The Creating Brain or Food Fuel Fitness

The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

Author: Nancy C Andreasen

Michelangelo was raised in a rustic village by a family of modest means. Shakespeare's father was a middle-class businessman. Abraham Lincoln came from a family of itinerant farmers. Yet all these men broke free from their limited circumstances and achieved brilliant careers as creative artists and leaders. How such extraordinary creativity develops in the human brain is the subject of renowned psychiatrist Nancy Andreasen's The Creating Brain.
Andreasen explains here how the brain produces creative breakthroughs in art, literature, and science, revealing that creativity is not the same thing as intelligence. She scrutinizes the complex factors involved in the development of creativity, including the role of patrons and mentors, "non-standard" educations, and the possession of an "omnivorous" vision. A fascinating interview with acclaimed playwright Neil Simon sheds further light on the creative process.The relationship between genius and insanity also plays an important role in Andreasen's examination. Drawing on her studies of writers in the Iowa Writers' Workshop and other scientific evidence, Andreasen asserts that while creativity may sometimes be linked to mental disorders and may be partially due to familial/genetic factors, neither is inevitable nor needed for creativity to flourish.
Scientist's increasing understanding of the brain's plasticity suggests even more possibilities for nurturing the creative drive, and Andreasen looks ahead to exciting implications for child-rearing and education. The Creating Brain presents an inspiring vision for a future where everyone—not just artists or writers—can fulfill their creative capacity.

Publishers Weekly

How does one define extraordinary creativity? Is creative genius a product of nature or nurture? And can those of us who are less creative enhance the creative capacity in ourselves and others? Andreasen (The Broken Brain), editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association, brings neuroscience to bear in providing insight and expert analysis of the connections between extraordinary creativity, mental illness, intelligence and the social environment. The complex subject matter is punctuated with intriguing research, such as Andreasen's Iowa Writer's Workshop study examining the relationship between creativity and psychopathology; a study of London taxi drivers showing that their need for extensive memory of the city leads to a larger hippocampus; and a study of members of symphony orchestras that found increased gray matter in Broca's area . These studies lead Andreasen to conclude that "extraordinary creativity" is the result of neural processes that "differ qualitatively as well as quantitatively" from those of other people. The author's passion and admiration for creative genius and the arts-not surprising given her Ph.D. in Renaissance English literature-is evidenced in her exploration of such great minds as Mozart, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Tchaikovsky. And quotations from introspective accounts by mathematician Henri Poincare, chemist Friedrich Kekule, Stephen Spender and Neil Simon vividly describe mental activities that are anything but ordinary. Andreasen leaves us with hope that the potential exists to enhance the creative capacity in our children and in ourselves. Photos and illus. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

List of IllustrationsPreface 1.  The Nature of Creativity:  The Ingenious Human Brain2.  In Search of Xanadu:  Understanding the Creating Person and the Creative Process3.  Reaching Xanadu:  How Does the Brain Create?4.  Genius and Insanity:  Creativity and Brain Disease5.  What Creates the Creative Brain6.  Building Better Brains:  Creativity and Brain Plasticity BibliographyIndex

Go to: From Poor Law to Welfare State or Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism

Food - Fuel - Fitness: Healthy Living with Food Demineralization

Author: Wendy Lou Jones

Food – Fuel – Fitness, Healthy Living with Food Demineralization, 2nd Edition, was updated with a larger selection of foods, especially designed to fit a broader global audience of individuals who must, for the sake of their health, control the amounts of sodium, potassium, and phosphorus in their diets.

Today, more then 20 million Americans and over 200 million worldwide, are afflicted with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), at least 40% of whom are diabetics. In many, CKD will progress to End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and the need for dialysis. More than 350,000 in the U.S. and one million globally have already been forced into an endless cycle of dialysis just to stay alive.

Traditionally, those with failing kidneys are told to severely restrict the numbers and the amounts of foods containing substantial amounts of sodium, potassium and/or phosphorus in attempts to avert potentially life-threatening mineral imbalances. Such restrictions often lead to a chronic state of malnutrition, anemia, and weight loss. Food – Fuel – Fitness offers the reader a genuine opportunity to positively impact their nutritional profile and health, with user-friendly instructions and exciting recipe "starter" ideas.

The first edition of Food – Fuel – Fitness, was evaluate in a small cross-country study with ESRD patients. The study, funded in part through an American Dietetic Association – Renal Practice Group grant, looked at the acceptance and success of practicing at-home food mineral reduction. Study results showed that 92% of participants were able to achieved measurable mineral reduction through the use of these self-help instructions.