Internet Searches Prevent Alzheimer's?

Some ways of exercising one’s brain are more fun than others. A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry “looked at the brain activity of 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76 as they searched the Internet. Half of the participants had experience surfing the Web, while the others did not.”

Researchers used fMRI scans to track subjects’ brain activity while reading books and doing Internet searches. All of them showed significant brain activity during the book reading, but “Internet searches revealed differences between the two groups. While all the participants showed the same activity as during the book-reading, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, whereas those new to the net did not. (These areas of the brain control decision-making and complex reasoning.)”

Feeling smarter? You should.

More “Use It Or Lose It”

A 2003 study in the New England Journal Of Medicine found that “among leisure activities, reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were associated with a reduced risk of dementia.” Dancing is not only a “leisure activity” but one of the most enjoyable kinds of exercise, and exercise has also been found to prevent Alzheimer’s.

If you’d like to see other posts about brain fitness:

Avoid Alzheimer’s With Brain Games

Playing Strategy Games Keeps Elders Sharp

Avoid Alzheimer’s With A Fit Brain

The Dark And Bright Sides Of Alcohol

Some lab rats at the Ohio State University summed it up: Researchers “designed a special liquid diet for the rats. One formulation included a low dose of alcohol, comparable to two or three drinks a day for a human, while the other diet included a much higher dose of alcohol, comparable to six or seven drinks a day for a human. A third group of rats was given a liquid diet without alcohol.” In memory tests, rats that consumed moderate levels of alcohol outperformed those given high doses of alcohol or none at all.

These results tie in with French epidemiological studies that found that regions of France with the highest wine consumption tend to have the lowest Alzheimer's risk.

The Dark Side of Alcohol

And then there’s alcoholic dementia, an illness that is, of course, caused by excessive use of alcohol. Binge drinking seems especially dangerous. Finnish investigators found that people who drank more than five bottles of beer or one bottle of wine once a month were more than three times as likely to get dementia.

Alcohol dementia may not cause much memory loss at first. Instead, it often becomes evident by these signs:

– poor planning
– personality change
– poor judgment
– difficulty handling complex situations

But, ultimately, alcohol dementia may be indistinguishable from Alzheimer's.

Vitamin B12, Key To The Aging Brain

An Oxford University study found that “individuals with lower vitamin B12 levels at the start of the study had a greater decrease in brain volume. Those with the lowest B12 levels had a sixfold greater rate of brain volume loss compared with those who had the highest levels of the vitamin.”

Interestingly, individuals with the greater rate of brain loss were not deficient in B12 – they were merely low in it.

Best Sources of B12

Vitamin B12 is naturally found in foods that come from animals, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. Seafood is an especially good source of B12, as are fortified breakfast cereals. Milk and eggs have quite a bit less than fish and fortified cereals, as you can see on this chart from the National Institutes of Health.

Vegetarians – and especially vegans, who do not use milk or eggs – should strongly consider a dietary supplement. And older people who don’t “bother” with proper meals need either a dietary supplement or a special effort to eat foods rich in B12 – especially since brain volume loss can result merely from low levels in B12.

Belly Fat Is Linked To Alzheimer's

Unfortunately, the location of our fat counts. Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research found that the bigger the belly in midlife, the more difficult it is to avoid dementia and Alzheimer’s later on. And you don’t even need to overeat much to have problems because, if you’re naturally apple shaped, with most fat around your waist, excess weight is more dangerous to your health than if you’re naturally pear shaped. The researchers found, in fact, that people who were in the upper 20 percent of belly size had a 2.72 times greater risk of dementia, compared to people in the bottom 20 percent.

(Speaking as a naturally apple shaped lady, I can add that apple shaped people also have a difficult time finding jeans that fit. They all pooch out at the hips for those apparently lucky and hippy pear-shaped people.)

Belly fat also increases the risk of diabetes, heart trouble, and stroke.

We all know we should keep down our weight. But, sadly, keeping down weight is even more important for apple-shaped people than it is for pear-shaped people.

Let me add that, if you’re looking for healthy ways to take off weight and keep it off, do visit my 1000 Best Sites For Families And Seniors. Click on Diets, Nutrition in the lefthand column to find some of the best information on the Web.

Improve Your Memory With Blueberries

I’m leery of “miracle” foods, but the benefits of blueberries have been demonstrated by solid research. The first piece of research, sponsored by the USDA, came out in 1999, and it showed that blueberries helped the memories, balance, and coordination of “aging rats.” I feel a kinship with aging rats, and on the strength of their success made frozen blueberries a snack food. (Why frozen? I was trying to lose weight, and, if you dole out the frozen blueberries in extremely small portions, then wait for them to thaw, then slowly eat them, and then wait awhile longer, then go back to the refrigerator and spoon out another tiny frozen portion and wait for it to thaw . . . you see how the technique works.)

A new British scientific study using blueberries on human subjects came out in April, 2008. It found that “phytochemical-rich foods, such as blueberries, are effective at reversing age-related deficits in memory.” The wording implied that there are a number of “phytochemical-rich foods” that would improve memory. But which foods are they?

More Foods That Improve Memory

The USDA study on rats found that extracts of blueberry, strawberry or spinach all improved short-term memory, but only blueberries improved balance and coordination as well. The British researchers, however, used only blueberries -- one-half cup daily for 12 weeks -- with their human subjects, and found that “improvements in spatial working memory tasks emerged within three weeks and continued throughout the period of the study.”

As it turns out, these researchers have big plans for trying other foods rich in flavonoids on people with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s. But they haven’t got to it yet. So they can’t really say whether strawberries or spinach or any number of other foods might be equally beneficial to older people with and without Alzheimer’s.

What Exactly Are These Phytochemical-Rich Foods?

I went to ANSWERS.COM, which has many specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias. ANSWERS.COM says that a phytochemical is “a member of a wide range of chemicals found in fruits and vegetables that may have beneficial effects on human health. Phytochemicals are biologically very active. They include antioxidants, phyto-oestrogens, and compounds that modify potential toxins and carcinogens.”

And WIKIPEDIA.ORG says that “foods high in phytonutrients, or superfoods, are:

“- soy – protease inhibitors, beta sitosterol, saponins, phytic acid, isoflavones
- tomato – lycopene, beta carotene, vitamin C
- broccoli – vitamin C, 3,3'-Diindolylmethane, sulphoraphane, lignans, selenium
- garlic – thiosulphonates, limonene, quercitin
- flax seeds and oil seeds – lignans
- citrus fruits – monoterpenes, coumarin, cryptoxanthin, vitamin C, ferulic acid, oxalic acid
- blueberries – tannic acid, lignans, anthocyanins
- sweet potatoes – beta carotene
- chilli peppers – capsaicin
- legumes: beans, peas, lentils – omega fatty acids, saponins, catechins, quercetin, lutein, lignans.”

The truth is that scientists have only begun to study the phytochemical-rich “superfoods.” They don’t even know what all the superfoods are, much less what they can do. We can therefore look forward to many more important discoveries about the role of superfoods in our diet.

Exercise To Prevent Alzheimer's

Swedish scientists found that people who engaged in "leisure time physical activity" at least twice a week as they passed through middle age had a 50 percent lower chance of developing dementia, and a 60 percent lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s, when compared with their more sedentary colleagues, says a study published in October, 2005, in Lancet Neurology.

And Exercise Creates New Brain Cells!

Yes, really. Through a special MRI imaging technique, researchers at Columbia University were able to watch “neurogenesis,” that is, the growth of neurons or nerve cells, within a living person’s brain. And it happened right after exercise.

So exercise doesn’t just “clear the brain.” It adds to the brain while preventing Alzheimer’s.

Be Friendly And Avoid Alzheimer's

The title exaggerates a little, but not much. One research project after another reports that, if we want to stay sharp all our lives, relationships matter. One of the most recent is the 2008 report of a Harvard School Of Public Health Study showing that elderly people in the U.S. with an active social life have a slower rate of memory decline. In fact, memory decline among the most integrated was less than half the rate of that among the least integrated. (Social integration was indicated by marital status, volunteer activities, and contact with parents, children and neighbors.)

Just 10 Minutes’ Conversation Helps

Many seniors, especially “senior seniors,” find computer brain games daunting. But there are simpler – and age-old – ways to keep an older brain alert. The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research reported in 2008 on a study that tested people as old as 96. Lead author Oscar Ybarra said, "We found that short-term social interaction lasting for just 10 minutes boosted participants' intellectual performance as much as engaging in so-called 'intellectual' activities for the same amount of time."

Sociability Even Protects Those With Alzheimer’s!

A surprising 2006 study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that some people with many social contacts with family or friends were protected from the effects of Alzheimer’s, even though they had Alzheimer’s tangles and plaques in their brains!

Down Side For the Non-Social

According to a study by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, “Those who were married or living with a partner in midlife had a 50 percent lower risk of having dementia later in life, compared to those who lived alone—even after adjusting for education, occupation, exercise, general health and other variables.

“People who were single throughout their lives had double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, compared to the married, while those who were divorced and stayed divorced from midlife on had triple the risk.”

And the most dramatic risk increase was found among those who lost a spouse in midlife and stayed single. They had more than a sixfold risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with their married peers.

It is often difficult for those divorced or widowed to build a new social life, but clearly such a social life will help protect them from Alzheimer’s.