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March is Brain Awareness Month! Get connected and have a chance to win. It’s easy, either Like Us, ask a brain question or post a brain fact on our Synergy Training Center Facebook. You will be instantly entered for a chance to win a Keurig Brewing System.

Winner announced April 2, 2013

Get Connected about Brain Awareness and join us on Facebook!

Note: Open to residents 16 years and older of Oregon and SW Washington. Promotion ends March 31, 2013 at 11:59pm. 

A complete list of Rules is posted at 17449 Boones Ferry Rd. Ste 300, Lake Oswego OR 97035

A Brainy Menu for a Romantic Valentines Dinner

A Brain Healthy Valentines Dinner for you and your Sweetie

We have compiled a romantic menu for you and your valentine, which incorporates how simple it is to make sure you are giving your brain what it needs to perform properly. 
Each recipe includes footnotes explaining why it is a brain healthy food.

Enjoy! and Happy Valentines day...

For your Starter:

Baby Spinach Salad - Serves 2

(A beautiful plated salad to start your meal)

4 oz. fresh baby spinach³

2 Ripe Red Pears

Candied pecans⁴

Gorgonzola Cheese

Raspberry Vinaigrette 

Divide the spinach between two salad plates. Slice the pear in 1/2 in. slices and arrange on top of spinach. Sprinkle on pecans and gorgonzola to taste.

Serve with Raspberry Vinaigrette.

³ Spinach slows down the effects of age-related declines in brain function and helps protect the brain from oxidative stress. Researchers suggest that a diet rich in spinach can significantly improve learning capacity and motor skills.

⁴Pecans and peanuts provide choline, another important nutrient for optimal brain function. Choline aids in both memory and brain development.

For your Main Course:

Herb and Almond Encrusted Salmon Fillet

Serves 2

1 8 -10 oz Wild Caught Salmon Fillet¹

1/2 cup Ground Almonds² 

1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 T Dill Weed

1/4 t Granulated Garlic

1/4 t Granulated Onion

2 T Lemon Juice

2 T Water

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

Place top rack on upper level. Preheat Broiler to 500º 

Place fillet, skin side down on broiler pan.

Mix almonds, parmesan cheese, dill, garlic and onion together. Spread over top of  fillet.  Spray the top of the fillet with olive oil cooking spray to help it stay in place.

Blend lemon juice and water in small measuring cup with a pour spout. Drizzle half the mixture over the almond/cheese mixture.

Broil 10 Min. or until tender and salmon flakes when tested with a fork. Drizzling additional lemon/water half way through. 

¹Essential fatty acids (EFAs) cannot be made by the body and must be obtained through diet. The most effective omega-3 fats occur naturally in oily fish as EPA and DHA. They are good for healthy brain function, the heart, joints and general wellbeing. Oily fish contains EPA and DHA in a ready-made form, which enables the body to use it easily. The main sources of oily fish include salmon, trout, mackerel, herring, sardines, pilchards and kippers. Low DHA levels have been linked to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and memory loss.

²Phenylalanine, found in almonds, can do wonders for your mental and neurological health. Phenylalanine has the rare ability to cross the blood-brain barrier where it stimulates the brain to generate natural mood-boosting neurotransmitters called dopamine, adrenaline and noradrenaline. Additionally, almonds are high in riboflavin which is known to boost memory.

For your Side Dish:

Whole Wheat Cous Cous w/ Italian Herbs⁵

Cook Cous Cous following package directions.

When it is done, just before serving sprinkle some dried Italian seasoning in and fluff with fork.

⁵Whole grain is a great brain stimulator because it contains high percentage of folate. Make sure you’re eating a diet rich in whole grain breads, cereals, barley, popcorn, etc., because they can boost your blood flow to the brain. Every organ in the body is dependent on blood flow… especially the brain.

Wholegrain breads and cereals are rich in Vitamin B6, an important brain vitamin. Wheat germ additionally contains memory-improving thiamine.

For Desert:

Strawberries⁶  Dipped in Dark Chocolate ⁷

Melt dark chocolate 

Rinse and completely dry strawberries before dipping in warm, melted chocolate

Place on waxed paper to cool

Arrange on a serving plate. 

And there you go.... 

⁶ Antioxidant-rich strawberries can prevent age-related neurological declines by improving brain cell abilities to send and receive the ’signaling’ molecules. The brain uses these signaling molecules to communicate.

Remarkably, these same studies showed that the powerful antioxidants in strawberries, spinach and blueberries can improve the ability to communicate even among brain cells already showing signs of age-related damage.

⁷Dark chocolate has powerful antioxidant properties and contains several natural stimulants which increase the production of endorphins while enhancing focus and concentration. The stimulants found in dark chocolate also improve mood. It has high content of flavanols that facilitate blood supply to the brain and enhance cognitive skills. Enjoy in moderation of course...

Love your Brain, Love your Body, Love your Life - Stroke Prevention

May is National Stroke Awareness Month.  Many people don’t realize that 80% of all strokes are preventable. What can you do to prevent a stroke?

According to the CDC, Living a Healthy Lifestyle is the best way to prevent strokes.

• Eat a healthy diet. Choose healthful meals and snack options. Be sure to choose plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. Eating foods low in Saturated fat, cholesterol and foods high in fiber helps prevent high cholesterol, limiting sodium in your diet helps prevent high blood pressure.
• Maintain a healthy weight.  If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI at CDC's Assessing Your Weight Web site.
• Be active. It lower’s cholesterol and blood pressure. A minimum of 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week is the Surgeon Generals recommendation.
• Don’t Smoke.
• Limit Alcohol Use. Too much alcohol causes high blood pressure. No more than 2 servings a day.

Love your Brain, Love your Body, Love your Life - Combining Foods for Optimum Nutrition

Making good food choices is the best thing we can do to stay healthy. Hope you find this helpful.

Research has shown that some food combinations are more nutritious when eaten together.  Here are four powerful pairs that are better together: 

Broccoli & Mustard

Raw broccoli is a good source of the powerful cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane. But cooking destroys the enzyme (myrosinase) in broccoli that makes sulforaphane available to your body. The fix? Combine broccoli with mustard (yes, the condiment) or another raw cruciferous veggie, such as wasabi or arugula—the extra dose of myrosinase will help you absorb more sulforaphane.

Coffee & Sugar

If you take your coffee with sugar, good news—it may make you more productive on the job.  When study participants drank the two together, researchers found that areas of the brain associated with attention worked more efficiently than when sipped solo. If you don’t like coffee, try green tea with a drizzle of honey.

Adzuki Beans & Raspberries

Pairing adzuki beans—classically used in Japanese desserts—with raspberries may bump up the duo’s antioxidant power by 45 percent.  That was the biggest boost researchers saw among 55 combinations of different fruits, veggies and legumes. Top a spinach salad with adzukis; for dessert, dig into fresh raspberries.

Tumeric & Fish

Curcumin (a component of turmeric) and DHA (an omega-3 fat in oily fish) protect against certain cancers by keeping cancer cells from multiplying. Combining the two may slow tumor growth and the spread of a type of breast cancer cells more so than when the compounds interact with the cancer cells separately, researchers think DHA helps cells to utilize curcumin. Rub salmon or trout with turmeric or curry (a spice blend containing turmeric).

More to come on food power couples, so check back :o)

Eating Well Magazine May/June Pg. 18 - Combining Foods for Optimum Nutrition

Love your Brain, Love your Body, Love your Life - Boost your Creativity with a Vacation

Is it important to schedule that annual vacation? When money is tight and schedules don’t seem to permit taking that summer trip, how important is it really?

In Jonah Lehrer’s book Imagine - How Creativity Works, he discusses in great detail why our brain needs vacation time to stimulate creativity. Chapter 5, entitled “Outsider”, gives several examples of how being an outsider is a state of mind. We need to go outside our normal everyday surroundings, duties, chores and problems; to get away! Travel is one of the best ways to do this, the reason it’s so useful for creativity is a “quirk of cognition in which problems that feel close get contemplated in a more literal manner.” “When we are physically near the source of the problem, our thoughts are automatically constricted, bound by a more limited set of associations.  It only allows us to focus on the facts at hand - it inhibits imagination.”

Detaching from the familiar environment can help get new perspectives on everyday life, when you ask a friend for advice on solving a problem, his or her suggestions are often more creative than what you would have decided yourself - that’s because your friend has psychological distance from the situation at hand. When you’re in the middle of a problem, it’s sometimes hard to untangle yourself from it to think about it clearly.

This is why travel is so helpful: “When you escape from the place you spend most of your time, the mind is suddenly made aware of all those errant ideas previously suppressed. Many people have epiphanies when they travel because they can view their life back home from a more detached, outsider’s view.

Experience of another culture gives the traveler a valuable open-mindedness, making it easier for him or her to realize that a single thing can have multiple meanings. We need to change cultures to feel the disorienting diversity of human traditions. The same details that make foreign travel so confusing - do we tip the waiter? where is this train taking me? - turn out to have lasting impact, making us more creative because we’re less insular.  We’re reminded of all that we don’t know, which is nearly everything. We go home and home is the same but something in our minds has been changed, and that changes everything.

Of course, it’s not enough to simply get on a plane or drive a few hundred miles to the beach: if we want to experience the creative benefits of vacation, then we have to rethink the reason for the vacation. Our mind is most likely to solve our most stubborn problems while getting a sunburn far away from home. So instead of napping on the beach, or reading the latest issue of US Weekly, we should be mulling over those domestic riddles we just can't solve.

Imagine - How Creativity Works & The Benefits of Vacation, The Atlantic by Jonah Lehrer

Why Your Brain Needs Vacations By Elizabeth Landau, CNN May 24, 2011 

Love your Brain, Love your Body, Love your Life- Turn on Your Good Genes For a Happier Healthier You

It seems that a new Swedish study has shown that exercise does way more than toning and burning calories. It found that exercise uses muscles that activate genes that promote fat-burning, prevent disease and disability; along with boosting energy and brain power. And, the benefits kick in with-in minutes of your first steps, so you win every time you move, whether it’s a lunch time stroll or an all-day bike ride.  This doesn’t mean you are changing your genetic code, it means that you are turning on inactive genes; you have the power to turn on the good guys and tone down the not-so-helpful types, some of the gene-flipping benefits are:

Mega-protection against cancer - it revs up more than 100 genes that fight against cancer.

More fat-burning brown fat - exercise activates a newly discovered enzyme, irisin, that turns bumpy, bulgy white fat into easier to use brown fat.

A younger heart - turns on the genes that help heart-muscle cells divide, this helps your heart work better.

Leaner, cleaner liver - sticking to a regular exercise routine turns off genes that encourage extra fat to move into your liver, and turns on genes that produce proteins that tells the fat to move on out. A leaner liver protects against diabetes and heart disease.

Exercise is not your only tool for do-it-yourself genetic engineering. A diet devoid of the five food felons; saturated fat, trans fat, added sugar, syrup and any grain that is not 100% whole along with managing stress, keeps disease fighting and energy giving genes turned on too.  All together you can turn on over 500 healthy genes.  With your body working more efficiently your brain is healthier as well, it’s just a win win.

Remember these daily tips:

Aim for 30 minutes of exercise

Get your dose of fruits, veggies, 100% whole grains, lean protein, nuts and Omega-3 fatty acids.

Include a stress reliever such as yoga, simple stretching, walking or laughing with your kids, whatever works for you.

Oregonian 4/17/12 Dr’s Oz and Roizen

It's Report Card Time

It’s the end of the quarter for most schools in our area, parent teacher conferences are scheduled and report cards are ready.  If you find things aren’t going as well as you would like or even discouraging, there are a few things you can do to help your child succeed.

1. Get your child an Agenda Book to keep track of daily assignments and homework. Check off the assignment when it’s completed and turned in. You, as a parent need to check it daily.
2. Get to know and understand your child’s teacher and their teaching style and expectations. 
3. Understand your child’s dominant learning style; is it kinesthetic, auditory or visual. If the teacher isn’t meeting your child’s learning style you can help at home. With the agenda book filled out properly you can adapt the lesson to your child’s learning style.
4. If your child continues to struggle, then maybe there are underlying issues that need to be addressed. Synergy Training Center has a thorough Cognitive Assessment that can diagnose issues such as ADD, ADHD, Auditory & Eidetic Dyslexia or lack of bi-lateral brain integration.  We also offer a non-medication solution to these issues that is a permanent fix.

If you have questions regarding your child, please call and schedule a free, no obligation appointment to discuss your options. We are here to help.