This week's health news spotlight: the brain

This week's health news was dominated by research studies that showed certain eating habits, sleep patterns and even beliefs and values could make you smarter and improve brain functions like memory and learning.

Make your brain "plastic" with magnesium-rich foods

A plastic brain is a good thing, it means the brain is fired up and can make connections to improve learning and memory.  A new study published in Neuron, a scientific journal devoted to neuroscience, on January 28 proves it is important to eat your greens and other magnesium-rich foods to optimize such "plasticity." http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(09)01044-7 

Nap for 90 minutes and get smarter

On February 21, an ongoing study's research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in California and found that the effects of midday napping for 90 minutes could "reset the brain" making nappers smarter. http://abh-news.com/tag/dr-matthew-walker

Signs of intelligence are against nature

"Why Liberals and Atheists are More Intelligent" published in the March edition of Social Psychology Quarterly, the American Sociological Association's peer-reviewed journal, and explains the theory of Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, that males "in evolutionary history" are naturally "mildly polygynous" and both males and females are naturally conservative and God fearing. Therefore it is unnatural to be liberal, an atheist and for men, monogamous and these people tend to have higher IQs. http://www.asanet.org/journals/spq/index.cfm