_ Brain Health Learning a 2nd Language Aids Your Aging Brain By Sondra Forsyth article If you grew up bilingual or learned a second language in high school, youΓÇÖve done your aging brain a favor. However, even if you start mastering a second language as an older adult, you can benefit from the positive effect your new non-native tongue will have on cognition as you age. ThatΓÇÖs the finding of research done at the Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and published in June 2014 in Annals of Neurology.
_ Mental & Emotional Health May Is Mental Health Month: WhereΓÇÖs Your Sanity? By article By Dr. Claudia LuizΓÇ¿ΓÇ¿ Everybody is overwhelmed and nobody is afraid to talk about it. Historically speaking, we are more sophisticated than ever emotionally; we are highly aware of what we feel, and we can talk about it. If we don’t feel better, it’s only because our methods for dealing with what we feel are still so antiquated. It’s just the same-old, same-old: try to be better, get inspired to change. But it doesn’t’ work. ΓÇ¿ ΓÇ¿
Longevity Gene May Be a Brain Booster By article If you’re lucky, you inherited a longevity gene that will up your chances of living to a ripe old age. Better yet, scientists at the University of California San Francisco have shown that people who have a variant of a longevity gene called KLOTHO are blessed with superior brain skills such as thinking, learning, and memory regardless of their age, sex, or even whether they have a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
_ Apathy Could Indicate Brain Changes By Jane Farrell article Among older people without depression, apathy may be an indicator of significant brain changes, according to new research. “Just as signs of memory loss may signal brain changes related to brain disease, apathy may indicate underlying changes,” said Lenore J. Launer, PhD, with the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
_ Green Tea Boosts Your Brain By article Green tea is said to have many positive effects on health. Now researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland are reporting the first evidence that green tea extract enhances cognitive functions, in particular the working memory. The findings, published in April 2014 in the journal Psychopharmacology, suggest promising clinical implications for the treatment of cognitive impairments in psychiatric disorders such as dementia.
_ This Is Your Brain on Meditation By article Brown University researchers have intergrated mindfulness meditation with brain imaging and neural signal data to form testable hypotheses about the science of the practice, and the reported mental health benefits. The investigators maintain that their method of coding the reports meditators provide about their mental experiences can be “rigorously correlated with quantitative neurophysiological measurements”.
_ Will Brain Training Make You Smarter? By article By Deane Alban Last year over $1 billion was spent on brain training programs, making this an exploding new industry. But do brain training programs live up to the hype? Are they worth the time and money spent? Do the benefits gained translate to better overall brain function?
_ Lactic Acid May Help Crucial Brain Functions By Jane Farrell article Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism in the body that regulates a hormone that is essential for a number of crucial functions, including the control of blood pressure.
Mental & Emotional Health This Is Your Brain on Anxiety By article According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 18 percent of American adults suffer from anxiety disorders. These people suffer from excessive worry or tension that often leads to physical symptoms. A release from the California Institute of Technology reports that previous studies of anxiety in the brain have focused on the amygdala, an area known to play a role in fear. However, Caltech researchers had a hunch that understanding a different brain area, the lateral septum, could provide more clues into how the brain processes anxiety. Their instincts paid off.
Hearing Loss Hastens Brain Tissue Loss By article Although the brain becomes smaller with age, the shrinkage seems to be fast-tracked in older adults with hearing loss, according to the results of a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging. The findings add to a growing list of health consequences associated with hearing loss, including increased risk of dementia, falls, hospitalizations, and diminished physical and mental health overall.
_ Brain Training With Neurofeedback By article A new imaging technique lets people to “watch” their own brain activity in real time and control or adjust function in pre-determined brain regions. The study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University, and the McGill University Health Centre was published in the journal NeuroImage. It’s the first to demonstrate that magnetoencephalography (MEG) can be used as a potential therapeutic tool to control and train specific targeted brain regions.
_ Brain Health Mental & Emotional Health Stress Management Stress-Free Living NatureΓÇÖs Balm for the Stressed Brain By article New findings on nociception, a system in the brain that naturally moderates the effects of stress, shows promise for the development of therapies for anxiety and addiction. Collaborating scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Camerino in Italy published their results in the January 8th in the Journal of Neuroscience.
7 Surprising Health Conditions That Affect Men More Than Women By blog Sex and gender differences are central to our lives. We all think about them, struggle with them, and seek to better understand them. From Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady who lamented “Why can’t a woman be more like a man”; to Sigmund Freud who wondered “What do women really want?”; to our nursery rhymes which taught us to believe that “Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice,” while “Little boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy-dogs tails”; to Charles Boyer who
Breast Cancer Health Close-Up: Stage IV Breast Cancer By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood Editor's note: October is Breast Cancer Month. This article is ThirdAge's contribution to awareness about a form of breast cancer that is seldom discussed and is underfunded even though a third of patients have it. Read on for the courageous story of one of those patients and learn how easy it can be for you to help the cause.
Grandparents Day: A Reminder to Live a Healthy Lifestyle By Sondra Forsyth blog As Grandparents Day 2012 approaches, I am renewing my annual vow to keep living the healthiest possible lifestyle so that I can, with some luck in the bargain, stick around to see my precious grandsons reach milestone after milestone. This all started the year the elder of the two was 15 months old. His eyes welled up with tears when I kissed him good-bye at the airport after a visit. I hugged him fiercely and then I said, as brightly as I could muster, "Bye bye!"
Your Man and Stress: Saving His Sanity and the Only Brain He'll Ever Have By blog Although we have known for some time that stress can cause damage to the heart, the gastrointestinal tract, and other parts of the body, we have recently learned that stress can actually damage the brain. J.
The "Alzheimer's Movie" By blog There are hundreds and hundreds of books on the topic of the AlzheimerΓÇÖs disease, the brain and brain health. But there are few novels that feature the disease as its central plot. One single novel stands out. ΓÇ£Still AliceΓÇ¥ is the best-selling book written by first-time author Lisa Genova, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist. Published in 2009, ΓÇ£Still AliceΓÇ¥ is a moving, compelling and heart-breaking work of fiction that totally captures the experience of early-onset AlzheimerΓÇÖs. If you have not read it, I highly recommend you do. This book will move you to tears.