How BrainFit is the man in the big red suit? Does old St. Nick adhere to the four cornerstones of brain fitness to take good care of his egg’s noggin? All in all he seems to do a fairly good job, but let’s take a closer look.

First off is Nutrition. I’d guess that the diet up in the north pole has to be similar to the Eskimos. Even though they eat a lot of fat from whale blubber, they get huge doses of omega-3s from all the fish. I’ve heard that Santa enjoys a lot of ice fishing during his downtime. So even though he goes on a once a year milk and cookies binge (or bourbon and cookies in some places), he probably does fairly well the rest of the year.

Second is Physical Activity. Cleaning out reindeer stalls and chasing elves around to make sure they get their jobs done must be physically exerting. Plus, just maintaining a huge workshop operation has to have a fair amount of physical activity on a day-to-day basis. So I’d have to give Santa a good score on the physical activity cornerstone as well.

Third is Mental Activity. This is where Santa really shines. Remembering all the kids’ names and associating all the different requests with everyone one of them is quite a feat and indicative of a strong memory. Not only that, but his sense of direction to remember where they all live shows incredible spatial abilities. Finally, some of the toy designs he comes up with these days are very creative. I have to give him top marks on this cornerstone.

Fourth is Sleep, Rest and Relaxation. Santa probably doesn’t do quite as well here. Even though he only pulls an all-nighter once a year, he strikes me as a type-A personality and is on the go all the time. I bet he’s up to the wee hours working hard most of the year. In fact, lack of sleep has a known correlation with obesity and I’ll bet this contributes to his portly mid-section.

Overall, however, Santa does fairly well in three out of the four cornerstones so let’s see how that translates into his EPIC performance (Emotional, Physical and Intellectual Cognition).

Emotionally, he seems to be in good shape. He’s always laughing (HO, HO, HO) and shows a lot of patience with all those kids constantly climbing on him. I’ve never heard anyone call Santa a jerk, so you have to figure that he does a good job managing his stress levels.

Physically, he could lose a little weight but still seems to function very well. It must be tough getting up and down all those chimneys but he gets it done. I don’t know how his blood pressure or immune function are doing but he’s probably OK.

Intellectually, he’s a star. As I discussed above, memory, creativity and problem solving skills are all sharp. Although he did seem to forget about that Lava Lamp that I requested for about 10 years in a row, but he finally came through.

So is Santa doing what is necessary to stay BrainFit? I’d have to say yes.

Everyone knows that sucking down too much soda contributes to a growing waistline. But did you know that studies also suggest that it may contribute to your mental decline?

High sugar beverages are well-established risk factors for developing obesity and type II diabetes. There is also a link between type II diabetes and risk of Alzheimer’s disease that we don’t yet fully understand.

Sugar Not So Sweet for Your Brain

A new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry asked whether high sugar drinks could actually precipitate Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers used a mouse model that has gene mutations found in certain human cases of Alzheimer’s disease. This leaves the mice highly susceptible to developing dementia.

Researchers used these mice to see if those given water spiked with sugar (similar to the amount in soda pop) would develop Alzheimer’s faster than the mice give water alone – and the answer was yes.

First, the mice drinking the sugar water developed signs of type II diabetes. They gained more weight, had increased cholesterol and developed insulin resistance.

Second, the sugar-water drinkers showed increased signs of dementia, with less ability to learn and remember things; and more physical brain changes associated with developing Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s impossible to say whether the increase in Alzheimer’s dementia in the sugar-water drinking mice was directly due to the beverage or an overall increase in calories, since the sugar drinkers also took in about 15% more calories than the control mice. In any case, the study underscores the overall relationship between poor nutrient intake and risk for Alzheimer’s.

In fact, studies I have summarized in a previous article show that high sugar meals increase markers of oxidative stress as well, which also link to increasing risk of Alzheimer’s.

Yes, it’s true that the mice in this study were already predisposed to Alzheimer’s and the sugar drink just made them get it faster. It would be interesting to know if normal mice would also show cognitive decline with this treatment.

How Much Risk are You Comfortable With?

We should still heed the message, especially if you have Alzheimer’s disease in your family and may carry any predispositions already.

It all comes down to risk. Almost everything you choose to put in your mouth affects your risk of developing disease, for better or for worse. Some things reduce your risk, other things increase it.

The question is, how much risk are you comfortable with? If someone told me that giving up something I really enjoy reduces my risk by a few percent, I’d probably say it’s not worth it. On the other hand, if my risk were reduced by 2, 3 or 10 times I’d consider it seriously.

Unfortunately, we don’t have enough data to put a number on many of the lifestyle choices we make. But some things are just so easy to do that why not do them? Drinking excess soda pop should fall into that category. The craving for sweet beverages is a habit and can be reversed and eliminated in a short time.

The data are clear that high sugar beverages increase risk for many diseases. If you are a heavy soda drinker making this one change could make a significant difference for the future of your brain and your body.

The New York Times published a great article today about the concept of ‘cognitive reserve’. Essentially the concept is that the more you experience during life, the better your odds of aging gracefully.

We have been promoting the four cornerstones of brain fitness in our recent posts and the article does a good job of summarizing some of these. The highlights of the report are:

1. Mental activity of all kinds helps slow or prevent cognitive decline. Staying engaged in life and keeping your mind active helps strengthen brain circuits that may slow down the aging process.

2. Physical activity boosts the brain’s ‘executive function’. Study after study has shown the benefits of physical exercise. Where the brain is concerned there seems to be real value in strengthening brain circuits that control decision making and problem solving abilities.

3. Social experiences help prevent dementia. Several studies have implicated social activity in cognitive health. The more extensive a person’s social network, the better the brain seems to work.

You can read the entire article by following this link.

two other things I would add to these are the value of nutrition and appropriate rest and sleep to boost cognitive fitness.

You hear a lot about how walking, jogging or swimming can improve overall health. More recently you have probably heard about how these activities can help improve mental function. What may not have come across your radar is that strength training with weights can also improve mental function.

As most people know there are two “kinds” of exercise, aerobic and anaerobic. The distinction between the two concerns the use of oxygen to produce energy that our muscles use to move: Aerobic (with oxygen), Anaerobic (without oxygen).

The type of metabolism that our muscles employ depends on the intensity of the exercise.

I promise to keep this post as free of biochemistry as possible, but we need to think in very general biochemical terms for a minute.

Very intense exercise that lasts for a relatively short time requires energy very quickly and therefore relies almost entirely on anaerobic metabolism. This type of intense brief exercise is referred to as anaerobic exercise. Examples of anaerobic exercise include sprinting and weight lifting.

Less intense, prolonged exercise uses oxygen to produce energy and is therefore considered aerobic. Low to moderate intensity jogging/running, biking, and swimming fall into the category of aerobic exercise.

It should be noted that many sports and activities fall somewhere between these metabolic definitions of exercise since they incorporate varying intensities that require muscle to work in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

Are weights really good for our noggin?

When people talk about the benefits of exercise on health, nine times out of ten the discussion will be focused on aerobic exercise. So we need to ask ourselves, is anaerobic exercise beneficial to brain health? And, if so, why should we bother since we already know that aerobic exercise is good for brain health?

A recent paper in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise demonstrated that 24 weeks of moderate or reasonably intense weight training improves emotional and cognitive function (similar results have been found with shorter durations of training). Weight training (anaerobic exercise) had positive effects on mood, cognitive function, attention, and short-term memory compared to individuals who had weekly warm-up and stretch sessions. So this suggests that weight training can improve brain health!

Why bother with weights?

I’d like to start off by saying that everyone should strive for a balanced approach to fitness. Exercise routines should incorporate both endurance (aerobic) and strength (anaerobic) weight training. I’m not talking about blood vessel poppin’, t-shirt rippin’ workouts. Light to moderate, multi-repetition weight training works too. We can obtain many other health benefits from weight training that will supplement our aerobic routines. I’ve listed just a couple here:

1) Weight training builds muscle mass. Now unless you get really, really serious about weight training you won’t have to worry about looking like Mr. Universe. That being said, increases in muscle mass help increase our overall metabolism….even at rest, which means pound-for-pound we can burn more calories.

2) Weight training helps strengthen bones. The load placed on our bones during weight training causes our bones to respond by increasing their density and thickness. Stronger bones is an especially important benefit for women to help ward off osteoporosis.

3) Multi-joint weight training exercises (like squats or lunges) improve balance and coordination.

A couple of words of caution:

1) Always talk with your physician to determine what kinds of exercise are safe for you before you start an exercise program or make drastic changes to your current program.

2) Get advice from a professional. There are many personal trainers available to help you get started with weight training. Look for someone certified by a reputable institution. The American College of Sports Medicine, and the National Strength and Conditioning Association are two examples.

3) Start slowly, and listen to your body. This is especially important if you haven’t been active for a while. Remember that through exercise, in addition to helping your brain, you are re-sculpting your body so it is natural to be a little sore. But, overdoing it can make you so sore that you miss your next workout, or even worse cause an injury.

4) Lift with a partner. It is always a good idea to have someone there to “spot” you when you are lifting. Having a spotter will help you stay motivated and committed, but is also a very important safety measure when working with heavy weights.

So, check with your doc, start slow, and get pumped up……for your general health and your mental health!

You’ve probably already seen the headlines on this story but I couldn’t pass up a post on it anyway.

Japanese researchers pitted chimps against college students in a memory test and guess what happened. The chimps won!

Researchers taught monkeys to recognize numbers 1 through 9 and then scattered them randomly around a computer touch screen. The chimps had to tap the numbers in order to get a peanut reward.

Now for the competition. Researchers next covered the numbers with a white box and both chimps and college students had to remember where each number was and touch the white boxes in order, from 1 to 9.

This is where the chimps pulled ahead.

But that’s not all. Researchers then removed some of the boxes leaving less than 9 on the screen. The task was still to touch the remaining boxes in order. Yep, chimps won again.

There’s no real message in this post – just a good story.

Check out the video through the link below showing the chimps in action.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OVlJv7ZkvGA

Studies are piling up showing how exercising your body boosts the fitness of you brain as well. Exercise has documented benefits for learning and memory, executive decision making function, mood regulation, and even protection against brain injury from an accident.

The latest piece comes from Dr. Ronald Duman’s group at Yale, just published in Nature Medicine. Using a high tech screening approach, researchers looked at how certain genes change their activity levels in the brain after exercise.

Working out Your Brain

Specifically, they looked at a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which has known roles in learning and memory, the regulation of stress, and is one of the brain regions targeted by anti-depressants.

In the study, researchers gave mice either free access to exercise wheels in their cages or not. The study revealed that several genes increase their activity in the hippocampus following a week of voluntary exercise.

One gene that dramatically increased its activity was VGF, or vascular growth factor. This gene was originally named for its role in inducing new blood vessel growth but we now know that it has other roles as well. It’s not known if increased blood supply to parts of the brain are involved in the exercise benefit, but I suspect that it probably is.

Beyond its potential blood flow benefits, VGF is interesting because it belongs to a larger family of growth factors that we already suspected to play roles in depression. Growth factors are involved in the growth and maintenance of all kinds of things, including neurons and blood vessels.

Depressed Mice?

Believe it or not, using carefully designed studies, researchers can actually evaluate depression-like behaviors in mice. When the authors of the new study looked at these behaviors, they found that the exercised mice showed fewer depressive behaviors than their non-exercised controls.

This shows that exercise helps alleviate depression behavior (which we already knew) but does not show that it was due to the increases in VGF activity. However, further studies by the group showed that injecting VGF into the animals had the same anti-depressive affects as exercise. Furthermore, when they looked at other mice that have naturally low VGF activity, they found that these mice had increased depressive-like behaviors.

This provides strong evidence that VGF plays a role in mediating the anti-depressive affect of exercise.

I’m sure that pharmaceutical companies are now looking at VGF related compounds for new anti-depressants. But the point of this article is not to suggest that you can get all the benefits of exercise by injecting VGF (It’s not available anyway, yet).

The point is that exercise is incredibly beneficial to your brain and body. VGF is just one example of many protective systems turned on by exercise.

Just Move

In our part of the world, we’re moving into the winter, making it more difficult to get outside and run around. But there are still many things that you can do to keep your brain and body fit through the cold months.

You could: join a gym, get exercise equipment into your house (and use it), buy an exercise tape or DVD, join a recreational volleyball or basketball program or other sport you enjoy; take a local fitness class or just brave the weather and go for a brisk walk.

Making exercise a habit will help you keep your brain healthy throughout life. Many people today don’t get much exercise once they reach middle age. This may have been fine 100 years ago when the average life expectancy was about 55. Today, many of us will likely live past 80 or 90 years old. How many years do you have left? How many of those years to you want to have a healthy brain?