The Weirdest Way To Get Smarter Fast
December 21st 2009 11:48
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The Weirdest Way To Get Smarter Fast
Next time you forget where you parked, this trick could get you back behind the wheel pronto: Pinch your right nostril shut.
Sounds strange, but research shows that pinching the right one shut and breathing through the left one boosts spatial memory — that part of your brain that helps with memory and navigation.
How's that? It's a right brain/left brain thing. In general, you use the left side of your brain to balance your checkbook, carry on conversations and solve problems that require linear reasoning. The right side? It helps you paint like Picasso and recognize faces, and it controls spatial abilities. And since the left side of your body controls the right side of your brain (and vice versa), that's why breathing through the left nostril gives the right side of your brain a boost.
But this only gets your brain so far. A nostril pinch won't turn you into Einstein (sorry, but you had to figure you'd have proved Fermat's last theorem or something like that by now if that were true). Keep your brain young with the same things that keep age's hands off the rest of your body: Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, some lean protein and 100 percent whole grains (for an extra boost, add coffee and turmeric to your diet), exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, and if you breathe tobacco smoke in, quit — or get the people around you to quit if you breathe it secondhand.
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