According to a new, long-term research study by neurological experts at the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center, both African-American and white older patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment have an increased risk of mortality.  Research results were published in the June 2009 issue of Archives of Neurology.

Alzheimer’s disease has emerged as a leading cause of death in the United States, and it substantially reduces life expectancy in those diagnosed with the disease. To date, there have been relatively few population-based studies of survival rates in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment.  Because these studies have primarily focused on the disease and its impact on white persons, little is known about survival rates in African Americans.

The results of the study conducted by Rush suggest that compared to people without cognitive impairment, risk of death was increased by about 50 percent among those with mild cognitive impairment and was nearly three-fold greater among those with Alzheimer’s disease. These effects were seen among African Americans and whites and did not differ by race. Read more about the study here….

The Alzheimer’s Association recently published an article on the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The first sign is occasional memory loss, like not being able to remember important dates or events, further signs are difficulties in planning or solving problems, completing everyday tasks, confusing time and place and not knowing how and why you arrived to a particular location. You can read about the different types of memory loss here and learn more about the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s disease here…

In recent years scientists have become intensely interested in what could be called a super memory club. At a retirement community in Southern California fewer than one in 200 persons out of 20,000 are living past 90 without a trace of dementia. It is a group that, for the first time, is large enough to provide a glimpse into the lucid brain at the furthest reach of human life, and to help researchers tease apart what is essential in preserving mental sharpness to the very end. Read this fascinating article at the New York Times online

Now, according to a study published on April 3 in the journal Science, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health found more evidence that sleep resets the brain to allow more growth and learning the next day.  Read about their fascinating research here. So get a good night’s sleep - your brain will thank you for it.

As baby boomers approach retirement age, the field of cognitive fitness has begun to gain more prominence. In this interview with health blogger, David William, I speak about the magnitude of the economic impact of Alzheimer’s and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), the strategies that can be used to slow mental decline, and how HAPPYneuron is helping to educate the industry. Read here or Listen here….

Cognitive capabilities are important to strengthen for continued safe driving as we age. In recent years, state-sponsored research in Maryland has shown that if a driver fails a cognitive test, he is 25 percent more likely to be involved in a crash. That’s quite an statistic.

The good news is that the cognitive abilities important to driving can be prolonged and even rehabilitated even if they are in decline. The brain gets lulled by routine, which does little to stimulate new cell growth. But challenged to adjust to new locales and situations, cognitive abilities can recover.

If older drivers are healthier and more alert, they may be driving differently, to different places and have different travel patterns, such as spending more time on highways, which are the “safest types of roads for them” according to the auto insurance industry.

Here’s a reminder of the cognitive skills required for driving:

• The motor skill of driving requires co-ordination
• Analysis of the street and highway environment requires good shape perception, visuo-spatial analysis, visual and selective attention skills
• Awareness and monitoring of the traffic patterns and situations involves executive functions.

So keep up your structured cognitive cross training routine and you’ll be a safer driver.

There are many memory disorders and it can be difficult to understand the differences. I am asked the question all the time “What are the different type of memory loss?” Let me offer a very brief summary here…..

• Normal memory loss: Everybody’s brain ages. As the connections and chemicals in the brain alter with time, many people forget things like names, keys or what the they went in the next room for. This is fairly normal, and does not automatically lead to deterioration if a person is leading a brain healthy lifestyle overall.
• Mild cognitive impairment (MCI): Problems with memory, language, or other problem solving functions may be noticeable to others but they may not yet interfere with daily life activities. For example, a person continually loses their keys and forget a neighbor’s names however, they can still pay bills and do their regular shopping. The presence of MCI often shows up on professionally administered screening tests. It is thought that 1 in 5 people over 70 have MCI.  Some develop Alzheimer’s disease later on and others do not.
• Early stage Alzheimer’s disease: In addition to pronounced memory problems (perhaps forgetting what happened yesterday or forgetting major news events), there can be cognitive troubles such as the inability count backward by 7s, becoming confused while planning meals or managing finances or occasionally even getting lost in the neighborhood. This condition can be diagnosed through testing and a complete medical exam to rule out other potential problems.
• Mid and Late Alzheimer’s disease: This always follows in progression after early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, there are no improvements known, only periods of stabilization with remediation and gradual decline.
• Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease: This is different from early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Early-onset Alzheimer’s starts before age 65, thus the name.
• Dementia: Dementia is not a disease itself, but a set of symptoms including memory loss, cognitive problems, and other effects of deteriorating brain function. Alzheimer’s disease is one form of dementia. Other forms include vascular dementia (caused by very small strokes) and Lewy Body Dementia (of which Parkinson’s Disease Dementia is a subset).
• Senile dementia: This is an old fashioned term that usually refers to what we now call Alzheimer’s disease.

It is also important to note that there can be other causes of memory loss, some of which may just be temporary: These include depression, stress, insomnia, alcoholism, brain tumors, medications, or many other conditions.

The latest new features have been out there now for over 4 weeks. We’ve been hearing from you and are delighted with your responses.  Seems like like we got a few things right and we always appreciate the positive feedback. Thank You!

“I love the new features!” - Susan

“I like the new look, it’s an exciting improvement” - Ishman

“The changes to the interface look great” - Lisa

“Excellent feed back.  Thank you for the improvement.” - George

“I love the new format!” - Judy

We have an insatiable appetite for feedback so please keep sending it (both the positive, the not so positive, suggestions, etc.). We really do listen and strive for continual improvement.  Send it to us as always at feedback@happy-neuron.com.

Does brain health suffer during stressful economic times? How?
Generally speaking, stress does affect your cognitive capacity and ability. Memory performance decrease, it can become increasingly difficult to difficult to focus, etc.. In fact, when you are stressed out, a number of intrusive thoughts affects your working memory performance, and therefore, your ability to concentrate on even small things. The good news is that unlike the downward trend caused by neurodegenerative diseases, this is reversible as soon as the situation is back to normal. Taking proactive steps to manage areas where you have control is important to managing stress that can effect your brain health.

Will a fit brain guard against all the doom and gloom out there?
Yes. A fit brain will be able to deal easily with the small troubles of daily life, by organizing the activities and planning actions. Being able to rely on one’s brain is one trouble less! It must be remembered that the cognition is linked to the brain’s emotional circuit; therefore it all depends on the way each individual reacts in face of doom and gloom. As Schopenhauer used to say in  The World as Will and Representation ; “thus, being able to rely on a perfectly fit brain enables you to come to grips more easily with the various ups and downs that life throws at us.” In other words, even if you cannot change the world, you can change the way you look at it.

Sandrine Belier, Ph. D.

They say that human beings are social animals. It seems intuitive (even for introverts!) that social contact has benefits. Obviously we need other people to fulfill basic needs such making sure that our genes outlive us. Maybe less obviously, we seem to need other people to maintain adequate levels of mental well-being and motivation. Even less obviously still, social contact may help us improve our brain functions…

Mental fitness seems to depend on a large part on being connected with other people. A study published in 2008 by Ybarra and his colleagues showed that socializing and mental exercises have very similar effects in terms of improving brain functions! Ybarra hypothesized that social interaction could facilitate cognitive functioning.

First, they collected data from 3600 people aged 24 to 96. They assessed how often these people talked on the phone with friends, neighbors and relatives and how often they got together with the same parties. They also assessed mental functioning of their sample using the mini-mental exam. It was found that the more socially engaged people were, the higher their cognitive performance. Great news, right? Stay connected and your neurons will stay healthy!

One limitation of this type of study is that is shows a CORRELATION. The result shows that people who are socially engaged are also doing well in terms of brain function. This does not mean that being socially engaged results or CAUSES good brain functioning.
This correlation can be interpreted in several ways:

1. being socially engaged results in good brain functioning
2. Good brain functioning results in being socially engaged
3. being wealthy (for instance) may result both in being socially engaged and good brain functioning

As a consequence, Ybarra and colleagues proceeded to conduct another study to show that social interaction indeed CAUSES better cognitive performance.
They randomly assigned participants (aged 18-21) to three groups:

1. a social group, in which the participants engaged in a discussion of a social issue for 10mn
2. an intellectual activities group, in which the participants solved stimulating tasks (crossword puzzles and the likes) for 10mn
3. a control group, in which the participants watched a 10mn clip of Seinfeld

After they participated in the discussion or watched the clip or solved the puzzles, the cognitive functioning of all the participants was assessed. Two tasks were used (for those you are interested: these were a speed of processing task and a working memory task). Here is what Ybarra et al. found:

• People in the intellectual activities group did better in the cognitive tasks than people who merely watched a movie. This shows one more time that stimulating your neurons is a great way to boost your performance

• People who were in the social group did better in the cognitive tasks than people who merely watched a movie. This is the first time that social interaction is shown to directly CAUSE better cognitive functioning. This is a very exciting result. Remember that participants engaged in discussion for only 10m!

The benefit from social interaction was as great as the benefit from intellectual activities.

Why would social interaction boost brain function?
Ybarra and colleagues offer the following reasoning. Social interaction involves many behaviors that require memory, attention and control. These mental processes are also involved in many cognitive tasks. Thus social interaction would act as a prime, it would “oil” these processes so that they are ready to be used when a cognitive task is to be solved. This is a tentative explanation that may require some refinement but the results are here! Social interaction seems to benefit the brain.

Read the original article:

Ybarra, O., Burnstein, E., Winkielman, P., Keller, M. C., Manis, M., Chan, E., & Rodriguez, J. (2008). Functioning Mental Exercising Through Simple Socializing: Social Interaction Promotes General Cognitive. Pers Soc Psychol Bull., 34, 248.