Food For Thought

Hello fellow members of the Fit Tribe! Its great to hook up with others who “get it”! Others who are willing to make the commitment to be fit and healthy! I ask you, is there any other way?

This is the first of many articles or dialogues hopefully on a variety of topics related to achieving and maintaining Vibrant Fitness – health (physical, emotional and spiritual) beyond what you’ve previously dreamed possible. I hope you occasionally find this column informative, amusing, thought provoking. It’s up to you what you do with it, I welcome responses.

Here’s today’s tasty tidbit-

What you eat helps determine how smart you are-it’s not just that the smart ones eat right, the ones that eat right are smarter! Getting enough DHA, an omega 3 fat found in fish oils and flax seed oil is the key here. According to David Perlmutter, MD in the Townsend Letter, DHA actually increases the efficiency and speed of brain cell function particularly in the memory center – laboratory test show it improves memory!
It gets better- DHA actually has the ability to turn “on” certain “smart genes”. In effect, to some degree, you can determine how smart you are. It turns on the genes that code for a protein-brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain that is vitally important for the formation, health and protection of neurons in the brain.

Exercise is another way to turn on these same genes. On the flip side, TV really is the “boob tube”-even if you do watch the Discovery Channel, TV has been shown to turn “off” the BDNF gene-it makes you less smart. One more reason to not be a couch potato!

BE HEALTH!

Tribe doc

Darren F. X. Clair, M.D.

Darren Francis Clair, M.D., has been active in the field of preventive health for the past 20 years. A graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Princeton University, he is founder and current Medical Director of Vibrance Medical Group and Vibrance Services Co., LLC. Dr. Clair recently was a co-investigator on an FDA-approved study of the use of human Growth Hormone (hGH) for its anti-aging potential. A longstanding member of the American Association of Anti-Aging Physicians, he is known as a writer on health-related issues, including nutrition, fitness, hormonal balancing, proactive health, genomic testing and stem cell therapy. He has made professional appearances on multiple television shows and has served as an anti-aging consultant to several medical corporations.