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Image showing a portrait Yoshinori Ohsumi the winner of the Nobel Prize for his work on autophagy.

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Getting your memory back fast.
You've noticed that remembering names in particular has begun to be more of a problem then in the past?
An answer might be:

We did run through some stuff when we were chatting, but just to recap.
The first thing to do is remember the story about coconut fat. Here is a link to the Daily Mail This article raises some points that need addressing. First it mentions drugs that may provide the benefits of coconut fat without the triglycerides. Well this article I'm about to cite goes some way to suggest that triglycerides are not necessarily down to the fat one eats but the glucose! This backs up what I said and that is that it's carbs, sugars and processed foods that are the real problem. Because these three sources of starches that of potato, rice and wheat that do a lot of the damage, which ultimately raise blood pressure, triglycerides, promote diabetes and aid the onset of Alzhimers. The next thing the article mentions is that ketones might be more important than the coconut fat itself. Again I disagree, I've produced as many as 4.0 mmols of ketones a day with an average of 2.0 over a period of a week and found that my brain function was not as good as when I was eating the fat from coconut. So although ketones are a really healthy long term option, what needs to happen right now is full fat coconut fat. Next the article mentions MCT oil, which is liquid coconut fat, distilled slightly to produce more medium chain triglycerides (MCT), but in my experience it is a skin irritant, which if it affects the skin on the outside it will definitely affect the skin on the inside as it goes through your intestine. I know that evolution has given us a trap door in the intestine allowing pure MCTs to pass straight into the bloodstream thus accelerating absorption, and avoiding digestion in the stomach, but this is for only a small amount so a teaspoon at a time is enough, and the energy rush does not last long. When they recommend no more than 2 teaspoons I agree no more than two teaspoons a day. The next thing the article mentions is if coconut fat is hydrogenated or not. Well coconut fat does not need to be hydrogenated. It can be bought partially hydrogenated, but this is to extend shelf life only, and we don't want that. It turns out that any hydrogenated fats, this is ones that have a fat content now containing trans fats is now just one molecule away from plastic! And has a half life of one year! Not good for us. So I'd recommend you choose extra virgin and cold pressed coconut fat, which for sure means no hydrogenation and therefore not trans fats. I hear there is no thing as real organic coconut fat, but if it says it on the container, then I'd go for that rather than not. So doing all this will reduce hunger because the hormone for hunger is leptin which is satiated with fat, so all that fat will allow you to not eat. This will simultaneously reduce your carb intake, all good so far.

The next thing I mentioned was to push the advantage afforded to you while sleeping, you already started cutting carbs and eating fat during the day and this advantage is to extend the forced fast of sleep. When you wake, try and extend your non-eating window by putting off breakfast for as long as possible. This is the most important bit, because it is with extending the forced fast of sleep that real healing of the brain can take place. In the seminal research done by on autophagy he explains that not eating will lead to an auto cleansing of the bodies systems including the brain. It turns out when humans don’t eat for a while a mechanism that evolution has given us kicks in to help us survive. We get smarter! That’s right our brains grow new connections in the brain, and even the rate of new brain stem cell production goes up too. We already knew that our brains produced some 400 neurons a day in the hippocampus under normal circumstances, but for this to increase during a period of fasting is a bonus. It seems that when hungry our brains sharpen and our eyes get better and our senses improve, this of course is so that we may succeed at detecting and catching our next meal. The other way of looking at this is simply to reduce the eating window. So if you decide to only eat from 2 to 8pm then that is an eating window of 6 hours. Not bad. Similarly if you start to eat at 4pm and finish at 7pm that is an eating window of 3 hours. Getting this eating window down to 1 hour is your choice, but a six hour eating window is enough to begin benefitting from all the possitive effects of these dainly intermitent fasts over time. The smaller the eating window the faster the results. And with your fasting day filled with the occassional teaspoon of coconut fat and olive oil, this might end up being perfectly doable.

The next thing I mentioned was to take some supplements and get some exercise. The reason for this is that the and and we should not forget what Dr Boz said in her brilliant book that “two years of producing ketones in your bloodstream will arrest heart disease”. Thus reducing the furring up of arteries. So to find a fast way to help reduce vascular dementia we need to get some exercise in the first hour of every morning. Along with these supplements Syberian Ginseng, Ginkgo Biloba and Omega 3 oil we are onto a winner. The exercise I do is advocated by Wim Hoff (the iceman) 20 world records. He proposes hyperventilating for 35 breaths or more, (until you begin to feel light headed), and then breathe out all your air and start doing press ups, (or something of your choosing), either full press ups or on your knees press ups. Then take one long breath and continue with the press ups. This will reach a total being both amounts of press ups being added together. Wim Hoff said he can do 100. I hit 100 once. It’s really hard. However repeat the process 3 times. This is good exercise and will reduce any risk of vascular dementia and COPD which is now the number 1 reason for early death in developed countries. There is another advantage of doing the Wim Hoff method and that is that it activates our This has some real advantages. And can keep you in tip top viral shape. We are yet to see the benefits through this pandemic.

The other thing I mentioned was to use a memory palace. This is not new, but is becoming more popular. I’m only on my second book, so I’m new to this. However you may remember the example I gave. Whenever you meet someone, place them somewhere in the house. The thing I didn’t have time to mention was to have a premade route in your head of your house. The way this works is imagine walking though your house and list a whole bunch of things that you see along the way on your route. Do this many times until the route is always the same. So if you manage to find 20 items in your mind's eye, then it will always be the same 20 items next time you review your route. Next make the person you meet stand at the first item along your route. To start with it maybe the front door, which if I remember correctly is me! And then take their first name and think of a sound that reminds you of the name and conjure up an image of something like an animal or non real thing that reminds you of the sound of the name. Do the same with the surname and place them next to the person in some way or make the person you are trying to remember do something with these objects in your mind's eye. With practice you’ll get really fast. For more help on getting it fast enough to be of any use get the excellent book or audio book of here you’ll learn a whole bunch and not just on speed.

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