Adding years to your life depends on many things – good genes are a start, but certain lifestyle habits can have quite a significant impact. Living longer is one thing, and living a cognitively strong life can be quite another. Health and Medical magazines have long touted the benefits of certain healthy behaviors for body and mind, and this theme is being expressed in an ever more diverse set of publications. I wanted to share an article you from this month’s National Geographic Magazine. In the article “Complex Miracles of Health and Simple Ways to Enhance It”, they profiled three global hotspots of longevity and found living proof of lifestyle’s powerful effect. Check it out at www.nationalgeographic.com/healthyliving. Also discussed are tips for enhancing your own longevity profile including “Seven Basics for a Better Brain”. These include:

• Laugher has been shown to reduce at least four of the neuroendocrine hormones associated with stress response.
• Children who eat more meals with their families feel happier about their lives and prospects for the future
• Breath deeply for five minutes, twice a day
• Drinking more water helps your brain stay focused, think faster, and remember more
• A short, brisk walk helps clear stress hormones from your bloodstream
• Fish rich in omega-3, like salmon, can improve brain function and may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease
• Exercise sends oxygen to your brain – improving memory, reasoning skills and concentration

It’s all a reminder that we have the opportunity to lead long, healthy, active and cognitively strong lives.

More news suggesting music can help to sharpen the brain.

“Experience with music appears to help with many other things in life, potentially transferring to activities like reading or picking up nuances in tones of voices or hearing sounds in a noisy classroom better,” researcher Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University”

Read the article here

Another report on how exercise can help our brain.

“Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a certain region of the brain that is known to be affected in the age related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans”.

Read more here

Consumer report has 5 tips on keeping your memory sharp, which includes computer based brain games. All great tips which we strongly recommend.

Read here

The right kind of cocoa might be great for your brain.

“This raises the prospect of using flavanols in the treatment of dementia, marked by decreased blood flow in the brain, and in maintaining overall cardiovascular health”.

Read all about the benefits of cocoa here

Here is a recent study that came out last week.

“Dr Mark Baxter, Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at Oxford University, said: “This study is exciting because it reveals a group of brain cells in the adult human brain that are continuously regenerating”

Read more on this study here

Here is a recent study out of Princeton University that tries to link sleep and brain cells.

“Losing sleep may cause the brain to stop producing new brain cells, a study conducted by New Jersey’s Princeton University has found”

To read more click here

Researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have assessed loneliness and dementia. 

“In human beings, loneliness has been associated with impaired social skills. Thus, neural systems underlying social behavior might be less elaborated in lonely persons and, as a result, be less able to compensate for other neural systems compromised by age-related neuropathy,”

Click here to read the full artice.

We found this post that mentions Dr. Paul Nussbaum’s approach to brain health. Dr. Nussbaum does a great job of communicating the importance of a fit brain to the public

Dr. Nussbaum says that a healthy lifestyle characterized by socialization, physical activity, mental activity, spirituality, and nutrition leads to improved brain health. Individuals should reduce their caloric intake to 80% of what they intend to consume at each meal because overeating and obesity do not contribute to brain health.

You can read more here

Here is another study on the benefits of studying another language.

“If you have two languages in your brain, you need a way to keep them straight, otherwise you might say the wrong thing,” she said. It’s one of the things that often goes wrong with people suffering from dementia. They can no longer control their speech.The frontal lobes, which control planning and other high-level functions, are also used in language. Research has found exercising that part of the brain can help build up a “cognitive reserve,” which can stave off dementia.”

To read more from this specific article, click here