The brain benefits of sleep are becoming more apparent every year. Seven or eight hours of deep, restorative sleep helps regulate mood, boost learning, solve problems and preserve memory. But some people also like to enjoy a mid-day nap. And this, too, has been shown to aid thinking, memory formation and learning. Now a new [...]
The link between diabetes and all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's, is now well established. The greater the blood sugar instability, the higher the risk for dementia, with type 1 insulin-dependent diabetics having the biggest Alzheimer's risk – four times that of people who don’t have diabetes. Considering that four out of five Alzheimer's patients [...]
Your doctor completes the short procedure and gives you the unwelcome news: You are at high risk of developing a devastating neurological disease ten years down the road. This scenario could soon become a reality, because a new way has been found to predict if you’re likely to become a victim of dementia. All it [...]
Every year, companies in the US produce 100 billion pounds of plastic for all kinds of products and packaging. But a toxic substance -- bisphenol A (BPA), described as a “plasticizer” – is frequently included in plastic to make it flexible and less brittle. BPA is most famously used in bottles for plastic drinks, including [...]
When most people think about how to keep their brain working better, they probably think about foods, dietary supplements, or exercise to help support cognition and memory. But there’s a tool inside your house that can also help boost your brain power. It’s called your thermostat. That’s right – your thermostat. Turns out, the temperature [...]
If you've ever been in a state of sheer panic, someone may have told you to "take a deep breath" to calm yourself down. This is good science-based advice. A cluster of nerve cells in the brain links breathing to different emotional states. When we’re very anxious, we breathe fast and unevenly, while slow, deep, [...]
In the 1990s, the "amyloid hypothesis" provided a new and simple explanation for the cause of Alzheimer's disease. The idea was that beta-amyloid proteins build up to form plaques that damage brain cells. The brain plaque theory caught on bigtime and quickly became conventional wisdom. To this day it remains the most popular theory in [...]
From ‘you’re as young as you feel’ to ‘age is just a number,’ our culture provides us with a wealth of adages urging us to take a positive attitude toward aging. Perhaps these old chestnuts sound corny (or, worse yet, like whistling past the graveyard), but recent studies prove that people who embrace a positive [...]
Researchers at the University of Utah think they may have found a way that might – just might – slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease – no drugs, foods or supplements required. The non-invasive technique they’re studying stimulates parts of the brain that Alzheimer’s doesn’t touch. And the Utah scientists think that it could be [...]
Any trip to the hospital can stress you out. The hubbub of people constantly in motion. The noises of the medical machinery. Anxiety about your health problems... And when you’re hospitalized you rarely get to relax: Your sleep is constantly interrupted. You may be besieged by having blood withdrawn and a string of other medical [...]
