Neurofitness

 Doctor Rahul Jandial wrote Neurofitness: The Real Science Of Peak Performance From A College Drop Out Turned Brain Surgeon. I listened to the audio book mostly while driving my car. I learned an important lesson. Don't listen to intense science books while driving my car. Less intense science books like those by Mary Roach are fine to listen to in the car but not this one. I got such a headache listening to this book in the car that I had to go home and take a nap and I usually never take a nap unless I am getting sick. The author is great but he is a surgeon and you know how surgeons are. Surgeons can be a little bit different from us common folk. This guy experimented with drugs while writing this book. Normally he doesn't smoke or use nicotine. He slapped on the mildest nicotine patch on his skin on a Sunday afternoon, his day off, to see if nicotine helped him write. Nicotine did help him write. He did an experiment. He had his wife apply a nicotine patch or a plain band aid to his shoulder where he couldn't see it so he could experiment with himself while writing. Nicotine definitely helped him write more and faster but he doesn't recommend using nicotine. He also experimented with caffeine and beer. Both caffeine and beer helped his writing but he doesn't recommend those either. He refrains from using alcohol, nicotine and beer entirely during his work week. He eats a very healthy diet. He fasts twice a week. I would not want to be his surgical patient on his fasting day. He might have an eating disorder in my opinion. He even experimented with his teen age son while in South America by chewing the leaves from which cocaine is made. Chewing the raw leaves is not at all like using cocaine and he doesn't recommend that either. He did recommend a few drugs for neurofitness including Modofinil which can be prescribed for people who work the night shift. He also said brain exercises help but not the ones we see in the ads such as Luminosity. He says Brain HQ is the one to use. He also says that concussion clinics give advice that is not based on science and most of their advise in not helpful. However, this is the guy who let his 15 year old son chew raw coca leaves in South America so take that advice with a grain of salt. If you don't want to read the book he also gives TED talks and has interviews on You Tube.