By Simon J. Evans, PhD

What does the word ‘fitness’ mean to you? Do you think of a body builder or a marathon runner? Do you think an Olympic swimmer? How about an old person reading a map? Huh? Where’d that last one come from?

A new study published in the January 2009 edition of Hippocampus finds that older adults (59 to 81 years) who were more fit had increased spatial memory compared to less fit adults of the same age. They also had a bigger part of the brain, called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory. The hippocampus is also a part of the brain that is particularly targeted in Alzheimer’s disease. Currently science assumes that when it comes to the hippocampus, bigger is better.

Larger hippocampi (plural form) are also associated with better ability to handle stress. In fact, some studies show that war veterans with a larger hippocampus have less intense post-traumatic stress disorder. This may be because their bigger hippocampi protect them from stress better. It may also be that stress itself, shrinks the hippocampus. In fact, the data suggest that both are probably true.

Having a genetically endowed hippocampus probably puts you at somewhat of an advantage when it comes to handling stress. But learning to manage stress can probably also protect your hippocampus and help you age with a little more cognitive grace.

In this new study, researchers recruited 109 older adults and tested their level of physical fitness using a treadmill, measuring aerobic fitness, heart rate and blood pressure. After that, the participants all had their brains scanned in an MRI machine, allowing researchers to measure the size of their hippocampus.

When they compared the two types of measures, low and behold, increased aerobic fitness correlated with increased hippocampal volume, a bigger hippocampus. But the researchers didn’t stop there. They also tested all the participants on spatial memory tasks.

Using a computer, dots were flashed on the screen and the subjects had to remember where those dots came up, monitoring one, two or three dots at the same time. Again, the older adults with better fitness measures performed better on this test.

The researchers believe that the reason they do better on the tests is because they have bigger hippocampi, and the reason they have bigger hippocampi is because they are more fit.

This all make sense, knowing what we know about how exercise boosts brain function. However, we still have to point out that this is a retrospective study. This means you can’t say for sure that increased fitness caused increased hippocampal size and increased performance on memory tests. There may be other factors.

Still, when you look at this new study in the context of all the other studies showing that exercise is good for the brain, it sure seems to be true. This is one more piece in the mind-body connection puzzle. Every day research comes out making it clearer and clearer that the health of your body influences the health of your brain. So if you want to stay sharp in those older years don’t just rely on crossword puzzles in the daily paper to get you there – unless you’re taking a brisk walk down to the corner store to pick it up.

Reference:
Hippocampus. 2009 Jan 2. [Epub ahead of print]

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By Simon J. Evans, PhD

Remember the ‘monster cereals’? Frankenberry, Booberry and Count Chocula? I liked the little marshmallows in Frankenberry the best, though the chocolate milk left behind by Count Chocula was hard to beat. But can eating these types of breakfast cereals be setting us up for future memory problems?

We’ve learned a lot over the past couple of decades about how the foods we choose to eat as kids and young adults, control our risks for chronic illness as older adults. More recently we are beginning to understand that many chronic diseases are related to each other. Now, a new study published the February 2009 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), adds a very interesting chapter, linking blood sugar control to memory decline.

Specifically the study examines the role of insulin in countering Alzheimer’s disease progression. But before we get into that, let’s connect a few dots.

We know that high sugar foods, if eaten on a regular basis, increase our risk for insulin resistance and diabetes. What does this mean? When you eat high sugar foods your blood sugar rises quickly and your body brings it back down by releasing insulin. However, if you continue to do this on a regular basis, your body will become less sensitive to its own insulin and require more and more of an insulin release to do the job. This is called insulin resistance and is a step toward diabetes.

In recent years, we have learned that insulin acts in the brain as well. Brain cells rely on this hormone to keep a regular supply of energy so you can think clearly, remember where you parked your car and why you went into the store in the first place. Insulin resistance in the brain may lead to mood and cognitive problems. While this is a young area of research we know that diabetes increases your risk for both depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

The new study gives us some insight into why this might be true. One feature of Alzheimer’s disease is an accumulation ‘tangles’ from a protein called amyloid-beta. It turns out that small pieces of this protein can attack certain cells in your brain that are responsible for making and storing memories. If these attacks get bad enough – boom, Alzheimer’s disease.

What the new study shows us is that insulin helps protect these ‘memory’ cells from attack by amyloid-beta, but only if the cells remain sensitive to insulin. This sheds light on why diabetes puts you at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. If you have lost sensitivity to insulin (become insulin resistant) then you may be more susceptible to attack by amyloid-beta proteins and the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

In their study, the researchers were able to ‘help’ insulin out using a diabetic drug that increases insulin sensitivity, and this is promising news for development of therapies to help people going down the Alzheimer’s road. But are there other ways to increase our insulin sensitivity. The answer is emphatically, yes!

First of all, exercise is known to boost insulin sensitivity, even if you are already diabetic. Getting your muscles working helps them regain their sensitivity to insulin and do a better job of maintaining blood sugar. Second, eating a low-glycemic diet, with high fiber and low sugar, help regulate blood sugar and boost insulin sensitivity. Third, sleep is an emerging factor in improving insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control.

Again, this returns to the fundamentals. Exercise more, eat better and get enough sleep. Understanding all the cool neuroscience on why these things help is great, and hopefully provides you with a little extra motivation. Sometimes connecting a behavior to a real change that you can put your finger on can give you that extra sticking power, which is why we write these summaries. But the decision is yours. You know what to do, now can you do what you know?

Reference:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). 2009, 106(6):1971-1976.

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By Paul R. Burghardt, PhD

Surfing around the free movies section that comes with my cable subscription I found a documentary on HBO titled: “Wide Awake” by Alan Berliner. I wanted to blog on it for a few reasons. First, it was a well produced documentary. Second, it deals with sub-optimal-sleep which we discuss in our book, BrainFit for Life, and is a looming problem in many societies. Finally, it has an underlying theme regarding the need for balancing life and setting priorities.

Berliner, a filmmaker, has suffered from insomnia for several decades. This documentary chronicles his efforts to understand roots of his sub-optimal-sleep, highlighting his angst and frustration regarding its impact on his function during “normal” daytime hours. In addition, he is clearly concerned that his sleep problems will be inherited by his newly born son.

He uses montage’s of old footage coupled with current footage of himself and his family that gave me a feel for how his thoughts and feelings (as I imagine) interact with his struggle to optimize his sleep and find better balance in his life.

One of the more entertaining sections of the film is where Berliner, who allegedly never uses caffeine, drinks a cup of coffee as an experiment. What ensues is a pretty entertaining segment where you see his alertness continue to increase while he fervently drains his cup of coffee. The final shot has him essentially shaking the last drops out of the cup into his mouth, after which he takes the camera man on a caffeine-fueled tour of his editing studio.

From a cinematic standpoint (in my humble opinion as a sub-amateur film critic), this film was put together very nicely. Stepping back to survey the whole story, however begs the question of whether his insomnia really is a problem?

You could probably take a yes or no vantage point depending on what you would define as a “problem.”

Ok, let’s say it is a problem, but why? Well, Berliner believes that his sleep pattern is disrupting his ability to function. That’s a pretty good definition, by all rights, but is it fair? He is an award-winning director, which would suggest that he actually performs above normal in that aspect of his life. It happens that the time he is most creative and productive is during the night. So it may be that he is more of an “owl” than a “lark” and he should adjust his life accordingly.

That might lead us to say that it’s not a problem. However, what is best for his creativity, and therefore his job, might not be the best for the other aspects of his life. This theme appears to pop-up when viewing his interactions with his family and his desire to keep his son from experiencing the same types of sleep problems.

Even if you don’t struggle with sub-optimal-sleep this movie is probably worth watching from a cinematic standpoint and as a subtle example highlighting the need for balance in one’s life. Check it out below.

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By Simon J. Evans, PhD

Are you concerned about your health care coverage? With so many recent job losses in the U.S., many people have lost this valuable benefit and millions others have not had health care in years. Clearly, our system is broken and high on the agenda for the Obama administration. But what’s next?

A new editorial in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, by Daniel Redwood, D.C., raises some interesting points that we will summarize below.

The editorial starts out with the fact that a critical mass of Americans are finally beginning to see health care as a right, not a privilege (an opinion, by the way, held by every other industrialized nation in the world besides the U.S.). Redwood points out that healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. and this, combined with the increasing financial burden on businesses to pay for the healthcare of their employees, may provide a real driver for significant change this time around. But how to go about it?

Redwood discusses the fact that all parties in the healthcare machine agree on one basic principle. It is a principle that we have been touting in every post we’ve written for the past two years. Preventing illness is far is better than treating disease. As the old adage goes ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. But the question is still how?

We believe that prevention means living a healthy life, including eating well, exercising and generally taking care of yourself. However, many in the medical field, including the Obama approach, puts prevention more in the hands of doctors, with regular screenings and vaccinations. This to us, is not prevention. This is catching disease early and making it more easily treated. It is important, but it is not prevention.

In his editorial, Redwoood agrees. In fact, he specifically mentions nutrition, exercise, stress-reduction and social support as ingredients for true prevention. He points out that while the Obama administration has acknowledged these factors as important, it remains to be seen whether this will be backed up by any budgets or whether it is just lip-service, as it has been for decades in the current healthcare system.

Redwood also points out that doctors in the current system do not have time to focus on prevention, because they are too busy taking care of the sick. We would add that doctors are not trained to focus on prevention either. They typically have very little educational background in nutrition and other aspects of wellness. The solution then is to enlist an army of true ‘wellness’ professionals whose sole objective is to keep the well well, and have these services be covered by insurance companies.

The editorial continues with an overview of several approaches to prevention, including chiropractic and alternative approaches, like Chinese medicine and others. But many of these are not covered by most health insurance policies, making them difficult for individuals to seek out. However, millions of people are using alternative strategies and the numbers grow every day. This in and of itself has become a red flag for the healthcare system as to the level of public dissatisfaction with ‘standard’ services.

Our plea to you is to use your own leverage whenever possible to define prevention in a light of true health promotion and to demand access to wellness as a right.

To read more on this subject, check out http://www.siib.org/news/news-home/112-SIIB.html

Reference:
The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine (2009) Vol. 15(1):1-3

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Paul R. Burghardt, PhD

A substantial number of Veterans will return from Iraq and Afghanistan over the next several years. This transition back to civilian life will not be trivial, and many of these individuals will need support to deal with the psychological stress they encountered while they were deployed.

An interesting study came out of a research group in Taiwan that could be used as a window into how we, the general public, can help our veterans as they return home. A study by Chung and colleagues in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics investigated which factors were related to cognitive and emotional health in older veterans.

The authors looked at a number of lifestyle factors and measured the level of depression and cognitive function in older veterans. What they found wasn’t exceptionally surprising, but illustrates the importance of working to build up your brain-fitness reserve.

Veterans who could read, were married, and had children or family, who didn’t smoke, avoided fatty foods, exercised for 30 minutes a day, and engaged in a hobby, had higher levels of cognitive function. The most important aspects for maintaining a higher level of cognitive function were level of depression, education, and being able to read. Depression plays a substantial role in both brain and general health, and is believed to worsen the cognitive decline in people with dementia. The prevention or effective management of depression will be an extremely important task for veterans.

Literacy is an important aspect of maintaining cognitive health. We’ve known for some time people with more education tend to have less risk of developing dementia, which was also true in this study. However, the most important aspect to education is continually challenging yourself to learn, not obtaining a degree per se.

An interesting aspect of this study was the large number of veterans who were illiterate. It’s probably obvious that illiteracy severely limits a person’s options for learning. If you couldn’t read, you wouldn’t be reading this article right now. I know it sounds obvious, but imagine all the things you read as you go about your daily tasks. Street signs, ordering food, that motion sickness-inducing news ticker at the bottom of your favorite 24-hour cable news channel. You’d miss out on a lot.

This report should really drive home how critical lifestyle choices, like diet, exercise and mental activity, can be for brain health particularly for people who have undergone substantial psychological stress. In addition, the role for social support cannot be understated. Just having someone there to interact with, help you through tough times, or just listen, is invaluable. Most creatures need social interaction, and humans are no exception. When times are tough it’s nice to know you’re not alone.

Reference:
Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 2008 Dec 4

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By Simon J. Evans

As the Brain Fitness industry continues to gain momentum, and people explore all the incredible brain-training tools being developed, we hope that enthusiasts don’t take their eye off the importance of the physical health of the brain and all the systems it communicates with. The brain is unique in that it houses our cognitive and emotional capacities in the form of the mind.

It is a ‘cognitive’ organ that hungers for stimulation from new experiences and challenges. Many brain fitness programs strive to satisfy this need. Yet the brain is also a physical organ that plays by many of the same rules as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. To stay healthy and perform optimally it requires quality nutrition, physical activity and optimal sleep.

The brain, especially, relies on a healthy vascular system to efficiently deliver oxygen and key nutrients and remove waste. In fact, the brain uses approximately 20% of the oxygen we breathe to satisfy its high-energy demands. Given that the brain only weighs about 2% of the body, we can consider it an energy hog and we must cater to its needs very carefully.

Brain Food

Nutrients play key roles in brain function. Several have shown efficacy in clinical trials treating cases of mood disorders, cognitive decline and of course benefiting the physical health of the brain. Nutrients are both the raw materials employed in creating new neural connections and important components in regulating the activity of genes involved in these processes. Specific nutrients involved in mitochondrial efficiency, the energy factories of brain and body cells, are particularly important for many aspects of brain function. Other nutrients are involved in the inner workings of neuronal membranes, responsible for ensuring that electrochemical signals, which make up our thoughts, transmit efficiently and reliably. Finally, antioxidants, important throughout the body, are especially important in the brain due to its high energy production rates and concurrent high capacity for free radical leakage. Keeping this in mind, it is readily apparent that nutrition provides the building blocks for our brain’s structure and function, and therefore cannot be ignored.

Building Brain Muscles

Exercise is a clearly established component for promoting brain health as well. No longer can we think that the brain is completely separate from the brawn. Human studies have shown the value of exercise in controlling stress and maintaining positive mood states; in improving cognitive function, including performance on memory and executive tasks; and in improving the brain’s two-way communication streams with the rest of the body. Some of these benefits are likely due to the positive effects of exercise on neurovascular health, which parallel cardiovascular health. Other benefits seem due to increased grey matter in ‘front office’ functions of the cortex; and neuronal birth, or neurogenesis, in the hippocampus, a brain region that controls aspects of memory and mood regulation. Whatever the mechanism, giving your body a workout will produce substantial benefits in terms of brain health. Remember, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and your brain and body will be together your whole life.

Mental Workouts

Mental activity is an obvious, and critical, ingredient for optimizing and maintaining brain function. Studies have established relationships between the degree of life-time mental activity and late-life cognitive function. It’s clear that those who engage in intellectually challenging endeavors on a regular basis reap the benefits of a clear mind. There is, however a need for each individual to balance sufficient variety with a proper degree of challenge. Without variety and challenge, tasks become too mundane and too easy, eventually growing stale and losing their capacity to adequately stimulate the brain. We must also realize that mental activity goes beyond ‘cognitive’ tasks. Mental activities also include practices like meditative focus, relaxation and stress reduction techniques, as well as social interaction. These active and dynamic processes challenge the mind as well. Mixing cognitive challenges with emotional regulation provides a more complete mental workout that will help you to use it to improve it.

Rest and Regeneration

An often neglected component contributing to brain health is optimal sleep. On average, we sleep approximately 1.5 hours per night less than we did 100 years ago. Modern technology makes it easier to get less sleep and our busy lives encourage us to do it. Sleep is far more than a time of rest, and is too often misclassified as a period of lost productivity. It is an active metabolic period for our brains. Sleep is a time when we consolidate memories of the previous day, a time when we re-synchronize the circadian rhythm of at least dozens, if not hundreds, of hormones controlling our metabolism. Sleep loss is associated with a high percentage of mood disorders and certainly reduces our cognitive efficiencies. We must give ourselves permission to sleep by realizing that it is counterproductive to steal from it.

In BrainFit for Life: A User’s Guide to Life-Long Brain Health and Fitness, we focus equally on the cognitive, emotional and physical health of the brain and all of the lifestyle factors that come into play to maintain them. Today’s aging population is becoming increasingly focused on the maintenance of cognitive health and the value of ‘brain training’ programs. But we must realize that such training is not unlike that of an athlete, who must focus on their diet, sleep needs and psychological preparation in addition to their physical skill development. We explore specific aspects of nutrition, exercise, mental activity and sleep. We discuss how they regulate emotional, physical and intellectual functions of the brain. After all, they are not separable.

“To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” – Buddha, circa 500 B.C.

BrainFit For Life is available at http://www.brainfitforlife.com/book.php

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