A recent article published in Nature Neuroscience reveals that when the stomach is empty, it makes a special hormone called ghrelin.
Amazingly, ghrelin travels to the hippocampus portion of the brain and causes new connections to form between brain cells there. As discussed in previous posts, the hippocampus is the memory engine of your brain.
More interestingly, when lab animals are injected with extra ghrelin, their learning ability and memory improved.
Could intentionally keeping your stomach empty (by cutting down your food intake) accelerate learning ability and improve memory? The recent discovery involving ghrelin, taken in conjunction with recent research involving caloric restriction- suggests this may very well be the case. I’ll post more on this very interesting topic in the coming weeks.
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It wasn’t too...
[...] About 2 weeks ago, I posted how an “empty stomach” can improve memory and boost brain power via a stomach-made hormone called ghrelin. [...]
On the different books I have read on fasting, one of the main themes I hear is the improvement of mental abilities – i.e., clarity of thought, improved memory and mental speed.
Yes, I’m a true believer when it comes to fasting. Plato supposedly said, “I fast for greater mental and physical efficiency”.
Thank you for your information about the brain.
[...] el ayuno puede ayudar a la memoria (1, [...]