An Ancient Sports Drink & Healing Potion, Now With Modern Science?

Ginseng has many health benefits, we talked about 8 of them in this previous edition of 10almonds:

Ginseng, Dopamine, & Exercise

…but we’ve somehow never yet done a Monday’s Research Review for it! We must do one, one of these days. For now though, it’s Saturday’s Life Hacks, and we’re here with…

Speeding up recovery after muscle damage

We talked about this topic before too:

Overdone It? How To Speed Up Recovery After Exercise

…which gives very good advice (including some supplements that help), but was published before the latest science that we’re going to talk about today:

A team of researchers all so very recently found that ginseng also reduces muscular fatigue and, importantly, hastens recovery of muscle damage caused by exercise.

And that’s not all…

❝It should also be noted that, by reducing fatigue, taking ginseng on a regular basis may also help reduce the risk of injury, particularly in the case of muscles or ligaments, which can in turn improve athletic performance.❞

This means that it can be taken regularly and prophylactically, as they found:

❝taking ginseng systematically for a long time can mitigate the response of the biological markers, mainly creatine kinase (CK) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), responsible for exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammation.❞

You may be thinking “isn’t creatine good?” and yes, yes it is:

Creatine: Very Different For Young & Old People

…however, creatine kinase is not creatine. Creatine kinase (CK) is an enzyme that affects the creatine (to put it in few words, without getting into the fascinating biochemistry of this). Now, it’s necessary for us to have some CK (or else we wouldn’t be able to do what we need to with the creatine), but elevated levels often indicate some sort of problem going on:

Approach to asymptomatic creatine kinase elevation

…so ginseng keeping those things balanced is a good thing.

The study

We’ve talked a lot about the findings and what they mean, but if you’d like to read the paper for yourself, you can read it here:

Effect of Ginseng Intake on Muscle Damage Induced by Exercise in Healthy Adults

Where to get ginseng

If you’d like to take ginseng as a supplement, then there are many ways to do so, with the most common being capsules or ginseng tea, which has an interesting and distinctive taste, and is very refreshing. Here are examples on Amazon, for your convenience:

• Ginseng capsules
• Ginseng tea

Enjoy!

How To Boost Your Memory (Without Supplements)

While we do recommend having a good diet and taking advantage of various supplements that have been found to help memory, that only gets so much mileage. With that in mind…

First, how good is your memory? Take This 2-Minute Online Test

Now, that was a test of short term memory, which tends to be the most impactful in our everyday life.

It’s the difference between “I remember the address of the house where I grew up” (long-term memory) and “what did I come to this room to do?” (short-term memory / working memory)

First tip:

When you want to remember something, take a moment to notice the details. You can’t have a madeleine moment years later if you wolfed down the madeleines so urgently they barely touched the sides.

This goes for more than just food, of course. And when facing the prospect of age-related memory loss in particular, people tend to be afraid not of forgetting their PIN code, but their cherished memories of loved ones. So… Cherish them, now! You’ll struggle to cherish them later if you don’t cherish them now. Notice the little details as though you were a painter looking at a scene for painting. Involve more senses than just sight, too!

If it’s important, relive it. Relive it now, relive it tomorrow. Rehearsal is important to memory, and each time you relive a memory, the deeper it gets written into your long-term memory until it becomes indelible to all but literal brain damage.

Second tip:

Tell the story of it to someone else. Or imagine telling it to someone else! (You brain can’t tell the difference)

And you know how it goes… Once you’ve told a story a few times, you’ll never forget it later. Isn’t your life a story worth telling?

Many people approach memory like they’re studying for a test. Don’t. Approach it like you’re preparing to tell a story, or give a performance. We are storytelling creatures at heart, whether or not we realize it.

What do you do when you find yourself in a room and wonder why you went there? (We’ve all been there!) You might look around for clues, but if that doesn’t immediately serve, your fallback will be retracing your steps. Literally, physically, if needs be, but at least mentally. The story of how you got there is easier to remember than the smallest bit of pure information.

What about when there’s no real story to tell, but we still need to remember something?

Make up a story. Did you ever play the game “My granny went to market” as a child?

If not, it’s a collaborative memory game in which players take turns adding items to a list, “My granny went to market and bought eggs”, My granny went to market and bought eggs and milk”, “my granny went to market and bought eggs and milk and flour” (is she making a cake?), “my granny went to market and bought eggs and milk and flour and shoe polish” (what image came to mind? Use that) “my granny went to market and bought eggs and milk and flour and shoe polish and tea” (continue building the story in your head), and so on.

When we actually go shopping, if we don’t have a written list we may rely on the simple story of “what I’m going to cook for dinner” and walking ourselves through that story to ensure we get the things we need.

This is because our memory thrives (and depends!) on connections. Literal synapse connections in the brain, and conceptual contextual connections in your mind. The more connections, the better the memory.

Now imagine a story: “I went to Stonehenge, but in the background was a twin-peaked mountain blue. I packed a red suitcase, placing a conch shell inside it, when suddenly I heard a trombone, and…” Ring any bells? These are example items from the memory test earlier, though of course you may have seen different things in a different order.

So next time you want to remember things, don’t study as though for a test. Prepare to tell a story!

Try going through the test again, but this time, ignore their instructions because we’re going to use the test differently than intended (we’re rebels like that). Don’t rush, and don’t worry about the score this time (or even whether or not you saw a given image previously), but instead, build a story as you go. We’re willing to bet that after it, you can probably recite most of the images you saw in their correct order with fair confidence.

Here’s the link again: Take The Same Test, But This Time Make It Story-Worthy!

Again, ignore what it says about your score this time, because we weren’t doing that this time around. Instead, list the things you saw.

What you were just able to list was the result of you doing story-telling with random zero-context images while under time pressure.

Imagine what you can do with actual meaningful memories of your ongoing life, people you meet, conversations you have!

Just… Take the time to smell the roses, then rehearse the story you’ll tell about them. That memory will swiftly become as strong as any memory can be, and quickly get worked into your long-term memory for the rest of your days.