Stop Scaring Me

Even one dose of morphine given to soldiers inhibits (blocks) the ability of the brain to form new memories for learning up to a thirty-days. But you are not a soldier,
so who cares?

One dose of an opioid prescription drug can block your brain from strong memory and learning for up to a month. Imagine what happens when you on a daily regimen of drugs.

Dr. Julie Kauer at Brown University says, in the April 26, 2007 journal of Nature:
addiction to drugs inhibits (blocks) LTP (Long Term Potentiation), the connections between neurons (brain cells) for information exchange. No LPT, no memories and no learning.

LTP happens at the synapsis (contact point between neurons), and is the cellular basis for memory and learning. Neurotransmitters (chemicals) are released to save specific knowledge as memories.

Dopamine

The secret of memory and learning is the chemical, Dopamine. Drugs increase
the release of Dopamine, the same as naturally rewarding experiences do. Remember, Homo sapiens are pleasure-seeking, pain avoiding creatures; it is hardwired in your brain. We work and are motivated by rewards and avoiding
physical and mental pain.

LTP becomes stronger after repeated stimuli (delivering stronger memory and learning ability) because of the reward of Dopamine. Your flow of Dopamine,
the pleasure chemical, is released naturally by rewarding experiences like love,
success, sex, and addiction to drugs. Dopamine boosts the reward response in your brain.

For Geeks: your reward (pleasure) brain structures are the VTA (Ventral Tegmental Area) and your Nucleus Accumbens. When you activate them, your
Dopamine cells start firing to reinforce repeating the experience again and again.

Compliments, sex, and promotions motivate your brain to repeat your behaviors to obtain future Dopamine rewards. Humans are addicted to rewards and pain avoidance. Scientists call addiction to drugs pathological learning. Guess why?

One more thing, check out vitamin K2 as a supplement for reinforcing your immune
system, bones and heart. Feeling healthy and avoiding the ravages of aging causes a
flow of Dopamine.

Eye Exercises
If you are like the rest of Homo sapiens, you find exercises a form of slavery and
loss of control. What if eye exercises help you avoid loss of eyesight through cataracts and glaucoma, and improve both near and far-sightedness?

OK, eye exercises are only one element of avoiding eye diseases; causes are genetic, cellular or traumatic injury. Still, we do what we can to avoid painful symptoms, right?

Ophthalmologists (eye specialists) recommend deep breathing to deliver more oxygen to your eyes and reduce dry-eye and fatigue from excessive (beyond 60 minutes) computer usage.

Our research with students and executives indicates as little as two-minutes of
deep-breathing increases your oxygen supply up to 10% for about four hours.
Your three-pound brain requires almost 25% of your body oxygen supply, and
an additional 10% when learning and memorizing.

Google this

Vasodilation (expanding the width of your blood vessels) through two-minutes of
deep breathing produces more oxygen to your brain. Holding your breath for
up to 30 seconds while deep breathing, is even better to increase the flow of oxygen and glucose to your brain structures.

Endothelium is the deepest layer of your blood vessels; these cells line the interior surface of your vessels between the blood flow and the vessel wall. It transports
protein, oxygen and glucose.

So what

Deep breathing exercises for as little as two-minutes daily, improve the flow
of oxygen, glucose and proteins to your brain for up to four hours. So?
It improves your ability to learn and remember new information. You receive a great return as a CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis) for your investment of time.

Intentional Blinking

Scientific research on computer users working three more hours daily, suffer a 50%
higher incidence of Dry Eye than computer phobic executives. Are you going to give up on the information highway technology?

Folks blink about 15 times per minute. When you are excited or stressed it can increase up to 30 times per minute. This exercise requires two-minutes every 90 minutes.

Look away from your screen and intentionally blink each eye separately
for about a minute. No hocus-pocus, just choose to refresh the film washing over your eyes by a longer than usual blink; about two-seconds each, with ten s-l-o-w blinks in each eye. It is used by thousands of knowledgeable speed readers to save their vision.

Palming

Use the heels of your hands to make cups to palm your eyes for one-minute every
three-hours. Keep track of what you are doing by simultaneously counting your inhaling and exhaling. Do not flatten your hand against your eyes; permit space for blinking.

Our students find palming one eye at a time, and ending with a set of palming both eyes simultaneously, works best. It is soothing and has something to do with Albedo,
the ratio of light reflected and received by your eyes. Test it.

Extra-Ocular Muscles

This one is baby-easy and very effective. You got six muscles in each eye, and another muscle to lift you eye-lid. The muscles permit your eyes to focus for
general vision including reading.

Four muscles are called Rectus (straight), and are the Superior and Inferior, Lateral and Medial. Two muscles are called Oblique (slanting), and referred to as Superior and Inferior.

For Geeks: Google Ciliary Body and Zonules of the eyes. Cilia are hair-like (eyelashes), and Zonules are tiny fiber guy-wires acting to move the eye muscles.
They shape the eye lens to focus light on the retina; it is called seeing.

Exercise

Stop twice a day for a two-minute exercise to improve your vision for up to four hours with each set of exercises. It is easy. Start by centering your vision and look upward left and back to center, and then upward right and return to forward sighting.

How many times? Ten for each eye is optimal.

Next, extreme lateral left, and extreme lateral right, both slowly.

Finally, look extremely downward left, and then downward right, ten times in each direction. You are contracting and relaxing your six extra-ocular muscles with
each repetition and strengthening your vision. Be your own scientist and decide its value.

Endwords

We suggest you discover the skills of speed learning and read three books, articles
and reports in the time others can hardly finish one. Do you need a competitive advantage to run in the fast-track in your career?

See ya,

copyright 2007
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
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