"Mind Boosters" by Dr. Ray Sahelian, as of today, is the most authoritative and detailed book on the way food and herbal supplements can affect your mental performance. As the cover implies, your mind, memory and mood can be profoundly influenced by what you take in your body, key among it various herbs, tinctures and many supplements and remedies found in specialty stores, and more often, even in the supermarket.
I really enjoy the fluidity of the writing style. If you took out the corporate restraints and told our author, "Okay, doctor, I want you to stick to the basics and use simple English so that anybody could understand." Especially useful is the information which other books leave out due to their own ignorance, whereas Dr. Sahelian gets right down to the 30- and 40-letter names for specific hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes and other crucial substances, or fluids, in the body that don't HAVE any other name. This is EXACTLY the information that I need for my research, and whether or not you are doing research or just want to improve your overall health, you are really missing out on invaluable information if you have not read this book. For each topic discussed, the author has sub-topics of cautions and side-effects, recommendations, and personal anecdotes filled with specific information about the substance or vitamin at hand. Dr. Sahelian, for example, is a strong believer that many people suffer stress and anxiety needlessly, simply because they fail to supplement their diet with B-Vitamins, and also that they lack "good" cholesterol, or the Omega-3 class fatty acids. I was pleased to know that I have been taking Lecithin, a natural source of choline, as a fat emulsifier and brain booster for over twenty years, and is one reason why I have an excellent memory--not to mention clarity of thinking and good concentration. Not only that, supplements like lecithin, flax, and the omega-3 class fatty acids help to balance your cholesterol levels. Did you know that all cholesterol is not "bad?" That we need balance, and need to focus on low-density lipoproteins? Keep reading this book, do what it says, and you should far outlive your normal life expectancy.
"Mind Boosters" will reinforce or strengthen your knowledge of what you may need to know most in your life. Many of the emotional problems I point out in my fourth book,
Highliner: The Nature, Philosophy and Science of Automobile Driving are fundamentally omitted in every other driving book or known drivers education program, but I have made irrefutable links between foods, moods, herbal supplements and driving behaviors, or just human behavior in general. Dr. Sahelian is the authority on neurochemicals and the way in which hormones and neurotransmitters play a central role in regulating the body and fight to maintain a precise biochemical balance.
Dr. Sahelian points out the role of St. John's Wort, Ginko Biloba, 5-HTP, GABA, Kava, and lots more, including the role of fats in the diet (did you know that the brain is made up of 60% fat?). All this perfectly spread over the 22 chapters. Part I starts right at the beginning with, "Using Your Brain..." and can have an ordinary person with reasonable capacity to take in new information beginning to understand some important functions about brain and mind and body interaction. It's like this doctor doing a basic, bare-bones sketch to brand new medical students--and the book does have great, easy-to-understand illustrations. For these reasons, this book will have you so smart by the time you are done that, if you follow the advice (with the help of a doctor), you will have little need to worry about suffering the effects of neglecting your body's precise chemical balances. Also discussed are the role of receptor sites, and how they can be intercepted by pseudo-neurons, or neurons that were "faking" the fingerprint of another.
Dr. Sahelian is a terrific writer. Not one word is wasted, every sentence informs, every chapter educates. I've memorized most of the acronyms, and when you start rattling off these terms at a stressed, depressed or oppressed person because their diet is lacking, they stand back at their impression of your knowledge. "I think you should start by cutting back on the coffee," I tell them gently, and furthermore "pick up a good Vitamin-B complex, along with a choline and inositol supplement. You might also consider some gamma-aminobutryic acid or dihydroepiandrosterone, along with a 50-mg. supplement of 5-hydroxytryptophan." They say, "Whoa! I had no idea I needed those." The bottom line: the foods and drinks we assimilate are all precursors to hormones and neurotransmitters in the body. So if someone is not eating right or getting enough fluids, well, would that explain why, for example, they are depressed, anxious, obsessed, frustrated or angry all the time? Check your diet first! "Boost your mind" is the cornerstone of Dr. Sahelian's work, in which he really knows his subjects. This book should be worth scholarly credits. Recommended for all educated readers. Buy it today! It never leaves my nighttable.
