Stressed? Clenching your fist may be beneficial…

May 15, 2013 by admin
Filed under Kevin's Blog

When I’m feeling stressed I head outside for a stroll and get some fresh air, but if you’re one of the many people who grab a stress-relieving ball and clench your fists, you’ll be thrilled to hear it may actually be beneficial – and not just for the stress!

It is believed the movements activate brain regions, which are key to the storing and recall of memories. Researchers in the US suggest that those who are short of a pen and paper should try the trick when attempting to commit a phone number or shopping list to memory.

So does it work? Click here to find out!

Tags: brain, clench, fist, help, memories, memory, natural cures, paper, pen, relief, research, stress

New Mind-Altering Drug Capable of Literally Modifying Your Memories

June 2, 2011 by admin
Filed under News Stories

1 Comment

June 2nd, 2011

Natural News

By: Jonathan Benson

Changing bad memories into good ones could be just a pill away, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Researchers from the University of Montreal in Canada say that metyrapone, a drug that blocks the “stress hormone” cortisol, also appears to alter patients’ memories and minimizing their recollection of negative events — but is this actually a good thing?

For their study, Marie-France Marin and her team evaluated the effects of metyrapone on a group of young men shown a slide show that documented the serious injury of a young girl. In it, the girl is building a birdhouse with her grandparents until a serious accident lands her in the emergency room. In the end, the girl is okay, but the details of her injury involve lots of blood and other disturbing imagery.

Three days after viewing the images of this story, the team gave either a single 750 milligram (mg) dose of metyrapone, a double dose, or a placebo pill to the men in the group. None of the men knew which pill they received. The team then asked the men to retell the story of the girl as they recalled it, both right after receiving the pill, and again four days after taking the pills.

The team found that the men who took the double dose of meyrapone remembered far less of the negative imagery than did the men taking the single or placebo dose. Men in the placebo group scored between 40 and 50 percent in their negative imagery memory test, while men who took the double dose of metyrapone scored around 30 percent.

In explaining these results to Reuters Health, Marin and her team expressed their belief that because metyrapone artificially lowers cortisol levels, it interferes with the way the brain stores memories. These alterations appear to remove the emotional aspects from negative memories that give them a basis in reality, thus changing actual reality into a type of artificial fantasy world.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Tags: brain, cortisol, drugs, memories, memory, metryapone, mind-altering drug, negative memories, pill, placebo, reality, recollection, stress hormone