Patterico's Pontifications

11/2/2008

Blogging for Brain Power

Filed under: Blogging Matters — DRJ @ 4:16 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Yahoo offers these 12 tips for better brain function:

  • Eat almonds.
  • Drink apple juice.
  • Sleep well.
  • Enjoy simple pleasures and avoid stress, such as:

    — Enjoy music you love.
    — Play with your children.
    — Appreciate others.
    — Run few miles a day, bike or swim.
    Start a blog.
    — Take a yoga class or Total Wellness routine.

  • Exercise your mind with puzzles, discussions, hobbies, or learning a new skill.
  • Practice Yoga or meditation.
  • Reduce sugar intake.
  • Eat whole wheat.
  • Eat a light meal at night.
  • Develop imagination.
  • Control your temper.
  • Take Vitamin B-complex.
  • I think these are also good tips to help maintain a healthy immune system. Good news, right? Blogging is not only fun, it’s good for our minds and health.

    — DRJ

    36 Responses to “Blogging for Brain Power”

    1. Seems to have a contradiction, DRJ:

      “— Start a blog.

      # Control your temper.”

      SPQR (26be8b)

    2. You know I think that’s right. If nothing else, blogging makes you pay attention a little more to current events.

      Tho it’s probably offset by all the micro I drink.

      cassandra (5c4e32)

    3. Prescription for a padded cell.

      J2 (d2230c)

    4. There are days when a padded cell sounds pretty comfortable.

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    5. I am so tired of things that “help your immune system” and would like the advocates of such items to give me a five minute description of the immune system and how his/her product will help.

      The best way to help your immune system is to avoid AIDS.

      I know; I’m a homophobe. I denounce myself.

      Mike K (2cf494)

    6. Speaking as a heteronormative, I denounce your self-denouncement, Dr. K. Wait. I had better denounce the denouncement of your self-denouncement.

      What? Are you telling me that thistleweed won’t improve my immune function? I’m shocked!

      Seriously, I know what you mean. It’s like “organic” vegetables. What, they have benzene in them?

      Or the sign that I saw, no fooling, at Trader Joe’s, above a bin of produce:

      NO CHEMICALS.

      So what were they made of? Hope and Change?

      Eric Blair (a723e0)

    7. Hippies eat whole wheat. They’re not smart. Just sayin’.

      Kevin (5ac156)

    8. If blogging improves brain function,
      I would have hated to see what some visitors here were like before the got a computer.

      Another Drew (8298c0)

    9. Mike K,

      Do you want a serious response?

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    10. I’m not sure but I think Mike K. was reacting to the looney “nutritional supplement” infomercials on radio and TV.

      That or he was trying to get Another Drew to call him a homophobe.

      SPQR (26be8b)

    11. SPQR,

      Thanks. I had a feeling there was more to his comment. As for blogging and tempers, I think self-control does a mind and body good.

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    12. Keep in mind, folks, that Dr. K. has had to watch smart and good people choose woo-woo quackeries instead of appropriate medical treatment, and die as a result. It makes one cranky, even if it is the patient’s choice.

      Eric Blair (a723e0)

    13. Not that Dr. K. needs my kibbitzing on his behalf!

      Eric Blair (a723e0)

    14. pshaw…

      Thin Running guru James Fixx was dead at fifty of a massive myocardial infarction; fatman Winston Churchill made it to what, ninety two? All that booze, cigars and rich food curtailed his lifespan?

      You can keep your vegetarianism BS. Tried it and felt like croaking. It might help if they didn’t overload food with chemicals and all that corn syrup crap. I can eat like a pig and still I lose weight as I age. Now too think one eighty five at six three. Pass the butter, whole milk, steaks and other rich stuff. Nina Planck’s Real Food gets it right. Screw the lo-fat/no-fat/fake garbage.

      madmax333 (0c6cfc)

    15. I’m all for healthy eating, not that I do it much myself. It’s just that the immune system is pretty resistant (That’s a pun, son) to good intentions. It chugs along sniffing at every new protein that comes along and keeping notes. I do know what is really bad for the immune system.

      Cleanliness. Keeping kids clean when they are little is not a good idea. That’s how you get asthma and a lot of other unhealthy things. In the old days of the polio epidemic, it was learned that exposure to the polio virus in early life resulted in immunity with no disease. Polio is a disease of civilization. It appeared about 1880 in the Scandinavian countries, especially in small towns. Why ? Because they were clean with good sanitation and few exposures to strangers.

      So let your little kids play in the dirt, better yet, a barnyard, and their immune system will take care of itself.

      In defense of JIm Fixx, he began running because he had a bad family history of heart disease. Needless to say, it didn’t protect him.

      Mike K (2cf494)

    16. I hope you’re joking, Mike. I’m not a fan of snake oil ‘immunity boosters’, which they ALL are, but you must realize that letting kids swim in dirt and bacteria only makes them stronger by killing off the weak ones. Don’t you?

      Kevin (5ac156)

    17. Speaking of exercise for dummies:

      http://shop.cafepress.com/design/29161042

      and also funny how the media is unable to find anyone to interview about O!’s past life as a junkie. Redistribute that income because the boyz in the ‘hood need bling, crack, malt liquor and ho’s to better forget how whitey has screwed them over throughout history. Yeah, their tribal chiefs sold them, but whitey made “millions” drown at sea coming over.

      madmax333 (0c6cfc)

    18. Can the writers on this blog pick some new usernames? Between DRJ, WLS, and JRM (let alone XRLQ) I can’t tell any of the writers apart and I can’t eat alphabet soup without thinking I’m reading Patterico. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

      Josh (f6ffef)

    19. It’s called the “hygiene hypothesis” and it is not a joke.

      For example:

      JAMA. 2002 Aug 28;288(8):963-72.

      CONTEXT: Childhood asthma is strongly associated with allergic sensitization. Studies have suggested that animal exposure during infancy reduces subsequent allergic sensitization. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between dog and cat exposure in the first year of life and allergic sensitization at 6 to 7 years of age.

      True ?

      CONCLUSION: Exposure to 2 or more dogs or cats in the first year of life may reduce subsequent risk of allergic sensitization to multiple allergens during childhood.

      I report, you decide.

      Mike K (2cf494)

    20. That dunking I took into a milking-barn cess-pool when I was about 4 or 5 must have done wonders for my immune system; that and all of the dogs and cats we had for pets.

      Another Drew (8298c0)

    21. Sorry Josh, I’ve been using this nick for many years.

      SPQR (26be8b)

    22. Josh,

      WLS has already changed his name to WLS Shipwrecked for the same reason you identify — initials can be confusing. I’m open to a name change. Anyone have a suggestion?

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    23. Mike K,

      I don’t know what causes asthma but I don’t think the hygiene hypothesis alone explains it. I think it results from a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure — which includes the hygiene hypothesis.

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    24. The environmental exposure is the important part of the hygiene theory. Early exposure creates one form of antibody that does not result in hypersensitivity. Later exposure does. Personally, I think early exposure to dirt and animal dander is healthy for kids unless they are immune incompetent.

      There is a huge industry built up to promote the opposite view and I certainly am in favor of private enterprise. My kids were raised according to my views and, in spite of the fact that my middle daughter’s mother had asthma and an asthmatic kid from another marriage, that daughter has never had asthma.

      She is near sighted, though. Which brings up another of my theories. Kids sleeping with a light on causes near sightedness.

      We can argue about that one now, if you’d like.

      Mike K (2cf494)

    25. I didn’t know we were arguing. I agree it’s a good idea to expose normal kids and adults to outside air, pets, and allergens. I just think genes have something to do with it, too. I also think genetic modifiers can alter genetic predispositions and further modify the impact of environmental exposure.

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    26. If blogging improves brain function,
      I would have hated to see what some visitors here were like before the got a computer.
      Comment by Another Drew — 11/2/2008 @ 5:03 pm

      I hereby nominate that for the “Funniest Comment of the Week” Award!

      MD in Philly (3d3f72)

    27. Comment by MD in Philly — 11/2/2008 @ 9:02 pm

      Thanks Doc, but it wasn’t that funny.

      Another Drew (8298c0)

    28. The genetic modifiers I know are parents. The attempts at gene engineering should be reserved for fatal anomalies with single amino acid deletions or transpositions for a while. It is just too dangerous.

      Mike K (2cf494)

    29. That’s far more macro than I was thinking of. My use of the term genetic modifiers refers to the impact of genetic variables on expression and penetrance of disorders researched by scientists like Dr. Jennifer Puck.

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    30. DRJ – How about “DRJ Boatsmashed”??

      Josh (f6ffef)

    31. Heh. I like that better than DRJ’erico.

      DRJ (cb68f2)

    32. Another Drew:
      If blogging improves brain function,
      I would have hated to see what some visitors here were like before the got a computer.

      Nobody claimed that commenting improves brain function.

      GaryC (5dc0a5)

    33. I got into a discussion with Mike about this a few years back, on another blog. While he makes a good point about early childhood exposure to allergens, you could also make the case that we’re all subject to many more chemicals and other toxins today that enter our bodies via the liquids we drink and the lotions/salves we put on them. I think the EU got it right on this one a few years ago, when they banned all parabens and phthalates in plastic bottles. The chemical industry here has fought every regulation to curb these uses, but we’ve already seen the ban enacted on these chemicals being used in children’s plastic toys and baby bottles.

      I’m not so sure about the quality of our air and water these days, either – while the air is demonstrably better than the smog – filled days of my youth, the air quality in many of our urban centers is far from ideal. There are also many more toxins inherent in the seas and the great lakes these days, due to the increasing usage of prescription meds/chemicals being flushed into city sewer systems, and huge trash/chemical dumps floating in our oceans, many originating from halfway across the world. Granted, all of these are minute factors, but if you add them up it may constitute a worse environment for children than even 20 years ago.

      Dmac (e30284)

    34. Places like this breed and reinforce stupidity, nothing more.

      Comment by Bathe her, and bring her to me — 11/3/2008 @ 11:47 am

      For example.

      CW Desiato (614aa7)

    35. DRJ’erico.

      For some reason, that nickname made me think of Donna D’Erico. Now, I will just imagine DRJ like that …

      JD (5b4781)

    36. 🙂

      JD (5b4781)


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