Just 5 Minutes of Vigorous Exercise Per Day Could Lower Blood Pressure

Blodgett et al. Device-Measured 24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Blood Pressure: A 6-Part Compositional Individual Participant Data Analysis in the ProPASS Consortium.Circulation, November 2024.

A new study highlights the benefits of brief but vigorous physical activity on blood pressure management. Researchers found that adding as little as 5 minutes of high-intensity exercise, such as running, cycling, or stair climbing, to a daily routine can lead to slight reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Clinically meaningful improvements were observed with an extra 10 to 20 minutes per day. In contrast, lighter activities like walking or standing showed minimal impact. The study assessed health and blood pressure data from 14,761 participants with an average age of 54, tracking daily activities over 24-hour periods. Activities analyzed included sleeping (7.1 hours), sedentary behavior (10.7 hours), slow walking (1.6 hours), fast walking (1.1 hours), standing (3.2 hours), and exercise (16 minutes). Replacing sedentary behavior with just 5 minutes of exercise reduced systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 0.68 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 0.54 mmHg. Notably, a 2 mmHg decrease in SBP correlates with a 10% lower risk of heart disease. Current health guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly. This study suggests 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity most days and highlights that strength training also benefits blood vessel function and blood pressure control. The importance of incorporating even brief exercise sessions into busy daily schedules, emphasizing that increasing exercise intensity accelerates positive physiological changes that support heart health. For those aiming to lower blood pressure, additional healthy habits include a balanced diet, sufficient sleep, weight management, and stress reduction. Short, practical exercise additions, like taking stairs or walking briskly, can enhance heart health and reduce hypertension risks.

New Transparent Semiconductor Paves the Way for Next-Gen High-Power Electronics

Liu et al. Deep-ultraviolet transparent conducting SrSnO 3 via heterostructure design. Science Advances, November 2024.

Researchers have developed an innovative material that promises to revolutionize high-power electronics by making them faster, more efficient, and transparent to both visible and ultraviolet light. This breakthrough marks a significant advancement in semiconductor technology, a sector critical to the multi-trillion-dollar global electronics industry poised for further growth with the expansion of digital technologies. Semiconductors, integral to nearly all electronic devices—from smartphones to medical equipment—depend on enhanced materials known as “ultra-wide band gap” semiconductors. These materials conduct electricity effectively even under extreme conditions, making them essential for high-performance applications. The recently developed new material features an increased “band gap,” resulting in both higher transparency and conductivity. Such properties support the creation of faster, more efficient electronic devices and open pathways to breakthroughs in computers, smartphones, and potentially quantum computing. This material is a transparent conducting oxide with a specialized thin-layered structure that optimizes transparency without compromising electrical conductivity. As technological advancements and AI applications demand more capable materials, this development is a major leap forward. The new material’s properties were nearly ideal for electronic applications. Rigorous testing and defect elimination enhanced the material’s capabilities. This research not only represents an unparalleled combination of transparency and conductivity but also paves the way for robust, high-power optoelectronic devices capable of functioning in demanding environments.

Daytime sleepiness linked to higher risk of pre-dementia syndrome

Leroy et al. Association of Sleep Disturbances With Prevalent and Incident Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome in Community-Residing Older Adults. Neurology, November 2024

A recent study has highlighted that sleep disturbances in older adults, such as excessive daytime sleepiness and reduced enthusiasm, may signal serious health risks, including an increased likelihood of developing motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR). MCR is considered an early indicator of dementia, characterized by slow gait and memory problems, though it does not yet involve full mobility disability or dementia. The study involved 445 participants with an average age of 76 who were initially free of dementia. The researchers assessed sleep patterns through questionnaires, which involved questions addressing common sleep issues, such as waking up during the night, difficulty falling asleep within 30 minutes, feeling too hot or cold, and the use of sleep medication. To gauge excessive daytime sleepiness, participants were asked how often they struggled to stay awake while driving, eating, or participating in social activities. Memory issues and walking speed were also monitored annually over three years using a treadmill. Findings revealed that 35.5% of individuals with excessive daytime sleepiness and reduced enthusiasm developed MCR, compared to only 6.7% of participants without these conditions. After controlling for other risk factors, the study concluded that those experiencing sleep-related issues were over three times more likely to develop MCR. This study emphasized the importance of screening for sleep problems, suggesting that addressing these issues could help prevent cognitive decline and dementia later in life. However, further research is needed to explore the precise connection between sleep disturbances and cognitive deterioration, as well as the mechanisms linking sleep issues to MCR and dementia progression.

Evening May Be the Best Time of Day to Exercise

New research suggests that exercising in the evening might offer additional health benefits, particularly for individuals living with obesity. Scientists analyzed data from 30,000 volunteers aged 40 and above without pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Using activity trackers, the researchers categorized participants based on their timing of moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity: morning, afternoon, or evening (after 6 p.m.). Over nearly eight years of follow-up, evening exercisers showed the lowest risk of developing cardiovascular disease and mortality compared to those who didn’t exercise or exercised at other times. This pattern persisted even when considering factors like age and smoking history. Interestingly, the benefits of exercising in the morning or afternoon were still notable compared to no exercise, but they were not as pronounced as those seen with evening exercise. This trend remained consistent among individuals with type 2 diabetes, suggesting broader implications for managing obesity and related conditions. While the findings underscore the importance of regular physical activity regardless of timing, they offer insights for individuals seeking to optimize their exercise routines, particularly those with obesity or diabetes. Further research is needed to validate these results and explore potential mechanisms underlying the observed associations. Ultimately, understanding the timing of physical activity could inform personalized approaches to obesity and type 2 diabetes management in the future.

Sabag et al. Timing of moderate to vigorous physical activity, mortality, cardiovascular disease, and microvascular disease in adults with obesity. Diabetes Care, April 2024.

Unlocking the Mysteries of Bitterness

Researchers have investigated the intricate mechanisms underlying the perception of bitter taste and revealed the TAS2R14 bitter taste receptor and mechanism on how bitter-tasting substances interact with TAS2R14, initiating the sensation of bitterness on the tongue. TAS2R14 belongs to the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family and can detect over 100 distinct bitter tastants. When these substances bind to TAS2R14 receptors, they trigger a conformational change in the protein, activating the attached G protein. This activation sets off a cascade of biochemical reactions within taste receptor cells, leading to the transmission of signals to the gustatory cortex in the brain, where bitterness is perceived. Interestingly, the researchers discovered that cholesterol, residing in an allosteric site on TAS2R14, aids in its activation by placing the receptor in a semi-active state. The discovery of this novel allosteric cholesterol-binding site for bitter tasting substances is unique. These findings provide valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying bitter taste perception and offer opportunities for developing therapeutic interventions targeting taste receptors to manage metabolic disorders and potentially other health conditions. Cholesterol gives TAS2R14 a helping hand in activation, raising questions about its role with TAS2R14 in other parts of the body. Further exploration revealed the presence of TAS2R14 in various tissues outside the tongue, including the cerebellum, thyroid, and pancreas, hinting at additional functions beyond taste perception. Future studies aim to elucidate the roles of TAS2R14 in these extralingual tissues.

Kim et al. Bitter taste receptor activation by cholesterol and an intracellular tastant. Nature, April 2024.

An “Ice-free” Arctic?

A recent study suggests that the Arctic could experience summer days with minimal sea ice as soon as the next few years, potentially earlier than previously anticipated. The research indicates that the Arctic’s first ice-free day might occur over a decade earlier than earlier estimates, irrespective of future emission scenarios. By the middle of this century, it’s projected that the Arctic could witness an entire month devoid of floating ice during September, the month with the lowest sea ice coverage. Towards the end of the century, the ice-free season may extend to several months annually, especially under high-emission scenarios. The term “ice-free” doesn’t imply a complete absence of ice but refers to when the ocean has less than 1 million square kilometers of ice, less than 20% of the 1980s’ seasonal minimum ice coverage. Currently, the Arctic Ocean experiences around 3.3 million square kilometers of sea ice area at its September minimum. The research team examined existing sea ice projections and modelled future Arctic changes. They predict that the Arctic Ocean could see its first ice-free day between the 2020s and 2030s under all emission scenarios. Sea ice loss is primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating warming and ice melt in the region. This decline has profound consequences for Arctic wildlife like seals and polar bears, as well as potential impacts on local ecosystems due to the influx of non-native fish species. Moreover, diminishing sea ice poses risks to coastal communities by increasing coastal erosion as ice retreats, leaving land exposed to larger ocean waves. Despite the inevitability of an ice-free Arctic, future emission levels will determine the frequency and duration of such conditions. Keeping emissions low is crucial in mitigating prolonged ice-free periods and preserve the Arctic’s unique environment.

Jahn et al. The Arctic could become “ice-free” within a decade. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, April 2024.

Exercise keeps brain connections alive

Casaletto K et al. Late‐life physical activity relates to brain tissue synaptic integrity markers in older adults. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, January 2022.

Physical activity has myriad benefits, including enhancement of cardiovascular health, lowering blood pressure, and promoting mental health. A recent study showed that when older adults stay physically active, their brains are activated to produce more of a protein type that enhances the connections between neurons to maintain healthy cognition. The beneficial effects of physical activity on cognition have been shown in many times in laboratory animals but it has been much harder to demonstrate in people. Neurons are separated from each other by tiny clefts known as synapses. Nerve signals that travel along the nerve cells must cross these gaps for the information to reach its destination. Synaptic proteins located at the vicinity of synapses are tasked to provide the chemical mechanism whereby information is transmitted and link the neurons into cognitive networks. In this study, the late-life physical activity of 404 elderly people, who agreed to donate their brains when they died, have been tracked through annual actigraphy monitoring. Next, their postmortem brain tissue has been analyzed for the levels of key synaptic proteins. Strikingly, elderly people who remained active had higher levels of synaptic proteins that are known to facilitate the exchange of information between neurons.

Researchers also found that increased synaptic proteins were not limited to specific cognitive-related brain regions; physical activity seemed to exert a global effect on brain connectivity beyond the parts of brain that are directly involved in cognition. Maintaining the integrity of these connections between neurons may be a key protection for the age-related cognitive disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. Physical activity is a readily available medicine that can boost our cognitive and mental health, free of charge and with no prescription. This study emphasizes one more time that we should continue being physically active, particularly as we age.

Oxygen production by microbes without sunlight

Kraft B et al. Oxygen and nitrogen production by an ammonia-oxidizing archaeon. Science, January 2022.

Oxygen is vital for life on Earth. Most oxygen on land and in the sea is produced

as a result of photosynthesis, a process in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria that requires sunlight. Now a research team made a surprising discovery that some deep-sea microbes are also tasked to produce oxygen but in a completely different way. By investigating these microbes which live deep in the darkness, the researchers have focused on a microbe named Nitrosopumilus maritimus, which was previously found out to be converting ammonia to produce nitrogen by using oxygen. The team decided to observe these microbe cultures in airtight containers that are kept in the dark to mimic the deep ocean conditions. They have found that these cultures first used up all the oxygen in the water, and then to everyone’s surprise, within minutes, oxygen levels started increasing again. At first glance, they seem to produce just enough oxygen for them to survive and scientists thought that these low levels may not possibly be enough to influence oxygen levels on earth. However, when this effect is considered at a global scale, it is conceivable that the oxygen produced by Nitrosopumilus maritimus can be quickly taken by other nearby organisms. This means that this microbe is ultimately contributing to overall oxygen levels in oceans, if not for the whole atmosphere. The exact mechanism of how these archaea bacteria can produce oxygen without light is not known and it has been now the focus of future research efforts. This study opens up the possibility that there may be many different deep sea species with a whole different metabolism functioning. It also emphasizes the importance of studying and protecting the deep oceans.

70 mysterious rogue planets discovered

Miret-Roig N et al. A rich population of free-floating planets in the Upper Scorpius young stellar association. Nature Astronomy, December 2021.

Rogue planets are the freely floating cosmic objects in our solar system that roam the universe on their own without orbiting a host star. Scientists knew very little about these planets until now. A team of astronomers using data from several telescopes worldwide identified at least 70 rogue planets in the Milky Way. Since rogue planets are not illuminated by a nearby star, they used to be almost impossible to capture and image. After few million years of their formation, these planets are still hot enough to glow and become detectable by extra sensitive cameras in large telescopes. After extensive analyses of all the data they could gather revealed at least 70 rogue planets and up to 170 candidate planets that are close to a star-forming region near the Sun, located within the Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations and 420 light-years from Earth. These findings suggest that there could be many more of these planets roaming the galaxy. Rogue planets could have been either formed from a cloud of gas and dust – the same way stars do – or they could have once been a part of a star system before getting ejected. The team hopes that by studying the large group of rogue planets, they will be able to identify their origins and how they formed and evolved. New developments in space-watching technology are very encouraging for astronomers, as they hope that by studying this large group of rogue planets, they will be able to understand their origins and ultimate fates.

Original Article: Cranford, S.W. et al., Nature 482, 72 (2012).

Spider silk has been a symbol of durability and strength, but the role the design of a web plays or contributes to the strength was unknown. Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that the impressive design of web and the feature of silk allow spiders to build a super-strong web under different levels of stress. The response of spider silk subjected to load was studied. They studied webs of a variety of species, including European garden spiders and orb weavers, and combined their experiments with correlated web models. At low stress, silk threads soften and extend that result in retaining web structure. At high stress, the silk threads extend and the most stretched ones break. The strength of the silk and the geometry of the web allow only one or two threads being broken under strain. Therefore, the break in the web is minimized and prevents destruction of the whole web. The localized web damage can be repaired by the spider and therefore a requirement for rebuilding the web completely is eliminated. This study shows that spider silk web is very stable even under hurricane winds. This research gives an idea to engineers to build a system that will fail only at small parts of the system under certain stress. Therefore, the system will continue to work just after repairing the destroyed parts of the system. Otherwise, the whole system may be destroyed under potential load and will have to be rebuilt. For example, when a building is exposed to large mechanical stress such as an earthquake, it may be destroyed as a whole and become dysfunctional. Applications on such systems require further research in engineering to achieve structures as stable as a spider’s web.

2- Benefits of Exercise Through a Protein

Original article: Bostrom, P. et al., Nature 481, 463 (2012).

Exercise has a number of beneficial effects in human health such as increasing cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic capacity. Scientists at Harvard Medical School have discovered a muscle hormone, Irisin, which may be responsible for the many beneficial effects of exercise. Irisin secreted from muscle after exercise and act on white adipose tissue that stores energy. Excessive amounts of white fat cells contribute to many pathologic effects of obesity and diabetes. Irisin, however, converts white fat into the more beneficial and metabolically active brown fat, which burns more calories and produce heat instead of energy. It helps to prevent excessive glucose and fatty acid accumulation in the body. The researchers demonstrated that mildly increased Irisin levels in the blood cause an increase in energy expenditure in mice with no changes in movement or food intake. It also reduces body weight and improves glucose tolerance and obesity induced insulin resistance. This research suggests that Irisin can be a new therapeutic target in human metabolic diseases treatment. Also it could help people lose weight and fight against obesity induced problems such as diabetes and hypertension.

3- New Generation Vaccines with High Efficacy

Original Article: Avci F.Y. et al., Nature Medicine 17, 1602 (December 2011).

Most pathogenic bacteria contain complex carbohydrate structures on their surfaces. These carbohydrates are called capsular polysaccharides. “Glycoconjugate” vaccines are prepared by chemical conjugation of capsular polysaccharides with proteins. This method is the standard design for many vaccines that protect us against common diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis. One drawback with these vaccines is their limited efficacy in populations such as the elderly, children and patients with compromised immune systems. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Rockefeller University have designed and synthesized a vaccine that is about 100 times more potent than traditional vaccines available today. Until now, the scientific community believed that the body’s professional immune cells, called T-cells, were only able to recognize vaccine’s protein molecules to generate an immune response. However, after studying how glycoconjugate vaccines stimulate immune response, the researchers found that T-cells are also able to recognize the carbohydrate molecules. In a series of elegant experiments, they demonstrated that there is a repertoire of T-cells that can recognize the carbohydrate portion of a glycoconjugate vaccine, and that these T-cells stimulate antibody producing B-cells to generate high affinity antibodies against the carbohydrates. Based on the knowledge obtained from this mechanistic study, researchers have designed a new-generation glycoconjugate vaccine and showed that this new vaccine was about 100 times more immunogenic than a vaccine made by traditional methods.

4- Producing Fuel from Waste with Bacteria

Original Article: Bokinsky, G. et al., PNAS 108, 19949 (December 2011).

It turns out, the secret for alternative source for oil might be hidden in a very common bacterium and plant, E coli and switch grass. As the world’s natural resources are quickly exhausted by humans, new energy sources or alternative energy production methods are needed. One popular way for addressing this question is promoting biofuels. Most of the biofuel source is in ethanol form, often produced from sugar that is extracted from sugarcane and corn. However the consuming of main food sources for energy sources begs a question: What if one day feeding the machines with our food sources makes food scarce? Another concern is that many countries are not using ethanol as an energy source. All these led researchers to pursue another idea: Instead of using food sources as precursor for ethanol, non-food biomass or bio-waste can be converted to precursors for biofuels by utilizing the cellulose or hemicellulose as a starting material. Human body cannot digest cellulose. Hence, cellulose is a bio-waste, which can be broken down into sugar using a mixture of enzymes and subsequently can be used for gasoline production. The enzymes for this procedure can be produced by bacteria in massive amounts. To this end, researchers genetically engineered Ecoli bacteria to consume large amount of cellulose from switch grass and convert it to sugar. Scientists achieved to produce different precursors for different fuels, including gasoline, diesel or jet fuel with bacteria. These are big steps in turning bio-waste into fuels. Imagine one day your plane will be powered with a hay of switch grass and a bottle of bacteria. Next time when you fly over a field of switch grass, you might actually be seeing the next oil well.

Don’t most people think that being happy is the most important thing? Isn’t eating one of the most accessible pleasures we have? Why should people limit their culinary pleasures? More outrageous, why should we afflict ourselves by fasting? Why do Islam and Judaism restrict their adherents from the simple pleasure of food each year? For the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from first light until sundown, abstaining from food, drink and marital relations. The Qur’an says, “Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint” (2:183). Why should the Torah decree for Jews a day of fasting (Leviticus 16:29, 23:27) when for twenty-four hours adult Jews (in good health) are supposed to trouble their bodies by abstaining from eating, drinking and marital relations? Both religions teach us that what we do not eat may be even more important than what we do eat.

All animals eat, but only humans choose not to eat some foods that are both nutritious and tasty. Some people do not eat meat for religious or ethical reasons. Jews and Muslims do not eat pork for religious and spiritual reasons. On fast days such as Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement and the ninth of Av (a day of mourning like the Shi’a observance of Ashura on the tenth of Muharram)—Jews do not eat or drink anything at all, and abstain from marital relations for twenty-four hours. Fasting results in many different outcomes that help bring us closer to God.

First of all, fasting teaches compassion. It is easy to talk about the world’s problem of hunger, easy to feel sorry that millions of people go to bed hungry each day. But not until one actually feels it in one’s own body does the impact truly hit home. Compassion based on empathy is much stronger and more consistent than compassion based on pity. It is a feeling that leads to action. Fasting is never an end in itself; it has many different outcomes. But none of the other outcomes are of real moral value if compassion is not enlarged and extended through fasting. As the prophet Isaiah said, “The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers. Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. The kind of fasting I want is this: remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor” (Isaiah 58:3-7).

Second, fasting is an exercise in will power. Many people think they can’t fast because it’s too difficult, but actually the discomfort of hunger pangs is relatively minor. A headache, muscle soreness from too much exercise, or a toothache are more severe than the pain temporary hunger produces. I have on one occasion fasted for three days, and found that after the first twenty-four hours the pain decreases slightly, as the stomach becomes numb. The real reason it is challenging to fast is because it so easy to break the fast, since food is almost always in easy reach — all you have to do is take a bite. Thus the key to fasting is the will power to decide again and again not to eat or drink. Our society has increasingly become one of self-indulgence; we lack basic self-discipline. Fasting opposes our increasing “softness” in life; when people exercise their will power to fast, they are affirming their self-control and celebrating mastery over themselves. We need continually to prove to ourselves that we can do it, because we are aware of our frequent failures to be self-disciplined.

The third outcome of fasting is improved physical health. Of course, one twenty-four hour fast will not have any more effect than one day of exercise; only prolonged and regular fasting promotes health. The annual fast on Yom Kippur can, however, awaken us to the importance of how much and how often we eat. For many years, research has shown that when animals are slightly underfed, receiving a balanced diet below the normal quantity for maximum physical health, their life spans were prolonged from 50 to 100 percent. With all the additives placed in food these days, a reduction of total food intake is healthful. More important, since our society has problems with overabundance, fasting provides a good lesson in the virtue of denial. Illnesses caused by overeating are increasing in affluent Western countries, such as the incidence of diabetes. Sixteen million people in the United States have diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney disease, heart disease, nerve damage, amputation and sometimes death. The prevalence of the disease is related to high rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles, which increase the risk of developing the disease. More than half of adults in Los Angeles are overweight, and 60 percent do not get regular exercise. One-fifth of all those who are obese will develop diabetes. Thus going without any food, or even water, for a twenty-four hour period challenges us to think about the benefits of the spiritual doctrine “less is more.”

Fourth in our list of outcomes is that fasting is a positive struggle against our dependencies. We live in a consumer society, and are constantly bombarded by advertising that tells us we must have this or that to be healthy, happy, popular, or wise. By fasting, we assert that we need not be totally reliant on external, material things, even essentials such as food. If our most basic need for food and drink can be suspended for twenty-four hours, how much more may we learn to limit our needs for all non-essentials? Judaism and Islam do not advocate asceticism as an end in itself; in fact, it’s against Jewish and Muslim law to deny ourselves normal physical pleasures. But in our overheated consumer society, it is necessary periodically to turn off the constant pressure to consume, and forcibly remind ourselves that “Man does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

Fifth, fasting serves as a penance. Though self-inflicted pain may alleviate some guilt, it is much better to reduce one’s guilt with offsetting acts of righteousness. This is why charity is an important part of Yom Kippur, and the same is true for Muslims during Ramadan. Indeed, Judaism teaches that fasting which doesn’t increase compassion is ignored by God. The concept of fasting as penance helps us to understand that our hunger pains can be beneficial. Contemporary culture desires happiness and comfort above all else. Any pain or suffering is seen as unnecessary, even evil. Though we occasionally hear people echo values from the past that suffering can help one grow, or that an existence unalloyed with grief would lack certain qualities of greatness, many today think that the primary goal in life is to always be happy and free from all discomfort. The satisfaction one derives from the self-induced pain of fasting provides insight into a better possible reaction to the normal, external suffering we will all experience throughout our lives. Taking a pill is not always the best way to alleviate pain, especially if by doing so we allay the symptoms without reaching the root cause.

Sixth, fasting is good for the soul. It often serves as an aid for spiritual experiences. For most people, especially those who have not fasted regularly before, hunger pains are a distraction. People who are not by nature spiritual or emotional individuals will probably find that a one-day fast is insufficient to induce an altered state of consciousness. Those who have fasted regularly on Yom Kippur might like to try a two- to three-day fast (liquids permitted after the first 24 hours). It is best to go about daily activities and devote late evening or early morning to meditation and prayer. Having already fasted for Yom Kippur, one may simply extend the fast another thirty-six to forty-eight hours. We are prohibited to fast prior to Yom Kippur; eating a good meal prior to Yom Kippur Eve is a mitzvah (religious duty), because Judaism, like Islam, opposes excessive asceticism.

The seventh outcome of fasting is the performance of a mitzvah, which is the one fundamental reason for fasting on Yom Kippur. We do carry out mitzvot (religious duties) in order to benefit ourselves, but because our duty as Jews requires us to do them. Fasting is a very personal mitzvah, with primarily personal consequences. Fasting on Yom Kippur is a personal offering to God, from each and every Jew who fasts. For more than 100 generations, Jews have fasted on this day; fasting is part of the Jewish people’s covenant with God. The principal reason to fast is to fulfill God’s commandment, but the outcome of the fast can be any of a half-dozen forms of self-fulfillment. But simply knowing that one has done one’s duty as a faithful Jew is the most basic and primary outcome of all.

Finally, fasting should be combined with the study of Torah (the five books of Moses specifically, or Scriptural texts in general). A medieval text states, “Better to eat a little and study twice as much, for the study of Torah is superior to fasting.” Indeed, the more one studies, the less one needs to fast. Fasting is a very personal, experiential offering. However, though study is also a personal experience, it takes place with a text and/or a teacher. The Divine will is often more readily and truly experienced in study or in spiritual dialogue with others than in solitary meditation.

May our fasting become a first step toward the removal of the chains of self-oppression and narrow-mindedness that enslave us, our neighbors, and our world! May future years of shared fasting by Muslims and Jews lead to a greater understanding and respect through increased acceptance of religious pluralism. May we always be part of those organizations and movements that are fully committed to contributing to world peace, and who are equally committed to respecting both our own religion and our neighbor’s.

Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen points out that the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and some non-Abrahamic faiths (Hinduism) accept that there is only One source for all religions, and pursue the same goal. Gulen states: “As a Muslim, I accept all Prophets and Books sent to different peoples throughout history, and regard belief in them as an essential principle of being Muslim. A Muslim is a true follower of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and all other Prophets. Not believing in one Prophet or Book means that one is not a Muslim. Thus we acknowledge the oneness and basic unity of religion, which is a symphony of God’s blessings and mercy, and the universality of belief in religion.” Gulen’s description of universal religion as a symphony is an excellent illustration. One cannot have harmony if everyone plays the same notes; and one cannot have symphony if everyone plays the same instruments. Individual conductors and composers are different, but the source of musical creativity is One. According to a hadith narrated by Abu Huraira, Prophet Muhammad said, “The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, yet their religion is one (because they all have the same father)” (Bukhari, Book 55, Hadith 652).

Allen S. Maller is the former Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, California. He has authored several books and is currently the editor of a series of prayer books for the Jewish High Holy Days.

Original Article: Lewis, G.D. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2, 33 (2010).

Visits to biochemistry labs are frequent in our lives. Often we give blood to know levels of different metabolites, such as glucose or cholesterol. Instead of looking at a handful of metabolites, a group of scientists from Harvard Medical School has screened more than 200 metabolites before and after exercise. Interestingly, the levels of 21 of these metabolites changed significantly following exercise. The study also showed significant differences between physically more fit and less fit individuals after exercise. Following exercise, more fit people had greater increases in the biological markers of fat-burning and had decreased oxidative stress -a state where the balance between oxidants and antioxidants shift towards damaging oxidant side. Hence, fit people can get better results following exercise by efficiently removing waste materials. Moreover, exercise increased the levels of “niacinamide”, a compound which modulates insulin sensitivity. This increase was more prominent in leaner individuals and was maximized in fast marathon runners after exercise. It has been long known that obese and less-active individuals had greater tendencies to develop Type II diabetes where insulin action is impaired due to decreased sensitivity of the body to this molecule. Understanding the biochemistry behind the exercise may lead to identification of small molecules mediating its beneficial effects. These molecules may then be used to boost up metabolism or treat diseases. Until then, it is best to exercise and stay fit.

2- Our scents make us targets

Original Article: Carey, A.F. et al., Nature 464, 66 (2010).

Are you avoiding spending time outdoors in summer evenings because most of your time has to be spent chasing away the unwelcomed attention of mosquitoes? If so, then you must be one of those “lucky” people whose perspiration contains a key chemical that makes you irresistible to the six-legged bug. Scientists at Yale University have identified a key chemical compound that is detected by one of the mosquitoes’ 27 smell-receptors in their antenna. These smell-receptors are tuned to detect the key chemicals from hundreds of meters away which make people who secrete large amounts of these key chemicals in their sweat vulnerable to frequent mosquito attacks. Depending on the species, usually only the female mosquitoes bite humans, mainly on their feet or lower legs. More importantly, mosquitoes carry several deadly diseases such as Malaria and West-Nile dengue fever. In fact, Malaria is one of the deadliest and the most neglected diseases, affecting more than 500 million people and killing more than 3 million every year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Sadly, the majority of deaths occur among children. Therefore, these types of studies, far from being trivial, may in fact lead to a better understanding of those mosquito-borne diseases, and hopefully may lead to the production of more effective drugs both for the prevention and the cure of diseases as well as better mosquito repellents and traps.

3- We are not alone in our body: Genomes of microbes living with us

Original Articles: Qin, J. et al., Nature 464, 59 (2010) & The Human Microbiome Jumpstart Reference Strains Consortium, Science 328, 994 (2010).

New advancements in DNA sequencing technology allow scientists to sequence genomes of microorganism living in their natural habitat. Human body contains roughly ten times as many microbes as human cells. As part of Human Microbiome Project, scientists are decoding the DNA sequences of all microbes living in several parts of our body such as skin, mouth, gut, respiratory tract and urogenital tract. Two independent teams from US and Europe have produced the first results of DNA sequences of microbes living with us. The projects have initially focused on bacterial genomes but intent to sequence viral and fungal genomes as well. The US team has generated a set of 178 bacterial reference genomes and is aiming to generate many more. In the second project funded by European Union, scientists sequenced the entire microbial DNA in the gut instead of sequencing them individually. They have sequenced more than 3 million bacterial genes, nearly 150 times more than our own (humans have only ~20 thousand genes). Importantly they have found that bacterial species are different in healthy individuals compared to the individuals with inflammatory bowel disease. Throughout these projects, scientists are trying to reveal significant information about the role of different microbial species in health and disease states.

4- Seeing with the sound

Original Article: Yovel Y et al., Science 327, 701 (2010).

Bats, dolphins, shrews and swiftlets use sound waves for navigation and hunting. They emit short sonar pulses and listen to the echoes reflecting back from solid objects. Microsecond differences in the arrival times of echoes are coded by detector neurons and used as a main cue for positioning objects in an environment. This phenomenon is known as biosonar. A recent study published in Science reveals one unknown part of this perfect sound processing strategy. The study shows that bats do not center the sonar beam on the target. Instead, they aim to match the maximum slope of the beam to the target in order to increase the signal-to- noise ratio. Around the sharp edge, small variations of the target position can be detected as a clear signal change in reflected sound intensity. Furthermore, the researchers showed that if the environment is very noisy, bats could bias this critical point to increase amplitude of the echoes. As it turns, this powerful technique has already been employed by humans in engineering and used in various technological tools such as atomic force microcopy. Whether this strategy is used in general by other echolocating animals remains to be answered.

The specific neurobiological processes, brain structures, genes, and other factors involved in human intelligence are still largely unknown. Current research on brain anatomy and physiology suggests that various levels of intelligence may be associated with such things as the number of connections between neurons or the degree of branching in cortical neurons. Important factors may include brain metabolism and how fast nerves conduct signals.

Types of intelligence

Measuring intelligence depends on which of the three intelligences one relies on and uses the most. For example:

Static Intelligence: The accumulated knowledge measured by IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests. Psychologists call it cognitive content. Standard IQ tests have changed very little since their first appearance over 100 years ago, while cognitive psychology’s understanding of how the brain and mind function has made great progress over that same time period.

Fluid Intelligence: How quickly the mind learns and adapts to new problems and conditions. Also known as practical or dynamic intelligence, this important aspect is hardly ever measured.

Brain Intelligence: Also known as BrainQ or cognitive capacity, this is the speed and efficiency at which the brain processes information. In electronics, Q is how efficient and well-tuned the circuit or system is. So BrainQ is how tuned the brain is, which is reflected in mental quickness, memory, and concentration powers. It is fluid and variable, as it is e very sensitive to environmental and lifestyle conditions.

Both static and fluid intelligence depend on BrainQ. Academic, professional, and even personal success depends mostly on BrainQ. In fact, studies have shown very little correlation between one’s IQ score and monetary success. Most importantly, BrainQ (also known as brainpower) is highly trainable (improvable) with the appropriate type of exercise.

Emotional Intelligence (E-IQ) and BrainQ are correlated. According to Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey, emotional intelligence is composed of being able to identify, perceive, express, and understand emotions in different contexts; emotional understanding; and emotional management.

Measuring intelligence

Abundant research proves that thinking about and testing for human intelligence is no small matter. Yet, Robert J. Sternberg, professor of psychology at Yale University, says that, in many ways, we have it all wrong: There are major problems with conventional thinking about intelligence at best, our notions are incomplete, and at worst, simply wrong.

The dominant psychometric approach to studying intelligence claims to measure intelligence through IQ tests. One’s IQ is the result of dividing a person’s mental age by his/her actual age. This procedure has been dropped, but IQ is still used to refer to the scores obtained on intelligence tests and to the tests themselves. Such scores are normally scaled so that the mean is 100 and standard deviation is 15. Ninety-five percent of the population scores within two standard deviations around the mean (between 70-130).

Many IQ tests exist to measure verbal, spatial, mathematical, and analytical skills, while others depend on reaction or recognition time to a visual stimulus. Several IQ tests combine multiple subtests, each testing a specific skill. Regardless of the test’s nature, many researchers believe that factor analysis can extract a general statistical factor (g) from thes results of to obtain a general measurement of intelligence. There is evidence suggesting that g correlates with academic success and, to some extent, with measuring non-school accomplishments.

Despite its wide acceptance, not all researchers agree with the concept of a general, measurable intelligence factor. Some experts believe that g measures some types of intelligence (e.g., analytical problem solving) but not others (e.g., creativity and practical intelligence). Other theorists have abandoned the idea of accurately measuring intelligence, saying that there are multiple kinds of intelligence that cannot be measured with pen-and-paper tests.

Sternberg has proposed a new definition of intelligence that includes analytical skills (the ability to analyze and judge, compare and contrast) and creative and practical abilities. He adds the second and third factors to make the definition of intelligence more meaningful, although he acknowledges that analytical intelligence is an important component of intelligence. Creative intelligence is measured by problems assessing how well an individual copes with relative novelty and can create or invent new products, while practical intelligence measures the ability to handle daily problems.

Increasing IQ?

Some studies have shown that young children exposed to stimulation-rich environments in kindergarten had higher IQ scores than their non-exposed classmates. However, such increases were mostly gone upon graduating from elementary school. Despite this temporary improvement, evidence suggests that the exposed children tended to perform better in school, were less likely to need special education, and were more likely to finish school. Thus, some cognitive functions as well as one’s quality of life were enhanced.

The results of such test suggest that stimulation is a key factor in increasing cognitive performance. Could this positive effect be prolonged by continued exposure to enriched environments? Recent studies in neuroscience show that neuronal synapses in a highly stimulated environment tend to grow and expand, at least in the visual system, compared to those that receive only background static (white noise) input. Also, synapses tend to grow stronger with regular stimulation, which suggests that cognitive function may be improved by a variety-rich environment, stimulation, and activity.

Another suggestive study is the Mozart effect. Researchers picked his Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for its complexity, and showed that college students who listened to it before taking a spatial-temporal reasoning test performed better than control subjects. However, the effect only lasted 15 minutes and seems to be specific to the piece of music and to experimental conditions.

Although these results are limited to specific circumstances, they still have promise. The results are temporary, but one can make an analogy between these effects and those of physical exercise, which are also usually temporary. The key in maintaining and potentially improving cognitive function may be the forms of mental exercise. Solving puzzles, reading, learning new language or a musical instrument may have positive effects. Again, the important point may be in optimizing overall cognitive function rather than in increasing measured IQ scores, which research shows to be relatively stable after childhood.

Physical exercise clearly provides optimal results when combined with a proper diet. The same is likely to hold for mental exercises. Severe malnutrition while a child can have negative effects on intelligence, and the brain requires nutrients to function properly on a daily basis. Also, physical exercise seems to have a positive effect on mental performance. For example, aerobic exercise appears to increase memory retention, improve some types of creative problem solving, and has positive effects on general well-being. Also, exercise can help relieve stress, which has a negative impact on learning and memory. Various relaxation techniques are also beneficial.

Overall, it does not seem likely that measured IQ can be increased permanently. But other supporting factors of cognitive function might be enhanced, thereby optimizing overall mental performance. The best ways to do this seem to be combining physical and mental activities to create a stimulating environment, and to get enough nourishment.

Sternberg’s theory of intelligence

Sternberg has made some interesting points that have been borne out by research results. For example, he has demonstrated that people can handle cognitive challenges in real-life situations. For example, housewives and Brazilian street children have difficulty calculating in a classroom, but not in a supermarket or while making a deal on the street, respectively.

Another consideration is the importance of family expectations on children’s learning. For example, Kenyan families typically do not value formal Western, but do value knowledge of the indigenous environment. He found that when Kenyan children were tested on their knowledge of the indigenous environment, those who scored high on the indigenous tests scored low on conventional IQ tests.

Sternberg also has shown, in a study of Yale students, that students in the high-analytical group were much less diverse in terms of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds than those in the high-creative and high-practical groups.

Sternberg’s research has critical impacts on teaching. He asserts: First of all, it is important to note that all three abilities analytical, creative, and practical can be taught. When students are taught in a way that best fits how they think, they do better in school. Children with high levels of creative and practical abilities, who are almost never taught or assessed in a way that matches their pattern of abilities, may be at a disadvantage in course after course, year after year.

Abusing IQ test scores

However, Sternberg is aware that resistance to change in measuring intelligence is great and widespread. He adds: The U.S. has developed a multi-million dollar testing industry whose tests are based on conventional notions of intelligence. The modern version of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence tests or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales have not evolved much over the years. Whereas old computers and old VCRs and old telephones rapidly go out of date, old tests never seem to die, except for updating of norms and cosmetic changes.

Sternberg is confident that conventional notions of intelligence can be surpassed, despite the reluctance and opposition to change, and that doing so will benefit everyone. He concludes: In fact, the most important abilities for science are creative abilities, and if we continue to measure students with conventional tests and do not value creative abilities in training, the result may be that we are picking the wrong people. People who are highly creative may be denied the opportunity to go into science, and science may lose its best potential to advance.

The current misuse of IQ or similar tests is not as problematic as the ones in past. Murray and Herrnstein’s controversial The Bell Curve summarizes research allegedly purporting that blacks are innately less intelligent than whites. This conclusion depends on culturally biased IQ tests or content-oriented SAT tests. However, these conclusions neglect the social limitations, unequal conditions, underprivileged situations, low-quality education, malnutrition, and poverty. The famous Milwaukee Project of the 1970s showed that nurturing plays a vital role in a child’s intelligence. And Goddard’s results, obtained in the early 1900s and based tests given to newly arriving immigrants who had spent months on a boat, who were mainly laypeople, and often had little if any grasp of English, has been disproven by those very people and their descendants, many of whom went on to build quite successful careers in America.

IQ tests are culturally biased. However as Reynolds points out: The argument is whether the brain’s processing speed determines how well one can do in an IQ test. The IQ tests and SATs are very content-oriented. If you weren’t taught some important element, you’d be at a disadvantage (Report From Biomedical). Rather than this, an IQ test should check how quickly one’s brain can process information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, intelligence depends on many things: daily diet, physical and mental exercise, emotional state, stress, and so on. It is not fixed or static, so one can improve it by a combination of techniques that suit the individual. In spite of the developments in cognitive science and medicine, measuring intelligence is still in its crawling stage and open for research. One can be filled only with awe before such a vital yet mostly unknown organ, whose functions have tantalized humanity for centuries. Thus, each person should appreciate having such a distinguishing feature and thank the Creator.

References

• Herrnstein, Richard J. and Charles Murray. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. Free Press: 1996.
• Mayer, J. D., D. Caruso, and P. Salovey. Selecting a Measure of Emotional Intelligence: The Case for Ability Scales. (Second submission version), 11 January 2000. Chapter in: R. Bar-On and J. D. A. Parker (eds.), The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence. Jossey Bass: 2000.
• NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences, NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Seminar Series, 1999.

Increasing brainpower

We can improve our brain’s memory, creativity, and intelligence by our own conscious effort and free will. Even though our brain is made of nerve tissues, it can grow if it is used, just like a muscle. Scientists are constantly amazed at its plasticity “ the ability to grow. Even for people over 80 years old, significant life-quality improvements can be achieved through intellectual activity.

Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles studied the brains of 20 dead people. After examining the dendrites (tree-like communicating arms between muscles), they discovered that their length increased proportionally with a person’s education and lifestyle. Those with a college education and a mentally active lifestyle had longer dendrites than those with less education and an intellectually inactive lifestyle.

Animal studies seem to confirm the same result. For example, rats exposed to maze learning show an increase in dendrite growth and enhanced problem-solving ability. They form new synapses between neurons, which facilitates further learning. When they are moved to dull, non-challenging environments, dendritic material decreases and synapses regress. Neurons can grow and change throughout one’s life.

French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes (1596-1650) once said: It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.(1) In this ever-changing information society, successful adaptation depends on expanding our minds through learning and creativity. Knowledge helps us advance to happiness, because happiness usually is tied to less stress (in our career or daily life), gives us greater travel and leisure opportunities, more autonomy and even more money. Love grows in a relaxed and happy atmosphere, so even emotional well-being depends on improving our brainpower.

By stimulating our brain more intensively, a curious thing happens: The inter-connections between neurons increase by developing new dendrites. These surplus connections make our brain work better, improve our memory, and protect us against diseases like Alzheimer’s by providing alternative connections.

Learning and brainpower

An increased sense of self-confidence and awareness originates from a large fund of knowledge. Even the number and variety of friends we have is directly proportional to the number of topics of interest and discussion we acquire. Knowledge also improves our ability to foresee future political, economic, and historical trends. Moreover, an improved understanding of history and cultures help us avoid the hazard of prejudice.

Understanding the world is like a jigsaw puzzle. The more pieces that we can fit in, the clearer the image and the greater the urge to learn and fill in more pieces. The more we learn, the more we wish to continue learning. Increasing knowledge is like an avalanche; for it gains a momentum of its own once it starts. Perseverance and some initial prompting are required, but the rewards soon pay off. Minds are kept young by continual use, and mentally active people tend to live longer. Learning is as important to our brain as exercise is to our body. Hence the process of learning should not cease right after graduating from high school or college.

Students are presented with an enormous amount of information to learn and memorize during the academic year. During vacation time, however, they shy away from reading or learning even about non-curricular topics because of the mistaken notion that the brain has a limited capacity and that new information will overwrite previous information. The brain has a virtually unlimited capacity to absorb, sort, and retain information. But stimulation is required. An athlete improves by exercise and training; the brain gets into shape the more it is used.

According to Life magazine’s July 1994 feature article on Brain Calisthenics, Golden claims that exercising your brain may do as much for your health as exercising your body. Research on an elderly group of nuns in Minnesota revealed that a daily diet of brain games kept them healthy, youthful, and relatively free from Alzheimer’s and other degenerative brain disorders. And, they were happy, active, and mentally sharp well into their nineties. Researchers attribute this to the brain’s capacity to grow new connections after receiving the proper kind of stimulation. Although the connection between continued brain activity and health remains unclear, we can say that neural stimulation seems to have a direct role in keeping the brain and body balanced, energetic, and healthy. And, it is surmised that increased brain stimulation provides more pronounced and long-lasting benefits.

We can increase our dendrites by engaging in newer activities. When we learn something, we use our whole brain and build new brain circuits. But once something becomes a routine, we only use a small portion of our brain, leaving the rest to atrophy. To prevent the loss or actually to increase the number of dendrites, they must be stimulated. In a Life magazine interview published in July 1994, Arnold Scheible, head of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, suggested: The important thing is to be actively involved in areas that are unfamiliar to you. Anything that’s intellectually challenging can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic growth, which means it adds to the computational reserves in your brain.

However, the article pointed out a caveat for the occasional brain developer. It seems that although learning a new skill creates more neural dendritic connections, the growth stops once the skill is learned and the new connections may actually atrophy. Thus, the brain needs random and interactive exercise so that it cannot learn the exercise so well that it becomes a routine and so that it can better learn new things continually.

Learning is an art that requires practical tools to gather a broad knowledge base. For example, Dr. S. Ray has an interesting suggestion: Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary and then write a reminder by the word indicating where you encountered it, whet-her in a book, a newspaper, or a conversation. If you saw it in Newsweek, write NW beside the word. If your professor mentioned it, write his name next to the word. If you come across a word in this article, put a smiling face near it. Next time you encounter this word, your previous annotation will help you form a better association and you will remember the word better.

Once you start learning new words, it is a pleasant surprise to encounter them again. Each new word becomes a personal friend that reinforces a memory. Consider the dictionary one of your most interesting friends. The more words we learn, the more we become aware of our surroundings. Words enrich our memory. Words form the thread on which we string our experiences, said the British philosopher Aldous Huxley (1894-1963).

Physical activity and brainpower

Physical activity increases mental function. Exercise induces the growth of capillaries (tiny blood vessels) in the brain. Aging can lead to the brain receiving less blood. Exercise throughout life works against the decreased mental functioning associated with old age. Yet, one must not overemphasize physical exercise.

In their book Healthy Pleasures, Ornstein (a psychologist) and Sobel (a physician) argue that our current health practices should be shifted toward a more intellectual approach. They claim that diets and physical exercises can punish and even harm the body, and that they might have side-effects and only a limited effectiveness. They opine that some of the rigorous body controls we tend to practice are more linked to the Protestant work ethic than real health benefits. Hence going to the gym is a work-out.

Stress and brainpower

One side-effect of stress is dullness in the brain. Therefore, whatever removes stress increases brainpower. There are several relatively new methods to improve brainpower (intelligence, creativity, learning ability). For example, listening to a precise combination of audio signals embedded on a cassette or CD beneath soothing music and environmental sounds can give the brain a very specific audio stimulus that gently creates deep meditation, removes stress, and creates emotional healing at a deep level. This causes new connections to be created in the brain.

This is accompanied by a deep, trance-like meditative state in which the brain produces a whole host of pleasurable neurochemicals, such as endorphins. Such a trance or meditation can be attained easily during deep and concentrated prayer. A soothing and relaxing atmosphere can be achieved during chanting, remembrance, or reciting holy texts and hymns.

The new pathways caused by these meditative states connect and synchronize the brain’s hemispheres, thereby causing whole brain functioning. The improvements in brainpower include learning, intuition, mental clarity, creativity, focus and concentration, and intelligence. This research is backed by Centerpointe Institute, which has a commercial product (Holosync) based on the above principle.

Stress also is tied to the burdens we are obliged to carry. Usually we think that we control our lives entirely and thus can control everything around us. As this is not even near the truth, the resulting condition is stress accompanied by depression. Again, a fine balance between faith in destiny and free will help us remove this stress and live an alleviated and spiritually relieved life. Said Nursi analyzes this concept in his Twenty-sixth Word.(2)

In addition to removing stress, the nervous system’s reorganization of itself to a new and higher level increases the stress threshold. At that point, many uncomfortable, dysfunctional feelings and behaviors go away, even if they might have been persistent until then. This is a deep and dramatic change in mental health: the release of anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the release of self-defeating behaviors, childhood traumas, and limiting decisions. Once these are gone, we can expect better relationships to emerge.

Thus it is like a virtuous cycle, because people who reach higher levels want to move to deeper meditation levels, just as athletes increase their mileage after mastering a certain distance. In these in-creased levels, the mind expands, grows, and becomes self-aware to a greater extent. Perhaps it also experiences a deeper meditative experience.

Health and brainpower

Adding years to your life and life to your years have always been challenging. The first one has been achieved for some, as life expectancy in developed countries increased by 30 years during the twentieth century due to improved food supply, housing, medicine, and many other factors. However, research in the last few decades proves that one can become even smarter by dendrite generation. At first, researchers told us that life-long physical training was one way to keep in good health. Now, since scientists know that the brain can be developed and enlarged, brain calisthenics have become even more important. The age-old dilemma of mind over matter has been resolved in favor of the mind.

A group of researchers has demonstrated that pleasure and positive states of mind are better for our health. This new intellectual approach to health is not only more powerful, but also has no side effects. Central to this claim are recent findings that even getting an education may add as much as 10 years to your health. That is why National Geographic featured John de Rosen in its 1986 book The Incredible Machine, which discussed old age. De Rosen, an artist, continued to paint until the week he died at age 91. The book notes: Some scientists believe that retirement to a sedentary lifestyle initiates or aggravates medical problems, thus shortening life. According to a study of retired people, adults over 65 can learn a creative skill, like oil painting, as readily as younger students. So retiring from a job in a sense means retiring from life unless supplemented by some other (preferably new) activity.

Investigating mental processes and brain efficiency

With their new imaging machines, scientists literally look into the brain and photograph the paths of mental processing to learn how the brain handles information. Each of the 100 billion neurons has dendrites (receptors), a central processor, and a cable to send the messages to the next neuron. Some years ago, scientists thought that these physical aspects were fixed at birth. Then Marion Diamond, a pioneer brain researcher who dissected Einstein’s brain, published Enriching Heredity. In it, she claimed to have found that the key areas of Einstein’s brain were very rich in dendrites due to the increased usage, and thus established that the brain is not fixed by heredity.

Another aspect of brainpower is efficiency. Dr. Richard Haier, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, used PET (positron emission tomography) scan images of brain metabolism to indicate mental efficiency. Newsweek (29 February 1988) reported his finding that smarter brains use less energy. Wired (May 1994) introduced to the general public his first works using PET to analyze the brain changes of Tetris players. In this article, he revealed the importance of neural efficiency. In other words, give a smart brain a hard cognitive task, like Tetris, and it will quickly learn to solve it using less of the brain and less rigorously. Less efficient brains seem to have difficulty localizing the task to the most appropriate processing centers. Therefore, there is wasted brain energy and needless redundancy (noise) in neural-net processing activity.

Newsweek (27 March 1988) featured Haier’s PET scans of SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) takers. The outcome seemed to differentiate be-tween sexes. Smart men who scored above 700 on the SAT math section worked their brains harder (less efficiently) than smart women. The PET images reveal how efficiently the brain works when processing a cognitive task. Therefore, before and after PET images may show how smart the brain, or neural-cognitive system, is as a function of how fast it learned how to minimize extraneous brain processing areas and focus energy on smaller, more productive areas.

We have been led to believe that we use very little of our brain. Ironically, the smarter the person is, the less of his or her brain seems to be involved in any particular task. It seems that dendrites use the shortest or most feasible path possible, and that the more numerous and longer the dendrites are, the more likely they are to have shorter paths between the nodes in the brain’s neural network. When the mind starts to process a task, it apparently engages a greater area of the brain to feel it out. However, the smarter brain-mind system will narrow in on the brain’s most appropriate processing area(s). Then, the rest of the brain is released to do something else, such as noisy chatter or just rest (which is rare). A less intelligent system might use more of the brain than is necessary. This may create a source of noise on the neural-net that distracts, disrupts, or derails the fast and efficient (consistent and accurate) data processing by the appropriate brain center(s).

Brain efficiency seems to be highly correlated with intelligence (or brainpower). Apparently, the less moving parts the less friction and noise! This would agree with certain research findings of meditators whose quieter and more alpha- and theta-dominant brains appear to be better at various cognitive and mental reflex tasks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, brainpower depends on many things: daily diet, physical and mental exercise, emotional state, stress, heredity and so on. It is not fixed or static, but has the ability to change and progress, so one can improve it by a combination of techniques that suit the individual. The discovery of new or improving existing techniques is open for further research in cognitive science.

Footnotes

1. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Descartes.html#Descartes.
2. The Words is available online at:www.sozler.com.tr/risnur/warning_word.htm.

References

• Centerpointe Institute, Holosync, http://www.trans4mind.com/holosync/.
• Diamond, Marion. Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Anatomy of the Brain. Free Press: 1988.
• Ornstein, R. and D. Sobel. Healthy Pleasures. Addison-Wesley, 1989.
• Poole, R. M. (ed.) The Incredible Machine. National Geographic Society: 1992.
• Report from the Biomedical Newsletter. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, n.d.
• Sahelian, Ray. Be Happier Starting Now: A Medical Doctor Explores the Fascinating Field of Happiness. Longevity Research Center: 1995. See Chapter 9.
• www.brain.com.

Obesity is harmful to infants as well as adults. Obesity during infancy may, in later life, cause such diseases as arteriosclerosis and the other ailments which often accompany it. Arteriosclerosis in adults is a factor in high blood pressure or hypertension, and in certain diseases of the heart eyes and kidneys. Obesity can also lead to diabetes.

There is a good deal in classical Islamic sources on the subjects of over-eating and obesity. The Qur’anic verses. Eat and drink but not to excess (7.32), and Do not cast yourselves into destruction by your own hands (2.195), may be mentioned (besides their other meanings) as Divine warnings against transgressing the limits in eating and drinking and doing harm to ourselves because of carelessness. All ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Wafid said. God put all medicine into half of one verse [of the Qur’an] when He said: Eat and drink but not to excess.’ The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, also drew attention to obesity and over-eating. For example, as recorded by al-Haythami, on seeing a fat man, he said: If you did not have a paunch, it would be better for you. He also said: Overeating does not go with good health. The criterion established by Islam, and reiterated by the Prophet, is: The middle way [avoiding extremes] is the best in every affair.

Among other sayings of the Prophet which warn against the dangers of overeating and obesity are:

Avoid filling the stomach with food and drink. Overeating exhausts the body and causes illnesses. Follow a middle way in eating and drinking as this improves the body. God does not love fat bodies.

The son of Adam [i.e. man] fills no container worse than his stomach. Let him have just a few mouthfuls to strengthen the limbs.

One third of the stomach is for food, one third for drink, and one third for air.¹

The following saying uttered in relation to the spiritual harm caused by over-eating, can also be read in relation to heart diseases arising from overeating:

Do not kill your hearts by eating and drinking too much. For the heart is like a sown field: over-irrigation causes the seed to rot.²

‘Ali, the fourth Caliph, said:

Having suet is a disease. He also said: Fullness causes heart spasms.³

‘Umar, the second Caliph, said: Avoid getting a pot-belly, for it spoils the body, causes diseases, and makes doing the prayer tiring. And avoid all excess, for God hates a learned man who is fat.⁴

Harith ibn Khalada, the physician of the Arabs, was once asked: What is the best medicine? He replied: ‘Necessity- that is, hunger.’ When asked what the disease was, he said:

‘The entry of food upon food.’

lbn Sina, the renowned Muslim physician and philosopher, said: ‘Never have a meal until the one before it has been digested.’ He also advised against excessive salt and fatty meat. His list of food for dieting mostly included vegetables. The prescription is much the same today.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, also drew attention to obesity and over-eating. For example, as recorded by al-Haythami, on seeing a fat man, he said: If you did not have a paunch, it would be better for you. He also said: Overeating does not go with good health. The criterion established by Islam, and reiterated by the Prophet, is: The middle way [avoiding extremes] is the best in every affair.

The Prophet declared:

Avoid filling the stomach with food and drink. Overeating exhausts the body and causes illnesses. Follow a middle way in eating and drinking as this improves the body. God does not love fat bodies.
The son of Adam [i.e. man] fills no container worse than his stomach. Let him have just a few mouthfuls to strengthen the limbs.
One third of the stomach is for food, one third for drink, and one third for air.¹
The following saying uttered in relation to the spiritual harm caused by over-eating, can also be read in relation to heart diseases arising from overeating:
Do not kill your hearts by eating and drinking too much. For the heart is like a sown field: over-irrigation causes the seed to rot.

Contrary to some popular superstitions, fat babies are not healthy babies. On the contrary, over-eating is also harmful for children. Children fed on starchy foods without the necessary amount of vitamin D are susceptible to rickets (rachitism). Ibn Sina advised the same nine centuries ago: ‘Avoid giving babies too much food. Over-nutrition of babies causes their urine to be light-coloured’. The fact that a baby goes on suckling does not always mean that the baby is hungry; sometimes suckling is just a reflex action. Dark-coloured urine in babies indicates undernutrition; while a light colour is symptomatic of overnutrition.

Ibn Sina was of the opinion that over-feeding provokes eclampsia (convulsions) in babies. Anther Muslim physician, Abu Bakr al-Razi, also pointed to this link. He said that some infantile convulsions can abate after proper regular nutrition. lbn Sina and al-Razi may have been referring to the kind of eclampsia caused by rickets emerging as a result of obesity: in the syndromes named after Frohlich and Martin-Albright obesity is accompanied by eclampsia.

Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim sociologist and historian famous for his Muqaddima, also mentioned that over-eating causes many diseases. He said: ‘Know that hunger is better for health than eating too much. Even if we cannot remain hungry, eating less is good. Eating less is better for the development of body and mind.’⁵

Other Muslim physicians such as Haji Pasha and Hafiz Hasan Effendi also wrote that giving babies too much milk was harmful for their health. It is now a well-established fact that feeding babies too much milk causes obesity.

Advice on eating and drinking

There are many sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessing, on medicine. They encompass a great variety of subjects including eating and drinking and the mention of certain kinds of food particularly useful for health. In later centuries Muslim scholars collected these sayings, usually under the title of Tibb al-Nabawi. The collections of lbn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti and Abu Nu’aym are among the most famous.

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d.1505), one of the greatest scholars of the Muslim Middle Ages, recommended eating cold foods in summer and hot ones in winter. Hot food should be preferred with cold, sweet with sour, fat with salt and acid with fat. Variety of foods excites the constitution; it is best to eat with relish and enjoyment. Having the same food several times one after the other and eating hurriedly causes loss of appetite and laziness. Eating a second meal without fully digesting the first is harmful. Al-Suyuti also wrote that one should avoid food and drink that has been left uncovered. The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, commanded this: Cover your containers and stop up the mouths of your water bottles.

The Prophet disapproved eating food while it is too hot. He never used to blow on his food or drink, or breathe into a container. He also forbade eating lying down.

Taking a walk after eating a meal or doing the prayer is beneficial, specially for the digestive process. The Prophet said: Digest your food with the Name of God and with doing a prayer. And do not go to sleep immediately after eating as this will make you constipated.

The hands should be washed alter as well as before eating. One whose stomach is over-stuffed with food cannot think clearly or wisely. The less a man eats, the less he drinks; and the less he drinks, the less he sleeps; and the less he sleeps, the better he will be in old age. The body of a man over-filled food will be badly nourished, his self will be in a bad state, and his heart will grow hard. Therefore one should avoid too much food as it poisons the heart and slows down the limbs of the body in fulfilling one’s responsibilities toward God. One should also avoid drinking very cold water, for it is harmful to the respiratory system, specially after a hot meal, or after sweet food, or after a hot bath.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, forbade drinking water at a single gulp. Anas ibn Malik transmitted the tradition that the Prophet used to drink with three pauses and, at each pause, remove his mouth from the container.

Healthy exercise

Moderate exercise is a most effective means of preserving good health. It warms the organs, helps dissolution of waste products, and makes the body light and active. The best time for exercise which does not over-tire the body or make it red. When sweating begins, exercise should be stopped. The type of exercise which increases sweating is not ‘moderate’ but ‘heavy’.

The body’s organs are strengthened and made more vigorous by regular exercise. The same applies to the inner faculties. One who wishes, for example, to improve his memory will improve it by memorizing. There is a specific exercise proper to every organ.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, advised a form of exercise which is good for our bodies and our hearts when he said: Travel, for you will grow healthy. He also said: Fasting brings health.

Sleep

According to al-Suyuti, the best time to go to sleep is after food has been digested. Over-sleeping is bad for the health; and sleeping face down is forbidden. Sleeping during the hour following sunrise and before sunset is bad for one: it may lead to ailments and indolence. However, a short sleep in the middle of the day is useful for the health and helps one to rise for prayer during the night.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, used to sleep on his side, facing the qibla (the Ka’ba in Makka). And it is better o go to sleep in a state of wudu.

References

1. The narrations can be found in Tanbih al-Ghafilin by Abu’I Leys al-Samarkandi, (Turkish translation), p. 799, and, lhya Ulum al-Din by Imam Ghazali (Turkish trans.) Vol. 3, p. 186.
2. al-Ghazali, ibid., 3.186.
3. Celal Yildirim, Asrin Kuran Tefsiri, Izmir, :1987, 1.478.
4. Imam Dhahabi, Sifa Demetleri, Istanbul, 21.
5. I. Haldun, Muqaddima (Turkish trans.), Ank. 1977, 1.232.