Ways to increase focus in students
Ways to increase focus in students
Studying can become an overwhelming task due to focus loss. However, the good news is that there are plenty of productive ways to improve your focus. Planning tasks beforehand, practicing meditation, exercising and also changing your eating habits are just a few things you could do as a student to gain that extra kick of focus.
Focus loss in students
The process of studying can become a quite challenging task for students these days. A lot of effort is needed to concentrate on study materials for various reasons such as information load, distractions, lack of focus and other external factors.
Students however tend to overlook the obstacles they face and therefore get used to bad studying habits. These lead to physical and mental fatigue making studying an unattainable goal.
Why do students lose their focus?
Even if the end of the pandemic has alleviated students from isolation, online courses, and reinstated interaction with their peers; it has also distorted their focus when following courses on academic grounds.
Distractions caused by social media are an important reason for focus loss. This is because the use of mobile phones and the internet is an integral part of their daily life, especially since it has become the primary communication tool these days.
Bad eating habits and unstable sleeping patterns can also lead to the loss of focus. Most students tend to “make their lives easier” by avoiding nutritious meal preparations and thus consuming unhealthy snacks and food options.
Also, studies have shown that students have an overall poor sleep quality consisting of disrupted and short sleep patterns (1). These factors can all affect mental health and the ability to concentrate leading to nonproductive behaviors (2).
How to increase your focus as a student
The good news is that there are plenty of productive ways to improve your focus as a student.
First of all, a planner might narrow the overwhelming feeling and help reach achievement when starting a new task by maintaining effective schedules. This will also reduce anxiety and stress and will eventually improve concentration and productivity.
Practicing mindfulness and meditation can also help with building focus. Taking short breaks in between study sessions will aid with clearing your mind. This is vital to mental health and concentration.
Another way to enhance focus is brain training. The brain benefits from regular exercise and there are ways to specifically train your brain. Memory games, sudoku and word searchers are a successful way to stay off your phone while activating different parts of the brain and boosting your concentration.
These are all exciting tips, but did you know nutrition and eating patterns also have an influence on your ability to focus?
Foods that can improve your focus
Nutrition affects your brain performance. There are foods known for improving attentiveness when incorporated into one’s daily diet. Berries, fatty fish, nuts, and eggs are just some options which have shown to have great effects on brain health (3).
While diet is key to a healthier lifestyle, students often find it difficult to retain a nutritious diet due to preparation time and costs. While keeping in mind that a healthy balanced diet is essential, adding supplements is a way to boost your nutrient intake!
Essential vitamins and minerals
Supplements are an effective way to get the vitamins and minerals you need. Omega-3, vitamin D, C & B12 and magnesium are good options for memory and concentration and have been found to contribute to overall enhanced concentration and focus.
In fact, studies have shown that people with a low Vitamin B12 and D intake show poor learning ability (4).
Anthocyanins
Fruits containing antioxidants are highly necessary to be included in your diet, especially when willing to boost your focus. More specifically, a category of antioxidants shown to have beneficial effects related to focus is anthocyanins. These anthocyanins have been associated with increasing cognitive performance in several studies.
Anthocyanins are antioxidants better known for giving fruits and vegetables a distinctive blue, purple or red color. (5)
Examples of antocyanin-containing fruits are blueberries, cherries, red grapes, and black plums. However, one of the highest concentrations of anthocyanins has been found in Aronia Melanocarpa, also known as the black chokeberry.
Aronia Melanocarpa contains high levels of the anthocyanin Cyanidin-3-0-Galactoside which has been shown to have effects on brain health and cognition. (6)
Curious to know more about the anthocyanin Cyanidin-3-O-galactoside? Click here!
Boost your focus with these tips
Studying properly is a skill that is learnt over time. Being able to concentrate on studying is an integral part of this skill. However, by integrating the above-mentioned techniques in your daily lives, you can certainly get an extra boost of focus and allow yourself to come close to your ideal studying practice.
Solabia acquires majority stake in BioActor
Solabia acquires majority stake in BioActor
Press release
Solabia strengthens its position in the nutrition market with the acquisition of a majority stake in BioActor, a leader in the development and commercialisation of clinically proven natural active ingredients used by leading food supplement brands.
Founded in 2011 and located on the Maastricht Health Campus, BioActor is an innovation leader in the development and commercialisation of clinically evaluated polyphenols extracted from edible plants and fruits and used by leading food supplement brands worldwide.
Thanks to an in-house clinical research team with direct access to a state-of-the-art clinical research facility and a genuine passion for innovation, BioActor’s health ingredients are all first-in-class, offering supplement brands the opportunity to develop unique solutions to consumers worldwide. BioActor currently exports to more than 20 countries worldwide, serving leading brands across the nutrition and supplement industries.
Solabia is already present in the nutrition segment through original ingredients recognized for their health benefits, including Algatech’s microalgae-derived active ingredients. This strategic investment will allow Solabia to benefit from a wider range of ingredients and from BioActor’s expertise, strengthening its nutrition division positioning on this fast-growing market, as customers increasingly look for high quality active ingredients that combine naturality with proof of efficacy.
This new partnership will also support BioActor’s continued focus on R&D and product development, as well as the expansion of its production capabilities, enabling the company to serve the increasing global demand for its products. BioActor will become a centre of excellence for innovation and clinical research within Solabia’s nutrition division and the combination will allow both companies to benefit from the combined network and expertise, as well as to access new marketing channels and an expanded customer base.
Hans van der Saag, BioActor’s founder and CEO, retains a minority share and his role as CEO of BioActor.
Commenting on the acquisition, Jean-Baptiste Dellon, Chief Executive Officer of Solabia, said:
“We are very impressed by BioActor’s dynamic team and innovation engine, and we are very pleased to welcome them to Solabia. BioActor’s pioneering R&D, impressive clinical research capabilities, market leading product portfolio and established customer base will allow us to further strengthen our position in the nutrition and food supplement markets. We are looking forward to working with BioActor to enhance growth for current product portfolio and accelerate the development of new ingredients.”
Hans van der Saag, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of BioActor, commented:
“We are excited to announce BioActor’s acquisition by Solabia. It marks a significant milestone for the company and the people behind its success, and it is an important step towards realising our mission to bring unique and clinically evaluated health ingredients to consumers worldwide. I am also thankful for the hard work and dedication of our employees. Together with Solabia, we are poised to extend the BioActor growth story as part of a larger organisation with an extensive global footprint, a shared commitment to innovation, research and development, and an unwavering focus on utilising the benefits of nutrition to elevate the health of all of us.”
About Solabia
Solabia is a vertically integrated manufacturer of natural active ingredients for the cosmetics, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and microbiology industries. With eight production facilities and multiple R&D centres, Solabia is a major player in the global cosmetics and nutraceutical ingredient markets with presence in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Solabia also produces culture media, supplements, detection kits for the food testing and pharmaceutical industries and for microbiology laboratories.
More information about Solabia can be found at: https://www.solabia.com/en
About BioActor
BioActor is an innovation leader in the development, and commercialisation of clinically evaluated polyphenols extracted from edible plants and fruits. Based at the Maastricht Health Campus at walking distance from the largest nutrition & health faculty of The Netherlands and the Maastricht University Medical Center, the Company has an in-house clinical research team with direct access a state-of-the-art clinical research facility. Since its inception in 2011, BioActor has developed 8 branded health ingredients, supported by more than 20 clinical studies. The company currently exports its products to leading brands in more than 20 countries worldwide across the nutrition, food and beverages industries.
More information about BioActor can be found at: https://solabianutrition.com/
For more information, please contact:
Solabia
Françoise Pestretzoff
Email: francoise.pestretzoff@solabia.fr
BioActor
Hans van der Saag
Email: hans.vandersaag@bioactor.com
What is (peri)menopause and which changes occur?
What is (peri)menopause and which changes occur?
Menopause leads to changes in women’s bodies and marks the end of the childbearing years. It involves hormonal changes that can lead to both physical and mental symptoms that are better known as menopause symptoms. Because menopause does not occur overnight, a distinction is made between the period called perimenopause and the period that comes after, namely (post)menopause. Each of these periods comes with its issues and symptoms.
What is menopause?
Menopause is marked by the moment that no menstruation has occurred for at least 12 months. This occurs on average when women are between 45 to 55 years of age. However, this varies from woman to woman and depends on multiple factors.
Entering menopause is not an immediate process and does not happen overnight: it is a process that can last for years (1). For this reason, we make a distinction between menopause and perimenopause.
What is perimenopause?
The explicit sign that menopause has started is the definitive cessation of menstruation. This does not occur suddenly, but after a long period of irregularity, which begins to manifest itself during perimenopause.
Perimenopause is the phase in which the first bodily changes related to menopause occur. These changes are evident signs of decreasing levels of estrogen and progesterone (2).
During perimenopause, estrogen deficiency occurs that can no longer be compensated by changes in ovarian hormone production. This decline in ovarian function is a characteristic trigger of natural menopause and because of it circulating estradiol levels will go down. This reduction in estradiol levels will prevent ovulation from happening, which is thought to be the reason for irregular menstruation.
Postmenopause is the period that begins after 12 consecutive months without menstruation. From this moment on the discomforts related to (peri)menopause will become lighter.
What are the symptoms of perimenopause?
The hormonal changes associated with menopause can affect physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being. The symptoms that are experienced during and after menopause vary greatly from one person to another.
While some women suffer few to no symptoms, others may experience severe symptoms affecting their daily activities and quality of life. In some cases, the symptoms may last for various years (3).
Symptoms of perimenopause
Symptoms that can occur during perimenopause include, but are not limited to:
• Irregular menstruation cycle, this is a clear sign that hormones are starting to act up.
• Menstruation that is heavier or lighter than normal, which indicates a change in hormonal balance
• Weight gain and a general accentuation of roundness can become a very delicate aspect to manage, also from an emotional point of view.
• Changes in hair quality, most women find that their hair loses volume and length around menopause.
• Headaches, the hormone changes that happen as women approach menopause mean that all types of headaches, including migraines, become more common.
• Muscle aches, estrogen affects your cartilage (which is the connective tissue in joints) as well as the replacement of bone, this plays a part in inflammation and pain.
• Bone issues, though it is less noticeable, bone health diminishes during menopause. For this reason, a lot of products exist to improve bone health during (peri)menopause.
Symptoms of (post)menopause
As stated before, after perimenopause starts the actual menopause, which brings its own types of symptoms. These symptoms include:
• Night sweats and hot flashes are one of the most typical effects of hormonal imbalance. Many women experience such a sudden rush of feeling hot.
• Anxiety or irritability. There are a lot of physical changes during menopause, but emotional changes often occur as well. This happens because the drop in estrogen and progesterone leads to a decrease in the expression of several brain chemicals that make you feel calm, happy or energetic. This can cause women to feel anxious or irritable.
• Mood swings also occur due to hormonal changes. Fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone lead to fluctuations in other brain chemicals as well, leading to these mood swings.
• Depression is a symptom that can occur during both perimenopause and menopause and is more severe compared to anxiety, irritability or mood swings. Changes in hormones might put women more at risk for depression and this also falls under the emotional changes during menopause.
• Insomnia. Overall studies show that women in menopause have more trouble with sleeping. These disturbances include difficulty getting to sleep, staying asleep, early morning wakenings and problems with the overall quality of sleep.
• Fatigue and low energy are common effects that many women experience before, during, and after this transition time. This often is a result of the sleeping problems described before, but has to do with the previously mentioned ‘energetic’ chemicals in your brain as well.
• Dry skin due to decreasing estrogen levels can become less supple, smooth, and soft. Fine wrinkles, dark spots, and less elasticity are usually not far behind.
Relieving symptoms of perimenopause and (post)menopause
Menopause is a period of hormonal changes marked by physical and emotional changes. A lot of people worry about this and it can be hard to experience these symptoms. For this reason, there are several ways to alleviate these symptoms. Of course, medicinal products are available, but natural ways to relieve symptoms exist as well. Changes in diet and physical activity could be a way to relieve symptoms associated with menopause.
You can read more about Bonolive®, a product that proves to relieve post-menopausal symptoms, and women’s health on this page.
