Brain Health - Page 2 of 8

This Common Supplement Fights Cognitive Decline

This ubiquitous supplement may improve memory and abstract reasoning.

Omega-3 fatty acids may enhance brain function in middle age, research finds.

Among over 2,000 people in the study, those with higher concentrations of omega-3 in their blood had a range of cognitive advantages:

Larger hippocampi: a brain structure central to learning and memory.
Better abstract reasoning skills: the ability to think logically.
Carriers of the APOE4 gene, who are at greater genetic risk of dementia, had fewer signs of small-vessel disease.

People in the study were in their 40s and 50s, explained Dr Claudia Satizabal, the study’s first author:

“Studies have looked at this association in older populations.

The new contribution here is that, even at younger ages, if you have a diet that includes some omega-3 fatty acids, you are already protecting your brain for most of the indicators of brain aging that we see at middle age.”

Omega-3 levels were calculated by adding together levels of DHA and EPA.

EPA and DHA, two of the three main fatty acids, are sometimes known as the marine omega-3s as they come mainly from fish.

What makes omega-3 fatty acids so important in the diet is that the body cannot make them but has to get them from food.

Dr Debora Melo van Lent, study co-author, said:

“Omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA and DHA are key micronutrients that enhance and protect the brain.

Our study is one of the first to observe this effect in a younger population.

More studies in this age group are needed.”

In the study, people were divided into groups based on their levels of omega-3 fatty acids, Dr Satizabal said:

“We saw the worst outcomes in the people who had the lowest consumption of omega-3s.

So, that is something interesting.

Although the more omega-3 the more benefits for the brain, you just need to eat some to see benefits.”

It is not yet known exactly why omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for the brain.

It may be because they are important in the building of neurons and that they have anti-inflammatory properties.

Dr Satizabal said:

“It’s complex.

We don’t understand everything yet, but we show that, somehow, if you increase your consumption of omega-3s even by a little bit, you are protecting your brain.”

Fatty acids and dementia

Whether or not omega-3 fatty acids help prevent dementia continues to be controversial.

However, omega-3 has been linked to maintaining IQ levels with age and even reducing anxiety.

Other research has suggested that omega-3 needs to be combined with B vitamins to help the body deal with mental decline.

Still further studies have found:

A diet sufficient in omega-3 fatty acids helps reduce the risk of memory loss.
Omega-3 fatty acids help to clear waste from the brain.
Higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA are linked to halving the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

→ The dietary change with some of the best evidence for keeping the brain healthy is the MIND diet.

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Satizabal et al., 2022).

The Polyphenol-Rich Diet That Lowers Brain Age And Weight (M)

The study tested a variation on the now well-known Mediterranean diet.

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This Cheap Supplement Slows Cognitive Decline (M)

A simple, inexpensive way to slow age-related cognitive decline.

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Brain Health: 4 Habits That Reverse Brain Aging

Brain health can be improved, concludes a study of ‘super-agers’.

The keys to ‘super-aging’ are embracing aging, quitting negativity, moving more and meditating, research on brain health suggests.

Super-agers are people in their 70s or 80s who have the mental and physical capabilities of someone decades younger.

In recent years, scientists have begun studying what separates super-agers from the rest.

Dr Joel Kramer, a neuropsychologist has been studying super-agers.

One particular super-ager inspired Dr Kramer:

“He talked about how his attitude toward life is one of embracing it—not getting stressed out by the little things and valuing the importance of relationships.

I was so impressed.

It was inspiring.”

1. Brain health: embrace aging

The first key is to embrace the aging process because emotions tend to be more balanced with age.

Dr Elissa Epel, co-director of the UCSF Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, explains:

“When we’re older, we seek positive situations in our life much more and cut out things we don’t like.

We take more control of our environment.

It’s because of the brains of elders.

We are more pro-social.

We are more likely to give to people in need than younger people.

This is not a huge surprise … but we’re now able to think of the biology of this.

We really need our elders.”

2. Quit negativity for brain health

Fear of aging can be dangerous in itself — research suggests it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Dr Epel said:

“We hold these tremendously negative stereotypes about aging, and these start from when we’re really young.

By the time we’re older, these are actually having a negative effect on our health.”

Negative attitudes about aging can accelerate aging, so better to banish them.

3. Keep moving for brain health

Study after study shows the benefit of exercise.

It produces more new brain cells, improves well-being and physical health.

Exercise may even help protect against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

4. Meditate for brain health

Meditation has been shown to reduce anxiety, depression and to have physiological benefits.

The research on super agers is from a range of scientists working at UCSF and elsewhere.

What High Blood Pressure Does To Your Brain

The findings are alarming, especially for younger adults, because it takes time to see the negative health impact to the brain caused by elevated blood pressure.

High blood pressure, technically called hypertension, is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and the leading cause of early death worldwide.

High blood pressure can damage the blood vessels and so reduce blood flow to the brain, leading to vascular dementia and cognitive declines such as memory loss.

A study has found that high blood pressure is associated with increased brain age.

According to the research, a hypertensive person is at greatly increased risk of brain aging, with every 1 mmHg increase above optimal blood pressure there is a 5 to 7 day increase in brain age.

For example, a person with pre-hypertension whose systolic pressure is 135 mm Hg and diastolic pressure 85 mm Hg has a brain more than 6 months older than a person with optimal blood pressure (110/70 mmHg).

The normal recommended range for blood pressure is considered 120/80 mmHg, but a healthier or optimal blood pressure is about 110/70 mmHg.

Professor Nicolas Cherbuin, the study’s first author, said:

“This thinking that one’s brain becomes unhealthy because of high blood pressure later in life is not completely true.

It starts earlier and it starts in people who have normal blood pressure.”

High blood pressure puts extra pressure on internal organs like the heart, brain and kidneys, all of which worsens sleep.

Lack of sleep, in turn, can make it harder for the body to regulate stress hormones, which leads to high blood pressure.

Compared to a hypertensive person, someone with optimal blood pressure is predicted to have a healthier and younger brain at midlife.

Professor Walter Abhayaratna, study co-author, said:

“It’s important we introduce lifestyle and diet changes early on in life to prevent our blood pressure from rising too much, rather than waiting for it to become a problem.

Compared to a person with a high blood pressure of 135/85, someone with an optimal reading of 110/70 was found to have a brain age that appears more than six months younger by the time they reach middle age.”

The research team carried out brain scans and blood pressure checks on 2,000 healthy adults over 40 for 12 years.

The findings are alarming, especially for younger adults because it takes time to see the negative health impact to the brain caused by elevated blood pressure.

Professor Cherbuin said:

“By detecting the impact of increased blood pressure on the brain health of people in their 40s and older, we have to assume the effects of elevated blood pressure must build up over many years and could start in their 20s.

This means that a young person’s brain is already vulnerable.”

The study was published in the journal of Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (Cherbuin et al., 2021).

Type 2 Diabetes Alert: Blood Sugar Is Key To Better Brain Function, Study Finds

Type 2 diabetes doubles the risk of cognitive problems and dementia.

Many studies have shown that type 2 diabetes is linked to brain shrinkage and dementia.

Now a study finds that controlling blood sugar levels is the best way for people with type 2 diabetes to improve their brain function.

People who used diet and exercise to reduce blood sugar were able to think more clearly and to remember and learn more.

Losing weight, though, was not directly linked to better brain function.

This may be because the brain cannot recover from too much weight gain, said Professor Owen Carmichael, the study’s first author:

“It’s important to properly control your blood sugar to avoid the bad brain effects of your diabetes.

Don’t think you can simply let yourself get all the way to the obese range, lose some of the weight, and everything in the brain is fine.

The brain might have already turned a corner that it can’t turn back from.”

The study included almost 1,100 people who were tracked for over a decade.

One group were asked to focus on improving their blood sugar levels through diet and physical activity.

The other group did something similar but were focused on losing weight and maintaining that weight loss.

The results demonstrated the benefits to the brain of exercising and eating healthily.

However, weight loss did not provide a consistent improvement to brain function.

Weight loss was linked to improvements in cognitive skills like attention, memory and planning but verbal learning and overall memory got worse.

Professor Carmichael said:

“Every little improvement in blood sugar control was associated with a little better cognition.

Lowering your blood sugar from the diabetes range to prediabetes helped as much as dropping from prediabetes levels to the healthy range.”

Over 25 percent of US adults over 65 have type 2 diabetes.

It doubles the risk of cognitive problems and dementia.

Avoiding obesity is one key to fighting the disease.

Professor Carmichael said:

“The results were worse for people who had obesity at the beginning of the study.

That’s a ‘too little, too late’ type of message.

People with diabetes who let their obesity go too far, for too long may be past the point of no return, cognition-wise.”

The study was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Carmichael et al., 2020).

How Fatty Liver Disease Affects The Brain (M)

One-quarter of the population has fatty liver disease, along with 80 percent of those who are morbidly obese.

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The Best Exercise To Prevent Cognitive Decline

With age, blood flow to the brain and arterial function decreases — but this decline can be slowed.

High-intensity interval training is the best exercise for preventing cognitive decline, research suggests.

Interval training is more effective than continuous training for increasing blood flow to the brain, scientists found.

Interval training (HIIT) involves short bursts of maximum effort, followed by periods of rest.

Interval training comes in a variety of guises: sometimes on a bicycle, other times running, jogging or speed walking

Typically, it involves exercising at maximum intensity for 30 seconds and then taking four minutes to recover.

This cycle is then repeated a few times.

Dr Tom Bailey, study co-author, said:

“As we age, the flow of blood to the brain and arterial function decreases.

These factors have been linked to a risk of cognitive decline and cardiovascular events, such as stroke.

Finding ways to increase brain blood flow and function in older adults is vital.”

The study included 21 people who either did interval cycling or who cycled continuously for around 10 minutes.

The results showed that blood flow in the brain was greater during interval training.

Dr Tom Bailey, study co-author, said:

“One of the key takeaways from the study was that both the exercise and the rest period were important for increasing brain blood flow in older adults.

This study shows that interval-based exercise was as effective as continuous exercise for increasing brain blood flow in older adults during the periods of activity, and more effective than continuous exercise when we measured the overall blood flow increases during both the exercise and the rest periods.

The benefits of exercise on brain function are thought to be caused by the increase in blood flow and shear stress, the frictional force of blood along the lining of the arteries, which occurs during exercise.

This study aimed to identify the type or format of exercise that causes the greatest increases in brain blood flow, so we could help to optimize exercise programs to enhance brain function.”

The study was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (Klein et al., 2019).

What High Blood Sugar Does To Brain Health

Prediabetes can be reversed by eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, being active and by maintaining a healthy weight.

People with high blood sugar levels are at markedly increased risk of dementia and poor brain health, research finds.

Having higher blood sugar levels than normal is known as prediabetes and puts people at higher risk of developing diabetes.

Symptoms of high blood sugar can include:

tiredness,
frequent urination,
blurred vision,
stomach pain
and recurrent infections.

However, sometimes people with elevated blood sugar levels get no symptoms.

Prediabetes can be reversed by eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, being active and by maintaining a healthy weight.

The study included over half-a-million people who were tracked over around four years.

Researchers found that people with elevated blood sugar levels were at a 54 percent higher risk of vascular dementia and a 42 percent higher risk of cognitive decline.

The increases in risk for cognitive decline was similar to those seen for full-blown diabetes, suggesting that high blood sugar is damaging the brain.

Brain scans revealed that high blood sugar was linked to a smaller hippocampus, a brain structure important for memory.

Elevated blood sugar was also linked to more damage to the brain’s white matter, which is important for information flow around the brain.

Dr Victoria Garfield, the study’s first author, said:

“Our research shows a possible link between higher blood sugar levels — a state often described as ‘prediabetes’ — and higher risks of cognitive decline and vascular dementia.

As an observational study, it cannot prove higher blood sugar levels cause worsening brain health.

However, we believe there is a potential connection that needs to be investigated further.

Previous research has found a link between poorer cognitive outcomes and diabetes but our study is the first to investigate how having blood sugar levels that are relatively high — but do not yet constitute diabetes — may affect our brain health.”

The people in the study’s average age was 58, which is relatively low for dementia and cognitive decline, explained Professor Nishi Chaturvedi, study co-author:

“In this relatively young age group, the risks of cognitive decline and of dementia are very low; the excess risks we observe in relation to elevated blood sugar only modestly increase the absolute rates of ill health.

Seeing whether these effects persist as people get older, and where absolute rates of disease get higher, will be important.”

The study was published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (Garfield et al., 2021).

How To Reduce The Risk Of Premature Brain Aging (M)

Higher brain aging leads to shrinking of the white and gray matter and worse scores on standard cognitive tests.

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