New Science: Brain Food & Exercise to Improve Memory -- Causes of Dementia & Alzheimers Can be Stopped?Only in the last decade have scientists reported that we can generate new brain cells and the connections between them. Here's the good news to improve memory and to stave off the cognitive decline of aging, the causes of dementia and diseases like Alzheimers: • The good news is that mental stimulation, and the same diet and exercise that protects against heart disease symptoms, also keeps a normal brain spry. • Exercise and fitness applies to our heart AND to our head -- the more you challenge them the more new nerve pathways you form in your grey matter. • The Mediterranean diet is not only being recommended for the heart but for the brain's best health. • If you already have symptoms of dementia or want to improve memory, here's science showing nutrition and supplements that STOP and even REVERSE symptoms of Alzheimer Disease, Parkinsons symptoms and symptoms of dementia. • Easy TEST for Alzheimers Symptoms • Brain Food Supplement for Better Circulation & for Vascular Dementia • What Nutrition's Missing for most Diseases? • Stop Memory Loss & Symptoms of Dementia: Meds or Diet & Exercise? "CELL TOWERS" that Send Messages? • Scientists from Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina are talking about building and preserving “cell towers” in our brains that can send messages: “the more cell towers you have, the fewer missed calls” according to Dr. Murali Draiswamy, who is the head of neurological psychiatry there, and has written the book "The Alzheimers Action Plan." What Keeps Your Brain In Shape?Researchers say that you can give your grey matter a good workout with just a few modifications to your daily life:• You can do “neurobics” by changing the way you do daily things, thereby engaging different parts of the brain's functions. For instance, you can brush your teeth, key in your phone or do text messages with the “other” hand. • “Our brains love novelty,” says Dr. Doraiswamy, “and new things do not need to be complicated,” so that becoming more aware of your surroundings and sensing and doing things differently can help. For instance, by eating without talking or simply with your eyes closed, you change your sensory input. • Learning a language or a musical instrument provides great stimulation, as do games such as chess and bridge which require socializing and strategy. Fast Food Makes You Stupid?Unfortunately, eating too much junk food such as cookies and baked goods, and fast foods such as fries, that have trans fats, turns out to be one of the causes of dementia.How can that happen? • Researchers followed people for over 20 years, and found that those who had eaten more artery damaging fats also got the type of BRAIN SHRINKAGE associated with Alzheimers disease. People who ate better food and got better nutrition, on the other hand, had less or no shrinkage of their grey matter. • Those with diets high in vitamins D, C and E, as well as the the B vitamins had LESS SHRINKAGE as they got older. Dr. Gene Bowman, of the Oregon Brain Study, said the purpose of the study of 104 people over the age of 65, was to find out the effects of age on the risk for dementia in healthy people, or those without known risk factors such as smoking and diabetes. What Stops Your Brain from Shrinking?Can eating fast foods cause damage and be one of the causes of dementia?Yes, says Dr. Gene Bowman, who conducted the "Brain Aging" study. • He found that those whose grey matter did NOT shrink as they aged, had eaten MORE protective foods in their diet. • Not only were their diets higher in vitamins, such as vitamin B, C and E and D, they also ate MORE OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS. HOW ARE OMEGAS PROTECTIVE? • Dr. Bowman explained that THINKING abilities are related to the SMALL BLOOD VESSELS, and Omega 3's seem to benefit the small blood vessels that nourish our grey matter. Great reason to eat fish, healthy foods and Omega 3 supplements! See: • Nobel Prize winning Discovery Repairs Small Blood Vessels? • Supplement that Dissolves Blood Clots, Benefits Small Blood Vessels Higher Cholesterol to Improve Memory?• Researchers Are Finding Memory Loss To Be Less In People With High Cholesterol!If you are getting to be towards the age of 50, you may want to know if you have high cholesterol – the good HDL kind -- and make sure you keep it high. Why? • British scientists have found that higher "good" HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is associated with LESS memory loss in people aged 55 and 60. • And by the age of 60, people with LOW HDL cholesterol had a 53-per cent HIGHER risk of memory loss over those with HIGH HDL levels of cholesterol. • In the study, total levels of cholesterol and triglycerides – another type of fat found in the blood – had NO association with memory decline or memory loss. The British study involved about 3,700 men and women of middle age to determine what foreshadows Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. • They found a key factor to be LOW HDL cholesterol. With lower levels of HDL, researchers found declining memory by age 60, and such memory loss often precedes the development of dementia such as Alzheimers in the elderly. • Scientists fear that with an aging population, we are facing a dementia time-bomb. (Dr. Singh-Manoux, of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research and the University College London.) • What Stops a Heart Attack Symptom Better than Low Cholesterol? • Eat More Eggs to Lower Your High Cholesterol? • Lowering Cholesterol Without Meds Calm Down & Exercise for Head & Heart• The stress hormone cortisol depresses the growth of nerve cells and the connection between them.Social interaction, meditation, and exercise can help, as can natural stress relief pills that lower cortisol levels. • Getting enough sleep is also essential because it is during REM sleep that we consolidate memory. If you do shift work or are not getting a good night’s sleep, there are excellent natural and nutritional supplements against anxiety and for better sleep. • Exercise is very important. Studies show that even 30 minutes of brisk walking daily can improve blood flow to the head and boost: 1) neural growth factors, and 2) the brain's connectivity, which is considered to have an effect similar to that of “cross-training" for athletes. Are Your Meds Making You Stupid?Keep in mind that some widely used medications may block the action of acetylcholine, a chemical that is crucial to memory circuits.These “anti-cholinergic” medications include: • pain killers • muscle relaxants • older antidepressants e.g. Elavil • some antihistamines • anti-spasmodics • incontinence drugs Specialists like Dr. Doraiswamy warn that these negative effects on memory can “Cause a constant battle – the urologist puts you on a medication – and the memory doctor takes you off!” • High cholesterol medications called statins can also have negative effects on memory. Remember that cholesterol is a naturally occurring fat, and that the brain is made of 60% fat, and needs fats to function. High cholesterol levels are protective of memory! • Researchers found a link between naturally occurring high cholesterol and modestly better mental function in areas such as: 1) visual organization, 2) memory, 3) attention, and 4) concentration. (The research team included Professor Penelope Elias and Merrill Elias, who studied data from the Framingham Heart Study) You may want to consider natural alternative for lowering your blood pressure and high cholesterol if you are having memory problems. • Improve Circulation, High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure NATURLLY? • Doctors Deny Memory Side Effects of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs • Simvastatin Side Effects, Lipitor Side Effects & Women? • QUIZ: Which are Healthy Fats and which Fats are Deadly? • Healthy Fats: Omega Oils for Heart Disease Prevention • High Blood Pressure Biggest Cause of Strokes Worldwide? “My 88–Year Old Father's Playing Bridge Again After Stopping Heart Meds!”“Our family has recently witnessed the remarkable improvement in our 88-year-old father when an astute specialist in internal medicine pulled him off three of the medications he'd been prescribed by his family doctor (high blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, and a prescription nasal spray).In four days his blood sugar dropped from 25 to 7, his dizziness was gone, he stopped falling down at night, and his appetite was back. After two weeks, his memory improved and he was back playing bridge again! I have just read Dr. Dennis McCullough's book, "My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing 'Slow Medicine', the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones". It is interesting that Dr. McCullough's experience is that elders later in life do better on almost no medication.” Submitted by M. McMaster ASK US about Turning Back the Clock:YOU MAY ASK US for a personal recommendation for supplements for reversing YOUR symptoms:While diet, exercise and mental "neurobics" do lower the risk of Alzheimers, dementia and memory loss, some people will need proven supplements to help to turn back the clock! Social Ties Improve Memory Most!Strong social ties and contacts appear to protect against memory robbing dementia, according to a Harvard School of Public Health study involving 17,000 people over 6 years.More important than age, income and health, was having an active social life, including being married. • The most socially integrated had only HALF of the memory decline of the least socially integrated people over the age of 50. Memory loss is a strong risk factor for Alzheimers disease and other form of dementia, but researchers are finding that being in the highest level of social integration offset more than half of this age-related decline in memory. (K. Ertel, American Journal of Public Health) Scientists Turn Back the Clock!If you are healthy, it's never too late to start walking for a better memory and to ward off dementia.Even though our brains can shrink as we get older, this can be reversed! • Neurologists are showing us that we can UNDO the brain-shrinkage that happens as we get older, by starting an exercise program! Researchers took 120 healthy but inactive volunteers between the ages of 60 to 80, and half of these were given aerobic exercise of walking around a track for 40 minutes a day, three days a week. The other group did stretching and toning activities that did not budge their heart rates. • They had MRI scans done before and after, and they found that the walkers INCREASED the volume in the brain (the right and left hippocampus) by 2%, while the stretchers DECREASED volume in the same part of theirs, by 1.4%. Apparently, 1.4% is considered NORMAL SHRINKAGE! IMPROVED MEMORY for walkers! • The bigger brains seemed to work better. Tests showed that the walkers also improved their memory in comparison to before, when they were inactive. Lead researcher Kirk Erickson of the University of Pittsburgh says that this shows that we can REVERSE shrinkage, and that the walkers in effect had turned back the clock by 2 years. • Improve Memory and Memory Loss with Meds, Diet or Exercise? • Try this Alzheimers Test FIRST for Alzheimers Symptoms • Stop Parkinsons Shaking & Side Effects of Parkinsons Drugs Exercise to Restructure your Neurons?Experts such as Norman Doidge, author of: "The Brain That Changes Itself" say that EXERCISE is the only activity that has been shown to increase the PRODUCTION and CONDUCTIVITY of NEURONS of brain-tissue.• Neurons are the basic building blocks of or nervous system. There is a lot of research on the effect of exercise: The research shows a protective effect of physical activity on cognitive function -- to improve memory and decrease the incidence of dementia. • A few studies on people older than 65 showed that exercising at least 15 to 30 minutes three times a week reduced the probability of developing Alzheimers disease, even in those who were genetically predisposed. Aerobic exercise rather than weight training has the biggest impact on brain-function. • Exercise improved memory, or cognitive function and decreased the incidence of dementia. • The protective benefits of exercise were seen to last up to several decades! ASK US for Brain Food Supplements:You may ASK US for a recommendation for YOUR needs of:• Brain food energy drinks for mental focus and alertness • Brain food protein discovery for reversing symptoms of dementia: Alzheimers symptoms, Symptoms of Parkinsons Disease, ALS, Lou Gehrigs and Multiple Sclerosis, MS • Brain food for heart disease -- better circulation & vascular dementia You CAN protect your grey matter, improve your memory with brain food and exercise.• By knowing the causes of dementia, you do NOT need to get symptoms of dementia, or Alzheimers symptoms even if genetically predisposed, say the scientists! • How Much Exercise for better Health? • Why is Sitting Not Good for Your Memory? • Improve Memory with Nutrition and Exercise? New Science: Brain Food to Improve Memory, Stop Causes of Dementia, Alzheimers Symptoms, Parkinsons Symptoms & Memory LossGO to Health Discoveries HOME PAGE |