Optimal Being

Stimulating the sleeping brain may ease suffering from memory loss, stroke or mental health problem. It was late, and Sonia was alone in an unfamiliar town, trying to find her way home. The map showed a route through a dark forest lit by an occasional lantern. She viewed it with foreboding but, seeing other people also using this passage, took it. Walking fast, she neared a couple ahead of her—a man and a woman—who suddenly stopped, turned and grabbed her. The man covered her face with a cloth. She found herself on a stage with a ceiling spanned by a mirror. A crowd of men armed with guns and knives encircled her; she was about to be tortured and killed. Sonia picked up a stone and threw it at the ceiling, which shattered. Pieces of glass rained down, piercing her shoulder and foot. She fled into the forest, pursued by the couple, who could read each other's minds. The woman saw where Sonia was running and informed the man—Sonia knew she would be hunted down. This nightmare and sim...

IGF-1 is perhaps the most powerful growth factor in the body when it comes to building bones and muscles. Your body manufactures more IGF-1 the more protein-rich foods are in your diet. Eggs in particular are effective IGF-1 boosters, Thai scientists discovered. Researchers from Mahidol University conducted an experiment with 3 groups of students aged 8-14 for 35 weeks. Students in the experimental group received 2 eggs every school day with their school lunch [WE]. [Thai schools provide students with lunch.] Students in another group were not given eggs for lunch, but an equivalent that provided the same amount of energy and protein [protein substitute; PE]. After all, students in the control group simply received a standard lunch and nothing else. Results Including eggs in the diet increased IGF-1 levels more than incorporating a protein substitute. Click on the figure below for a larger version.  The addition of eggs to the test subjects' diet increased the concentration of not ...

  Strength athletes who focus on their muscles during their training increase the  electrical activity  in those muscles, do not increase their  maximum strength  or the number of  reps  they can do. What  may  increase with this mental technique is the size of their muscles. Study Brad Jon Schoenfeld, a researcher we don't need to introduce, published a study in the European Journal of Sport Science in which 30 male and untrained students participated as test subjects. Schoenfeld divided them into 2 groups. During the 8 weeks that the experiment lasted, the students trained with weights 3 times a week in an identical manner. One group had to focus on the muscles during the workout, the other on the weights. Before and after the training period, Schoenfeld determined the strength of the subjects, their body composition and - using ultrasound scans - the size of some muscle groups. Results The subjects who had concentrated on their muscles dur...