Just two daily servings containing vital nutrients is enough to reduce brain age by 11 years.
The foods boost memory and thinking skills, preventing them declining with age.
Spiritual fitness is not about what is the ‘correct’ belief, and more about how one is living up to one’s own standards.
Memory loss, anxiety and depression all improved after treatment.
The hormone boosts neuronal growth in the hippocampus.
The hormone boosts neuronal growth in the hippocampus.
Physical exercise produces a hormone called irisin that may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, research finds.
The hormone boosts neuronal growth in the hippocampus, a region of the brain critical for learning and memory.
Mice in the study who swam every day had no memory problems, despite being injected with a protein linked to Alzheimer’s.
Dr Ottavio Arancio, who led the study, said:
“This raised the possibility that irisin may help explain why physical activity improves memory and seems to play a protective role in brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Tests on mice revealed that the hormone irisin does indeed protect the brain’s synapses from damage and improve their memory.
Increasing levels of irisin was linked to better brain health in the mice.
In another study, mice were infused with beta amyloid, a protein linked to Alzheimer’s.
The results showed that those who swam every day for five weeks were free of memory problems.
When the researchers blocked irisin’s effect with drugs, the mice’s memory worsened.
This strongly suggests that irisin helps protect against Alzheimer’s.
Other research has shown that people with Alzheimer’s typically have low levels of irisin in their hippocampus.
The search is now on for drugs that can mimic its effect or increase levels of the hormone in the brain.
Dr Arancio said:
“In the meantime, I would certainly encourage everyone to exercise, to promote brain function and overall health.
But that’s not possible for many people, especially those with age-related conditions like heart disease, arthritis, or dementia.
For those individuals, there’s a particular need for drugs that can mimic the effects of irisin and protect synapses and prevent cognitive decline.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine (Lourenco et al., 2019).
The study compared the thinking skills of current over-50s with previous generations.
Brain and immune cells are rejuvenated by the drug.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, which slowly destroys memory and thinking skills.
Both diseases affect the hippocampus, which is part of the brain important for memory.
The change may result from damage to the brain’s white matter.
The change may result from damage to the brain’s white matter.
An increasing lack of interest in the world may be an early sign of dementia, research suggests.
As a person’s apathy increases, they become less interested in everyday activities, they lack energy and show little emotion.
Apathy may result from damage to the brain’s white matter, which is primarily used for communication between regions of the brain.
Dr Sara Imarisio, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, who was not involved in the research, said:
“Symptoms of apathy are common in dementia and are not necessarily symptoms of depression.
Many people with dementia are mistakenly diagnosed as having depression, particularly in the early stages.
Building a better understanding of some of the less well-recognized symptoms of dementia, like apathy, could inform our efforts to develop better treatments for the condition.”
The study included over 2,000 people who were tracked over nine years.
Of these, 381 people developed dementia, with severe apathy being a telling warning signal.
People with the highest level of apathy also had the worst memories.
Other studies have suggested that apathy may be a result of damage to the brain’s white matter network.
Dr Imarisio said:
“The scientists in this study used algorithms to identify likely dementia, and a dementia diagnosis wasn’t necessarily confirmed by a doctor.
It’s important to understand how health and lifestyle factors can influence dementia risk and it’s still not clear whether apathy contributes to memory problems or vice versa.
To continue to unpick this link and make real breakthroughs for people who need them, we need to see sustained investment in dementia research.”
Problems with the sense of smell can also be a sign of dementia, as can difficulties with other senses.
However, difficulty with smell is the biggest sensory sign of dementia.
Other early signs of dementia include changes in sense of humour, memory problems and being unaware of those memory problems, being unable to understand sarcasm and insomnia.
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Bock et al., 2020).
Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.
