Michael Cummings

San Francisco web/software designer, multi-sport athlete and certified nutrition coach.

Mindset

Sep 6, 2026

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5 min read

The Good News About Bad News: Change Your Mindset with One Question

Traditional broadcast and social news media profit from bad news because our brain is wired by evolution not to ignore it. Here's how to transform the vibe when bad news inhibits personal performance.

Michael Cummings

Breathing Exercises

Aug 30, 2026

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11 min read

These Breathing Exercises Reduce Anxiety, Improve Memory & Retention

Overriding autonomic breathing with deep, voluntary breathing is neither a quick hack, nor complicated. Here's how it works to improve your brain's ability to remain lucid under pressure.

Michael Cummings

Brain Fog

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #1: How To Actually "Rewire" Your Brain!

Aug 23, 2026

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9 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #1: How To Actually "Rewire" Your Brain!

By the number of times it shows up in brain health and cognitive performance ads and articles, everyone wants to "rewire" their brain. Doing it is neither a quick hack, nor complicated. Here's how.

Michael Cummings

Brain Fog

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #2: Phosphatidylserine

Aug 16, 2026

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8 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #2: Phosphatidylserine

Counting the top ten list up to #2 this week: Phosphatidylserine. One mans insult is another's triumph of humane progress. Who's neurotransmitters are stronger?

Michael Cummings

Herbal Extracts

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #3: Ginkgo biloba

Aug 9, 2026

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9 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #3: Ginkgo biloba

The art of noticing is a high performance habit practiced by scientists, athletes, monks and working professionals like us. We both create and are created by our environment in a closed loop. Here's how to practice Focused Attention on the Present in Space-Time (FAPST) for high performing focus, learning and creativity, without feeling loopy.

Michael Cummings

Nootropics

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #4: L-Theanine

Aug 2, 2026

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7 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #4: L-Theanine

Tea, humankind's first nootropic, began as a medicinal herb in China in the 2nd millennium BC. Camellia sinensis leaves for green, black, and white teas have an amino acid, L-Theanine. Little wonder so many independent inventions originated from China.

Michael Cummings

Cognitive Enhancers

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #5: Bacopa monnieri

Jul 26, 2026

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6 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #5: Bacopa monnieri

Our contemporary bias for empirical evidence gives relief to thousands of years of superstition and its abuses. But today, those of us capable of having two different kinds of thoughts at once can keep the baby's empirical evidence while (metaphorically) throwing out the swampy tropical ayurvedic bathwater bacopa monnieri grew from.

Michael Cummings

Indirect Cognitive Enhancers

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #10: Rhodiola Rosea

Jul 19, 2026

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7 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #10: Rhodiola Rosea

Can a tough little flower from a tough climate make you tougher for the next ordeal in your hero's journey? A rosea by any other name is still an adaptogen, and adaptogenic complexity shoehorned in to marketing simplicity can be misleading. Let's set the record straight.

Michael Cummings

Brain Health Foods

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #9: Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR)

Jul 12, 2026

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7 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #9: Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR)

The Cognitive Enhancements Deep Dives series continues with #9 in the top ten list. We all know the human brain is like no other. But how did cooking meat in fire hundreds of thousands of years ago, and ever since, make it that way? And what does that have to do with ALCAR aka Acetyl-L-Carnitine? 100% organically-generated content.

Michael Cummings

Indirect Cognitive Enhancers

Top Cognitive Enhancements Deep Dive - #8: Ginseng

Jul 5, 2026

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10 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Deep Dive - #8: Ginseng

Ginseng's medicinal roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) sometimes belies the story of a very American nootropic. Also, my first nootropic, thanks to a Capitola CA neighbor-grocer. But what was Daniel Boone's role in American ginseng's history?

Michael Cummings

Indirect Cognitive Enhancers

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #7: Ashwagandha

Jun 28, 2026

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6 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #7: Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha's use in medicinal practices predates western medicine by thousands of years. But until the COVID pandemic, few knew of it. Why has it become nearly ubiquitous, seemingly over-produced, and definitely over-marketed since then? What does it do? Should we take it or leave it?

Michael Cummings

Brain Health

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #6: Huperzine A

Jun 21, 2026

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5 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancements Continued - #6: Huperzine A

We explored reasons to take the top five recommended supplements last week. This week we begin unpacking the next five, starting with the least recommend "direct" cognitive enhancer, Huperzine A. Why is it at the bottom of the top recommendations?

Michael Cummings

Brain Health

Jun 14, 2026

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7 min read

Top Five Brain Health Supplements For Cognitive Performance

Three supplements to augment the MIND diet nutrients, plus the ten consistently recommended by top websites and video influencers, is too many! Here are the Top Five that can be taken together safely, and the research backing them. Plus how to stack and time them for specific types of cognitive activities.

Michael Cummings

Brain Health Supplements

Top Cognitive Enhancement Supplements Recommended Online

Jun 7, 2026

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5 min read

Top Cognitive Enhancement Supplements Recommended Online

Confused and overwhelmed with supplement recommendations? Let's find consensus among top web and social supplement recommendation sources, to help you un-confuse and de-hype the noise, and make better choices for your brain.

Michael Cummings

Brain Health

May 31, 2026

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6 min read

Top Ten Brain Health Supplements

How to build Structural Brain Health first on deep health habits, second on whole foods, and last but not least on brain health supplements proven by research to improve cognitive function.

Michael Cummings

Brain Health

May 24, 2026

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4 min read

Top Ten Brain Health Nutrients

There's more to brain health than supplements. In this second edition of the Structural Brain Health series we'll go up one level from brain health foundations, and build our Brain Health ground floor, from nutrition up.

Michael Cummings

Brain Health

May 17, 2026

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7 min read

The Top Ten Brain Health Foundations

Google Trends and Reddit tells us why the brain health and nootropic supplement market is projected to grow in double digits without helping people as much the marketing claims. And how to get what others miss!

Michael Cummings

Resilience