Skip to content

Brain Enhancement and Mental Health Specialists of Illinois Posts

Tips for Keeping Your Brain Health and in Good Shape for Life

Published by Ann on 06/30/2017

Taking good care of your health includes making sure that your brain is functioning optimally. Many diseases, like dementia, can strike the elderly. However, you can take certain measures to reduce your chances of coming down with one of these debilitating conditions.

Even if you don’t have a genetic predisposition to these types of cognitive decline, there is still always a risk. You want your brain to work the best it can for as long as possible!

Keeping your brain healthy will help you in your professional and personal life. Your brain is essential to everything that you do each day, including those automated things like breathing and your heart beating.

Additionally, your brain health can make the difference between your ability to avert an accident with quick thinking and becoming involved in a serious altercation. This example is just one of how a slow brain can have severe consequences for you and the folks that are around you each day.

To keep your brain healthy and in good shape, you should avoid the use of alcohol and other mind-altering substances which can create damage to the neural network. While some supplements benefit your cognitive functions, alcohol will destroy your brain. So will many illegal drugs.

There is a category of supplements that are beneficial. These are called nootropics. Their purpose is to enhance cognitive ability without otherwise causing harm to either your brain or your body. By cognitive ability, we mean anything from better memory, to sharper focus, to an improved mood.

There’s a lot that can be said about nootropics, and we won’t go into detail here. Just know that they are there and can help keep your brain healthy. If you’d like more information on these supplements, you can visit Best Nootropics Now. Alternatively, there is also plenty of good information on their Twitter feed, including many external resources.

While using nootropics is a good beginning, that alone will not suffice to keep your brain healthy. You should also do everything that you can to minimize your exposure to toxins.

Instead of using chemical-laden products for your health and hygiene, you can switch to those that use natural ingredients. Likewise, you should switch your household cleaning products to one of the high-quality options that are on the market.

Perform a full body detox at least once each year to remove any toxins that have accumulated in your body. If you live in an area with a large amount of pollution or are otherwise exposed to a bunch of chemicals regularly, you should perform these cleanses more often.

Some people find that performing a full body cleanse once each season helps them to feel refreshed and on top of their game the rest of the year. The more often you cleanse, the healthier your entire body will become.

Your brain health is also dependent on you consuming the right foods. If you are eating a bunch of processed foods, stop right now! Instead, you should be consuming a diet rich in fiber and other nutrients. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs should be the staples of your diet, along with lean proteins and whole grains. While you don’t have to go to an obsessive extreme, the more you eat healthier foods, the better off you will be in every area of your health.

Just as your body needs exercise, so does your brain. It is essential that you can build up a strong neural network to stave off dementia and other forms of decline. As you are learning new information, the pathways in your brain grow. This is the reason that brain exercises like Sudoku and crossword puzzles are so popular.

However, you should be aware that your brain health is impacted by the types of activities that you choose to do. If you have been working on crossword puzzles daily since you were a teen, you will not get the best results from working on these to help with your brain health. This is because your mind has already strengthened all the related connections. Instead, you need to find brain activities that are challenging and new to receive the maximum benefits associated with use.

These suggestions are a great start to improving the health of your brain. If you implement all of them into your daily routine, you will stay sharp for a long time. Remember to treat your body and brain with respect, eat well and stay away from toxins. Getting more information on nootropics won’t hurt either. See your doctor for checkups regularly and take care of your emotional health as well to further boost your efforts. You deserve to have a healthy brain for the rest of your life, and these tips will help you get there!

What Is Modafinil and Why Use It?

Published by Ann on 06/27/2017

Many people ask us about Modafinil, what it is and its uses. In a nutshell, it is a stimulant in its own right but without a lot of the side effects that you get with other similar medications.

This drug is known as a wakefulness promoting agent and is good at keeping people up in different situations. Do you have school but find that you’re always too tired to concentrate properly? Modafinil can help. When you’re at work, do you find it difficult to stay on task? Again, modafinil can help. Talk to your doctor about prescribing this medication. It can help you to be more alert so you can pay attention to what’s going on around.

One side effect you can expect from this drug are mood swings. There is some speculation on whether this makes it addictive or not. Many drugs which make people feel better tend to have that property.

That said, most studies have shown the addiction potential for modafinil is very low, and it is much safer to use than other stimulant drugs. There are drugs like amphetamines that are highly addictive, and in a lot of cases, it would be better for a patient to try out modafinil first instead to see if it’s a good fit to avoid addiction issues.

There are other uses for modafinil that are being tested out. One use is for ADHD and other similar attention issues. When someone has a hard time focusing it, having a stimulant in their system can help. There are also several tests being done to see if this drug can help with depersonalization disorder and other mental issues that are difficult to get a handle on. Modafinil is even said to have some neuroprotective properties which can help keep your brain healthy as you age.

Other things modafinil may be able to help with are weight loss and motion sickness. According to the vast amount of studies on it, it may even make a good nootropic, helping to keep your brain healthy.

Modafinil is a medication classified as Schedule IV in the US. In other words, if you live in this part of the world then you are going to need a prescription to get a hold of the drug. Other countries have other types of related rules that are most likely quite similar, so if you plan to buy it online, you need to know what to do to make the transaction legal. Sometimes, for instance, you can get a prescription written for you and sent to an online pharmacy with your first purchase order.

So there you have it. If you want to use modafinil, it’s good to know more about it, and now you do. This substance is widely used as a minor stimulant for anything from people needing to stay awake at school to working a third shift. Think of it as a step up from caffeine but a little trickier to get your hands on.

What is an EMG?

Published by Ann on 06/11/2017

An EMG, or Electromyography, is a very common diagnostic technique used in neurology. Its purpose is to test the electrical activity produced by your muscles. More often than not, and EMG test is combined with another test called nerve conduction study which measures just that, how well your nerves conduct. Most neurological practices will frequently do both tests during the same visit. On average, duration of both is about 40 minutes, depending on the required complexity.

For your muscles to move, they require nerves as well as an electrical current. Keep in mind that this current is many times weaker than the one you have at home and as such, requires specialized and sensitive medical equipment to diagnose.

There are several medical conditions which affect the electrical activity in either the nerves, muscles or both. An EMG can detect and describe these abnormalities, and help a physician with the diagnosis.

These conditions include several common ailments caused by nerve injury or compression, like carpal tunnel syndrome, or those caused by nerve root injury, like sciatica. There are also many less frequently encountered medical conditions an EMG can help with, like muscular dystrophy or lateral sclerosis.

For an alternative explanation, here is a video from the Hattiesburg Clinic out of Mississippi.