Now you can play the all time favorite HAPPYneuron game on your iPhone! Splitwords is designed to help you banish that ‘tip of the tongue’ syndrome forever.

* Publish your high scores to compare yourself to the world’s best players!

* Challenge yourself in English

* Play also in Spanish, French, German or Dutch.

Two game modes are available:

* Quick challenge: A game with one set of syllables. It’s ideal for practicing or when you only have a few minutes.

* Standard game: Continuous play with increasing difficulty (up to 100 levels) Click iPhone Brain Games for pricing and iTunes store access.

Click Splitwords to play online now. ]]> http://blog.happy-neuron.com/brain-games/splitwords-for-your-iphone-and-ipod-touch/feed/ http://blog.happy-neuron.com/brain-health/thanskgiving-brain-savers/ http://blog.happy-neuron.com/brain-health/thanskgiving-brain-savers/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:54:46 +0000 Laura Fay http://blog.happy-neuron.com/?p=851 This may come as a surprise, but some of the foods most likely to land on the table this Thanksgiving are really good for you and can deliver a bundle of benefits to your brain.

From stuffing to cranberries to red wine to hot chocolate, and even that last sip of coffee, there are many traditional dishes can preserve and even enhance mood, memory and other mental functions. Think of them as brain savers!

Stuffing can be rich in antioxidants since bread crust is packed with them, far more so than the softer inside of bread. Antioxidants are premiere disease-fighters and anti-aging agents. They are compounds that scavenge free radicals of oxygen, the unstable molecules given off by the body’s many metabolic actions. Free radicals are thought to be responsible for impairing memory with age.

Cranberries virtually top the list of antioxidant-rich foods.  Cranberries outpulled some highly touted antioxidant rich goodies, including strawberries, spinach, raspberries, broccoli, beets, red grapes and cherries, among 11 others. Studies in animals suggest that cranberries are particularly neuro-protective, good at protecting against chronic age-related afflictions like loss of coordination and memory. They protect brain cells from the free-radical damage that normally occurs over time, thereby preserving cognitive and motor functions. Compared with animals fed a standard diet, aging animals given cranberries showed actual saw improvements in normal age-related declines in working memory, reference memory, balance and coordination.

Cranberries are so powerful in preserving brain function, researchers recently found, that by their antioxidant action they can reduce the severity of brain impairment following strokes. Exposure to a concentration of cranberry extract equivalent to about half a cup of whole cranberries resulted in a 50 percent reduction in brain cell death.

And, go ahead, finish it all off with a cup or two of coffee. Researchers have identified a new antioxidant in coffee, which we blogged about previously.

Or, savor a cup of hot cocoa. Made with about two tablespoons of pure cocoa powder, it tops both red wine and tea in antioxidant power — two times more than red wine, two to three times more than green tea and up to five times more than black tea. Something about heating the cocoa brings out the antioxidants in it!

In addition to all that guilt free eating, the socialization is a brain healthy activity too….so long as the stress inducing relatives aren’t contributing to the conversations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For example, do you know what you can do today to reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer’s later in life?  Do you know how we can immediately improve the efficacy of those drugs currently approved for Alzheimer’s?  How clear is your grasp of the relationship between a healthy heart and a healthy brain?  For many of us, investing a few minutes to improve our understanding of that relationship could yield long-lasting health benefits.

The answers to these questions along with other important perspectives are summarized in a short article on the Brain Today blog by Dennis Fortier, President of Medical Care Corporation.  The full article can be read in about five minutes and is worth the read.

The findings, presented Oct. 19 at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults. It further reinforces the notion that new neural networks respond to  new and novel activities for people of any age. Read about the study findings here

In brain scans of 48 subjects made after an extensive 6-week practice period, the researchers observed changes in regions of the brain’s white matter that are linked with reaching, grasping, and peripheral vision, independently from the acquired level of juggling skill.

These results suggest that it is not how well a person learns to do something that matters, but rather that the time spent practising and training is the key to improving the brain function. So, when engaging in such an activity as brain training, it is essential to do it over a period of time to realise the positive changes and benefits.   You can read more about the findings here.

If you or someone you know has been dealing with Chemo Fog, you might refer them to a recently published book by Dan Silverman, MD, Ph.D. of UCLA and journalist, Idelle Davidson called Your Brain after Chemo. The book addresses several strategies for dealing with chemo fog.  One approach is to look at how fear, stress and depression may factor into, and potentially intensify, memory loss and other cognitive challenges.

Dealing with cancer can be one of the most difficult experiences of a person’s life — in fact the American Psychiatric Association lists the diagnosis of a life threatening illness as one criteria for identifying post-traumatic stress disorder.

So in Your Brain After Chemo, several exercises are introduced to first deal with identifying issues of fear, stress and more.  Your Brain After Chemo also offers advise for stimulating your mind and organizing your life in a  nine-step program.

HAPPYneuron’s Dr. Bernard Croisile and Scientific Brain Training’s Dr. Michel Noir have published their latest brain exercise book through education book publisher McGraw-Hill.  It is sure to get your mental wheels churning while you enjoy hours of fun. Develop a six-pack brain with more than 301 games, puzzles, and exercises that provide the ultimate mind-blowing workout and keep your brain sharp and alert.

Bench press your brain into shape…
» Stretch and warm up your concentration
» Perform brain curls for increased attention span and sharper focus
» Bulk up on memory power
» Increase your mental reps and ward off brain decline.

Click here to get your copy of Beef Up Your Brain now!

See all 5 Brain Exercise books from Drs. Croisile and Noir.

A new study suggests that the ability to perceive relationships between objects (visual spatial skills) may decline up to 3 years before a person is formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  Read more in this Health Day article