Customer Reviews

The Healthy Brain Kit: Clinically Proven Tools to Boost Your Memory, Sharpen Your Mind, and Keep Your Brain Young

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently ordered a number of books dealing with exercises to improve brain functioning. The most recent, and most expensive of the lot, was "The Healthy Brain Kit". A big attraction of that product was that it was "authored" by Dr. Andrew Weil, tne New Age guru of wholistic medicine, and Dr. Gary Small, Director of Aging at UCLA, and author of a number of books on research-based memory interventions. While the new kit has CD's, a workbook, and exercises, I really didn't find much in it that was different from previously published material, especially by Small, including "The Memory Prescription" which details his 14-day program at UCLA which includes nutrition, exercise, stress management, and brain stimulation exercises. If someone is just starting out with these materials, I guess the kit may be worthwhile, but if you already have previously published material, I'm not sure it's worth it.

Dr. Andrew Weil introduces Dr. Gary Small's course in mental aerobics. He discusses the importance of an anti-inflammatory diet, why it might not be a good idea to sleep next to an alarm radio and why lifestyle strategies may have a great influence on brain health as we age.

Should you take up learning a new language or learn to play a musical instrument? What will a daily walk five times a week do for your brain? Dr. Andrew Weil explains the problems of oxidative stress, trauma, toxic chemicals and stress hormones and how they affect long-term aging.

Dr. Gary Small presents ideas for developing memory skills. His fun brainteasers will help you remember "to do" lists and names as well as giving you the empowering feeling when you remember things you used to forget. Through visualizations he guides you through a number of lessons to enhance memory and it makes remembering things a breeze.

Since the brain does have some regenerative capacity and we are capable of learning throughout the entire span of our lifetime, all it takes is some effort in the area of learning, reading or doing something challenging like learning dance steps.

2 CDs, a 52-page study guide booklet and a set of 35 brain-tuning cards to remind you to do the exercises presented. The cards include information on learning to relax, learning basic memory tricks to train the brain to remember facts and a few cards for advanced memory training.

~The Rebecca Review

The first portion of the book was fabulous! I learned which supplements and foods support the brain. I learned about the way the brain works and what activities exercize it.
But the second portion- with the exercizes-- was really silly and very distracting.
For instance: Dr. Small instructs to visualize a very relaxing place. But every few seconds he talks with his own ideas about what is relaxing. As if the listener doesn't know what to visualize! I finally gave up when he went into hearing ocean waves... I am not soothed by ocean waves and in fact his chatter ruined the whole exercize for me. This guy seems to think that visualizing a relazing place is a new idea to the general public.
Also, the exercizes on the audio portion were downright silly! Really, really silly! Despite the ridiculous examples he wanted the listener to try I gave it a genuine effort. But his constant chatter just forced me out of the mood.
The exercizes in the book could work-- but the ANSWERS ARE ON THE SAME PAGE!! sorry about the caps but Come On! Who puts the answers to a puzzle on the same page as the puzzle itself?? I had to cover them, trying not to see them while I covered them, and then work from the book with half the space intended.
All in all this kit is Not of very good quality.

Final thought: It genuinely feels like this was slapped together and there was NO quality control.

I agree with one of the other reviewers in that you can probably find a lot of the material from this kit on the internet for free. The material is good and the presentation is nice. There would be more stars if the price was a little lower.

Dr. Weil's kits include complete coverage of each disease they are about. You get a book that is about 50 pages long that has everything you need to know about your condition and all the cures you need. These are prefect for busy people or for those that just don't want to read a large book. They really include everything you need, the complete program to prevent or counter your illness. What's really nice is that one CD includes Dr. Weil and experts presenting all the information verbally in the case you don't want to read. Also the second CD includes meditation and guided imagery healing specifically modified for the particular disease...that's the integrative part. Dr. Weil's meditations has been real power for me to heal. He gives you all the diet and nutrition information and he shows you how to get your mind right, so you CAN heal. Most people are stressed about illness and that stress will stop you from healing. Here is a man that heals your body and gets your mind right so you can really heal and prevent the disease over the long run. The best.