Juggling Can Change Brain Function

A report in the journal Nature compared brain-imaging scans of non-jugglers who were taught to juggle and a control group. Three months after, scans showed that the grey matter of the new jugglers increased in the areas of the brain that processes and stores visual information. Scans done three months after they stopped juggling showed that the grey matter had been reduced. So...the concept of using our brain or losing it becomes even more accurate.

Separately, the work I do with Brain Gym(r) has been proven to make changes in brain function. You can learn more by going to www.BrainGym.org.

A BRAIN POWER SUPPLEMENT

In a past issue of the Teplitz Report, I One of my readers wrote in about a formula that contains these and many other ingredients to improve memory. It's called Brain/Memory Formula #75 and it's made by Country Health Formula. Ask your local health food store to order it for you.

There’s A Third Way To Slow The Loss Of Mental Function – B Vitamins

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Oslo found that daily supplements of B Vitamins may slow the decline of mental function in people who have mild cognitive impairment. 

The researchers found that folic acid and Vitamins B-6 and B-12 were associated with a 30% reduction in the levels of the amino acid homocysteine, and improvements in a range of mental tests. High homocysteine levels have been linked to the loss of cognitive function.

In this study, the participants that had high levels of homocysteine gave a 69% higher likelihood of correct word recall compared with the placebo group.

So,,,take some Vitamin D3, berries and B Vitamins and watch it improve your cognitive function and reduce brain loss.

Berries, Another Way To Keep Brain Function

A study published in the Annals of Neurology found that the regular consumption of blueberries and strawberries appeared to delay cognitive aging such as thinking, remembering and reasoning by up to 2.5 years.
It appears that it is the flavonoid anthocyanin's in the berries that helps protect the body’s cells from damage and reduce inflammation.
The researchers used the data from the U.S. Nurses’ Health Study, which began in 1980 and collected dietary information every fours years on 16,000 female volunteers. The nurses that had the best benefit had the highest intake of berries, which was more than a ½ a cup once a week.
I suggest 1/2 cup per day!

Fascinating Ways The Brain Operates

The brain has difficulty consciously managing too much new information at once. This means that it’s better to chunk new information into groupings of 7 ideas or less.

Think telephone numbers which have 7 digits. On the flip side our brain has trillions of neurons firing scores of times per second. The brain is capable of multiprocessing over 36,000 visual cues per hour. Most of this processing is at the subconscious level.

While the brain only makes up 2% of our body mass it uses 20 to 44% of our energy. It does this by burning energy 7.5 times faster than the rest of the body. Our brain is made up of mostly water (78%), some fat (10%) and a little protein (8%). Just one more reason why it’s so important to drink enough water.

Taking B-Vitamins May Help Reduce The Risk Of Alzheimer’s Disease

A study published in Public Library of Science One conducted by the University of Oxford found that a combination of folic acid, Vitamins B6 and B12 (which are all B-Vitamins) appears to slow brain atrophy in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment.

The study followed 168 participants over two years. One-half were treated with a European drug called TrioBe Plus® which contained a combination of folic acid (0.8 mg/d), and Vitamins B6 (20 mg/d) and B12 (o.5 mg/d). The other group received a placebo.

Those taking the vitamins had on average 29.6% less brain shrinkage. The vitamins also reduced homocysteine by 22.5%. Homocysteine was found in The Framingham Study to double a person’s risk of dementia if they had homocysteine levels above 14 micromoles per liter of serum.

By the way, this is an example of where a drug company is researching a combination of vitamins and if successful, then the drug company will patent the vitamin formula. The drug company will then be able to raise the price of the vitamins to drug price levels.

Fortunately, you can still get a B-Complex which will have all these ingredients. You can even buy them separately. So…if someone you know has dementia, get them taking these B-Vitamins.

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Women Are More At Risk For Concussions Than Men

While pro football players having concussions has been in the news recently, women may be more at risk than men. It turns out that women have smaller frames and neck muscles than men, which may make them more prone to concussions.

In addition, once a woman is injured, the effects can be much more severe. A 2010 study found that women took longer than men to recover from concussions. This was especially true for women of child-bearing age. Women also performed worse than men with comparable injuries on neurological tests.

Part of the problem is that women may ignore their concussion’s symptoms thinking things will get better. Here are the symptoms of a concussion:

Headaches
Dizziness
Trouble concentrating
Feeling over-stimulated by lights and noises
Memory loss, especially of the accident itself

So if you’re a woman and have had an accident, if you have one of these symptoms, then get yourself to a doctor.

(Reported Prevention January 2011)

Combining Vitamin D With Curcumin May Affect Brain Health

I’ve written many times about the benefits of Vitamin D3 and curcumin. Now researchers are combining the two as a way to boost the body’s immune system and also help clear protein plaques out of the brain that are linked to Alzheimer’s Disease.

The researchers in this study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, took blood samples from nine Alzheimer’s disease patients and treated them with Vitamin D and curcumin. The researchers found that the curcumin enhanced the binding of beta-amyloids to macrophages, which are the scavengers of our immune system. The Vitamin D could then strongly stimulate the uptake and absorption of the beta-amyloids by the macrophages.

While this is early-stage research, it’s got exciting potential.

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