BRANDSWorld Sept Oct by Electrotype

SEPT-OCT 2012

MICA (P) No. 142/06/2012

MODERN LIFESTYLES How our brain deals with it

A TCM secret that helps

WELCOME

Welcome to a new issue of BRAND’S®World! We’re more than half way through 2012 now, but if you’ve lost sight of your New Year’s resolutions already, don’t worry because there’s plenty of the year left to get your lifestyle back on track. We often focus on what’s going on with our bodies externally because it’s easy for us to see, but don’t forget that what we’re putting in to our body is extremely

Sept - Oct 2012

important... not only to our physical health, but our mental health too.

Hot News We all know exercise is good for the body, but it’s also good for the brain and may prevent cancer.

This issue we look at the Traditional Chinese Medicine

Lighting Up The Room

thousands of years to strengthen this life force to enhance

Put a bounce in your step by strengthening your Qi with a traditional remedy.

stamina and vitality. We also take a look at Vitamin B, a

Helping Kids Cope With Life’s Challenges

the growing bodies and minds of children.

It can be tough being a kid, but Vitamin B builds a quick mind and a strong body.

In our Brain Food feature this issue, our Chief Scientist

How The Brain Deals With Modern Living

from the BRAND’S® Brain Research Centre gives us an

Do you get to the point where you’re feeling mentally exhausted? Find out how the brain reacts to the stresses of modern living.

insight into what is happening inside our brain when we’re

Kids - Games & A Challenge With Prizes Don’t waste your bottle caps. We’ve got a fun idea to make your own game. PLUS, how sharp are you? Take our challenge to find out.

CONTACT US Cerebos Pacific Limited 18 Cross Street,#12-01/08 China Square Central, S048423 Careline: 1800 732 4748 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm, excluding Public Holidays) customercare@cerebos.com.sg www.facebook.com/blurornot www.facebook.com/BrandsInnerShineSG www.facebook.com/brandsbirdsnest

concept of ‘qi’, and how Cordyceps have been used for

great stress reliever for adults that has many benefits for

feeling tired, and perhaps a bit stressed, by our busy modern lives. On the back page, especially for kids, we’ve got something fun you can do with BRAND’S® bottle caps and a chance to win some great prizes. I hope you enjoy the issue.

Isabella Tan Vice President & General Manager Singapore/Brunei/Philippines

Win a pack of BRAND’S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract We have 3 prizes to give away. Simply tell us what health topics you would like to read about in a future issue of BRAND’S®World by emailing us at contest@cerebos.com.sg with subject “BW Sept-Oct Suggestions” Thank you for your suggestions last issue. The winners were Lim Lay Peng, Lim See Lin Selene and Angie Ng. Winners have been contacted.

BRAND’S® HOT NEWS Many previous studies have shown that physical activity reduces breast cancer risk, but questions have still remained. How often, how long, and how intense does the physical activity have to be to provide benefits? Does it matter what body type a woman is, and does exercise reduce the risk of all types of breast cancer? The University of North Carolina may have answered some of those questions with a study of 1,504 women with breast cancer and 1,555 women without breast cancer. Women who exercised either during their reproductive or postmenopausal years had a reduced risk of developing breast cancer, and those who exercised 10 to 19 hours per week experienced the greatest benefit with an approximate 30 percent reduced risk. Risk reduction was observed at all levels of intensity, and exercise works best to reduce the risk of hormone receptor positive breast cancers, the most commonly diagnosed tumour type. One point to be cautious about: When the researchers looked at the joint effects of physical activity, weight gain and body size, they found that even active women who gained a significant amount of weight, particularly after menopause, had an increased risk of developing breast cancer, indicating that weight gain can eliminate the beneficial effects of exercise on breast cancer risk.

With Reward In Sight, Students Up Test Scores Educators have long debated the value of financial and other rewards as incentives, but a University of Chicago research team says that offering students rewards just before standardized testing and giving the incentive right afterward can improve test performance dramatically. The study of 7,000 students across a range of ages found that primary school students respond best to non-monetary rewards such as trophies, while small cash rewards worked well for high school students. Removing the reward in successive tests had no negative impact. The researchers explained that the immediacy of the reward is important, to allow the student to connect the effort to reward.

It turns out that the old wisdom that “playing computer games will rot your brain” may not be true. A recent Mayo Clinic study of 1,000 people aged 70 to 93 found that computer use combined with regular exercise actually keeps the brain sharper than just exercise or computer use alone. It’s not a license to spend hours on end in front of the screen. Excessive computer use has been tied to brain damage and depression, and “internet addiction” is a real danger. But, it does suggest that if you use a computer a lot in your daily life you should regularly get out and get your heart pumping. BRANDS®World Sept-Oct 2012

BRAND’S® BODY & SOUL

You may have seen them on the shelf at TCM clinics and wondered what they’re for. Ancient wisdom about Cordyceps could be the perfect tonic for a modern lifestyle.

A TCM Secret for a Confident You! Don’t go looking for Cordyceps at the Botanic Gardens or your local plant nursery. There’s an old-wives tale that it transforms from fungi to animal and hibernates in winter, but that’s probably not the reason you won’t find it. The truth is that it has been valued for its tonic properties in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for thousands of years and wild Cordyceps are now extremely rare. You will still find Cordyceps in any good TCM clinic or store. Modern cultivation methods allow TCM practitioners to keep using this valuable ingredient, and studies have shown that cultivated Cordyceps mycelium is comparable in terms of functional properties and chemical profile with wild Cordyceps. Cordyceps has been valued for more than 1,000 years for its ability to promote

stamina, overall well-being and recovery from illness or fatigue by increasing the energy (“qi”) levels in the body. It’s an overall strengthening tonic, helping to improve stamina, appetite, endurance and sleeping patterns. Excellent news for anyone living a busy life who wishes to perform at their best every day and wants that extra push and advantage to ensure that they have the mental, physical and emotional confidence to light up a room. Don’t think of Cordyceps as a short-term pick-me-up though. It delivers long-term benefits by strengthening the lungs, kidneys, liver and spleen. It builds up bone marrow, reduces phlegm and is effective in treating circulatory and respiratory conditions such as cough. It can also strengthen the immune system. By strengthening these essential organs, Cordyceps increase the general constitution of the body, so not only does it strengthen the body and put you on top of your game, it helps your own body to keep you there. The downside to using an ingredient like Cordyceps has always been the preparation. You could double-boil measured doses in water to make a

BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken with Cordyceps helps to enhance the ‘qi’ or vital energy that flows through the body thereby promoting stamina and overall well-being. It also aids in recovery from fatigue or illness. This product is also beneficial for strengthening the function of lungs, kidneys, liver and spleen.

BRANDS®World Sept-Oct 2012

nourishing drink or combine it with chicken or duck meat to make a classic, wholesome soup, but the good news for busy people on the go is that BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken with Cordyceps provides a quick and convenient alternative. In addition to the benefits of Cordyceps, BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken helps tonify the body and aid recovery from fatigue. Cordyceps will almost certainly help you sustain your levels of energy, or “qi”, for balancing a busy work and family life, but before you grab a pack it’s worth noting a couple of wisdoms of TCM. Proper “qi” circulation is essential in maintaining the body’s health and wellbeing. It facilitates the circulation of blood, which in turn transports oxygen, nutrients and eliminates wastes and toxins. But TCM practitioners do not believe in a “quick fix”. Regulation of “qi” has to be gradual and systematic for lasting results. For maximum effectiveness, drink one bottle of BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken with Cordyceps on an empty stomach each morning, consecutively for 2 weeks. Then, enjoy it 2 or 3 times a week to maintain your optimal “qi” level.

Helping Kids Cope With Life’s

BRAND’S® FUEL FOR LIFE

A quick mind and a strong body help kids to deal with the demands of growing up. When you’re thinking about what foods will help, don’t forget the Vitamin B. In the rough-and-tumble of growing up, most kids will take a bit of a battering every now and then. It could be physical, on the sports ground or in the gymnasium, but increasingly commonly it’s mental, and it’s hard to protect our children against this. Thankfully, “battering” is usually an exaggeration. Growing up is a learning process. We’ve all been through it, and we’ve realised along the way that we’re not going to be the best amongst our peers at everything. There will always be someone taller, quicker at math sums or better at public speaking. That transition from a purely home environment, where we are the centre of our parent’s world, to the wider social environment, is a natural one. As kids grow up, the challenges are much more than just doing well with studies. It’s also natural that during their growing years kids will encounter other kids they don’t get along with, situations they are uncomfortable in and new etiquettes of behavior that they will need to navigate for the first time. In some rare and unfortunate cases there will be bullying or other forms of negative behaviour that will require quick thinking to find coping mechanisms. As parents, we’ll always try to equip our children with the knowledge and social skills to deal with all these situations as they arise, but something that may surprise you is that diet may help. As adults, when we think about Vitamin B complex the first thing that comes to mind might be its benefits in dealing with stress, but those same properties that help us to deal with our busy work lives also have remarkable benefits for children. Vitamins in the B family are excellent for growing bodies. Vitamin B6 is vital for the nervous system and aids in formation of red blood cells, Vitamin B2 promotes healthy hair, skin and nails and Vitamin B12 benefits growth and

metabolism. These vitamins boost metabolic rate and promote optimal body development. The other great benefit of Vitamin B is that it boosts energy and vitality. Vitamin B1 helps to convert the food we eat into energy, while Vitamin B3 supports the transfer of this energy to the places we need it in our body.

B Vitamins

Helps to convert food into energy

Benefits growth and metabolism

Helps supply energy to the body

Aids in formulation of red blood cells

Promotes healthy hair, skin & nails

BRAND’S® AlphaMynd Essence of Chicken for Children with Vitamin B Complex combines the benefits of Vitamin B complex with Essence of Chicken’s proven benefits for mental alertness and concentration. Because it is an all-natural product, it is safe for children to consume and has a slightly milder taste than regular BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken. We know that improved energy levels and improved mental alertness and concentration won’t stop life from throwing up challenges for children, but it will help them to cope with those challenges. Nutrition can certainly make a difference. When we’re feeling energetic and mentally sharp, it’s always easier to turn a negative into a positive.

BRAND’S® AlphaMynd Essence of Chicken for Children with Vitamin B Complex contains ProBeptigen® bioactive peptide to boost learning and memory, and Carnosine to defend against neurodegeneration. Added with Vitamin B complex, it helps to support the physical and mental development of children.

BRANDS®World Sept-Oct 2012

BRAND’S® BRAIN FOOD

How The Brain Deals With Modern Living In the last issue of BRAND’S®World we looked at brain health, but staying mentally sharp involves one other element: brain fitness. Dealing with mental fatigue and stress are essential to the brain functions for good efficiency in learning and work in our daily life, including attention, motivation to learn and memory.

When you feel tired after a hard day at work or school, how much of that tiredness is physical and how much of it is mental? Physical fatigue is easy to identify. Our muscles ache, we feel weaker. But if you deal with a mentally challenging lifestyle every day, you may not even notice that your mind is feeling dull. With heavy work loads and long hours of work being the norm, two things could affect the performance of your brain and that may be causing you to feel that you’re not thinking as sharply as you usually do. The first is general physiological fatigue. Often it is due to an imbalance of lifestyle factors such as exercise, sleep, diet and other activities, and not due to a medical condition. Usually you can recover after some good rest. However, if you don’t rest well and adjust your lifestyle accordingly, you may experience lower efficiency of cognitive performance, such as reduced levels of attention and alertness. Second, apart from being a cause of physiological fatigue, mental overload in our daily life could pose a continuous stress to our brain and such chronic stress can ultimately affect our brain performance, including short-term memory (e,g. you find yourself staring at a supermarket shelf wondering what you came to buy, or forgetting where you put your car keys a few minutes ago). Ironically, stress is also important as push for us to perform better and stay competitive. Therefore, the key is how we can overcome the negative effects of stress and perform at our best under stress! To achieve this, we’ve got to understand how stress affects our brain. Dr Philip Tsang Fai, Chief Scientist at BRAND’S® Brain Research Centre explains what is actually happening: “Stress is a part of our modernised life that we can’t escape. One of the key impacts of stress on our cognitive performance is that it causes imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain, including an important neurotransmitter called serotonin. This neurotransmitter is responsible for many brain functions, particularly in mood regulation and motivation to learn. Reduction of this neurotransmitter in the brain will affect the motivation to learn, which in turn could affect the ability to concentrate.” Stress affects your day to day performance, so of course you will want to take steps to cope with it, but it probably isn’t physically harming you. Long term or chronic stress is much more dangerous.

BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken products are holistic, natural health supplements for your everyday enjoyment. Containing ProBeptigen® bioactive peptide to boost learning and memory, and Carnosine to defend against the effects of brain ageing, take BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken daily to experience its full benefits.

BRANDS®World Sept-Oct 2012

“Under continuous stress, our brain serotonin could drop, leading to compromised brain functions including motivation to learn,” says Dr Tsang. “Chronic stress also leads to an accumulation of excessive stress hormone (cortisol) in the body and brain. High levels of cortisol in the brain are associated with increased toxicity to brain cells and eventually lead to death of brain cells. One of the brain areas susceptible to toxicity of cortisol is the hippocampus, which is important for learning and memory. Therefore, damage to this brain region could be responsible for impaired learning and memory.” In addition to exercise, sleep, rest and a good work/life balance, diet could play an important role in maintaining optimal levels of the brain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which can in turn help to maintain optimal brain functions under stress. Research has found that ProBeptigen® bioactive peptide, found naturally in BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken, helps to maintain brain serotonin. “One of ProBeptigen® bioactive peptide’s key benefits is to maintain the balance of serotonin in the brain. Through that action it can help maintain optimal cognitive performance under stress,” says Dr Tsang. “Stress is constantly present in our life. We suggest taking BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken on a daily basis and in a long-term manner to always keep your brain performing at its best.”

Plus One for a Natural Approach to Beauty

The skin care regimen of the past may have been more focused on harsh, chemical-laden products or invasive procedures, but the hottest anti-ageing trends today emphasize natural, healthy approaches. Research is showing again and again that ingestible products in the form of foods, supplements or beverages marked specifically for beauty benefits can offer a powerful link between medicine, nutrition and beauty. It’s nothing new. Cultures have used foods and plants for health and beauty purposes since ancient times. What is new is the advances in research and science that have helped to conveniently package products that care for the largest organ of our body - our skin. The convenience that products such as antioxidantrich BRAND’S® Innershine Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract offer is perfectly suited to our modern lifestyles. We know that a perfect anti-ageing diet, which protects skin from the inside out, is rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, cold water fishes, lean protein, legumes, traditional soy foods, nuts and seeds. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that most of us are achieving this perfect balance. Now, we’re able to take a ‘plus one’ approach to skin care, by adding dietary supplements as a health strategy on top of our usual daily topical regime to improve skin condition and minimize the effects of aging. A ‘plus one’ regime is quick, convenient, and often tasty too. There’s plenty of research that shows that nutrients you digest have potential skin benefits and help in fighting the signs of ageing, so add it to your daily beauty process and you’ll soon be seeing the benefits when you look in the mirror.

BRANDS®World Sept-Oct 2012

No-one wants to throw stuff away! Help the environment by re-using and recycling. Get creative with your BRAND’S® bottle caps and make a fun game you can share. Here’s how you do it...

Collect your caps and when you have lots, create a flashcard game. You need two of each word for the beginner version, or questions and answers for the advanced version. Write in the cap with a permanent marker pen or glue white paper inside. Lay them out in a grid and take turns flipping them to find a match. The more caps you have, the more fun it is.

You’re smart because you’ve been drinking your BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken, but how are your powers of observation? We’ve hidden one fruit in each of these 5 sentences. Find them and you could win a great prize! 1. Is it dangerous to rub an anaconda’s head while it is eating fruit? 2. The woman goes to the refrigerator and takes out some chilled fruit. 3. My family and I (I hope) are all going to Hawaii for the holidays, and I can’t wait to eat some tropical fruit. 4. I like your picture of a fruit basket, but after you use the markers, cap each one so it won’t dry up. 5. Don’t eat fruit on my lap please!

Did you find 5 different fruits? Email your answers to contest@cerebos.com.sg with your full name, NRIC, contact number and the subject title “Hidden Word Contest” by 15 October 2012 to win! Send your entry in now! Three winners will each win a Clue Express set, a Monopoly Express set, a BRAND’S® stationery set and $100 in CapitaVouchers! 1. This contest is open to children aged 12 years old and below. 2. Limited to one entry per individual. 3. All entries must reach us by 15 October 2012. 4. The draw will be held on 29 October 2012 and winners will be notified via email by 31 October 2012. 5. This promotion is open to all residents of Singapore except employees of Cerebos Pacific Limited, its advertising agencies and their immediate families. 6. The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondences will be entertained. The management reserves the right to cancel and amend the contest (and prizes) at any time without prior notice. 7. Your participation grants Cerebos Pacific Limited the permission to send future promotional materials to the stated address.

Congratulations to last issue’s BRAND’S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract winners! Lin Jie En Jane Lim Yong Jin SXXXX460A SXXXX494E Seah Kok Joong Ong Hui Gee Tan Teck Leng Jolene Lim

SXXXX928A SXXXX640D SXXXX814C SXXXX309H

Teo Li Hui Lim Xin Hui Mah Feng Feng Pay Shu Hui

SXXXX093H SXXXX852E SXXXX048C SXXXX054G

The correct answer was that OPCs in BRAND’S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract play a dual role by protecting the skin from free radical damage and strengthening collagen and elastin to restore skin health and youthful appearance.

Winners have been contacted!

BRANDS®World Sept-Oct 2012