There’s more good news on the fish front: A large study conducted in developing countries found that a diet rich in fish may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. And the more fish people ate, the less likely they were to develop the serious memory loss of dementia. The study adds to a growing body of evidence that a fish-rich diet may offer benefits for brain health.

Past research has suggested that eating fish may help to ward off dementia, but most of those studies were carried out in the United States other developed countries. Studies of people living in Italy, France and Spain who eat a traditional Mediterranean diet rich in fish as well as fruits and vegetables, for example, have shown that the diet may have brain-protective effects.

The findings are consistent with earlier reports that suggest that eating oily fish like tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines and anchovies may help to keep the mind and memory sharp. Eating fish may also help to ease the agitation and depression of Alzheimers, other research shows.

Fish oils contain omega-3 fatty acids like EPA and DHA, which are known to be good for cardiovascular health. They also may help protect the brain against strokes and memory loss. DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, and EPA, or eicosapentaenoic acid, are both thought to have disease-fighting properties.

In addition to fish, DHA and omega-3 dietary supplement pills are also widely available in pharmacies and health-food stores. Other foods high in these “good” fats include almonds, walnuts and many other types of nuts, as well as canola, walnut, soybean and flaxseed oils. Because many of these foods are a rich source of calories, however, it is best to eat them in place of, rather than in addition to, other foods.

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A large, 5-year study showed that the people in their 70s who were the most active and adhered the best to a Mediterranean-style diet were 61–67 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease compared with the least active and least Mediterranean-minded of the group.

Exercise
The most active in the study group got about an hour and a half of exercise weekly. That’s just a few 30-minute walks a week — a pretty manageable commitment. Better yet, aim to walk 30 minutes every day.

Diet
People with the lowest dementia risk ate the highest amounts of fruit, veggies, legumes, and fish, but less meat and dairy products. Monounsaturated fats, like olive oil, also accounted for more of their fat intake than saturated fats. All very typical ratios in a Mediterranean-style diet that doctors and health experts alike recommend for all sorts of reasons. These nutrient-dense, healthy-fat-focused foods could help protect brains against disease and cognitive decline and help protect the body from lots of other bad things, too.

As the working hours get longer and as communication scientific knowledge improves, folks are socially communicating less. We are just awfully busy to make new friends let alone construct authentically meaningful bond. At the end of the day, who needs face to face communication when you could do it in Twitter, Facebook and the numerous online talking services?

This seclusion trend is unfortunate at best because your brain, in addition to brain food, craves social interaction to function at its top. So critical is that it is on our health that a few specialist in the field believe that the amount of social interaction an individual had is one of the golden guide of health and independence in an individual’s old age.

How come social interactions so essential to a healthy brain?

Because your brain is able of neurogenesis (the procedure of developing brand new brain cells). Nevertheless neurogenesis results only when you sufficiently challenge your brain.

Well, communicating with other individual is one of the ultimate challenging task that an individual can take on. As Lawrence Katz once said, “There is a lot of evidences that another person is the ultimate in uncertain things you can encounter. So activities that have you communicating with another human beings is an awesome way of brain exercise.”

As you turn into more isolated, you are thus using less of your brain. As reported by Hebbian Learning principles, you lost what you don’t use. Thus brain cells die off and synapses breaks down as you grow older.

Unfortunately, people who are older also tend to live a more lonely life – thus starting a vicious cycle of mental decline. Sure, making new friends can be challenging and as any worthwhile relationships, you require plentiful energy to make it extraordinary.

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LONDON – Scientists have discovered a new source for the generation of nerve cells in the brain.

Professor Magdalena Gotz of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (LMU) Munich and colleagues have discovered progenitor cells, which can form new glutamatergic neurons following injury to the cerebral cortex.

Particularly in Alzheimer’s disease, nerve cell degeneration plays a crucial role. In the future, new therapeutic options may possibly be derived from steering the generation and/or migration mechanism, according to the researchers.

Until only a few years ago, neurogenesis – the process of nerve cell development – was considered to be impossible in the adult brain.

Then researchers discovered regions in the forebrain in humans in which new nerve cells can be generated throughout life. These so-called GABAergic cells use gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter of the central nervous system.

Now, the research team, led by Gotz, has taken a closer look at this brain region in the mouse model. They found that even in the forebrain, there are other nerve cells that are regularly generated – the so-called glutamatergic nerve cells, which use glutamate as neurotransmitter.

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Play brain games to generate neurons at Myfitbrain.

What is the single fastest growing segment of the United States population: people over a hundred years old.

Why do some people live so long? For years, medical researchers have been studying this select group, identifying some key factors to a long life. Now, a growing body of research is suggesting that longevity isn’t just linked to good genes and a healthy lifestyle; it’s also tied to cultivating a positive, resilient attitude toward life. These results validate a simple idea: that centenarians can teach us how to live not just longer lives, but better ones.

At the fore of this research is the New England Centenarian Study (NECS), which has enrolled more than 1,500 centenarians from around the world over the past 15 years. The study’s director, Thomas Perls, says these participants dispel the belief that the older someone gets, the sicker he or she becomes. Instead, he says, “the older you get, the healthier you’ve been.” In other words, people who demonstrate exceptional longevity tend to have had a lifelong history of good health.

Indeed, people who die in their 70s or 80s are plagued by degenerative illnesses in the years before their death; in contrast, Perls has found that nearly two thirds of centenarians either delay the onset of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes—or escape them altogether. Plus, a substantial proportion of centenarians who survive such age-related illnesses do so without developing physical disabilities, enabling them to remain socially, mentally, and physically active. As a result, in a culture that romanticizes youth, Perls argues that centenarians embody “a thoroughly optimistic view of aging”—one that shows that prolonging life and enjoying it go hand-in-hand.

How do they do it?

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Improve your brain by playing cognitive games at Myfitbrain.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but scientific findings seem to indicate otherwise. Research shows that our brains literally rewire in response to new stimulation. And when it comes to computer use, Internet activity may stimulate and possibly improve brain function, according to scientists at UCLA.

“Technology may be changing our minds and changing the way we think,” said Dr. Gary Small, a neuroscientist speaking last month at the UCLA Technology & Aging Conference at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging, described results of research he and colleagues performed with volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76. Half of the participants were familiar with how to search the Internet, and the other half were new to it. The participants engaged in Internet searching while simultaneously undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The MRI images clearly showed activity in the areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning — but only in the Web-savvy group. The inexperienced group showed no such activity.

However, after just five one-hour sessions of practice, the Web newbies showed activation in the same areas of the brain as the savvy group.

“Five hours on the Internet and the naive subjects had already rewired their brains,” said Small, writing about the findings in “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind” (HarperCollins). “Recent studies demonstrate that older brains do remain malleable and plastic throughout life. Even areas of the brain that were reserved for specialized tasks can be recruited and retrained.”

In other words, “use it or lose it” applies to the brain. Indeed, Small notes, “Several studies have shown that exercising the brain with mental aerobics not only can improve cognitive performance scores but also may delay brain degeneration.”

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Do your mental aerobics and brain games at Myfitbrain.

Through the brain-imaging work at the Amen Clinics during the past 20 years with tens of thousands of people from 75 different countries, we have come to see that when your brain works right, you tend to be more thoughtful, playful, romantic, intimate, committed, and loving with your partner — all necessary things for great relationships.

When your brain has trouble, you are much more likely to be impulsive, distracted, addicted, unfaithful, angry, and even hateful — all things that undermine relationships.

Even though it feels genital, the vast majority of love and sex occurs in the brain. Your brain decides who is attractive to you, how to get a date, how well you do on a date, what to do with the feelings that develop, how long those feelings last, when to commit, and how well you do as a partner and parent. Your brain helps you be enthusiastic in the bedroom or drains you of desire and passion. Your brain helps you process and learn from a breakup or makes you vulnerable to depression or obsession.

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