As if they weren’t troublesome enough, migraines – those crippling, high-octane headaches – may also raise your risk of cognitive decline. Canadian researchers have found a link between migraines and dementia. But don’t panic just yet. Let’s first get a better understanding of this painful enemy and then unpack the findings of the newest study1. [...]
"When you are just getting out and interacting with people, you are using your brain a lot." So says Claudia Kawas, Professor of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine. She strongly suggests we speak to as many people outside of our own households as often as we can. There's a lot of evidence to [...]
If you are a frequent reader of this publication, you’ve seen articles urging you to learn a new skill to keep your brain young. The benefits are huge, especially for working memory. Learning a new language or mastering a musical instrument are good examples. “In addition to making existing synapses more robust, learning causes the [...]
When it comes to treating somebody who is just beginning to suffer Alzheimer’s disease, the conventional medicine folks have a big problem. They don’t know how the disease starts. So they can’t catch it at an early stage. In fact, 20 years ago when my mother was developing dementia, her doctor didn’t know a thing [...]
Researchers have not been very successful at deciphering exactly how Alzheimer’s disease begins its destructive course through the brain. When the destruction of brain tissue becomes extensive, it’s fairly easy to observe. Scientists are less certain about what goes on at earlier stages. This means the mangled proteins seen in the brain when Alzheimer’s is [...]
The brain may not be a muscle, but many scientists believe you can exercise it and train it to stay in better shape much the same way. The most familiar form of this theory is that working crossword puzzles or sudoko – on a regular basis – improves memory and cognition and may actually stave [...]
You’re notified of a big win on the lottery. Swept away by an internet romance. Excited to receive a phone call from a grandchild whose voice doesn’t sound quite right – and who urgently needs money. These represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fraudulent schemes devised by con artists to [...]
In the first century AD, a man named Scribonius Largus was the court physician to the emperor of Rome. Among other things in his medical bag of tricks, he had a novel method for relieving headaches. He would lay an electric ray (torpedo fish) across the patient's head. The 30 to 50 volts produced by [...]
A definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's is hard to obtain before death because only then can brain cells be scrutinized closely under the microscope. So in living patients, doctors have to rely on various tests. From the information gathered they believe the diagnosis will be accurate for nearly all patients. But on April 30, that all [...]
In this newsletter the topic is usually how to remember things. Memory loss is a huge worry, especially among those of us who are getting old. But what if you want to forget something? Sounds odd, but sometimes that is the case. For example, someone suffering from PTSD is haunted by terrible things that happened [...]
