How To Improve Your Concentration

I confess that for many years I've had trouble concentrating at different times and on various tasks. And I'm sure many other people are having this problem as well because we all live in a fast-paced, noisy world where there seems to always be a million things going on at the same time. Its especially noticeable if your trying to complete a job or project that your not particularly interested in. Modern medicine tries to label anyone who struggles with  poor concentration as having ADD and writes them a prescription without ever addressing the root cause of their patient's lack of focus. Below are some of the things that can contribute to this problem so prevalent in our "civilized" western world:

• Being forced to do a job or task you don't particularly enjoy
• Overwork
• Lack of oxygen to the brain
• Lack of sleep and fatigue
• Drug addiction
• White sugar, artificial sugar, and many other types of sugar
• Stress, pain, or any type of stiffness in the body or illness
• Malnutrition
• Stress

So how do we improve the above conditions to get our concentration back (and even if we're not experiencing any of the above conditions)? One of the tenets of holistic health is that everything is connected in regard to the human body so if you have one health issue then you probably have another. Many of the above issues can be traced back to dietary, environmental, and emotional causes. A deficiency in cholesterol could cause the adrenaline hormones to wear out leading to high stress responses when the "fight-or-flight" response is kicked on. An all too common occurrence in our modern world. So we can improve our concentration by:

• Herbs: Ginseng, mint (peppermint, spearmint), ylang-ylang, rosemary, lavender
• Aromatherapy: peppermint, rosemary, and eucalyptus
• Black tea and the L-Theanine in both green and white tea
• Avoid sugar especially white refined sugar or artificial sugar like aspartame, which is a neurotoxin and damages the ability of neurotransmitters to function properly
• Exercise daily to improve oxygen circulation to the brain
• Even conventional medicine now admits that meditation is excellent for improving your concentration both in the long-term and short-term
• Consume lots of healthy fats like omega-3s that are found in fish and the saturated fats found in butter. Omega-3s are necessary for healthy brain function and can even be helpful for improving your emotional state
• Amino acids: L-orthithine, L-arginine, and tryptophan. The last two amino acids can be found in many raw dairy products like cheese, eggs, and milk.
• Vitamins: all the vitamin B complex and vitamin C
• Avoid the use of household chemicals and potential metal toxins (like lead, mercury, and aluminum) as these can cross the blood-brain barrier and damage functioning. These metal toxins can also damage the body's ability to utilize minerals.