Author: Peter Lenkefi
Memory is a large component of good mental health. Without it,
we’d forget phone numbers, people’s names, or freeze up on a
test. Of course, many of us do this anyway - I know I do quite
frequently. So how can someone improve their mental health
through memory? Here are some great ideas and exercises to get
you started:
Mental Health: Repetition The easiest and probably most well
known way of memorizing someone’s name is to repeat it several
times during a conversation. For instance, when meeting or
leaving someone, use their name casually. By saying someone’s
name out loud several times, while having that person right in
front of you, your brain will connect the name with the person,
and cement the information.
Mental Health: Visualization Creating images in your head that
use the item that you are trying to remember is another mental
health technique. Take someone’s name that you don’t want to
forget, and imagine it being written in neon lights across that
person’s forehead. The more outrageous the idea, the better!
Mental Health: Associations Make a mental association to
remember someone’s name. For instance, if your friend Lou has
long hair, you could say her name over and over again in your
head as “Lou with the long hair”. I find that picturing people
doing something that they’ve discussed they enjoy helps, too.
So, Bob the violinist, Sarah the gardener, or chef Alex are all
good ways to try and remember someone.
Mental Health: Pictures When attending large functions with a
great number of people, take pictures, and make a note of
everyone’s name. Then, once the pictures are developed, you can
refer back to the evidence as required for your own personal
mental health.
Mental Health: Mnemonic Devices Mnemonic devices are a mental
health game that allows the user to remember names, speeches,
test information, or other items that need to be remembered. The
most common of the mnemonic devices are acronyms. Acronyms are
words that are created by using the first letter of a series of
words. For instance, MADD equals Mothers Against Drunk Driving,
and USA equals the United States of America. Both are acronyms.
Make up your own to use to help with mental health memory.
Mental Health: Acrostics Acrostics are quite similar to acronyms
in the mental health memory game, but instead they use the first
letters in a sentence, such as “Every good boy does fine”, which
is used to remember the letters in the treble clef in music.
People with a bad memory can create their own acrostics to
remember items they would normally forget.
All of these methods can be used regardless of the situation -
at work, home, business or school. The mental health skill of
being able to recall places, things, people or events is a
strong precursor to personal strength and intelligence.
About the author:
For more more information about improving your memory and mental
health please visit
http://www.1health-center.com/articles/Do-You-Have-A-Healthy-Brai
n–The-Secret-to-Mental-Agility.php
Author: Nicole Bandes, Certified Herb Specialist
Have you seen the latest drug commercial? You know, the one
where the guy is walking down a spiral stair case with numbers
printed on each step gradually going lower. He’s talking about
how your doctors have told you that now you need to get your
cholesterol even lower than you did before. It’s a myth; and a
dangerous one at that.
Let’s start with just a bit of very basic biology.
What is cholesterol? Cholesterol is part of a group of compounds
called sterols. Cholesterol is primarily produced by the liver,
however, every cell in the human body is also capable of making
cholesterol.
What is the role of cholesterol? Cholesterol is used by the body
to form cholic acid which is then used to make bile salts. Bile
salts are necessary to digest fat. In addition, cholesterol is
necessary for the production of adrenal and reproductive
hormones such as DHEA, pregnenolone, progesterone, testosterone,
estrogen, aldosterone and cortisol. Cholesterol is also used to
make the skin impervious to water and other substances that may
be harmful to the body as well as to bind with toxins in the
blood which will then reduce inflammation protecting the nerves,
brain tissue and heart.
Biology lesson over. We can now understand why cholesterol is
important. So why has it been give such a bad rap?
The myth started when scientists determined that there was a
correlation between cholesterol in the blood and heart disease.
If you had the wonderful opportunity to take any sort of
research classes in school, you might remember that a
correlation doesn’t mean anything. It simply means two things
are present at the same time. This is like circumstantial
evidence, just because someone is found holding the gun, doesn’t
mean they pulled the trigger.
Working to lower cholesterol as a way to treat heart disease is
kind of like getting a bunion removed because you have a
headache.
It’s important to note that cholesterol levels that are too high
should be addressed. But what is too high? It used to be that
what were considered normal were readings between 0 and 200.
Anything above 200 was said to indicate heart disease. This was
recently lowered to 0 to 169. But why was it lowered? Statistics
show that heart disease rates are not improving. Despite statin
drugs that are designed to lower cholesterol, people are still
dying of heart attacks and more and more individuals are being
diagnosed with some form of heart disease. The drug
manufacturers certainly don’t want to admit that their drugs
aren’t working as intended (even though they are somewhat
successful at lowering cholesterol), so they decide that it’s
because the cholesterol levels are not low enough. If they drop
the normal ranges, then they can sell more drugs and pass the
buck for the continuing trend of heart disease.
The natural health experts are still out but there seems to be
an unwritten agreement that levels between 175 and 230 are
ideal. Levels below 150 or above 250 may indicate the need for
more attention but do not necessarily indicate heart disease.
There are better methods for determining the risk of heart
disease; the ratio between LDL and HDL for example. Better yet
is a test gaining popularity and much media attention for
something called C-reactive Protein. While it isn’t healthy to
have extremely high cholesterol, it also isn’t healthy to have
very low cholesterol.
A short word about statin drugs Despite no scientific evidence
showing that statin drugs reduce the risk of heart disease and
despite evidence that they are not as successful in the real
world for treating cholesterol as they had shown to be in the
studies, statin drugs are one of the most commonly
over-prescribed drugs in the US. Statins have many side effects,
including increasing the risk for heart disease. Statins deplete
CoQ10, an important co-enzyme for cardiac health. In addition
they lower antioxidant levels, cause headaches, fatigue, memory
loss, difficulty sleeping, and, of course, liver damage.
It’s important to be proactive with your health. Don’t let your
doctors be the complete authority just as you wouldn’t trust the
salesman to give you all the details when making a large
purchase. Do your own homework.
About the author:
Nicole Bandes is a Certified Herb Specialist that has been
helping others to regain their health and vitality since 1999.
Nicole’s weekly blog is a “Dear Abbey” style blog that allows her to share
her knowledge to simple questions regarding the use of natural
supplements and keep her readers educated on the latest news
regarding natural supplements.