The Optimal Diet for Your Brain

Diet plays a critical role for your brain’s health and cognitive functioning. The food you eat has the power to sharpen and preserve your mind, or spiral it into decline.
It is therefore vital that we understand and implement the right food choices for cognitive health.
Fortunately, Dr. Dale Bredesen details the optimal diet for your brain in his groundbreaking new book, The End of Alzheimer’s.
The diet is called ‘Ketoflex 12/3’ and Dr. Bredesen claims it has the ability to help prevent and reverse cognitive decline.
Ketoflex 12/3 gets its name because it is built around the following principles:
It promotes mild ketosis (keto), which Dr. Bredesen says is optimal for cognitive function. Mild ketosis switches your metabolism from carbohydrate-burning and insulin-resistant (bad for the brain), to fat-burning and insulin-sensitive (good for the brain).
It is flexible (flex) enough to be followed by vegetarians or omnivores.
The diet is primarily plant-based with a focus on non-starchy vegetables, but limited consumption of meat is allowed.
It requires fasting for at least 12 hours between your last meal of the night and your first meal of the following morning (12). It is best to break the fast with water (no ice) with some lemon, as a detoxifying drink.
It calls for a minimum of 3 hours between the end of dinner and bedtime (3). For example, if you go to bed at 11pm, you need to finish dinner by 8pm and not snack after that point.

Here are the specific food guidelines:

What to Eat to Live to 100

I aspire to live an incredibly long, happy, and healthy life.
That is why I recently read the The Blue Zones Solution, in which New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner reveals the eating and living habits of the world’s longest-lived people.
For over a decade, Buettner (along with the National Geographic Society and a team of researchers) studied the 5 locations around the globe that have the highest concentrations of 100-year-olds, as well as exceptionally low rates of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart problems.
In the book, Buettner lays out the specifics for each of these “Blue Zones” locations, analyzes the trends, and then prescribes a plan for people looking achieve the same level of health and longevity.
The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to live a longer, happier life. In case you are short on time, I have tried to summarize my main takeaways below.

7 Life Lessons from a Guy Who Can’t Move Anything but His Face

It’s not a joke.

The only parts of my body I can move are my eyes and lips. My hands, feet, arms, and legs, are almost totally paralyzed, managing the occasional twitch and nothing more.

And yet… I have an amazing life.

Using speech recognition technology, I’ve written articles read by more than 5 million people. I’ve also built several online magazines that have, shockingly, made me a millionaire.

“This can’t be real,” you say. “You did all this, and you can’t freaking move?”

Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. I do it all from home, sitting in my wheelchair, speaking into a microphone.

I’ve traveled a good bit too. I’ve lived in San Diego, Miami, Austin, and even Mazatlan, Mexico. Here’s a photo of me living the good life south of the border:
I look totally miserable, don’t I? Poor baby. 🙂

Not to imply it’s been easy, mind you. During my 34 years, I’ve had pneumonia 16 times, recovered from more than 50 broken bones, and spent literally years of my life in hospitals and doctor’s offices.

But I’m still here. Not only have I survived my condition, but I’ve built a life most people only dream about.

And starting today, I want to talk about how.

Over the coming months and years, I have a great deal to share with you, but I thought we would begin with the biggest lessons I’ve learned, lessons I’ve paid for in blood and tears, lessons that have saved my life, over and over and over again. Let’s begin.

Cannabis reverses aging processes in the brain

Memory performance decreases with increasing age. Cannabis can reverse these ageing processes in the brain. This was shown in mice by scientists at the University of Bonn with their colleagues at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Old animals were able to regress to the state of two-month-old mice with a prolonged low-dose treatment with a cannabis active ingredient. This opens up new options, for instance, when it comes to treating dementia. The results are now presented in the journal Nature Medicine.

Like any other organ, our brain ages. As a result, cognitive ability also decreases with increasing age. This can be noticed, for instance, in that it becomes more difficult to learn new things or devote attention to several things at the same time. This process is normal, but can also promote dementia. Researchers have long been looking for ways to slow down or even reverse this process.

Scientists at the University of Bonn and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) have now achieved this in mice. These animals have a relatively short life expectancy in nature and display pronounced cognitive deficits even at twelve months of age. The researchers administered a small quantity of THC, the active ingredient in the hemp plant (cannabis), to mice aged two, twelve and 18 months over a period of four weeks.

Manchester United and Manchester City players and staff clash in tunnel as Jose Mourinho is hit on head by bottle and doused in milk while coach Mikel Arteta is left with a cut to the head and Ederson confronts Portuguese boss

Manchester United and Manchester City players were involved in an ugly tunnel fracas as tempers boiled over after the derby.
United manager Jose Mourinho had water squirted at him, was hit on the head by an empty plastic bottle and was also doused with milk from a flying carton as a melee ensued involving some 20 players and staff.
Mourinho demanded City players show ‘more respect’ as music blared out of their dressing room following their 2-1 victory. He walked into the away dressing room and was confronted by City keeper Ederson. The two were involved in a heated exchange, squaring up and shouting at each other in Portuguese.
United players followed Mourinho into the corridor between dressing rooms, sparking the skirmishes.
Witnesses said some players tried to swing punches while police looked on in disbelief. City coach Mikel Arteta, one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants, received a cut to the head which left him bleeding.
City feel Mourinho overstepped the boundaries by entering their dressing room.

Lobbyist names California lawmaker she says masturbated in front of her in hotel bathroom

A Sacramento lobbyist said Monday that Assemblyman Matt Dababneh cornered her in a hotel bathroom in Las Vegas last year and masturbated in front of her.

The explosive allegation, which comes more than six weeks after lobbyist Pamela Lopez first publicly discussed the incident without naming the perpetrator, prompted an Assembly investigation and a sharp rebuke from Dababneh, a Los Angeles Democrat.

“This is a moment. This is a moment of collective action,” Lopez said in a press conference at her Q Street office. “I find strength in that collective action, and I find strength in their numbers. I want to stand with them and show that there is a path to stepping forward and seeking justice.”

Dababneh denied the allegation in a statement released by The Rose Group, a Santa Monica public relations firm.
“I affirmatively deny that this event ever happened – at any time,” he said. “I am saddened by this lobbyist’s effort to create this falsehood and make these inflammatory statements, apparently for her own self-promotion and without regard to the reputation of others. I look forward to clearing my name.”

Extreme winds are fueling uncontrollable fires in Southern California. Here’s what we know

Massive wildfires that burned across Southern California on Wednesday have destroyed hundreds of homes, closed schools and set off mass evacuations. Five fires are currently ablaze, and the largest — the Thomas fire in Ventura County — has reached the Pacific coast after starting 30 miles inland, according to the Associated Press.

The Thomas fire erupted late Monday. By Wednesday morning, it had ripped through 65,000 acres, the Ventura County Fire Department said on its website. California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency after at least 150 homes were destroyed, and 50,000 people were forced to evacuate.

Cal Fire officials reported that several of these fires ignited earlier this week and have now rapidly spread across 85-square-miles of land. Emergency responders dispatched quickly to evacuate residents and shut down roads, but the fires became unruly and violent. It’s been deemed unsafe, especially at the Thomas fire, for rescuers to enter the area.