Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

cognitive-reserve

New book provides practical guidance for women (and men) to rebalance our lifestyles and build Cognitive Reserve

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On one of our “walk and talks” around the lush trails of Rock Creek Park in DC sur­round­ed by bik­ers, run­ners, cars and the occa­sion­al deer, Wendy and Lisa talked about aging. Wendy’s moth­er, who had her chil­dren in her ear­ly 20s, was still join­ing the family’s gru­el­ing sum­mer hikes with her chil­dren and nine grand­chil­dren well into her 60s. Wendy mused about how much old­er she would be when their kids could have their own kids. It dawned on her that her health was not just a here and now issue, but an invest­ment in that future. We agreed to help each oth­er cul­ti­vate the habits and make time to build strength as well as reserves, both phys­i­cal and men­tal, for the long-term. Their goal: to enjoy being active in their 40s and 50s while also lay­ing the ground­work to con­tin­ue being active into their 60s, 70s, and beyond. [Read more…] about New book pro­vides prac­ti­cal guid­ance for women (and men) to rebal­ance our lifestyles and build Cog­ni­tive Reserve

Exploring links between hearing loss, dementia and the ‘cognitive reserve’ — plus the role of hearing aids

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How does your hear­ing affect demen­tia risk? (Alzheimer’s Research UK):

With around 1 mil­lion peo­ple affect­ed by demen­tia in the UK, and 12 mil­lion peo­ple esti­mat­ed to have a type of hear­ing loss, it’s nev­er been more impor­tant to under­stand this link.

One way that hear­ing loss and demen­tia could be linked is through our blood sys­tem. [Read more…] about Explor­ing links between hear­ing loss, demen­tia and the ‘cog­ni­tive reserve’ — plus the role of hear­ing aids

Great interview on bilingualism, sports, education and neuroplasticity — en español

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(trans­la­tion avail­able below)

Álvaro Fer­nán­dez Ibáñez: “La edu­cación bil­ingüe ayu­da a retrasar prob­le­mas cog­ni­tivos como el alzhéimer” (El Mundo):

PREGUNTA. ¿A qué se ded­i­can los neu­ro­con­sul­tores? ¿Qué relación tienen con la educación?

RESPUESTA. En los últi­mos años ha empeza­do a aumen­tar el interés por mejo­rar la capaci­dad del cere­bro. Al igual que las per­sonas quieren estar en bue­na for­ma físi­ca, se pre­ocu­pan tam­bién por estar en bue­na for­ma cog­ni­ti­va. Se habla cada vez más de con­sul­tores del cere­bro o entre­nadores men­tales y hay más actua­ciones basadas en la neu­ro­plas­ti­ci­dad. Esto se puede aplicar para ayu­dar a que los alum­nos apren­dan más. Por ejem­p­lo, la escuela Arrow­smith de Canadá tiene un pro­gra­ma de refuer­zo cog­ni­ti­vo para alum­nos con necesi­dades espe­ciales. Tam­bién está cre­cien­do mucho el mind­ful­ness para reducir el estrés de niños y pro­fe­sores. [Read more…] about Great inter­view on bilin­gual­ism, sports, edu­ca­tion and neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty — en español

Study finds that cognitive activity in old age may delay the onset of dementia by 5 years

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– Yuji Sakai / Dig­i­talVi­sion / Get­ty Images

Demen­tia Comes 5 Years Lat­er for Some (Med­Page Today):

A cog­ni­tive­ly active lifestyle that involves read­ing and pro­cess­ing infor­ma­tion in old age may delay the onset of demen­tia in Alzheimer’s dis­ease by as much as 5 years, a lon­gi­tu­di­nal study suggested.

Old­er adults who had the high­est lev­el of late-life cog­ni­tive activ­i­ty had a mean onset age of Alzheimer’s demen­tia of 94, report­ed Robert Wil­son, PhD, of Rush Uni­ver­si­ty Med­ical Cen­ter in Chica­go, and colleagues.

In con­trast, those with the low­est late-life cog­ni­tive activ­i­ty lev­els devel­oped demen­tia at age 89, they wrote in Neu­rol­o­gy. [Read more…] about Study finds that cog­ni­tive activ­i­ty in old age may delay the onset of demen­tia by 5 years

New book outlines the five lifestyle pillars to “build a better brain at any age”

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Like many peo­ple over 60, I some­times lose my keys or for­get the names of favorite films. When I do, it makes me won­der: Is this the begin­ning of cog­ni­tive decline? Or, worse, am I fat­ed to fol­low in the foot­steps of my moth­er, who died of Lewy-body demen­tia in her 70s?

Accord­ing to neu­ro­sur­geon San­jay Gup­ta, CNN med­ical cor­re­spon­dent and author of the new book Keep Sharp: Build­ing a Bet­ter Brain at Any Age, the answer is no. For­get­ful­ness is nor­mal at all ages, and your genes don’t doom you to demen­tia. What’s impor­tant is tak­ing care of your brain in the best way pos­si­ble, he argues.

“You can affect your brain’s think­ing and mem­o­ry far more than you real­ize or appre­ci­ate, and the vast major­i­ty of peo­ple haven’t even begun to try,” he writes.

Gup­ta dis­tills results from hun­dreds of research stud­ies to help read­ers under­stand what’s known (and not known) [Read more…] about New book out­lines the five lifestyle pil­lars to “build a bet­ter brain at any age”

Study with 330 centenarians finds that cognitive decline is not inevitable

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Hen­drik­je van Andel Schip­per (1890–2005)

Age-Relat­ed Cog­ni­tive Decline May Not Be Inevitable (Web­MD):

It is often assumed that a decrease in mem­o­ry and brain func­tion are inevitable parts of aging, but a new study of cen­te­nar­i­ans sug­gests otherwise.

Inves­ti­ga­tors found that despite the pres­ence of neu­ro­log­i­cal issues gen­er­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD), many cen­te­nar­i­ans main­tained high lev­els of cog­ni­tive performance.

(Henne Hol­stege, PhD, assis­tant pro­fes­sor at Ams­ter­dam Uni­ver­si­ty Med­ical Cen­ter) said her inter­est in research­ing aging and cog­ni­tive health was inspired by the “fas­ci­nat­ing” sto­ry of Hen­drik­je van Andel Schip­per, who died at age 115 in 2005 “com­plete­ly cog­ni­tive­ly healthy.” Her moth­er, who died at age 100, was also cog­ni­tive­ly intact at the end of her life. [Read more…] about Study with 330 cen­te­nar­i­ans finds that cog­ni­tive decline is not inevitable