscles. I may be walking naturally again someday if it
works as well as some claim. Albert Hoffman is going to have his 100th
birthday in January after 25 years on Hydergine, and everybody says he
looks as healthy as a 60-year-old."
Through the years, Wilson and Hoffman have stayed in touch. "He's a fan of
my books," says Wilson, "and I'm a fan of his drugs."
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/08.10.05/wilson-0532.html
Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (born January 18, 1932) is a futurist,
libertarian, and novelist. His best-known work -- The Illuminatus! Trilogy
(1975), co-authored with Robert Shea -- humorously examined American
paranoia about conspiracies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson
domingo, enero 15, 2006
El secreto de la longevidad de Albert Hofmann
Revisando drogasinteligentes.com ví que hay una página con fotos del Homenaje a Albert Hoffman (descubridor del LSD y otras drogas) Ateneo de Madrid 11-enero-2006.
En una de las fotos se lee: Gaspar Fraga (derecha) recordó momentos de la vida de Hoffman y sus encuentros con él. Según relató, Hoffman afirma mantenerse tan bien
a sus 100 años gracias a la Hydergina (dihidroergotoxina, creación suya), la única sustancia que ahora toma habitualmente.
Me puse a buscar a ver si encontraba más sobre lo que Hofmann consumía. No pude encontrar nada sobre su uso de la Hydergina (tal vez Juan Carlos pudiera ampliar esto).
Encontré un blog que comentaba e una entrada consicousness is everywhere
a few thoughts about day 1 LSD Symposium sobre lo que fue ese día, donde hubo uso de algunas sustancias.
Pero encontré este post: It's the breakfast, stupid! donde se afirma que Hofmann siempre desayuna con dos huevos crudos batidos y Müesli. La receta del Birchermüesli Original del Dr. Bircher (hay más detalles en la página):
Ingredients for 4 persons:
4 tablespoons oat flakes
8 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons sweet evaporated milk or cream
Honey or sugar according to your own taste (use as less sugar as possible)
Juice of 2 lemons
8 apples
variations:
You may use plain yogurt instead of water and evaporated milk. You may also add cream, half and half or milk according to your own taste.
Take any kind of berries, oranges or other fruits instead of or in addition to the apples.
You may add 2 to 3 tablespoons grind almonds and or hazelnuts.
Seguí buscando y encontré la noticia en Español:
14 de enero de 2006, 11h39
El secreto de longevidad fueron los huevos, no LSD - descubridor
BASILEA, Suiza (Reuters) - El químico suizo de 100 años que descubrió el LSD dijo el viernes que el secreto de su longevidad fueron los huevos que desayuna y no el ácido alucinógeno.
Albert Hofmann, quien celebró su centenario el miércoles, rechazó la idea de que la droga haya prolongado su vida, pese a haber realizado su primer "viaje" a mediados de la década de 1940 y el último hace sólo unos años.
En cambio, Hofmann reveló que el secreto eran los dos huevos crudos que desayuna.
"En un huevo está todo lo que una persona necesita para desarrollarse: vitaminas, minerales y hormonas", dijo el químico.
Hofmann asistió el viernes al primer día de un simposio que se desarrollará durante el fin de semana en Basel, organizado por un grupo sin ánimo de lucro que promueve la investigación de las drogas psicodélicas y quiere abrir un debate sobre si el LSD podría tener un uso clínico otra vez.
Pese a ser conocido como una droga recreativa, el LSD se utilizó en Estados Unidos como un tratamiento psicoterapéutico en la década de los 50 antes de ser prohibido por el gobierno.
Científicos de la Asociación Multidisciplinaria de Estudios Psicodélicos, con sede en Estados Unidos, investigan nuevos usos como los efectos de la droga en fuertes dolores de cabeza similares a las migrañas.
"Aún es mi niño problemático", dijo Hoffman. "Pero con frecuencia se convierten en niños maravillosos. Espero que sea posible con el tiempo que el LSD encuentre en la sociedad el lugar que merece".
En la celebración de su centenario el miércoles, Hofmann añadió su nombre a una petición lanzada por los organizadores del simposio para legalizar la droga con usos clínicos y científicos, que será presentada a las autoridades en Europa y Estados Unidos.*.
¡Para que tengan los obsesionados por el colesterol!. Se ve que Hofmann no le teme a la salmonella. Se supone que los establecimientos productores de huevos están inspecionados y no debería haber problemas, pero ¿un cierto temor da no?, además de si uno tolera el gusto.
En una de las fotos se lee: Gaspar Fraga (derecha) recordó momentos de la vida de Hoffman y sus encuentros con él. Según relató, Hoffman afirma mantenerse tan bien
a sus 100 años gracias a la Hydergina (dihidroergotoxina, creación suya), la única sustancia que ahora toma habitualmente.
Me puse a buscar a ver si encontraba más sobre lo que Hofmann consumía. No pude encontrar nada sobre su uso de la Hydergina (tal vez Juan Carlos pudiera ampliar esto).
Encontré un blog que comentaba e una entrada consicousness is everywhere
a few thoughts about day 1 LSD Symposium sobre lo que fue ese día, donde hubo uso de algunas sustancias.
Pero encontré este post: It's the breakfast, stupid! donde se afirma que Hofmann siempre desayuna con dos huevos crudos batidos y Müesli. La receta del Birchermüesli Original del Dr. Bircher (hay más detalles en la página):
Ingredients for 4 persons:
4 tablespoons oat flakes
8 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons sweet evaporated milk or cream
Honey or sugar according to your own taste (use as less sugar as possible)
Juice of 2 lemons
8 apples
variations:
You may use plain yogurt instead of water and evaporated milk. You may also add cream, half and half or milk according to your own taste.
Take any kind of berries, oranges or other fruits instead of or in addition to the apples.
You may add 2 to 3 tablespoons grind almonds and or hazelnuts.
Seguí buscando y encontré la noticia en Español:
14 de enero de 2006, 11h39
El secreto de longevidad fueron los huevos, no LSD - descubridor
BASILEA, Suiza (Reuters) - El químico suizo de 100 años que descubrió el LSD dijo el viernes que el secreto de su longevidad fueron los huevos que desayuna y no el ácido alucinógeno.
Albert Hofmann, quien celebró su centenario el miércoles, rechazó la idea de que la droga haya prolongado su vida, pese a haber realizado su primer "viaje" a mediados de la década de 1940 y el último hace sólo unos años.
En cambio, Hofmann reveló que el secreto eran los dos huevos crudos que desayuna.
"En un huevo está todo lo que una persona necesita para desarrollarse: vitaminas, minerales y hormonas", dijo el químico.
Hofmann asistió el viernes al primer día de un simposio que se desarrollará durante el fin de semana en Basel, organizado por un grupo sin ánimo de lucro que promueve la investigación de las drogas psicodélicas y quiere abrir un debate sobre si el LSD podría tener un uso clínico otra vez.
Pese a ser conocido como una droga recreativa, el LSD se utilizó en Estados Unidos como un tratamiento psicoterapéutico en la década de los 50 antes de ser prohibido por el gobierno.
Científicos de la Asociación Multidisciplinaria de Estudios Psicodélicos, con sede en Estados Unidos, investigan nuevos usos como los efectos de la droga en fuertes dolores de cabeza similares a las migrañas.
"Aún es mi niño problemático", dijo Hoffman. "Pero con frecuencia se convierten en niños maravillosos. Espero que sea posible con el tiempo que el LSD encuentre en la sociedad el lugar que merece".
En la celebración de su centenario el miércoles, Hofmann añadió su nombre a una petición lanzada por los organizadores del simposio para legalizar la droga con usos clínicos y científicos, que será presentada a las autoridades en Europa y Estados Unidos.*.
¡Para que tengan los obsesionados por el colesterol!. Se ve que Hofmann no le teme a la salmonella. Se supone que los establecimientos productores de huevos están inspecionados y no debería haber problemas, pero ¿un cierto temor da no?, además de si uno tolera el gusto.
sábado, enero 14, 2006
Neurogenesis y migracion de las nuevas neuronas
El cerebro produce nuevas neuronas que migran siguiendo el flujo del líquido cefaloraquídeo. Otro nuevo interesante estudio sobre la plasticidad cerebral.
scientificamerican.com
January 13, 2006
New Neurons Go with the Spinal Fluid Flow
Recent research has revealed that brains continue to produce new
neurons throughout life, helping create new neural networks. This
neurogenesis only takes place in a few specific areas, such as the area
in which the brain and spinal column meet. The new cells, however, can
migrate throughout the brain and turn up as far away as the olfactory
bulb--a cluster of nerve cells at the front surface of the brain
responsible for the sense of smell. A recent study in mice has revealed
that these neurons make the long and complicated journey by going with
the flow of spinal fluid circulating in the brain.
scientificamerican.com
January 13, 2006
New Neurons Go with the Spinal Fluid Flow
Recent research has revealed that brains continue to produce new
neurons throughout life, helping create new neural networks. This
neurogenesis only takes place in a few specific areas, such as the area
in which the brain and spinal column meet. The new cells, however, can
migrate throughout the brain and turn up as far away as the olfactory
bulb--a cluster of nerve cells at the front surface of the brain
responsible for the sense of smell. A recent study in mice has revealed
that these neurons make the long and complicated journey by going with
the flow of spinal fluid circulating in the brain.
jueves, enero 12, 2006
Importancia del DHA del aceite de pescado
"The synaptic vesicles contain DHA. It is quite possible that depletion in this fatty acid prevents synaptic vesicle synthesis and therefore results in a sharp reduction in neurotransmission. This latter event may precede, and be responsible for, the subsequent over-production of the nerve-toxic amyloid beta protein.
Therefore, insufficient DHA may be a key element in age-associated loss of mental acuity. Supplementing with the omega-3 fatty acids may help attenuate this effect. Another potential method to increase the brain level of DHA is to take an antioxidant, such as vitamin E or alpha lipoic acid, which may help prevent the destruction of this important nutrient."
http://www.juvenon.com/jhj/vol4no04.htm
Ya sabamos que los omega 3 del aceite de pescado son diferentes de los de otras fuentes y no todos convertimos eficazmente los omega 3 en EPA/DHA. Por lo tant arece conveniente incrementaar el consumo de pescado o de suplementos o de huevos enriquecidos.
Therefore, insufficient DHA may be a key element in age-associated loss of mental acuity. Supplementing with the omega-3 fatty acids may help attenuate this effect. Another potential method to increase the brain level of DHA is to take an antioxidant, such as vitamin E or alpha lipoic acid, which may help prevent the destruction of this important nutrient."
http://www.juvenon.com/jhj/vol4no04.htm
Ya sabamos que los omega 3 del aceite de pescado son diferentes de los de otras fuentes y no todos convertimos eficazmente los omega 3 en EPA/DHA. Por lo tant arece conveniente incrementaar el consumo de pescado o de suplementos o de huevos enriquecidos.
sábado, enero 07, 2006
Entrevista a Albert Hofman en NYT
January 7, 2006
The Saturday Profile
Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders His 'Problem Child'
By CRAIG SMITH
BURG, Switzerland
ALBERT Hofmann, the father of LSD, walked slowly across the small corner office of his modernist home on a grassy Alpine hilltop here, hoping to show a visitor the vista that sweeps before him on clear days. But outside there was only a white blanket of fog hanging just beyond the crest of the hill. He picked up a photograph of the view on his desk instead, left there perhaps to convince visitors of what really lies beyond the windowpane.
Mr. Hofmann will turn 100 on Wednesday, a milestone to be marked by a symposium in nearby Basel on the chemical compound that he discovered and that famously unlocked the Blakean doors of perception, altering consciousnesses around the world. As the years accumulate behind him, Mr. Hofmann's conversation turns ever more insistently around one theme: man's oneness with nature and the dangers of an increasing inattention to that fact.
"It's very, very dangerous to lose contact with living nature," he said, listing to the right in a green armchair that looked out over frost-dusted fields and snow-laced trees. A glass pitcher held a bouquet of roses on the coffee table before him. "In the big cities, there are people who have never seen living nature, all things are products of humans," he said. "The bigger the town, the less they see and understand nature." And, yes, he said, LSD, which he calls his "problem child," could help reconnect people to the universe.
Rounding a century, Mr. Hofmann is physically reduced but mentally clear. He is prone to digressions, ambling with pleasure through memories of his boyhood, but his bright eyes flash with the recollection of a mystical experience he had on a forest path more than 90 years ago in the hills above Baden, Switzerland. The experience left him longing for a similar glimpse of what he calls "a miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality."
"I was completely astonished by the beauty of nature," he said, laying a slightly gnarled finger alongside his nose, his longish white hair swept back from his temples and the crown of his head. He said any natural scientist who was not a mystic was not a real natural scientist. "Outside is pure energy and colorless substance," he said. "All of the rest happens through the mechanism of our senses. Our eyes see just a small fraction of the light in the world. It is a trick to make a colored world, which does not exist outside of human beings."
He became particularly fascinated by the mechanisms through which plants turn sunlight into the building blocks for our own bodies. "Everything comes from the sun via the plant kingdom," he said.
MR. HOFMANN studied chemistry and took a job with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz Laboratories, because it had started a program to identify and synthesize the active compounds of medically important plants. He soon began work on the poisonous ergot fungus that grows in grains of rye. Midwives had used it for centuries to precipitate childbirths, but chemists had never succeeded in isolating the chemical that produced the pharmacological effect. Finally, chemists in the United States identified the active component as lysergic acid, and Mr. Hofmann began combining other molecules with the unstable chemical in search of pharmacologically useful compounds.
His work on ergot produced several important drugs, including a compound still in use to prevent hemorrhaging after childbirth. But it was the 25th compound that he synthesized, lysergic acid diethylamide, that was to have the greatest impact. When he first created it in 1938, the drug yielded no significant pharmacological results. But when his work on ergot was completed, he decided to go back to LSD-25, hoping that improved tests could detect the stimulating effect on the body's circulatory system that he had expected from it. It was as he was synthesizing the drug on a Friday afternoon in April 1943 that he first experienced the altered state of consciousness for which it became famous. "Immediately, I recognized it as the same experience I had had as a child," he said. "I didn't know what caused it, but I knew that it was important."
When he returned to his lab the next Monday, he tried to identify the source of his experience, believing first that it had come from the fumes of a chloroform-like solvent he had been using. Inhaling the fumes produced no effect, though, and he realized he must have somehow ingested a trace of LSD. "LSD spoke to me," Mr. Hofmann said with an amused, animated smile. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "
HE experimented with the drug, taking a dose so small that even the most active toxin known at that time would have had little or no effect. The result with LSD, however, was a powerful experience, during which he rode his bicycle home, accompanied by an assistant. That day, April 19, later became memorialized by LSD enthusiasts as "bicycle day."
Mr. Hofmann participated in tests in a Sandoz laboratory, but found the experience frightening and realized that the drug should be used only under carefully controlled circumstances. In 1951, he wrote to the German novelist Ernst Junger, who had experimented with mescaline, and proposed that they take LSD together. They each took 0.05 milligrams of pure LSD at Mr. Hofmann's home accompanied by roses, music by Mozart and burning Japanese incense. "That was the first planned psychedelic test," Mr. Hofmann said.
He took the drug dozens of times after that, he said, and once experienced what he called a "horror trip" when he was tired and Mr. Junger gave him amphetamines first. But his hallucinogenic days are long behind him.
"I know LSD; I don't need to take it anymore," Mr. Hofmann said. "Maybe when I die, like Aldous Huxley," who asked his wife for an injection of LSD to help him through the final painful throes of his fatal throat cancer.
But Mr. Hofmann calls LSD "medicine for the soul" and is frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. "It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis," he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the youth movement of the 1960's and then demonized by the establishment that the movement opposed. He said LSD could be dangerous and called its distribution by Timothy Leary and others "a crime."
"It should be a controlled substance with the same status as morphine," he said.
Mr. Hofmann lives with his wife in the house they built 38 years ago. He raised four children and watched one son struggle with alcoholism before dying at 53. He has eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. As far as he knows, no one in his family besides his wife has tried LSD.
Mr. Hofmann rose, slightly stooped and now barely reaching five feet, and walked through his house with his arm-support cane. When asked if the drug had deepened his understanding of death, he appeared mildly startled and said no. "I go back to where I came from, to where I was before I was born, that's all," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/international/europe/07hoffman.html?adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1136646260-2vvhmKN3gOF3MVzC3pmqqg&pagewanted=print
The Saturday Profile
Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders His 'Problem Child'
By CRAIG SMITH
BURG, Switzerland
ALBERT Hofmann, the father of LSD, walked slowly across the small corner office of his modernist home on a grassy Alpine hilltop here, hoping to show a visitor the vista that sweeps before him on clear days. But outside there was only a white blanket of fog hanging just beyond the crest of the hill. He picked up a photograph of the view on his desk instead, left there perhaps to convince visitors of what really lies beyond the windowpane.
Mr. Hofmann will turn 100 on Wednesday, a milestone to be marked by a symposium in nearby Basel on the chemical compound that he discovered and that famously unlocked the Blakean doors of perception, altering consciousnesses around the world. As the years accumulate behind him, Mr. Hofmann's conversation turns ever more insistently around one theme: man's oneness with nature and the dangers of an increasing inattention to that fact.
"It's very, very dangerous to lose contact with living nature," he said, listing to the right in a green armchair that looked out over frost-dusted fields and snow-laced trees. A glass pitcher held a bouquet of roses on the coffee table before him. "In the big cities, there are people who have never seen living nature, all things are products of humans," he said. "The bigger the town, the less they see and understand nature." And, yes, he said, LSD, which he calls his "problem child," could help reconnect people to the universe.
Rounding a century, Mr. Hofmann is physically reduced but mentally clear. He is prone to digressions, ambling with pleasure through memories of his boyhood, but his bright eyes flash with the recollection of a mystical experience he had on a forest path more than 90 years ago in the hills above Baden, Switzerland. The experience left him longing for a similar glimpse of what he calls "a miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality."
"I was completely astonished by the beauty of nature," he said, laying a slightly gnarled finger alongside his nose, his longish white hair swept back from his temples and the crown of his head. He said any natural scientist who was not a mystic was not a real natural scientist. "Outside is pure energy and colorless substance," he said. "All of the rest happens through the mechanism of our senses. Our eyes see just a small fraction of the light in the world. It is a trick to make a colored world, which does not exist outside of human beings."
He became particularly fascinated by the mechanisms through which plants turn sunlight into the building blocks for our own bodies. "Everything comes from the sun via the plant kingdom," he said.
MR. HOFMANN studied chemistry and took a job with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz Laboratories, because it had started a program to identify and synthesize the active compounds of medically important plants. He soon began work on the poisonous ergot fungus that grows in grains of rye. Midwives had used it for centuries to precipitate childbirths, but chemists had never succeeded in isolating the chemical that produced the pharmacological effect. Finally, chemists in the United States identified the active component as lysergic acid, and Mr. Hofmann began combining other molecules with the unstable chemical in search of pharmacologically useful compounds.
His work on ergot produced several important drugs, including a compound still in use to prevent hemorrhaging after childbirth. But it was the 25th compound that he synthesized, lysergic acid diethylamide, that was to have the greatest impact. When he first created it in 1938, the drug yielded no significant pharmacological results. But when his work on ergot was completed, he decided to go back to LSD-25, hoping that improved tests could detect the stimulating effect on the body's circulatory system that he had expected from it. It was as he was synthesizing the drug on a Friday afternoon in April 1943 that he first experienced the altered state of consciousness for which it became famous. "Immediately, I recognized it as the same experience I had had as a child," he said. "I didn't know what caused it, but I knew that it was important."
When he returned to his lab the next Monday, he tried to identify the source of his experience, believing first that it had come from the fumes of a chloroform-like solvent he had been using. Inhaling the fumes produced no effect, though, and he realized he must have somehow ingested a trace of LSD. "LSD spoke to me," Mr. Hofmann said with an amused, animated smile. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "
HE experimented with the drug, taking a dose so small that even the most active toxin known at that time would have had little or no effect. The result with LSD, however, was a powerful experience, during which he rode his bicycle home, accompanied by an assistant. That day, April 19, later became memorialized by LSD enthusiasts as "bicycle day."
Mr. Hofmann participated in tests in a Sandoz laboratory, but found the experience frightening and realized that the drug should be used only under carefully controlled circumstances. In 1951, he wrote to the German novelist Ernst Junger, who had experimented with mescaline, and proposed that they take LSD together. They each took 0.05 milligrams of pure LSD at Mr. Hofmann's home accompanied by roses, music by Mozart and burning Japanese incense. "That was the first planned psychedelic test," Mr. Hofmann said.
He took the drug dozens of times after that, he said, and once experienced what he called a "horror trip" when he was tired and Mr. Junger gave him amphetamines first. But his hallucinogenic days are long behind him.
"I know LSD; I don't need to take it anymore," Mr. Hofmann said. "Maybe when I die, like Aldous Huxley," who asked his wife for an injection of LSD to help him through the final painful throes of his fatal throat cancer.
But Mr. Hofmann calls LSD "medicine for the soul" and is frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. "It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis," he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the youth movement of the 1960's and then demonized by the establishment that the movement opposed. He said LSD could be dangerous and called its distribution by Timothy Leary and others "a crime."
"It should be a controlled substance with the same status as morphine," he said.
Mr. Hofmann lives with his wife in the house they built 38 years ago. He raised four children and watched one son struggle with alcoholism before dying at 53. He has eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. As far as he knows, no one in his family besides his wife has tried LSD.
Mr. Hofmann rose, slightly stooped and now barely reaching five feet, and walked through his house with his arm-support cane. When asked if the drug had deepened his understanding of death, he appeared mildly startled and said no. "I go back to where I came from, to where I was before I was born, that's all," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/international/europe/07hoffman.html?adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1136646260-2vvhmKN3gOF3MVzC3pmqqg&pagewanted=print
lunes, enero 02, 2006
consumerlab.com analiza productos para mejorar la memoria
El estudio de consumerlab.com de productos para mejorar la memoria encontró que algunos productos estaban contaminados o contenían productos tóxicos en cantidades no aceptables y otros no contenían los principios activos que se publicitaban, aún en marcas muy reconocidas. Otros productos estimulantes a base de cafeína tenían dosis en exceso (hasta 1.223 mg /día).
Para acceder al estudio completo hay que suscribirse. Si alguien dispone de la información nos gutaría saber más.
"ConsumerLab.com tested supplements used to improve memory and cognitive function made with ginkgo, huperzine A, phosphatidylserine, and/or acetyl-L-carnitine.
But CL found significant amounts of lead in supplements made with a form of ginkgo, while those made with another form did not. Several ginkgo supplements were also low in key compounds. And there was no active ingredient in a huperzine A product. Other products successfully passed the testing"
memory enhancers en consumerlabs.com
Comentarios en weblogs:
"Jarrow Gingko Biloba 60mg lacked the active compounds and received a Not Approved.
Life Enhancement' s Huperzine-A contained NO Huperzine-A and (obviously) received a Not Approved.
They reconfirmed our view that the latest research on soy derived phosphatidylserine (PS) shows no efficacy in humans. Previous postive results came from bovine derived PS."
Consumer Lab Testing - What is NOT in your Supplement? (relentless improvement vende productos).
Consumerlab.Com Examines Popular Supplements For Weight Loss, Slimming, and Blood Sugar Control - Finds Numerous Problems reporte de NPIcenter, el más completo menciona todos los suplementos probados.
Para acceder al estudio completo hay que suscribirse. Si alguien dispone de la información nos gutaría saber más.
"ConsumerLab.com tested supplements used to improve memory and cognitive function made with ginkgo, huperzine A, phosphatidylserine, and/or acetyl-L-carnitine.
But CL found significant amounts of lead in supplements made with a form of ginkgo, while those made with another form did not. Several ginkgo supplements were also low in key compounds. And there was no active ingredient in a huperzine A product. Other products successfully passed the testing"
memory enhancers en consumerlabs.com
Comentarios en weblogs:
"Jarrow Gingko Biloba 60mg lacked the active compounds and received a Not Approved.
Life Enhancement' s Huperzine-A contained NO Huperzine-A and (obviously) received a Not Approved.
They reconfirmed our view that the latest research on soy derived phosphatidylserine (PS) shows no efficacy in humans. Previous postive results came from bovine derived PS."
Consumer Lab Testing - What is NOT in your Supplement? (relentless improvement vende productos).
Consumerlab.Com Examines Popular Supplements For Weight Loss, Slimming, and Blood Sugar Control - Finds Numerous Problems reporte de NPIcenter, el más completo menciona todos los suplementos probados.
miércoles, diciembre 21, 2005
El cerebro y su yo, libro de Joseph Knoll
"oseph Knoll" sería la traducción aproximada del titulo de un nuevo libro de Joseph Knoll, famoso por su desarrollo de la droga deprenyl (selegilina). Si alguien lo tiene me gustaría saber.
The Brain and Its Self
A Neurochemical Concept of the Innate and Acquired Drives
Knoll, Joseph
2005, XIV, 176 p. 24 illus., Hardcover
ISBN: 3-540-23969-3
Se pueden leer los indices y partes de capítulos en springer.com o el índice en formato HTML
The Brain and Its Self
A Neurochemical Concept of the Innate and Acquired Drives
Knoll, Joseph
2005, XIV, 176 p. 24 illus., Hardcover
ISBN: 3-540-23969-3
Se pueden leer los indices y partes de capítulos en springer.com o el índice en formato HTML
lunes, diciembre 19, 2005
NAUKI KOGNITYWNE - Marek Kasperski sitio polaco de ciencias cognitivas
"This page deals with cognitive science. I have made it thinking about polish readers. In my country this topic is a kind of novelty and is known to broader audience for about five years. This page is the largest undertaking of this kind in Poland. Its goal is to make clear everything about mind, brain and Artificial Intelligence. Naturally for all those who are hungry for this kind of knowledge. Unfortunately, English version of this page does not function yet. So, I let myself to present you headlines:"
http://www.kognitywistyka.net/a/english_version.htm
http://www.kognitywistyka.net/a/english_version.htm
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