Our Brains Are Optimized for Ancient Ways

Found an interesting blog post that reviewed five recent scientific studies on protein SIRT1 and its possible connection to improved brain function and cognitive performance.  The post includes 10 steps to enhanced brainpower many of which we have covered in the Next Brain blog.  In paraphrased form these include:

1. Eat and exercise like a wild ancient human
2. Take supplements including fish oil, vitamin D and resveratrol.
3. Eat blueberries, drink coffee or tea and limit alcohol
4. Be an aggressive and continious learn
5. Get plenty of sleep

The conclusion is:

“The research basically says: to enhance your brain, you should adjust your lifestyle, diet, and use of compounds or drugs to increase levels of SIRT1 in the brain. The target: an enhanced mind — as alert as those of our ancestors — that thinks more clearly, stays smart, and learns longer.”

The underlying theme here is that the lifestyle and diet of wild ancient humans is the context in which much of our brain development occurred. This means our brains are naturally optimized to work best under those conditions.   As conditions are radically different today, reproducing the ancient ways as describe above is one strategy for enhancing cognitive performance.