Take your vitamins

Almost everyone is looking for that "magic bullet" pill to lift their mood, boost their memory, or help them excel at school or work.

You may be surprised to learn that taking a brain or memory supplement is not the best place to start to boost your brain power. There are two core supplements that almost everyone can benefit from instead. First, take a high-quality multivitamin and mineral supplement. It's not as sexy-sounding as taking the latest "smart pill," but the research is clear -- taking a multivitamin alone can improve your mood and overall brain function.

All vitamins and minerals play a role in brain health.

Vitamin C, for example, protects your brain from free radical damage, toxins, and ageing, and acts as a natural antidepressant.

Without adequate amounts of vitamin B6, folic acid, and magnesium, you can't synthesize the "happiness" neurotransmitter serotonin.

Yet surprisingly, nutritional deficiencies are not a thing of the past. Deficiencies of vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, and omega-3s are common, yet all are essential for brain health and mental well-being.

Taking a multivitamin/mineral supplement as nutritional insurance can help you be healthier, happier, and may even help you live longer.

The other foundational supplement is an omega-3 supplement.

One omega-3 fatty acid, in particular, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), is a major structural component of the cerebral cortex, the part of your brain responsible for memory, language, creativity, emotion and attention. DHA can be found in fish oil, krill oil, or a DHA supplement.

Take a high-quality multivitamin and omega-3 supplement every day

Focus, Pocus

Have you ever had to get on with a task or a job and found you could not concentrate, while an Italian student came up with a wonderful process to help him concentrate on getting a task done. Here is how he did it, and how you may be able to use his idea.

Get a basic timer and then pick a task you want to concentrate on. Remove obvious distractions (like turning off your phone).

The first few times you try this I recommend that you set the timer for 5 minutes, then give the task at hand everything you have. If your mind starts to wander, snap yourself back and remind yourself you need to maintain this level of concentration for just a few more minutes. 

Five minutes may not seem like a great deal of time, but it is when you are trying to focus. After you have trained yourself to focus for five minutes and are comfortable doing this, increase your timer to 10 minutes and work on the task for that amount of time, without losing your concentration. (If 10 minutes is too long, move your timer to 7 minutes.) The idea is to have success at being focused for a short period of time.

When you have mastered the 10-minute concentration time then give yourself a break. Over a period of a week, the idea is to move from a focus time of 5 minutes to a focus time of 30 minutes.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much you get done and how easily you train yourself to become highly and productively focused. As you do this, you are actually training your brain to block out distractions and increase your ability to concentrate for extended periods of time without a timer.

Boosting Brain Power

There are many ways to boost your brain power, and they are simple ideas that don’t take a great deal of your time. The following can be done every day in less than 20 minutes a day.

Every day you take tens of thousands of breaths but did you know that 20% of the oxygen you inhale is used by your brain.

Oxygen is critical for brain cells so much so that they can live for just a few minutes without it. We don’t breathe properly, but it may be hard to accept that you aren't breathing "properly," but few people breathe properly. Ideally, you should breathe deeply from your diaphragm, (Belly breathing), not your chest. (Children naturally breathe this way until the constant stress of life retrains them to breathe shallowly.) So, the next time you are feeling tired, foggy, and mentally unfocused, take a 5-minute breathing break to flood your brain with more oxygen.

If you practice belly breathing a minimum of 5 minutes per day to reduce stress and bathe your brain in healing oxygen you will boost your brain power. In a hurry? Even taking just 10 belly breaths can help you relax and think more clearly.

Your brain is largely water and it takes only 2% dehydration to negatively affect your memory, attention, and other cognitive skills.

These mental effects can happen surprisingly quickly -- you can lose 10% of your body's water after one good exercise workout.

The effects of dehydration on the brain are so pronounced that they can mimic the symptoms of dementia.

So, the next time you feel mentally fuzzy, grab your water bottle. Drink, and relax for five minutes. Your brain may simply be signalling that it is getting dehydrated. The usual rule of thumb is "8 glasses of 8 ounces of fluid a day."

But a more precise way of determining how much water you need is to multiply your weight (in pounds) by 0.5. Your daily fluid intake goal is that number in ounces.

If you exercise, check out this online hydration calculator from the water bottle company Camelbak.

It takes into account variables such as your type of activity, intensity, duration, temperature, and even cloud cover.

If drinking water does not come naturally to you, download an app like Waterlogged or Daily Water to remind you to drink enough. To keep your brain fit and to boost your brain power to determine how much water you need, then start drinking!

Few people drink only water, so now is a great time to cover drinks that contain caffeine, the world's favourite cognitive enhancer. Enjoy your 10-minute caffeine break

Literally billions of people around the world start their day with caffeine to enhance their mood, energy, focus, and productivity. The source of your caffeine really makes a difference to your brain and in the way you feel. Traditional brews like coffee, tea, and yerba mate are loaded with antioxidants, flavonoids, and other beneficial compounds that nourish the brain and increase mental vitality.

But caffeinated drinks like soda and energy drinks are loaded with sugar and chemicals instead.

And there's nothing natural about the caffeine they contain.

That caffeine is a synthetic chemical that's almost always made in China. If you suspect that caffeine is contributing to your stress or insomnia, you are probably onto something.

Rather than giving up caffeine completely, consider switching to green tea which may just be the healthiest drink of all.

Green tea contains a modest amount of caffeine, only one-fourth of that found in coffee. It owes its major health benefits to two unique compounds, EGCG and l-theanine. EGCG and l-theanine work synergistically to promote attention, memory, and learning.

Both EGCG and l-theanine have the unique capability of altering your brainwaves, putting you in a mental state similar to meditation. L-theanine is renowned for its ability to put you in that sweet spot of feeling calm, yet mentally clear.

And unlike other caffeinated drinks which disrupt sleep, green tea's l-theanine can help you sleep better.

Some people though, especially those prone to anxiety and insomnia, find the downside of caffeine outweigh the benefits, no matter what. If that's the case for you, give decaffeinated green tea a try.

Drink caffeine in moderation from natural sources like coffee, yerba mate, and especially green tea.

Newfoundland humour

A Newfoundland farmer named Angus had a car accident. He was hit by a truck owned by the Eversweet Company.

In court, the Eversweet Company's hot-shot solicitor was questioning Angus.

'Didn't you say to the RCMP at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine I'm fine?' asked the solicitor.

Angus responded: 'Well, I'll tell you what happened. I'd just loaded my fav'rit cow, Bessie, into da... '

'I didn't ask for any details', the solicitor interrupted. 'Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?'

Angus said, 'Well, I'd just got Bessie into da trailer and I was drivin' down da road.... '

The solicitor interrupted again and said, 'Your Honour, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the police on the scene that he was fine. Now several weeks after the accident, he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question. '

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Angus' answer and said to the solicitor: 'I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favourite cow, Bessie'.

Angus thanked the Judge and proceeded. 'Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my fav'rit cow, into de trailer and was drivin' her down de road when this huge Eversweet truck and trailer came tundering tru a stop sign and hit me trailer right in da side. I was trown into one ditch and Bessie was trown into da udder. By Jaysus I was hurt, very bad like, and didn't want to move. However, I could hear old Bessie moanin' and groanin'. I knew she was in terrible pain just by her groans.

Shortly after da accident, a policeman on a motorbike turned up. He could hear Bessie moanin' and groanin' too, so he went over to her. After he looked at her, and saw her condition, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.

Den da policeman came across de road, gun still in hand, looked at me, and said, 'How are you feelin'?'

'Now wot da fock would you say?