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Showing posts with label Dopamine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dopamine. Show all posts

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Exercise Brain Growth (video)


Maximize Learning at School or Work!

Watch this video showing how exercise grows new brain cells.  See how exercise improves our mood, vigor, and productivity while it decreases tension, depression, aggression, and fatigue.  Exercise increases our capacity to learn by increasing attention, motivation and memory. At the cellular level it increases neurotransmitters (e.g., dopamine, serotonin, nor-epinephrin) and neurotrophins like BDNF (Miracle-Gro for the brain) which helps brain cells wire together needed to learn.  Exercise increases vascular flow providing more oxygen and glucose to the brain while helping remove cellular breakdown products.

Dr. John Ratey, clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, author of SPARK answers many questions (e.g., how much to exercise, what kind of exercise works best, why obesity slows learning, how to slow cognitive decline, how the heart influences brain function, and much more).

Friday, September 10, 2010

Dirty Dancing and Wellness (video)


   Capture the essence of wellness – dancing!


Move your body – right now! Fuel your body-brain with oxygen and energy boosting hormones, enzymes, and neurotransmitters… Stand if you can… and dance! Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey will lead the way. Time of My Life from the movie Dirty Dancing is worth seeing again and dancing too!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Smart Foods

Food Combination and Mental Performance

Joshua has compiled a list of articles that make a great deal of sense for those of us interested in optimizing body brain function. This article on Smart Foods advises us how to eat a balanced diet that both stimulates and relaxes the brain. Check out Joshua's website for other helpful information focused on natural brain fitness. Many articles relate to Avoidant Personality Disorders and Depression.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Get ADD Students Organized (video)

Base your teaching approaches on the brain part affected

Kathie Nunley from Brains.org has posted a short video, Teaching Tip 12, explaining ways to help ADD and ADHD students get organized. She relates methods based on whether the hind brain or pre-frontal cortex is involved.

Remember, low dopamine production can be raised through gross-motor movements, helping boost attention what ever areas of the brain or approach is used. Insist on more classroom activity, recess and daily physical eduction!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Pump Dopamine Naturally


Use your body to pump this essential brain-boosting chemical

Good-feeling dopamine is a pleasure/reward neurochemical that boosts attention, raises motivation, and orchestrates the prefrontal cortex – the executive brain that focuses on learning and minimizes impulsivity. Stimulant drugs are sometimes prescribed to help people diagnosed with ADD and ADHD produce more dopamine. Brisk, large muscle movements do the same, especially aerobic exercise.

Daily physical education, morning and afternoon recess, frequent physical activity breaks, and subject matter taught with movement will get dopamine pumping naturally.

This is a great fix for frittering minds!
Note: The Health Care-toon shown above is taken from the Health Care-toon Calendar, 365 Ways to Look and Feel Great by cartoonist Ed Fischer and Jeff Haebig. Visit WellnessQuest.com for a daily Health Care-toon and related wellness ideas.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Prime the Brain Before Studying

Move your muscles to produce and pump learning chemicals

Chemical messengers communicating between neurons are needed for the brain to pay attention and focus. Since attention precedes learning, it makes good sense to produce and pump enzymes, hormones, and neurochemicals needed, especially for people with ADD, ADHD, and other attentional challenges.

Large muscle movements (e.g., circling the arms overhead) produce dopamine, the pleasure/reward motivational chemical that orchestrates the pre-frontal cortex called upon to learn. Moving the arms and legs across the body engages both sides of the brain, helping with sequential and global brain functions involved with writing and math.

Daily Physical Education and frequent movement activities throughout the day will help brain cells excel. Why rely on stimulant drugs when the body can do the work!

Do the Body and Brain Cell dance to prime the brain.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Maximize Learning -- Physically!

Improve learning by engaging your body more often

What if schools and workplaces adopted practices shown by neuroscience to improve attention, focus, motivation, learning and memory -- helping all people maximize their living and learning potential? What immediate changes would take place?

The most noticeable change would be much more movement and exercise throughout the day. Increased blood flow carrying oxygen and an assortment of body-brain enhancing chemicals (dopamine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, BDNF, serotonin, etc.) would heighten physical, mental, social and emotional states shown to enhance learning.

So why do we sit on our duffs? Why is recess and physical education on the chopping block when our goal is to excel and meet the highest learning standards?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Myth of ADD


Look at ADHD in a new light with natural solutions

Dr. Thomas Armstrong is author of 13 books including 7 Kinds of Smart and The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, 50 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Attention Span Without Drugs, Labels or Coercion. His website offers his books and articles worth pursuing. I like how Thomas Armstrong uses positive, natural, wellness-based approaches to build each child’s ultimate worth.

Isn’t it strange that leading websites addressing ADD and ADHD fail to mention Thomas Armstrong and his natural methods of remedying behavioral and learning problems? They also fail to mention how brisk exercise boosts dopamine levels in the pre-frontal cortex, alleviating much of the problem. Medications are suggested.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Exercise ADHD Away

How Exercise Helps With ADHD Symptoms

Everyday Health features an article by Jean Rothman citing reasons why aerobic exercise helps people with ADHD. Don't be distracted by the CONCERTA drug ad for ADHD above and flashing to the side of this insightful article. Focus on how aerobics increases levels of dopamine and serotonin, naturally. Hats off to CONCERTA for making a concerted effort letting people know there are natural means to better sleep, improved focus, less depression, improved eating, stress management, less impulsivity, and a boost of attention.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

ADD and Dopamine

Impaired dopamine system and ADD are linked

Kathie Nunley, EdD., offers dozens of research-based body/brain articles especially designed for newsletters on her Brains.org website. Check out her Hot Topics from ADD to Violence, another great resource. Kathy is the originator of Layered Curriculum, a comprehensive sensory-motor enriching approach to meeting all learning styles.

Here is a HOT TOPIC that Kathie sends out with her free newsletters.

HOT TOPIC # 1: New research indicates that persons with Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD) may have a shortened perception of the time span of temporal events - particularly in working memory. This is suspected to be the result of an impaired dopamine system involving the prefrontal cortex. They tested this theory by checking what was the minimum tempo that rhythmic movement can be sustained in both persons with and withoutADD. It turns out that those with ADD have a rhythm cut-off that was much sooner than those without. Apparently these problems with dopamine delivery have recalibrated the internal clock that sets the time scale for our subjective thought process. Gilden, D. & Marusich, L. (2009). Neuropsychology. Vol 23(2), 265-269.

Followers of this blog know how large muscle movement over time, produces and pumps dopamine.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Star in Your SUPER Know!

Feel a Super Glow... Pumping... Super Learning Chemicals

By Jeff Haebig

Star in this Super Video… Mimic the following movements…Star in your Super Know! High in your Super Dome! Feeling the Super Glow! Moving muscles... Pump, pump, pumping… Super Learning Chemicals… Like good-feeling Dopamine… Pleasure/reward chemical… Increasing its flow… Helps you feel more rationale… Less impulsive… More in control… Norepinephrine… Go-go chemical… Mental arousal… Serotonin steady… Adrenaline ready… Boosting attention… Sharpening focus… Stronger retention… Higher motivation… Happy celebration!

Available soon… on this Boogie Blog… Free for you!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Are Big or Small Movements Best?

Which actions boost attention best – large or small?

That is an excellent question. There are many variables that we will soon address; for example, does the child prefer angular, twisting and rotating actions to stimulate their hypo-slow vestibular system, or linear forward and backward movements to calm their over-sensitive hyper vestibular system? Play catchy music and encourage people to move freely – watch how their body brain seeks the most satisfying movements.

You might offer a follow-along movement sequence that combines fine (small) and gross (large) motor movements, with age appropriate complexity that challenges the mind. Physcally connecting gestures to words or lyrics engages the auditory, visual and kinesthetic systems boosting attention. Crossing the body’s vertical mid-line stimulates both sides (hemispheres) of the brain.

In their own way, (moving big or small) encourage people to mimic gestures and echo the words shown on http://www.wellnessquest.com/videos.html. This Vibrant Learning Sequence engages the basal ganglia (brain’s transmission) connecting thinking, feelings and motion. This demands more attention-boosting dopamine (transmission fluid) to aid mindbody shifting. It's also the pleasure/reward chemical raising motivation. Memorizing the gesture sequence recruits the cerebellum, further boosting attentional centers.

Above all, encourage people to move freely in fun, safe and satisfying ways.

Jeff Haebig

Monday, November 24, 2008

Boost Brain Power with Exercise

Prime Your Brain with Dopamine

Want to pump more dopamine to boost attention and heighten motivation -- then prime your brain, pumping dopamine. How? Use muscles to pump this super-learning chemical. Large movements pump more dopamine. The more you move, the more dopamine pumped, flooding your body and brain with this pleasure-reward chemical.

Big surprise... right now! I'm giving rise...
pumping... dopamine...
more and more... with exercise.

I don't need nicotene... don't need caffeine
Don't need drugs (with doctor's approval)
to create more dopamine...

I can do it myself... more and more
with exercise.

Move on this... and make yourself a super-learning day.

Jeff Haebig

www.WellnessQuest.com