First published in 2012 by Conari Press, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
665 Third Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.redwheelweiser.com
Copyright © 2012 by Sondra Kornblatt
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 978-1-57324-490-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kornblatt, Sondra.
Brain fitness for women : keeping your head clear and your mind sharp at any age / Sondra Kornblatt.
p. cm.
Summary: “Did you know that women have 70,000 thoughts per day and one person's brain generates more electrical impulses each day than all the telephones in the world combined?In Brain Fitness for Women, health writer Sondra Kornblatt offers an entertaining look at how women's brains work: the physiology of women's brains, new research in neuroscience, the differences between women's and men's brains, and how women's brains age. Kornblatt offers fun facts (yep, that chocolate you’re craving does boost cognitive function), tips (your brain wants a glass of water in the morning), and advice (forget multitasking, the brain can only process one thing at a time) for women who want to keep their minds in tiptop shape. She examines how hormones, the environment, exercise, stress, food, aging, and even friendship affect the brain, and offers strategies for keeping your brain on its metaphorical tiptoes at any age”-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57324-490-9 (pbk.)
1. Brain--Sex differences. 2. Women--Health and hygiene. I. Title.
QP376.K655 2011
612.8’2082—dc23
2011036141
Cover design by Nita Ybarra
Interior by Jane Hagaman
Typeset in Bembo and Bulmer MT Std
Printed in the United States of America
QG
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
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Dedication
To Milo and Ella for patience, flexibility, and independence
To my parents David and Barbara for love, support, and their perpetual willingness to learn
Contents
Chapter 2. Brain Basics: Does Your Brain Know It's a Girl?
Chapter 3. Swimming in Different Hormones: Variations Beyond Brain Structure
Chapter 4. The Brain During Menstruation and Menopause
Chapter 5. The Dance of Your Body and Brain
Chapter 6. Creative Learning: All Work and No Play Gives Jane a Dull Brain
Chapter 7. Minding What Matters: How Thoughts, Emotions, and Consciousness Affect the Brain
Chapter 8. Food: Take Your Brain Out to Dinner
Chapter 9. The Brain and the Environment: Toxins-Schmoxins
Chapter 10. Electronics on the Brain: One Second, I Just Need to See This Text …
Chapter 11. The Brain and Community: Getting by With a Little Help From Your Friends
Chapter 12. Aging, Alzheimer's, and the Brain: Did I Read This Already?
Chapter 13. Beyond the Mind: Expanding Your Connection With Nature and Spirit
Chapter 14. Your Dynamic, Sparkling, Brilliant Brain
Foreword
Medical school professors who have a sense of history will sometimes tell their students that half of what they are learning is wrong—but that we don't yet know which half that will turn out to be. Medical knowledge has been evolving and changing for a long time, whether or not its teachers knew it (or would admit it). In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle thought that the seat of intelligence was in the heart. The blood carried the hot emotions, and the role of the brain was to cool it. Human brains cooled more than smaller animal brains did, making humans more rational. That's not the way we think the brain works today.
Now, fast-forward almost up to the present. As a medical student, I recall reading an old article on the neuroanatomical basis of emotion and memory. This article has stood the test of time: it laid the foundation upon which our current understanding of this area is based. I was shocked, however, to find a sentence in it which would not have made it past the scientific reviewers even in my school days- saying, in effect, that “We don't know what this part of the brain does, but since it's bigger in men than in women we assume it must have something to do with sex.”
If all this isn't enough of a challenge, there's also the problem of how fast new information accumulates. When I was in college many years ago, one of my chemistry professors described a study which had been done to look at the production of new information in the field. It concluded that if someone spent forty hours a week doing nothing but reading the new scientific literature as it was published, by the end of the year she would be months behind! Today's diligent scientist would undoubtedly fare even worse.