As one of those who has a high IQ and also has observed others with high IQ's, I think a high IQ may be a side effect of some brain dysfunctions.

I find that those with high IQ's suffer from far more psychiatric and psychological problems that those with IQ's closer to the average. Many of them have OCD like behaviors, bi-polar affective disorder, poor tolerance levels, and a variety of social functioning problems.

The wake of destruction they tend to leave behind is more pronounced that the average person. I have always considered my intelligence to be a two edged sword. I bet there are plenty who observe my posts who agree with me.

The ability to quickly memorize information is great. The problem is that vast library of information also wants to spout out at inopportune times. This is the social difficulty area.

Over the years, I have learned to hold back even more of what my mind wants to say. My PCS is a big help, as I can think faster that my mouth can arrange the words. I knowing how I often start blabbing nonsense as my mouth tries to keep up with my brain, so I have learned to be slower to respond.

People will comment about my responses. I will often tell them that I held back far more that I spoke. This habit has been diagnosed by a psychologist as schizoid.

With PCS, I have to limit the over-stimulation. As I do this, I lessen the temptation to over-respond.

I am curious if others have had to go through this introspective analysis and moderated their commenting.

JD,

There is a big difference between having an opinion and thinking anybody else cares about your opinions. It is a sort of serenity prayer type of thing. You know:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I try to stay with factual information or factual experience. Trying to interpret too much can lead to the confusion that causes the chaos in the mind.

One of the challenges is knowing how to read articles and sort out the truth from the propaganda or hyperbole.

JD,

What I meant is that on a forum like this, everyone has an opinion. Many are more interested is sharing their own opinions that hearing others opinions.

Some are a also sensitive to anything that conflicts with their opinion.

Even saying 'From what I've read' or 'In my experience' or 'studies show' is often not enough of a qualifier to remove the sting from a comment that goes against someone else's comment. Egos can be so fragile.

I have a number of personal acquaintances that have sensitive egos. I have learned to not comment against them except when it is to prevent a greater ill, like when someone is intending on acting on their false or erroneous information. In that situation, I try to offer my comment privately.

A big problem can come from presenting anecdotal comments versus comments based on solid research methodology.

The internet has muddied the waters by making publishing easy. Just because someone has published their case study does not make it a valid case study.

Many times, opinions and other comments are not heard by the audience anyway. So making waves is of little use.

Case in point, Dr Diane (Stohler) has extensive written about recovery to high levels. If this is taken out of context, it sounds like she is an expert at saying high levels of recovery are to be expected by all. If you read her work with a more critical eye, you will see that she also talks about mourning the loss of the 'old you.'

This is intended to put recovery into perspective. She is not trying to say that we can recover to the 'old you,' but that we can regain many of the functions of the 'old you,' even if in a different way. We recover to the 'new you.'

It is Brain week in New Zealand , and I came across the following article:

Food for thought - eat your way to a better brain

Children have a lot to contend with these days, not least a tendency for their pushy parents to force-feed them omega-3 oils at every opportunity. These are supposed to make children brainier, so they are being added to everything from bread, milk and pasta to baby formula and vitamin tablets.

But omega-3 is just the tip of the nutritional iceberg; many nutrients have proven cognitive effects, and do so throughout a person’s life, not merely when he or she is a child.

Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a fish-loving professor of neurosurgery and physiological science formerly at Chile’s National University (see Headlines Volume 81) and now at the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that appropriate changes to people’s diet can enhance their cognitive abilities, protect their brains from damage and counteract the effects of ageing.

Dr Gómez-Pinilla has been studying the effects of food on the brain for years and has now completed a review that has analysed more than 160 studies of food’s effect on the brain. Some foods, he concludes, are like pharmaceutical compounds; their effects are so profound that the mental health of entire countries may be linked to them.

Last year, for example, the Lancet published research showing that folic-acid supplements — sometimes taken by pregnant women — can help those between 50 and 70 years old ward off the cognitive decline that accompanies ageing.

In a study lasting three years, Dr Jane Durga, of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, found that people taking such supplements did better on measures of memory, information-processing speed and verbal fluency.

That, plus evidence that folate deficiency is associated with clinical depression, suggests eating spinach, orange juice and Marmite, which are all rich in folic acid.

Another suggestion from Dr Gómez-Pinilla’s review is that people should eat more antioxidants. That idea is not new. Antioxidants are reckoned by many to protect against the general effects of ageing. Vitamin E, for example, which is found in vegetable oils, nuts and green leafy vegetables, has been linked (in mice) with the retention of memory into old age and also with longer life. Dr Gómez-Pinilla, however, gives the antioxidant story a particular twist.

The brain, he observes, is peculiarly susceptible to oxidative damage. It consumes a lot of energy and the reactions that release this energy also generate oxidising chemicals. Moreover, brain tissue contains a great deal of oxidisable material, particularly in the fatty membranes surrounding nerve cells.

That suggests, among other things, the value of a diet rich in berries. These have been shown to have strong antioxidant effects, though only a small number of their constituents have been evaluated in detail.

One group that has been evaluated, the polyphenols, has been shown in rodents to reduce oxidative damage and to boost the ability to learn and retain memories. In particular, these chemicals affect changes in response to different types of stimulation in the hippocampus (a part of the brain that is crucial to the formation of long-term memories, and which is the region most affected by Alzheimer’s disease).

Another polyphenol, curcumin, has also been shown to have protective effects. It reduces memory deficits in animals with brain damage. It may be no coincidence that in India, where a lot of curcumin is consumed (it is the substance that makes turmeric yellow), Alzheimer’s disease is rarer than elsewhere.

Though the way antioxidants work in the brain is not well known, Dr Gómez-Pinilla says it is likely they protect the synaptic membranes. Synapses are the junctions between nerve cells, and their action is central to learning and memory. But they are also, he says, the most fragile parts of the brain. And many of the nutrients associated with brain function are known to affect transmission at the synapses.

An omega-3 fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), for example, provides membranes at synaptic regions with ‘fluidity’ — the capacity to transport signals. It also provides ‘plasticity’ — a synapse’s capacity to change. Such changes are the basis of memory. Since 30% of the fatty constituents of nerve-cell membranes are DHA molecules, keeping your DHA levels topped up is part of having a healthy brain.

Indeed, according to the studies reviewed by Dr Gómez-Pinilla, the benefits of omega-3s include improved learning and memory, and resistance to depression and bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia.

Omega-3s are found in oily fish such as salmon, as well as in walnuts and kiwifruit, and there is a strong negative correlation between the extent to which a country consumes fish and its levels of clinical depression. On the Japanese island of Okinawa, for example, people have a strikingly low rate of mental disorder — and Okinawans are notable fish eaters, even by the standards of a piscivorous country like Japan. In contrast, many studies suggest that diets which are rich in trans- and saturated fatty acids, such as those containing a lot of deep-fried foods and butter, have bad effects on cognition. Rodents put on such diets show declines in cognitive performance within weeks.

In the past few years, several studies have looked at the effect of adding omega-3s to people’s diets — particularly those of children. One such, carried out in the British city of Durham, was controversial in that it was funded by a maker of children’s omega-3 supplements and did not include a control group being given a placebo. Despite the publicity this study has received, Ben Goldacre, author of a book called Bad Science that includes an investigation of it, says the results will not be released. Work by other researchers, however, has suggested such supplements do improve the performance and behaviour of school-age children with specific diagnoses such as dyslexia, attention-deficit disorder and developmental co-ordination disorder.

Moreover, although more work is needed to elucidate the effects of omega-3s on healthy school-age children, Dr Gómez-Pinilla says that younger children whose mothers took fish-oil supplements (which contain omega-3s) when they were pregnant and while they were breast-feeding do show better cognitive performance than their unsupplemented contemporaries.

Eating well, then, is one key to a healthy brain. But a word of warning — do not overeat. This puts oxidative stress on the brain and risks undoing all the good work those antioxidants have been up to. For those who would like a little practical guidance,

The Economist has some suggestions for dinner (see menu below). So why not put the Nintendo brain trainer away tonight, and eat your way to intelligence instead?


Starter
Avocado, spinach & lettuce salad, with a scattering of pine nuts and toasted, crumbled anchovies dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Main Course
Salmon curry with turmeric potatoes and cauliflower served with lentil daal

Dessert
Dark chocolate clusters of walnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, candied fruit and peel, with red and blue berries and kiwifruit compote

Drinks
Cabernet sauvignon, green tea, fresh orange juice, milk


Lynlee

I found this quote.

Dr. Maroon's research echoed Dr. Bailes': Gobble up Omega 3 fatty acids, and they may help to prevent and cure the inflammation of a traumatic brain injury.

"Quite frankly, I think everybody should be on it," said Dr. Maroon, who was part of a January 2009 study in which an NFL team showed reduced cardiovascular risk factors when regularly ingesting them

He proposed downing 2 to 3 grams of such fatty acids as DHA or EPA daily. "I think it's like Vitamin B -- it's a natural anti-inflammatory."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10072...#ixzz0iJRGwe15

Check out this link to Dr. Daniel Amen's vitamin supplement

http://www.amenclinics.com/store/ind...roducts_id=230

What do we all think of this?

From my perspective, Dr Amen's NeuroVite has a great broad assortment of compounds but it is seriously lacking in the B's, D3, and the anti-oxidants. It does not have any Omega 3's. Increasing the dose of four per day to get the B's would be overdoing the many trace elements.

I would add at least a B-50 or B-100 complex, 100-200 mgs niacin, 2000mgs + of D3, 200 mgs of Vit E, and the Omega 3's with DHA and EPA. These would be just for the benefit of the brain.

More garlic would be good for cholesterol if it is a concern. Also more calcium.