Data on over 3,000 people shows only 8 percent with low-quality diets maintained high cognitive abilities into their 70s, a new study reveals.
Study Reveals a Surprising Cause of Cognitive Decline—and the Key to Reversing It
Researchers pinpoint a lone protein that speeds up the dysfunction of an aging brain. Eliminating it, they claim, can reverse the damage. But there are big hurdles before a treatment is approved.
Enhancing Human Cognition with Cocoa Flavonoids
Enhancing cognitive abilities has become a fascinating scientific challenge, recently driven by the interest in preventing age-related cognitive decline and sustaining normal cognitive performance in response to cognitively demanding environments. In recent years cocoa and cocoa-derived products, as a rich source of flavonoids, mainly the flavanols sub-class, have been clearly shown to exert cardiovascular benefits. More recently, neuromodulation and neuroprotective actions have been also suggested. Here, we discuss human studies specifically aimed at investigating the effects of acute and chronic administration of cocoa flavanols on different cognitive domains, such as executive functions, attention and memory. Through a variety of direct and indirect biological actions, in part still speculative, cocoa and cocoa-derived food have been suggested to possess the potential to counteract cognitive decline and sustain cognitive abilities, particularly among patients at risk. Although still at a preliminary stage, research investigating the relations between cocoa and cognition shows dose-dependent improvements in general cognition, attention, processing speed and working memory. Moreover, cocoa flavanols administration could also enhance normal cognitive functioning and exert a protective role on cognitive performance and cardiovascular function specifically impaired by sleep loss, in healthy subjects. Together, these findings converge at pointing to cocoa as a new interesting nutraceutical tool to protect human cognition and counteract different types of cognitive decline, thus encouraging further investigations. Future research should include complex experimental designs combining neuroimaging techniques with physiological and behavioral measures to better elucidate cocoa neuromodulatory properties and directly compare immediate versus long-lasting cognitive effects.
Use it or lose it: How cognitive skills change with age
Cognitive skills are commonly assumed to begin deteriorating from the age of 30, which could pose a significant challenge for rapidly ageing populations. But this assumption relies largely on cross-sectional data that cannot distinguish between ageing patterns and cohort differences. Using German longitudinal data, this column finds that skills, on average, increase markedly into one’s 40s before decreasing slightly in literacy and more severely in numeracy. In addition, skills decline at older ages only for those with below-average skill usage, outlining a clear policy pathway for avoiding skill declines.
Train Your Brain to Eat Less Sugar
A recent study led by Evan Forman, PhD, a psychology professor in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences, shows that a computer game can be used to train its players to eat less sugar, as way of reducing their weight and improving their health.
The gut microbiome may influence brain aging, mouse study suggests
A communication pathway between the brain and the gut may be integral to how well the brain holds on to memories
Brains of overweight people ‘ten years older’ than lean counterparts at middle-age
Our brains naturally shrink with age, but scientists are increasingly recognising that obesity – already linked to conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease – may also affect the onset and progression of brain ageing; however, direct studies to support this link are lacking.
Depression link to processed food
Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.
Superagers' 'Secret Ingredient' May Be the Growth of New Brain Cells - Slashdot
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: According to a study of 38 adult human brains donated to science, superagers -- people who retain exceptional memory as they age -- have roughly twice as many immature neurons as their peers who age more typically. Moreover, people with Alzheimer'...
You Can Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential
You Can Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential
How Exercise Might "Clean" the Alzheimer's Brain
Hints at potential treatments for age-related dementia and memory loss
This study 40 years ago could have reshaped the American diet. But it was never fully published.
A fuller accounting of the results of a massive government-funded experiment on fatty foods challenges the conventional advice about what is healthy, and what is not.
Think Twice: How the Gut's "Second Brain" Influences Mood and Well-Being
The emerging and surprising view of how the enteric nervous system in our bellies goes far beyond just processing the food we eat
Heavy multitaskers have reduced memory
People who frequently engage with multiple types of media at once performed worse on simple memory tasks, according to the last decade of research. However, it’s still too soon to determine cause and effect, says psychology Professor Anthony Wagner.
Use the 2-7-30 rule to radically improve your memory - Fast Company
150 years of science shows this brain hack can radically improve your memory. Entrepreneurs and anyone else who needs to learn things fast should take note.
Scientists Finally Know Why Some People Still Can't Taste Anything Years After Having COVID
New study reveals cellular changes in taste buds linked to long-term flavor loss
