Challenge Your Brain Daily To Stay Sharp-Minded In Spite of Ageing!

Training your brain in brief one-hour long sessions of brain exercise can have long-lasting benefits for elderly people, helping them stay mentally fit for at least five years, according to a study published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study was led by Sherry Willis, a human-development professor at Penn State University.

Age-related mental decline is expected to affect 84 million people worldwide by 2040, according to the study's accompanying editorial. Research findings indicate that people of age 73, on average, could dramatically stave-off mental decline with just 10 sessions — less time than it takes to stay physically fit — helped keep their brains sharp.

The study's brain training involved hour-long classes and included exercises done using computers. Over the years, other studies have shown that intellectual tasks such as crossword puzzles and reading can help keep the brain sharp as people grow old.

Memory Training is Key

... in helping seniors keep an alert mind. Organizing thoughts about bus schedules and grocery lists, for example, can help a great deal. Findings show organizing a 15-item grocery list into categories like dairy, vegetables and meat to make it easier to remember and locate items.

The reasoning training taught participants how to see patterns in everyday tasks such as bus schedules and taking medicines at different doses and times.


The take-away: Use-it or lose-it... Challenge yourself with cross-word puzzles, suduko, and other complex thinking activities daily. Learn More!

Unclog My Heart... Obesity Takes It In the Gut!

You ARE what you eat! ~ Anonymous

Leading the nation to a trimmer, healthier personna, NYC officially bans artery-clogging artificial trans-fatty products from restaturants... this includes the local pizzeria to high-end dining.

In addition, to having to eliminating trans-fatty foods and oils, fast-food chains and restaurants will now have to post the "calorie count" of the food they serve.


Trans Fat DANGER!
Trans fats are artifical and are formed when liquid oils are made into solid fats by adding hydrogen in a process called hydrogenation where the oil turns to solid form. A common example of this is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is used for frying and baking and turns up in processed foods like cookies, pizza dough, and crackers... in a solid form that adds to the "weight" of the products while providing extra "fat" with no nutritional benefits. Trans fats, which are favored by manufacturers because of their long shelf life, are also found in pre-made blends like pancake and hot chocolate mix.

Because trans fats are not digested they linger in our system, accumulate, and clog-up our arteries.

Many doctors believed trans fats to be so harmful because they facilitate heart disease by raising bad cholesterol and lowering good cholesterol at the same time. Some experts say that makes trans fats worse than saturated fat because of this double whammy effect.

From Crisco to Frankenstein?
While trans fats occur naturally, in small quantities, in meat and dairy products from ruminants. Most trans fats consumed today, however, are industrially created as a side effect of partial hydrogenation of plant oils — a process developed in the early 1900s and first commercialized as Crisco in 1911. Partial hydrogenation changes a fat's molecular structure (raising its melting point and reducing rancidity) but this process also results in a proportion of the changed fat becoming trans fat.

Unlike other fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health. (Source: Wikipedia)

The FDA estimates that the average American eats 4.7 pounds of trans fats each year. Yeccah!

Click here to: Read more about it.

Boys' Blood Pressure Often Higher Than Girls...

Action is the foundational key to all success. ~ Pablo Picasso

A five-year study of more than 1,200 students in Montreal found that the risk of higher systolic blood pressure increased 19 percent a year for boys, but remained stable for girls. Systolic blood pressure, the larger of the two numbers in a blood pressure reading, represents pressure when the heart is fully contracted.

This is the first study to document gender differences in blood pressure in adolescents and could help in the development of new strategies to reduce rates of hypertension in young male adults, the researchers said.

The complete findings are published in the current issue of the journal Circulation but you can read more about it in this Men's Health Article . You can also find some background information on blood pressure at: Medline Encyclopedia

Take preventive health action: Eat healthy, excercise, and have your blood pressure check regularly.