It’s a given that each case is different and should be evaluated by a physician, but walnuts and walking might have some special treats to offer in relation to the mind. Most people have heard of serotonin. It’s a neurotransmitter that affects the central nervous system. It affects mood, sleep, energy and metabolism in our bodies. Serotonin has been called the “feel good” chemical.

Too little serotonin and we become anxious, overly timid and depressed. Too much of it and we become angry, aggressive and possibly even violent. Certain foods contain tryptophan, which is synthesized in the brain into serotonin. Walnuts contain the most tryptophan of any food at 100-400 mg. Meats like turkey also contain tryptophan, but in order for synthesizing to take place, a little carbohydrate is necessary to increase insulin in the blood. With the insulin slightly increased, amino acids are lowered and the desired chemical reaction in the brain takes place. That’s why walnuts are ideal, because they contain the highest amount of tryptophan and a few carbohydrates to boot. Enjoy a half a cup of shelled walnuts every night before you go to bed and see what happens. So, you could accurately call walnuts “brain food”, and not just because they resemble little brains. Walnuts promote healthy brain chemistry.

Walking fits into the better brain chemistry picture because it also increases serotonin, leaving you with a relaxed and content mood. Exercise in general helps regulate serotonin, but keep in mind that too much of a good thing can be bad. Over exercising can deplete adrenaline, causing stress on the thyroid gland. Any kind of body stress lowers serotonin, making it difficult to sleep. That in turn, creates more stress on the body and the vicious cycle begins. That’s why walking is ideal, because it is just the right amount of exercise to raise serotonin. Walking for at least twenty minutes, 3-5 times a week is plenty. So, if you give these suggestions a try, who knows, your doctor may decide that you don’t need your Prozac anymore.

According to researchers from Finland and Sweden, people who live alone have twice the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in later life compared with married or cohabiting people.

Being widowed or divorced in mid-life carries three times the risk of developing dementia, says study author Miia Kivipelto.

As life expectancy increases in various regions of the world, dementia is becoming a growing health concern. In 2005 an estimated 25 million people had dementia, and the number is expected to reach 81.1 million by 2040. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

Dementia is a word for a group of symptoms caused by disorders that affect the brain. Memory loss is a common symptom of dementia. However, memory loss by itself does not mean you have dementia. People with dementia have serious problems with two or more brain functions, such as memory and language.

While there have been a number of studies linking being in a couple to good health and longevity this is the first study to focus on marital status and the risk of dementia.

The researchers interviewed a random sample of men and women derived from a group of 2000 adults. The participants came from two regions in Eastern Finland. They were initially surveyed at around 50 years of age and again around 21 years later. Participants were divided into the following groups: married/cohabitant, single, divorced or widowed. The team also investigated whether there was a link between living alone and being a carrier of the ApoE4 gene variant (or allele), the known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

The results reveal that people living without a partner during middle age had a higher risk of developing cognitive impairment in late life compared to those living with a partner. Individuals who become widowed at this age are three times more likely to develop dementia. The study also concluded that carriers of ApoE4 gene variant who lose their partners and remain living alone have the highest risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

These results are important for preventing dementia and cognitive impairment. As Kivipelto explains, we now know that it would be worth offering supportive intervention for individuals who have lost a partner.

Read the source article here

Video games have been blamed for everything from causing aggression to giving you square eyes and a soft brain.

But what if video games are good for you?

Physio and occupational therapists started using simple video games in the late 1980s to treat people with a whole range of conditions from physical, learning or emotional disorders to cognitive problems following stroke and brain injury.

Today, a growing area of brain research suggests modern fast-paced action video games — in particular first-person shooter games — may sharpen your vision, improve your attention and working memory, and develop your fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

What’s more, these skills aren’t just virtual: they can help you do better in real-life situations, like driving your car or juggling more than one task at a time.

So what is it about blasting away your virtual enemies that’s so good for your head?

Read rest of article here

We have just added two new fun mental fitness games to Myfitbrain to continue working on more of your cognitive skills.  We are almost complete in the 7 cognitive areas with only language still remaining.  It has been tough to find games that are fun, unique, and supported by research.  If you have any suggestion, please leave a comment.

The first brain game is Spot n Shop.  It is a game that requires you to pay attention to different areas of the screen while you play.  You are presented with a shopping aisle in a store.  You are shown a product and an random aisle number.  You have to remember the aisle number and the location of the product.  As the game’s difficulty level increases, the product gets smaller and the time on screen will get shorter.  The research calls this game a UFOV (Useful Field Of View) game.  One insurance has actually demonstrated how a similar game decreased driving accidents by playing a UFOV brain game.

The second new cognitive game is Matching Chirps.  This is an auditory game where you need to remember chirps that the birds make.  The game starts out pretty easy where you only have to match if the two sounds in a row are identical.  After you get used to that, you have to begin remembering what the prior sound was, or 1 back.  As the game increases in difficulty, you have to remember 2 back etc…  This is brain game based around some research done for improving working memory called N-back cognitive games.  There are even more difficult one based around dual N-back where multiple things change.  For now this looked difficult enough for most people.

I hope you enjoy the games.  If you think we need to change something, please add a comment so we can improve the games for you.

Jim Hanekamp