Your Brain By The Numbers..........

- Team Shirsa

What Benefits You Can Get From Using Shirsa?

Benefits of Brain training

Improving your brain’s performance has the potential to bring countless benefits to your everyday life. 

Both science studies and customer stories show Shirsa speeds up thinking, sharpens attention, and enhances memory—and these benefits lead to myriad others ... from safer driving to feeling more confident in conversations. 

If you’d like to read about benefits our users have seen,  click here.  For a description of the most common benefits of Shirsa,  click here. For a description of science studies and their results, click here.


- Sukhada Desai

Did You had Your Breakfast Today???

Breakfast a important meal

Skipping breakfast before a day of school significantly reduced students' speed and accuracy on cognitive and memory tests compared with those who ate breakfast, according to a study recently published online in the journal Appetite.

Researchers compared the performance of 1,386 students from 32 schools throughout the U.K. on several Internet-based tests of attention, memory and reaction time. 

Compared with those who ate breakfast, students who skipped the morning meal had 7% slower power of attention, a measure of their ability to focus and avoid distraction. They also detected 7% fewer targets on target-detection tasks and correctly identified 9% fewer pictures on a picture-recognition test at a 9% slower speed than students who ate breakfast. Variability in response time, an indication of focusing consistency, was 10% more erratic in those who missed breakfast. Girls without breakfast were significantly more disrupted in their ability to focus than boys who didn't have breakfast, results showed.

Breakfast like a king

Test-score differences between the two groups were larger in those tested after 11 a.m. than those tested earlier in the morning. 

This theory is not only for kids but  true for all ages.

So It is always said.........

- Team Shirsa

So I Can Feel More Healthy And More Creative!!!

Enjoy Your Vacation

Too much time in sealed homes and offices saps your brain of fresh oxygen, which is essential to clear thinking, Howard says. 

So get outside for frequent breaks or at least open a window. Just spending time in nature and sunshine can boost brain health by improving mood and creating calm. 

It also provides vitamin D, and people with low levels of the “sunshine vitamin” have a greater risk for cognitive decline, according to a 2010 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. 

II recently read a somewhat unscientific article that talked about why vacation is good for your brain, and it mentioned the work of Adam Galinsky and William Maddux. 

 I found there is a fascinating body of work about how traveling affects creative thinking. Maddux et al have published research findings showing that multicultural learning experiences enhance creativity, and that living abroad improves creativity measures of insight, association, and generation.

Further research shows that vacation can have recuperative health benefits. A study in middle-aged men at high risk for heart disease showed that those who took annual vacations had a significantly lower mortality rate (over a 9 year period) than a non-vacationing cohort.

How Much You Know About Alzhemier???

Questions on Alzheimer

More than 5 million Indian have Alzheimer’s disease, and that   number could climb to 16 million by 2050. Women face a higher risk of developing it than men, and are also more likely to become caregivers.

Take this quiz to see how much you know about Alzheimer’s. Solution are below only but try to answer the questions first.

1.At what age can early-onset Alzheimer’s occur?

In your 30's
In your 40's
In your 50's

2.You’re more likely to develop Alzheimer’s if which relative had it, according to a recent study?

Your father
Your mother
Your brother

3.Which health issue has been associated with a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s?

A broken arm
A head Injury
Tonsillitis

4.You follow a healthy diet and exercise frequently to help ward off Alzheimer’s. What else can play a preventive role?

Avoiding tobacco
Eliminating caffeine
Playing golf

5.Problems with which of these bodily organs have been associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s?

The heart
The liver
The kidneys

Turn Off Your Television Now!!!!!!!!!!!

watching television

An Australian study recently released a shocking finding: every hour of television a person watches shortens their life by an average of 22 minutes. 

Looking at the behavior of 11,000 participants, the Queensland scientists found that people who watched around 6 hours of TV each day lived an average of almost 5 years less than people who never watched TV. 

This research corroborates another recent study from Harvard. The Harvard team found that TV watchers are at a significantly greater risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and early death than people who don’t watch TV.

Perhaps the most sobering statistic cited by the Australian team: if TV didn’t exist, the average life expectancy for women would be 1.5 years longer for women and 1.8 years longer for men.

Before you throw your TV out, consider this aspect of the finding: it’s probably not the TV itself that’s causing the problem- it’s the fact that because you’re watching TV, you’re not doing other, more active things. 

The researchers in both studies agree that watching a lot of TV is strongly correlated with reduced physical activity and poor eating habits. So if the only TV you watch is at the gym while you’re on a treadmill, this finding may not apply to you.

Not sure what to do now that your TV is off? Visit our Shirsa.me to learn quick brain fitness tips and to learn more about how to choose daily activities that boost your brain instead of draining it.

- Team Shirsa

I Have Got Another Reason To Fear High Cholesterol And High Blood Pressure!!

Effect on Cognitive skills

Recent  new study has shown that people with elevated cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age exhibit more problems with their memories as they age, as compared to people with good cardiovascular health.

 The study was conducted in nearly 5,000 people. The researchers looked at several factors to determine cardiovascular risk and found that people with just a 10% higher risk were prone to a quicker rate of cognitive decline.

 The only areas of cognition that seemed unaffected by cardiovascular risk were reasoning in men, and fluency (usually assessed by a word-finding or word-generating task) in women.

So how can you improve cardiovascular health and lower your risk for heart disease and increased cognitive decline?

 According to Mayo Clinic, you should try the following:

1) Choose lower fat protein sources like skim milk, fish, beans, and skinless chicken.

·    2) Try olive oil instead of butter

·    3) Eat lots of fruits and vegetables

·    4) Switch to whole grains for flour, bread, pasta, and rice, and cut the sugar to a minimum

·    5) Cut down on salt and salty condiments like soy sauce

·    6) Whatever you eat, be sure to control portion size so you don’t eat too much

·    7) Don’t smoke

·    8) Get some exercise regularly–even if it’s just a walk

·    9) Reduce stress in your life

      - Team Shirsa

Men who like sports and culture are happier and healthier!!!!

Researchers recently found that people, especially men, who actively watch or participate in sports and cultural activities are happier and healthier than those who stay at home. 

The Norwegian study involved 50,000 people, and found that men who were active in a variety of activities, like sports, social events, music shows, or going to museums, were 14% more likely to report being satisfied with life and 12-13%  less likely to have anxiety or be depressed. There was an effect in women also, but it was less significant than in men.

The effect might seem small, but one of the researchers noted that ”even if cultural participation might not do much for an individual’s likelihood of being unhappy or ill… small changes can have a big effect across an entire population.” It’s important to mention that this proved only a correlation, not a cause and effect–so it might be that happier and healthier people are more interested in getting out in the world, or it might be that the activities are positively impacting lives. I would be interested in learning whether it was related to the social aspects of sports and culture, since we know that socializing is good for happiness and health too.

- Team Shirsa

Brain fog during Manopause

Millions of women in their 40s and 50s won’t be surprised to learn that the memory problems commonly referred to as brain fog are real.   Results of a recent study conducted by scientists from the University of Illinois and the University of Rochester Medical Center validate brain fog and offer explanations as to what is happening when women enter menopause.

Brain fog

The study followed 75 women between the ages of 40 and 60 who were approaching or entering into menopause.   Testing included patient interviews and cognitive testing.  Results demonstrated that almost half of all women who go through menopause have measurable changes in their brains performance.  Often the biggest frustration and measured difference is the reduced ability to concentrate when learning and retaining new information.

"Puzzles for you brain!"

Children love to play. It’s how they learn.  Creating block towers teaches spatial reasoning and motor skills.  Playing Crazy Eights and Monopoly help develop logical reasoning abilities.  Adults need to play too but don’t seem to get enough of it.  Our brains are stimulated by the unique challenges and problems that games and brain teasers offer.

Research is finally demonstrating that our brains do better in the long term if they are exposed to novel activities including brain teasers, brain games and logic puzzles.  Publishers seem to get that point too, that it’s always a good time for a puzzle.

So what are the benefits of brain teasers? 

•    Boosts brain activity
•    Provides emotional satisfaction and sense of accomplishment
•    Enhances memory and processing speed
•    Helps slow the decline and reduce the risk for dementia
•    Improves concentration
•    Reduces boredom

Remember that variety is important to maximize the benefit you get from working logic puzzles. Just don't focus on crosswords or Sudoku.  Instead change up your brain workout by trying a variety of brain teasers.  Even if you can’t solve a puzzle your brain will still receive an excellent and much-needed workout.

- Team Shirsa

Smile and say cheese!!!!

A  healthy attitude can lead to a healthy body and a healthy lifestyle!!!! 

Studies are revealing that smiles and a positive mental outlook correlate highly with everything from a lowered risk for disease and better  immunity system, to an overall increase in life expectancy.

Happy Heart is a Healthy Heart

A  study conducted by Dr. Karina Davidson ofColumbia University, found that people who held a positive outlook on life were significantly less likely to develop heart disease when compared to their more pessimistic peers. Dr. Davidson also suggested that optimistic individuals also sleep better, eat better and handle stress more easily.

 A University of Kentucky four-year study of 124 law students found that individuals who stayed upbeat despite being under pressure felt more positive about their law program and showed stronger immune system function. Researchers extended their finding to conclude that when people go into stressful situations, such as surgery, and hold a more positive outlook, they may enjoy a better outcome overall.

Keep Smiling

Smile therapy and even laughter yoga are now capitalizing on the notion that taking time to practice being cheery may pay big dividends for our overall health.

- Team Shirsa

Do you have a photographic memory?

Eidetic imagery, more commonly known as  photographic memory, has long been the subject of curiosity and debate among us and especially for scientist.

People with photographic memories explain that they can still “see” a picture even after it is removed from sight. They often use present tense when answering questions about the missing picture and can recall in extraordinary detail what it contained because they are actually still viewing the picture on a blank canvas in their mind.

The majority of people identified as possessing a photographic memory are children. Scientists estimate the ability occurs in 2 percent to 10 percent of young children. Boys and girls are equally likely to have a photographic memory. With very few exceptions, however, researchers have shown that almost no adults seem to have the ability to form photographic images.

So why don’t adults demonstrate photographic memory? Experts believe that talking (either out loud or in your mind) while viewing an original image interferes with the mind’s ability to photograph the image. Because adults are much more likely to try and encode the picture, both visually and verbally the image is not stored as a photographic image.

Stephen Wiltshire is one of a rare few documented adults with photographic memory capabilities.  He is capable of drawing the entire skyline of a city after a helicopter ride. Stephen is autistic and communicates through his art. 

So friends tell me, whether you have photoggraphic memory?  

- Team Shirsa

Interesting secrets of brain!!!

While doing research for Shirsa, i came across to an interesting article from Glamour Magazine’s February 2008 issue talks about 5 secrets of your brain.  The article was based on the content written by neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D., coauthor of Welcome to Your Brain, speaks about in her book.

While I question whether any of them are really a ‘secret’, I do find Secrets #2 and #3 interesting and relevant for those interested in Brain Fitness.

Secret #2: Because of sex hormone’s in a woman’s brain, women tend to be able to recall objects’ locations better than men – such as where you parked your car or left your glasses.  The ability to recall locations relies on what is often referred to as Visual Working Memory.  One of our products, actually focuses on improving visual working memory.

Secret #3: Human brains do have a memory peak in their thirties.  And unfortunately, as we age, our memories do get weaker.  Dr. Aamodt suggests physical exercise as the best way to stay sharp as exercise increases blood flow to the brain.  However, we also have proven that brain fitness exercises like those in The Brain Fitness Program can also keep your memory sharp well into your later years.

- Team Shirsa

Drive safe!!

'Talking on phone'..'texting while driving'... is dangerous and irresponsible behavior and it should be banned.  However, there are a significant number of accidents that occur where there is no device being used behind the wheel. 

Research about how the brain works and its impact in situations such as driving make it clear that brain performance is the biggest factor in driving safely. Whether it be responding to visual cues such as tracking multiple objects, widening peripheral view or maintaining a clear sight of what is straight ahead, it is the brain’s job to process and respond to the thousands of stimuli and information taken in every second. And according to our research on brain plasticity, the brain has the ability to rewire and therefore improve the cognitive functions that are essential for safe driving.

So many lives can be saved on the roads today if people would only pay attention to their real reason for being behind the wheel  to operate a motor vehicle while we help drivers deal with the multitude of distractions that get in their way of doing it safely.

- Team Shirsa

Is your brain is diabetic?

As we all know that high blood sugar levels can effect your brain health. Now a new research suggests that even levels that are only the upper range of the normal level could potentially be detrimental.

The researchers took a group of people whose blood sugars level are high but not high enough to be classified as having diabetes. They found that even at below pre-diabetes level, a high level of blood sugar could create shrinkage in specific areas of the brain when compared with individuals which have a lower or average blood sugars level.

This study demonstrates the link between blood sugar and brain health even when those levels are not that high. It is therefore important not only for important for your physical health but also for your mental health to check carefully your blood sugar levels.

- Team Shirsa

Use it or lose it!!

You want your retired life should be like this as shown in the picture? , think again! A recent paper with the title “Mental Retirement” is currently suggesting that early retirement may lead to quicker memory decline.
According to study conducted by  Laura L. Carstensen from Stanford University, suggests that work actually provides an important component of the environment that keeps people functioning optimally.” The analysis of the data which was collected for the study suggested people may have to engage in stimulating activities to preserve memory and reasoning skills after their retirement.

The study which was published by economists Susann Rohwedder and Robert J. Willis in The Journal of Economic Perspectives supports the “use it or lose it” theory, further they also supports the idea that cognitively stimulating activities may delay cognitive aging. 

It was started about 20 years ago by the National Institute on Aging on a sample of 22,000 Americans who were submitted to memory tests every two years. Several European then started their own national studies and are being followed by countries such as Japan and Corea, using similar proceedings in order to obtain comparable data. It was found that “the longer people in a country keep working, the better, as a group and also lives healthy, think healthy!!!

- Team Shirsa

Want to burn calories? Think hard!

Are you aware that  thinking burns calories? I wasn’t knowing about  that till now, and today while doing some research for Shirsa,  I came across a Q&A article in New Scientist on this topic. According to behavorial neuroscientist Ewan McNay, who has conducted research in some particular area,

“A rough calculation suggests that thinking hard about a task for 30 minutes might burn about 1/30th of a gram of fat. Thinking is not likely to turn an intellectual couch potato into a lean machine.”

Some other neuroscientist  ‘Roger Hicks said it in a simpler way :

“It appears that the thinking part of brain function,  consumes a relatively small amount of extra energy and is therefore of little use in weight loss-unless, of course, some of that thinking is aimed at producing exercise.”

My  suggestion is, better sign off your computer and hit the gym. As there’s lots of evidences  shows  that  physical exercise is good for your brain too, instead thinking hard!!!!

-  Team Shirsa