Brain

Your Mentally Stimulating Job May Help Keep You Sharp in Retirement

Body.Brain.Puzzle1Jobs that make good use of your intellect might have another benefit down the line – a sharper mind long after retirement.

People with jobs that require problem solving, planning and information analysis appear more likely to retain a clear memory and keen reasoning as they grow older, said lead author Gwen Fisher, an assistant professor of psychology at Colorado State University.

“People who were engaged in work characterized as mentally challenging scored better on a measure of cognitive [thinking] ability, both before and after retirement,” Fisher said.

This new study adds to a growing mound of evidence suggesting that people who want to keep their brain healthy after retirement need to start working their mental muscles earlier in life, said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach for the Alzheimer’s Association.

“It gels really nicely with other things we’ve seen where midlife is the point at which people really need to pay attention to their brain health,” Fargo said.

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Source: MedicineNet.

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Learning Another Language May Help the Aging Brain

Support.Language.Learn.SpanishSpeaking two or more languages helps protect your brain as you age, even if you learn new languages as an adult, new research suggests.

The study included 835 people born in Scotland in 1936 whose first language was English. They were given mental skills tests at age 11 and again in their early 70s. Of the participants, 262 were able to speak at least two languages, with 195 of them learning a second language before age 18, and the rest after that age.

Those who spoke two or more languages did much better on the mental skills tests when they were older than what would be expected from the tests they took when they were younger, especially in the areas of general intelligence and reading, the study authors found.

“These findings are of considerable practical relevance. Millions of people around the world acquire their second language later in life. Our study shows that bilingualism, even when acquired in adulthood, may benefit the aging brain,” study author Dr. Thomas Bak concluded in a journal news release.

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Source: MedicineNet.

 

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Brain Saver: Vitamin E Supplement Helps ‘Redirect’ Blood During Stroke

Body.Blood.CellsStrokes are a leading cause of death and long-term disability in the US. With the failure of more than 1,000 experimental neuroprotective drugs, one scientist has stopped trying to discover the next new stroke treatment, and instead is trying to prevent strokes from happening in the first place. He thinks he may have found the answer in a little known member of the vitamin E family, which appears to remodel the brain’s circulatory system and provide protection the instant a stroke strikes.

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Source: Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science. “Brain saver: Vitamin E supplement helps ‘redirect’ blood during stroke.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 April 2014.

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Researchers Discover How DHA Omega-3 Fatty Acid Reaches Brain

Body.BrainIt is widely believed that DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is good for your brain, but how it is absorbed by the brain has been unknown. That is – until now. Researchers from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) have conducted a new study identifying that the transporter protein Mfsd2a carries DHA to the brain. Their findings have widespread implications for how DHA functions in human nutrition.

DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid most abundantly found in the brain that is thought to be crucial to its function. However, the brain does not produce DHA. Instead, DHA uptake in the brain happens in two ways. The developing brain receives DHA during fetal development, from a mother to her baby. The adult brain gets it through food or DHA produced by the liver.

In the study, led by post-doctoral fellow Long N. Nguyen of Duke-NUS, researchers found that mice without the Mfsd2a transporter had brains a third smaller than those with the transporter, and exhibited memory and learning deficits and high levels of anxiety. The team recognized that the learning, memory and behavioral function of these mice were reminiscent of omega-3 fatty acid deficiency in mice starved of DHA in their diet.

“Our findings can help guide the development of technologies to more effectively incorporate DHA into food and exploit this pathway to maximize the potential for improved nutritionals to improve brain growth and function. This is especially important for pre-term babies who would not have received sufficient DHA during fetal development,” said Dr Silver, who is from the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Program at Duke-NUS.

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Source: Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. “Researchers discover how DHA omega-3 fatty acid reaches brain.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 May 2014.

Protecting your brain: ‘Use it or lose it’

Do It Key Means Act Or Take Action NowThe protective effects of an active cognitive lifestyle arise through multiple biological pathways, new research suggests. For some time researchers have been aware of a link between what we do with our brains and the long-term risk for dementia. In general, those who are more mentally active or maintain an active cognitive lifestyle throughout their lives are at lower risk. New research throws some light on what may be happening at the biological level.

“These findings suggest that increased engagement in stimulating activities are part of a lifestyle that is, overall, more healthy,” commented Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. “Rather than specifically protecting the health of activated circuits, it seems that a more active lifestyle has general effects on brain health reflected in greater neuronal density and preservation of the blood supply to the brain.”

“Overall, our research suggests that multiple complex brain changes may be responsible for the ‘use it or lose it’ effect,” Valenzuela added.

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Source: Elsevier. “Protecting your brain: ‘Use it or lose it’.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 April 2012.