Memory - Carson Natural

Are You Living Your Life to the Fullest?

No matter what occupation you have, there are daily stresses with which you deal. The only difference is that some of us are better at dealing with stress than others. Letting stress get to you can be one of the biggest obstacles to truly enjoying your life. Another big obstacle is feeling like you don’t have enough time for enjoyable things.

Being a hard worker is both an admirable and necessary trait for reaching new levels in business. But in order to live life to its fullest, we need to find a healthy balance. As an entrepreneur, I am constantly striving for success. As a result of that, there were times when I worked around the clock without so much as a thought about exercise or sleep. Those were not good times.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, rest and relaxation actually enable us to be more productive during the hours that we work. Working around the clock doesn’t increase your efficiency. Proper sleep enhances your memory and improves your cognitive processes. Although it may seem like we don’t have time for sleep, proper rest is essential to a productive day. To get proper sleep, we must respect our circadian rhythms.

In my book How to Live Until You Die I explain that we all sleep in 90-minute cycles that repeat themselves throughout the night, alternating between REM, (rapid-eye-movement) and NREM (non-rapid-eye-movement) sleep. I give further details on REM and NREM sleep and how to get the best sleep for waking up energized and being productive, using sources from the Mayo Clinic, National Sleep Foundation, and Harvard Business Review to corroborate my advice.

If you aren’t getting proper sleep, you are going to be more susceptible to illness, and you are going to be weary all the time. Pretty soon, you’ll literally become sick and tired of being sick and tired. That’s certainly not living life to its fullest. To truly enjoy your life, you need to get regular rest and not feel guilty about sleeping.

In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport talks about the necessary balance between work and other activities, like exercise. He encourages people to take a break during the day to go for a walk or run in order to re-energize and balance exercise and work. He especially encourages people to spend time outdoors, saying “Spending time in nature can improve your ability to concentrate.” Newport elaborates on how spending time walking through nature can help you focus on solving problems. I myself have often walked my problems out and it has greatly helped to ease the daily stresses of being an entrepreneur.

The thing that matters most in living your life to the fullest is balance. There is nothing wrong with hard work, but you can’t allow your work to take the place of spending time with your family, sleeping, or exercising. There is a balance you can achieve which allows you to enjoy activities that you love and still accomplish the things you need to do to make money.

In fact, there are seven keys to living happy, healthy, and whole. Each of these plays an important part in living life to its fullest and finding satisfaction along the way. To learn more about the seven keys, get your copy of How to Live Until You Die today.

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil

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Have you lost your keys lately? When is the last time you could have swore you put that thing right there, but it’s nowhere to be found? Raise your hand if you’ve hit your car alarm in a crowded parking lot recently because your car was “lost!” These scenarios lead me to a question that I hear pretty regularly… “Dr. Phil, what can I do to improve my memory?

I’ve even had some patients tell me that they can feel their memory fading. That can be a scary feeling. Their next question, most of the time, is if I have any good supplement recommendations that can help them. I know a lot of people this day and time are scared of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia. I understand their concern about these conditions as it hits home with me as well. I’m not fearful of it, but I am fully aware of what it can do to a person, because I watched my grandfather suffer and die from the complications of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, I personally take a lot of preventative measures to keep myself from following the same path that my grandfather did. So today I want to share some of those with you.

Raise your hand if you’ve hit your car alarm in a parking lot recently b/c your car was lost

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Take These Preventive Measures Now…

The easiest and most essential way to prevent memory loss is to keep your brain active, or in other words exercising your brain. One of the best things you can do is to read daily. I suggest you read things that challenge your thinking and stimulate your brain. There are all different types of things that you can read out there, but be selective in what you choose to read because you want something that will stimulate your brain. Another thing you can do to keep your brain active is to have some type of hobby where you have to use your brain skills. Crosswords, sudoku, word puzzles, strategy games, and I can go on and on with these types of suggestions, but I think you get the point here. Stay active and keep your brain active!

Secondly, in contrast to exercising your brain, you must also rest your brain daily. Just like your body, you push it and work it, but at the end of the day you have to rest your body! In other words, you have to get sleep, not just any kind of sleep, but restful sleep. There was a recent study done at the University of California at Berkley that tied Alzheimer’s to lack of sleep. Scientists at UC Berkley found compelling evidence that poor sleep, particularly a deficit of the deep restorative sleep, causes a buildup of the beta amyloid protein which is believed to trigger Alzheimer’s Disease attacks the brain’s longterm memory.

If you’re interested in learning more about that study, then I encourage you to click here and read for yourself!

Let me tell you that proper sleep and quality sleep are topics that I have talked about in previous episodes of The Feeling Good Podcast and I have also blogged about, as well. If you want to learn more about the importance of sleep in connection to your overall health, then check out this blog and listen to episode 19 of The Feeling Good Podcast.

3 of My Favorite Supplements…..

I have also devoted a whole chapter to the subject of sleep in my new book that will be coming out later this year. Be on the lookout for updates about that!

Thirdly, there are some wonderful supplements that studies have shown to be helpful in improving our memory and keeping our brains healthy. There are 3 particular supplements that I use personally.

One of those is phosphatidylserine or phosphatidyl complex. This particular supplement, for some people, can have a two-fold action. The first thing it can help improve is short-term memory and the second is to our ability to get to sleep, as well as improving the quality of our sleep.

The second supplement I take is called Pro DHA. It is a Nordic natural fish oil supplement that has a high concentration of DHA. DHA is necessary for brain support and brain health, as well as brain development. As a pharmacist, I have noticed that now all prenatal manufactures are now adding DHA to the prenatal supplements because all the studies coming out showing the importance of the fetus and mother getting this DHA for brain development. I highly recommend DHA to patients of all ages because of the importance of brain development, unless you are eating fish 3-4 times a week.

The third supplement I take is Co-Enzyme Q10. This supplement is important for heart health. There have been quite a few studies done with this supplement that show that it is very healthy for brain health and memory. Co-Enzyme Q10 is needed for our muscle cells, but is also helpful for our brain cells. According to these studies, I think it’s a good idea to take Co-Enzyme Q10 if you are having any kind of memory problems!

You can find all of these supplements on our website, and if someone you know is having memory issues, then please share this information with them. If you have any other questions regarding memory and brain health please get in touch with me by emailing [email protected]!

If you’d like to hear more about this then you can also listen to the latest episode of The Feeling Good Podcast by clicking here!

Healthy Blessings,

Dr. Phil