Achieve Academics Focuses on the Total Test Taking Experience

Evan A Weitz, University of Minnesota

Evan A. Weitz, a senior lab technician at Absolute Sound Laboratories in Minnesota, holds a PhD from the the University of Minnesota where he was awarded an Excellence in Graduate Studies Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. A former research specialist, Evan A. Weitz also helps students prepare for the ACT as a tutor for Achieve Academics.

Since its founding nearly a decade ago, Achieve Academics has provided tutoring services to students that help improve their academic readiness and standardized test taking abilities. In addition to focusing on core subject areas such as reading, writing, and math, Achieve Academics helps students prepare physically and psychologically for big tests like the SAT and ACT. This includes preparation in four key areas:

1. Endurance – students prepare themselves for the rigors of standardized tests by simulating the entire experience, from getting up early to sitting through a four hour exam.

2. Anxiety – students with test taking anxiety enjoy a confidence boost that tutoring provides, and also have access to a professional psychologist.

3. Nutrition – students learn to make healthy food choices before and during a test to help them optimize their performance.

4. Personal presentation – students learn how to dress well on big test days, which boosts self-esteem and confidence.

Understanding Oxidative Stress in the Brain

In order to support ATP-intensive neuronal activity, which involves metabolic processes, the brain uses oxygen. When there is not enough, a failure in neuronal activity can occur. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between antioxidant defenses and reactive oxygen species, such as free radicals.

Reasons for brain susceptibility to oxidative stress are still being mapped, with one popular theory centering on the random generation of free radicals from oxygen. However, research suggests that generation of these species is positive, in that it sensitizes the brain to situations when redox signaling malfunctions. Proper redox signaling is essential in transmitting messages between cells that help protect and restore cells, and create new ones.

Biochemical reasons for brain susceptibility to oxidative stress include glutamate, unsaturated lipid enrichment, mitochondria, and RNA oxidation. Through understanding the dynamic interplay of factors involved, it may be possible to prevent age-related cognitive issues from occurring.

About the Author:

With an extensive entrepreneurial and chemistry background, Evan A. Weitz guides Absolute Sound Laboratories in Minnesota and provides electronics repair and restoration solutions. Evan A. Weitz has a research background in neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, diseases which are associated with oxidative stress in the brain.

What Is Bergamottin?

Evan A. Weitz obtained a PhD in chemistry from the University of Minnesota, where he received awards recognizing excellence in graduate studies that included the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, the Wayland E. Noland Fellowship, and the Laboratory and Scholastic Excellence Scholarship among other honors. Currently, Evan A. Weitz serves as a tutor at Achieve Academics in addition to working as a senior lab technician at Absolute Sound Laboratories in Savage, Minnesota.

Mr. Weitz also applies his background in chemistry as he researches drug interactions as a means to increase pharmaceutical efficacy. Specifically, the use of the natural compound bergamottin is of great interest. Bergamottin belongs to a category of chemicals known as furanocoumarins, and can be found in bergamot, grapefruit, and other citrus fruits.

Along with other furanocoumarins, bergamottin inhibits cytochrome P450 enzymes that metabolize pharmaceutical drugs such as antihistamines and antihypertensives. P450 enzymes, particularly CYP3A4, break down medications before they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. By inhibiting these enzymes, bergamottin allows greater drug concentrations to remain in the bloodstream, rendering the drug more effective.