Some Things That Increase Blood Flow to the Brain
9Gunnar_Zarncke
9romeostevensit
7Adam Zerner
4Gunnar_Zarncke
3romeostevensit
8Gunnar_Zarncke
8Chris Lakin
4Chris Lakin
2T431
6Mitchell_Porter
3romeostevensit
4George3d6
3Soumil Yarlagadda
1[anonymous]
2romeostevensit
New Comment
Sources are a shallow dive of google and reading a few abstracts, this is intended as trailheads for people, not firm recommendations. If I wanted them to be reccs I would want to estimate effect sizes and estimates of the quality of the related research.
The subtext here seems to be that such references are required. I disagree that it should be.
It is frequently helpful but also often a pain to dig up, so there are tradeoffs at play. For this post, I think it was fine to omit references. I don't think the references would add much value for most readers and I suspect Romeo wouldn't have found it worthwhile to post if he had to dig up all of the references before being able to post.
The subtext is that I'd like to have them if the author has them available. It sounded like it's applied/used by the author. Also, it's a frontpage post and the LW standard on scholarship is typically higher than this.
I'm fine with romeostevensit's reply that it's from a shallow google dive, but would have preferred this to be a QuickTake or at least an indication that it's shallow.
Note that vasodilators can reduce the blood flow to the brain because they potentially work on all blood vessels, not only those in the brain.
Personal anecdote:
Ever since reading George's post, I've been noticing ways in which I have been (subconsciously) tensing muscles in my neck-- and possibly around my vagus nerve and inside my head. I wonder if by tensing these muscles, I'm reducing blood flow.
(I can think of reasons why someone might learn to do this on purpose actually, eg in response to some social stress.)
So now I'm experimenting with relaxing those muscles whenever I notice myself tensing them. Maybe this increases blood flow, idk. It maybe feels a little like that.
Update: I resolved maybe all of my neck tension and vagus nerve tension. I don't know how to tell whether this increased by intelligence though. It's also not like I had headaches or anything obvious like that before
Similar situation in my life...there are times when I am attempting to fall asleep and I realize suddenly that I am clenching my teeth and that there is considerable tension in my face. Beginning from my closed eyes down to my mouth I relax my facial muscles and I find it becomes easy for me to fall asleep.
In waking life too there are instances where I recognize my facial and bodily tension but I notice these situations less often than when I am trying to sleep. Being conscious of tension in my body and then addressing that tension when it occurs has on occasion made me calmer.
I am uncertain regarding the utility of more expensive interventions and or intensive investigations for alleviating tension, and have not really looked into it (but want to, somewhat).
Increasing blood flow to the large masseter muscles seems to have a broadly stimulating effect on blood flow to the head in general. You can buy unflavored gum for cheap, or xylitol gum which has a positive side effect on decreasing cavity formation.
Never thought about this one, quite interesting 🙃
I tried vinpocetine as a nootropic, and I think it made me "dumber" instead. I recall driving on it a few days before I quit, I almost got into an accident
Curated and popular this week