Ask HN: List everything you know that is good/bad for our brains.

Generally thought to be good for the brain:

Fish oil (Omega 3 in general but fish oil is tough to beat)

Exercise (Read the book Spark for more details)

Meditation (While this needs to be studied more some of the studies on long-time meditators look very promising)

Keeping the brain active, especially as we age (learning a language, doing crosswords or other brain puzzles, etc.)

Quality sleep

Some supplements (While I think there may be more definitive studies necessary, certain supplements like blueberry extract, vitamin D and melatonin are showing promising benefits to the brain)

Generally thought to be bad for the brain:

Excessive consumption of alcohol (1-2 drinks/day may be OK but more than that is typically

Excessive consumption of sugar (the book Sugar Blues goes into a lot more detail)

Toxic fats (Trans Fatty Acids, etc.)

Head injuries (concussions, wear helmets, seatbelts, etc.)

Many drugs (while some drugs are neuroprotective, many are neurotoxic, proceed with caution and reference Daniel Amen's work for more details)

Overexposure to certain chemicals (many people who work in factories with constant exposure suffer problems)

Two of my favorite books in this are are Making a Good Brain Great by Daniel Amen and The Ultra Mind Solution by Mark Hyman.

Wet your hands with cold water and twist and turn your ear with two finger (not too hard, the idea is to generate blood flow so they get warm. You are not trying to hurt yourself). It jolts my attention for about 20-30 minutes.

When I was writing this, I thought to myself if there is any science behind it. Turns out this seems like a fairly well-known thing to some people. I found this out myself. Now I will go read what causes this to happen.