"Sleep . . . organiz[es] . . . and keep[s] permanent newly learned skills and memories."

Thanks to Robert Wenzel

This was a terrific presentation.  His steps for learning new material was pretty good.  So was his 6 Steps to a Better Memory.

What follows are my notes from the presentation:

Cortisol stops all neurons from developing.  Coritsol is that hormone that we produce when we're stressed out, injured, or cannot sleep.  If your work situation is producing any of these and your coworkers enjoy watching you being stressed out, it's probably not a good idea to remain at that foul and fetid place.  Stress decreases the hippocampus.  Wow.  So it literally shrinks your brain. That was interesting and horrible.  

Be aware of how you react to stress.  Avoid counterproductive stress. Good advice but I wonder how much of this is a constant in everybody's work week.  Exercise and sleep both combat sleep.  True that, true that.  

Why is sleep so important?  Sleep is where the brain reviews and organizes things that happened to your in your day.  It's where the excess and unessential things gets discarded.  Part of a dialogue between your hippocampus and cerebral cortex and the rest of the brain where all of the new information and skills are stored.  If you don't sleep, then all of the new things you learn will be gone tomorrow.  Consolidate new information with good sleep.  Helps to keep your memories permanent. Sleep disruptions are common in aging and disease.  It's why we see memory impairments.  Even a short afternoon naps can improve memory retention. Stabilizing, organizing, optimizing, and keeping permanent newly learned skills and memories.  be helpful for beginning to consolidate new information.  

Socializing is important.  Friends help fill in gaps in memory.  They can also reassure us that we are young at heart.

Living alone doubles the risk for dementia markers.  Why are other people good for us?  Be with people who don't cause us stress.  Talking, interacting, having a conversation, all of this keeps us healthy and alive.

Friends are part of what keeps our memories young.

Eat light and healthy.  Ah, yes.  Food remedies.  Eat light and healthy.  Couldn't be more accurate!

1.  Exercise regularly.

2.  Keep mentally active.  

3.  Avoid unproductive stress.

4.  Get a good night's sleep.

5.  Socialize with others.  For those people who cause you stress, either keep interaction with them to a minimum, remove yourself completely, or give it back to them good and hard.

6.  Eat light and healthy.

His point about avoiding saturated fats and high cholesterol foods is flat out wrong.  This is part of the standard American commercial diet.  Truth is that saturated fats and high cholesterol foods are not only healthy for you but essential in fighting disease and aging, the two factors he mentions earlier that impair sleep.  Cholesterol fights inflammation.  It is vital for life.  Coconut oil and coconut butter, a saturated fat, is awesome for health.  See Dr. Mary Enig for thorough reviews on its benefits. One heart surgeon told me that he takes 2 teaspoons of coconut oil every morning for heart health. Not only does coconut oil fortify the heart, it also helps your kidneys function better.  What is not to like!!

Benefits of Butter . . . Redux

Kerrygold grassfed butter is all the rave in the paleo circles.  For good reason, and I am glad.  But for me, salted raw butter from Organic Pastures is by far the more creamier and tastier product.  Kerrigold grassfed butter almost tastes greasy when compared to raw butter.  The health benefits can be had from both, but if that is the case then why not opt for the tastier product--that being Organic Pastures raw butter? Read about the benefits of butter from Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD:

Why Butter Is Better

by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

When the fabricated food folks and apologists for the corporate farm realized that they couldn't block America's growing interest in diet and nutrition, a movement that would ultimately put an end to America's biggest and most monopolistic industries, they infiltrated the movement and put a few sinister twists on information going out to the public. Item number one in the disinformation campaign was the assertion that naturally saturated fats from animal sources are the root cause of the current heart disease and cancer plague. Butter bore the brunt of the attack, and was accused of terrible crimes. The Diet Dictocrats told us that it was better to switch to polyunsaturated margarine and most Americans did. Butter all but disappeared from our tables, shunned as a miscreant.

This would come as a surprise to many people around the globe who have valued butter for its life-sustaining properties for millennia. When Dr. Weston Price studied native diets in the 1930's he found that butter was a staple in the diets of many supremely healthy peoples. Isolated Swiss villagers placed a bowl of butter on their church altars, set a wick in it, and let it burn throughout the year as a sign of divinity in the butter. Arab groups also put a high value on butter, especially deep yellow-orange butter from livestock feeding on green grass in the spring and fall. American folk wisdom recognized that children raised on butter were robust and sturdy; but that children given skim milk during their growing years were pale and thin, with "pinched" faces.

Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many diseases.

Butter & Heart Disease

Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920 and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose precipitously to become America's number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in statistics to conclude that butter is not a cause. Actually butter contains many nutrients that protect us from heart disease. First among these is vitamin A which is needed for the health of the thyroid and adrenal glands, both of which play a role in maintaining the proper functioning of the heart and cardiovascular system. Abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels occur in babies born to vitamin A deficient mothers. Butter is America's best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A.

Butter contains lecithin, a substance that assists in the proper assimilation and metabolism of cholesterol and other fat constituents.

Butter also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against the kind of free radical damage that weakens the arteries. Vitamin A and vitamin E found in butter both play a strong anti-oxidant role. Butter is a very rich source of selenium, a vital anti-oxidant--containing more per gram than herring or wheat germ.

Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals--usually from damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils. A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.

Butter & Cancer

In the 1940's research indicated that increased fat intake caused cancer. The abandonment of butter accelerated; margarine--formerly a poor man's food-- was accepted by the well-to-do. But there was a small problem with the way this research was presented to the public. The popular press neglected to stress that fact that the "saturated" fats used in these experiments were not naturally saturated fats but partially hydrogenated or hardened fats--the kind found mostly in margarine but not in butter. Researchers stated--they may have even believed it--that there was no difference between naturally saturated fats in butter and artificially hardened fats in margarine and shortening. So butter was tarred with the black brush of the fabricated fats, and in such a way that the villains got passed off as heroes.

Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have strong anti-tumor effects. Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.  Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter--vitamin E, selenium and cholesterol--protect against cancer as well as heart disease.

Butter & the Immune System

Vitamin A found in butter is essential to a healthy immune system; short and medium chain fatty acids also have immune system strengthening properties. But hydrogenated fats and an excess of long chain fatty acids found in polyunsaturated oils and many butter substitutes both have a deleterious effect on the immune system.

Butter & Arthritis

The Wulzen or "anti-stiffness" factor is a nutrient unique to butter. Dutch researcher Wulzen found that it protects against calcification of the joints--degenerative arthritis--as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland.9 Unfortunately this vital substance is destroyed during pasteurization. Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms are reversed when raw butterfat is added to the diet.

Butter & Osteoporosis

Vitamins A and D in butter are essential to the proper absorption of calcium and hence necessary for strong bones and teeth. The plague of osteoporosis in milk-drinking western nations may be due to the fact that most people choose skim milk over whole, thinking it is good for them. Butter also has anti-cariogenic effects, that is, it protects against tooth decay.

Butter & the Thyroid Gland

Butter is a good source of iodine, in highly absorbable form. Butter consumption prevents goiter in mountainous areas where seafood is not available. In addition, vitamin A in butter is essential for proper functioning of the thyroid gland.

Butter & Gastrointestinal Health

Butterfat contains glycospingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastro-intestinal infection, especially in the very young and the elderly. For this reason, children who drink skim milk have diarrhea at rates three to five times greater than children who drink whole milk.12 Cholesterol in butterfat promotes health of the intestinal wall and protects against cancer of the colon.13 Short and medium chain fatty acids protect against pathogens and have strong anti-fungal effects.14 Butter thus has an important role to play in the treatment of candida overgrowth.

Butter & Weight Gain

The notion that butter causes weight gain is a sad misconception. The short and medium chain fatty acids in butter are not stored in the adipose tissue, but are used for quick energy. Fat tissue in humans is composed mainly of longer chain fatty acids.15 These come from olive oil and polyunsaturated oils as well as from refined carbohydrates. Because butter is rich in nutrients, it confers a feeling of satisfaction when consumed. Can it be that consumption of margarine and other butter substitutes results in cravings and bingeing because these highly fabricated products don't give the body what it needs?.

Butter for Growth & Development

Many factors in butter ensure optimal growth of children. Chief among them is vitamin A. Individuals who have been deprived of sufficient vitamin A during gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and crowded teeth.16 Extreme vitamin A deprivation results in blindness, skeletal problems and other birth defects.17 Individuals receiving optimal vitamin A from the time of conception have broad handsome faces, strong straight teeth, and excellent bone structure. Vitamin A also plays an important role in the development of the sex characteristics. Calves fed butter substitutes sicken and die before reaching maturity.

The X factor, discovered by Dr. Weston Price (and now believed to be vitamin K2), is also essential for optimum growth. It is only present in butterfat from cows on green pasture.19 Cholesterol found in butterfat plays an important role in the development of the brain and nervous system.20 Mother's milk is high in cholesterol and contains over 50 percent of its calories as butterfat. Low fat diets have been linked to failure to thrive in children21--yet low-fat diets are often recommended for youngsters! Children need the many factors in butter and other animal fats for optimal development.

Beyond Margarine

It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like cookies and crackers, is the chief culprit in our current plague of cancer and heart disease.22 But mainline nutrition writers continue to denigrate butter--recommending new fangled tub spreads instead. These may not contain hydrogenated fats but they are composed of highly processed rancid vegetable oils, soy protein isolate and a host of additives. A glitzy cookbook called Butter Busters promotes butter buds, made from maltodextrin, a carbohydrate derived from corn, along with dozens of other highly processed so-called low-fat commercial products.

Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We are fools to believe them.

Butter & the Family Farm

A nation that consumes butterfat, on the other hand, is a nation that sustains the family farm. If Americans were willing to pay a good price for high quality butter and cream, from cows raised on natural pasturage--every owner of a small- or medium-sized farm could derive financial benefits from owning a few Jersey or Guernsey cows. In order to give them green pasture, he would naturally need to rotate crops, leaving different sections of his farm for his cows to graze and at the same time giving the earth the benefit of a period of fallow--not to mention the benefit of high quality manure. Fields tended in this way produce very high quality vegetables and grains in subsequent seasons, without the addition of nitrogen fertilizers and with minimal use of pesticides. Chickens running around his barnyard, and feeding off bugs that gather under cowpaddies, would produce eggs with superb nutritional qualities--absolutely bursting with vitamin A and highly beneficial fatty acids.

If you wish to reestablish America as a nation of prosperous farmers in the best Jeffersonian tradition, buy organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole yoghurt, and barn-free eggs. These bring good and fair profits to the yeoman producer without concentrating power in the hands of conglomerates.

Ethnic groups that do not use butter obtain the same nutrients from things like insects, organ meats, fish eggs and the fat of marine animals, food items most of us find repulsive. For Americans--who do not eat bugs or blubber--butter is not just better, it is essential.

Notes

Price, Weston, DDS Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 1945, Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc., La Mesa, California.

Representative of American folk traditions about butterfat is this passage from "Neighbor Rosicky", by American author Willa Cather: [The Rosickys] had been at one accord not to hurry through life, not to be always skimping and saving. They saw their neighbours buy more land and feed more stock than they did, without discontent. Once when the creamery agent came to the Rosickys to persuade them to sell him their cream, he told them how much the Fasslers, their nearest neighbours, had made on their cream last year. "Yes," said Mary, "and look at them Fassler children! Pale, pinched little things, they look like skimmed milk. I'd rather put some colour into my children's faces than put money into the bank."

Cranton, EM, MD and JP Frackelton, MD, Journal of Holistic Medicine, Spring/Summer 1984.

Nutrition Week Mar 22, 1991 21:12:2-3.

Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nutrition Quarterly, 1993 Vol 17, No 4.

Cohen, L A et al, J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 77:43.

Belury, MA Nutrition Reviews, April 1995 53:(4) 83-89.

Cohen, op cit.

American Journal of Physical Medicine, 1941, 133; Physiological Zoology, 1935 8:457.

Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, J J Kabara, ed, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL 1978 pp 1-14.

Jennings, IW Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, pp 41-57.

Koopman, JS, et al American Journal of Public Health 1984 74(12):1371-1373.

Addis, Paul, Food and Nutrition News, March/April 1990 62:2:7-10.

Prasad, KN, Life Science, 1980, 27:1351-8; Gershon, Herman and Larry Shanks, Symposium on the Pharmacological Effect of Lipids, Jon J Kabara Ed, American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, Illinois 1978 51-62.

Levels of linoleic acid in adipose tissues reflect the amount of linoleic acid in the diet. Valero, et al Annals of Nutritional Metabolism, Nov/Dec 1990.

34:6:323-327; Felton, CV et al, Lancet 1994 344:1195-96

Price, op cit.

Jennings, op cit.

DeCava, Judith Journal of the National Academy of Research Biochemists, September 1988 1053-1059.

Price, op cit.

Alfin-Slater, R B and L Aftergood, "Lipids", Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, R S Goodhart and M E Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p 131.

Smith, MM, MNS RD and F Lifshitz, MD Pediatrics, Mar 1994 93:3:438-443

Enig, op cit.

"Diet Roulette", The New York Times, May 20, 1994.

About the Authors

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Mary G. Enig, PhD is an expert of international renown in the field of lipid biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and effects of trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully challenged government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart disease. Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health effects of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her work. She is a licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to individuals, industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to a number of scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of over 60 technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr. Enig is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy for AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She is Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Scientific Editor of Wise Traditions as well as the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, May 2000. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Got Biomechanical Stresses and Strains?

Then check out Global AO, Atlas Orthogonal.  Here are the rest of the videos on their website.

We should know the importance of our spine, how it works, and how it is protected.  I enjoyed learning the mechanics of the spine, particularly about the Atlas Orthogonal.  The video does a good job of explaining the anatomy of the spine and central nervous system.

Here is a list of doctors in California that are trained in this therapy.  And here is a list of doctors throughout the U.S. and the world trained in this therapy.

I found this video and its information at Karen De Coster's site.

I guess the question that anyone would have is "Where does one begin when it comes time to fix a nerve, muscle, bone, or blood vessel injury?" Or even all four?  Either because of convenience or familiarity, most folks will call their doctor who might refer them to an orthopedic, and who in turn migh prescribe drugs or surgery.  But what if you're part of the growing number of folks who don't like surgery, don't like the way that surgical process itself disrupts energy centers of the body?  What if you prefer non-invasive procedures?  If that's you, then start with acupuncture.  Acupunture involves needles.  And if you're deathly afraid of needles, know that these pierce the skin at a very superficial level, particularly your first time.  Try it and see if it helps.  See if you feel better. If you feel better, then that should be an indication that you're doing, in other words functioning better.  Acupuncturists will palpate the area of complaint to search for pain.  Pain in acupuncture means that area is blocked.  Acupuncturists will needle that area to increase the flow of chi (blood, hormones, energy, and other fluids and animating factors).  Acupuncture may be the most non-invasive treatment and therapy for a host of conditions.  I have found that it works wonders on pain, inflammation, and sleep disorders.  A single acupunture treatment will run any where between $50 and $80.  You can get it for less at an acupuncture clinic.  Check your local Yellow Pages or Google "acupuncture clinic" in your city or area.  The benefit of a clinic is that, one, it is cheaper.  I found a place in my neighborhood that cost me $12 a session; it then went up to $25 a couple of years later.  But if you're treating a chronic condition, then you'll want the clinic since it gives you the chance to treat chronic conditions that might take 6 months to a year.

The next level up of non-invasive treatments might be chiropractics.  These guys perform adjustments of your spine that releases energy.  My first few adjustments I was more limber, more energetic, and a lot more flexible.  After treatments I would play basketball in a local gym, and the guys would ask "Where'd you get all that energy?"  And I told them: my chiropractor.  My chiropractor would adjust me in two places: one in my neck, and the other in my mid to lower spine.  Chiropractic treatments are more expensive than acupuncture.  But you won't need to go as often.  

The next level up of non-invasive treatments might be this Atlas Orthogonal treatment.  But it is expensive.  My guess is that it's well worth the price.  But remember, everything in every market is a sales pitch.  Your job, as is mine, is to determine fact from pitch.

UPDATE, January 13, 2016:  I've tried this therapy.  It defintely adjusts you. I am not sure, however, if the therapy is beneficial long-term.  First, the therapist I saw seemed nervous to me.  When I told her that the radiation from the X-ray made me feel weak, she dismissed me, citing the machine's low, radio-active isotopes emissions.  She may be right, but I did feel weak and I didn't really appreciate her attempt to whitewash it. I don't expect her to baby me either.  She could have recommended something when I got home, something like baking soda, for instance. But I did walk out of her office feeling more balanced and with increased range in my neck and limbs.  These therapists seem to lock people into a dilemma based on the number of treatments for long-term improvements.  One treatment is not enough.  One adjustment is not going remove or override a chronical illness you've had for 10 or 12 years. You will need several treatments.  One, against the time/cost ratio, they're not that much fun or productive.  Your improvments are so subtle and don't seem to gain traction in the direction that you want them to go. What that tells you is that these therapists really do oversell their results. The commenter below regrets her decision, and if someone is regretting a therapeutic decision then it must have caused them some new pain along with some improvements, pain that seems to override any benefits.  One or two adjustments is not enough.  Nor are they cheap.  Generally, if something works, people will praise it, the way I did with my chiropractor.

So this was my experience.  But I'd wondered about others'--what they experienced, good or bad, with this treatment.  It doesn't sound good. And you should know that I spoke to a handful of therapists in the Southern California area.  Each one didn't really sound convincing.  Each one used a tone that offered no guarantees or promises.  One I spoke told me "Wait a minute.  The therapy doesn't promise anything."  I appreciated that caveat.  And that only tells me that whomever is promoting this therapy is doing a great job at it, presenting it as a last restort.  It is not the last resort.  There's always diet and exercise.  Hello!  All this to say that not everyone is happy with this therapy.  Take a look:

I am so glad someone has written about this and I want to share my story. I feel that after 7 years of atlas orthogonal, it's a hoax. I know some will bash me, but it really is.

For several years, it helped me. But like the snowboarder on here, out of nowhere, after an adjustment when my atlas in "in" it will go out and I will have pain in the base of my neck where my atlas is and then my whole body will be off and misaligned. Seriously, all I have to do for this to happen is walk, stretch and live.

Then I am told I need to come in more for more treatments. 
I thought this thing was the best thing since sliced bread, but now, I need a treatment everyday and I can't afford it! So, clearly it's not working. And what I read about it on the net is that people have a treatment and they hold for months to a year??? Are you serious? I wish. In my dreams.

I have a herniated disc and bulging discs and I have come to believe that not everything is the ATLAS's responsibility. I have a herniated disc. The atlas bone is not the sole reason I am out, but I am sold that song by the atlas chiro every time. I am sick of it.

For those that don't have a major problem, I think it can work. But for those that have disc disease, etc, it will work momentarily.

There are my 2 cents. It's not a long time fix, just like all of chiropractic.

And...I have come to question; just what is that soundwave device doing? Really. What is it doing or could it be doing long term?

For years I didn't do Atlas treatment, why am I being sold that it is the only thing that will work?

Especially when it doesn't work for more than a few days. 

I seriously hope that other people write some stories that are not so positive on here because I know there are more of us with this problem than I am finding.

"MCTs . . .  travel directly to the liver where they’re processed into powerful energy particles called ketone[s]."

I tried buttered coffee several months ago.  It just didn't do it for me.  I was not impressed neither with the taste or with the health benefits.  Then I tried it again last week, using instant coffee and raw butter.  I added four tablespoons of raw butter.  I could not believe the difference.  And by difference I mean the effects this time versus the non-effects last time several months ago.  This time I felt remarkable energy.  I had a cup in the afternoon.  And I like the effects so much that I took a second cup of this buttered coffee toward the evening.  Big mistake.  I was wired beyond belief.  Could not sleep.  I've never had any coffee so strong that it interrupted my sleep.  I was wired all night long.  That was the first night.  So I thought I would try it again the following the day and I did.  The energy rush was less but I noticed a tightening of the muscles under my arms and around my rib cage.  I'd read that buttered coffee works as a weight loss and energizer, apparently because it kick starts your metabolism.  It's been a week since I first tried it.  I had a cup this morning and this afternoon and I continue to get both the energizing kick and a tightening effect.  And I wanted to know why--what is it about butter when blended with hot coffee that it provides this synergistic energy that the two of them separately don't?  And I wanted to know whether these effects were healthy for one's tissues--heart, brain, liver, etc.--or not.  Here's what I found.  Laura Jeffers explains in "Can Buttered Coffee Give You a Better Body?"

There’s a lot of hype lately about the most recent coffee trend. Take your morning cup-of-joe, add two tablespoons of butter and some oil, and call it Bulletproof Coffee. No doubt it’s an interesting flavor, but it’s the claims of increased energy and weight loss that seem to be giving this morning jolt traction.

It’s not just any butter and coffee. Those supporting this idea say it has to be unsalted, grass-fed butter and medium-chain triglyceride oil (MCT) added to low-toxicity coffee beans. But can a mixture like that really live up to what proponents are saying?

What happens to butter in your body?

There’s no real research into whether butter-spiked coffee is good for you, but we do know some things about how butter affects your digestion.

According to existing research, fat in butter contains glycosphingolipids, fatty acids that ward off gastrointestinal tract infections, especially in very young children and older adults.

Its omega-3 and omega-6 fats also slow down your body’s metabolism of caffeine, so you hold on to energy longer and avoid the crash that comes when the stimulant wears off.

More about MCT

MCT, most commonly found in coconut oil, is also good for our bodies and brains. When it comes to our bodies, we don’t store MCT in our adipose tissue, the fat around and inside our muscles, like the other dietary fats we eat.

Most of those fats are long-chain triglycerides, but MCTs are shorter. They travel directly to the liver where they’re processed into powerful energy particles called ketone bodies.

In addition, if your brain loses the ability to break down its primary fuel source, glucose, due to cognitive impairment or some other disorder, it can use ketone bodies as an excellent, alternative source. Research shows that people with cognitive impairment who ingest MCT experience an almost immediate improvement in mental function.

My verdict

So, do the health benefits of butter and MCT mean you should add them to your morning coffee? To begin with, if you don’t already drink coffee, I don’t recommend you start. If you do, though, I still don’t endorse your adding butter and oil to it, and I have no plans to do it either.

Healthy fats and oils do have a place in our daily diets, but I’m not convinced that enhancing our coffee with them is the best way to incorporate them.

***************************************************************************

That's odd.  Jeffers doesn't really answer her question of whether buttered coffee builds a better body.  She isolates the benefits of the fat in butter and how that fat wards "off gastrointestinal tract infections, especially in very young children and older adults."  Minimally, her message might be to consume more butter.  But what about butter in one's coffee?  Does the butter emulsify the tanins and caffeine in coffee and render them more absorbable, and if it does is this what is causing the energetic and tightening effects?  She doesn't say that it does.  

And though I have yet to use coconut oil in my coffee, it this ingredient that Jeffers claims provides the greatest health benefit of the buttered coffee.

SANDRINE THURET: ". . . learning, sex, and aerobic activity all increase neurogenesis"

First, let me say that educated folks who believe, think, or assume that people's brains do not regenerate are idiots.  Plain and simple.  And they're often times arrogant with their assumptions or stupid and uninformed and inexperienced views.  They believe that whatever abstract they read in a journal from JAMA or others is like word from Mt. Sinai. Which allows them to parrot what they read as truth.  And then be done with it and never have to think, review, or revise their ill-formed opinion. Everywhere that I've read about the adult brain has stated that people undergo neurogenesis their whole lives.  Period.  There are things that adults can do that will enhance this neurogenesis; those things are described below--exercise, eating fatty foods, and learning. A student asked me several years ago, "Sir, how can you grow more brain cells?"  I told her "Exercise."  Her 15-year-old reply was "Nah-ah."  Here is the article from Huffington Healthy Living:

Can adults grow new neurons? Until relatively recently, experts believed the answer was no.

But as neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret explains in a new TED Talk, humans can indeed generate new brain cells, a process called neurogenesis. More importantly, doing so has a range of important benefits, including improving mood, increasing memory formation, and preventing the decline associated with aging.

Watch Thuret's talk for all of the details, but a few key takeaways are below.

Stress, lack of sleep, and aging all reduce the natural rate of neurogenesis. Certain medications also restrict new neuron growth. Thuret notes that some cancer patients unexpectedly develop symptoms of depression even after being told they are cured of their cancer. Unfortunately, the drugs they've received not only stop cancer cells from multiplying but also stop "new neurons from being generated in their brain," she says, which has a negative impact on their mood.

Movement is the key to neurogenesis.

Conversely, learning, sex, and aerobic activity all increase neurogenesis.

In one of the first studies to highlight the links between aerobics and neurogenesis, Rusty Gage of the Salk Institute examined new brain cell growth in mice. The 'control' mice had no running wheel in their cages, while the 'runners' were able to run in their cages regularly. In the snapshots below, from Gage's experiment, the black dots are new neurons-to-be.

Thuret also explains how dietary habits are crucial to new neuron growth. 

Practices that increase neurogenesis include:

Calorie restriction of 20 to 30 percent.

Intermittent fasting (i.e., spacing the time between your meals)

Intake of flavonoids, which are contained in dark chocolate or blueberries.

Omega-3 fatty acids are present in fatty fish, like salmon.

Conversely, some dietary habits have a negative impact on neurogenesis, like diets rich in high saturated fat and alcohol consumption.

If you want to work on your brain, I would definitely heed that last caveat--avoid alcohol, including wine.  Wine growers around the world have done a superlative job at selling their products and marketing their health benefits.  Resveratrol definitely helps your body, including your brain.  Just get it from a different source other than wine.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes wine just makes the company and the evening and the meal go better.  Sometimes you just want to give yourself over to mild decadence.  I say go for it.  But wine also dehydrates you.