By Paul R. Burghardt, PhD

Sleep affects our brain fitness, including our mood, our ability to learn and our physiology. While it’s clear to most folks that sleep-loss messes with our minds, the damage to our bodies is sometimes less obvious. Over the past couple of decades, researches have been investigating how sub-optimal sleep can be detrimental to our health. Recently a group from the University of Chicago published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing the importance of slow-wave-sleep for blood sugar control during the day.

Our sleep progresses through different cycles, or phases, which have different roles in controlling our brain and body function. In a recent study, Tasali and colleagues were able to selectively disrupt slow-wave-sleep while leaving the other phases of sleep undisturbed. At the start of the study, the healthy volunteers had normal control over their blood sugar levels. Following 3 days without slow-wave-sleep, however, these people substantially lost blood sugar regulation while they were awake and actually started to look diabetic. This should be pretty disturbing that only 3 days of sub-optimal sleep could push healthy people into a pre-diabetic state.

If that wasn’t enough, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported an increased risk of heart attacks during the spring when we lose an hour of sleep thanks to the daylight savings time shift! For the three days, that’s right THREE DAYS (sounds familiar right?), following the shift in the spring (when we lose an hour of sleep) researchers in Sweden found an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction. In addition, a German group recently published a study in the journal Circulation reporting an increased risk of stroke for the two days following the shift in daylight savings in either fall or spring.

Kind of makes you want to sleep in tomorrow, doesn’t it?

Incidentally, older individuals as well as obese individuals have reduced sleep quality and duration. Which is the chicken and which is the egg is still being sorted out, but it is pretty clear that sub-optimal sleep at least adds to the problem. Hopefully, this drives home the importance of sleep for your health. The importance of this for brain fitness comes into play when we consider that blood sugar control and circulation can influence mood and cognition.

For a long time, it was thought that we could make up for sleep loss during the next bout of sleep. If you’re talking about total sleep deprivation (not sleeping at all for one night), that is somewhat accurate. However, a big and sneaky problem is that cheating ourselves out of a couple hours of sleep every night can have major effects on our brain and overall health. But it takes a while for these negative health effects to build to a point where we notice them. We’re really just starting to see how big of a problem this is.

Sleep is an important part of our physiology, but is usually one of the first aspects of our lives that we cheat ourselves out of, whether we know it or not. So make a point of protecting your optimal sleep, and would someone please get rid of daylight savings time!

References:

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008, 105(3):1044-9
New Engl J Med (2008), 359(18):1966-1968
Circulation (2008), 118(3):284-90

By Paul R. Burghardt

In a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, van Dam and colleagues assessed the combined risk of “cigarette smoking, being overweight, taking little moderate to vigorous physical activity, no light to moderate alcohol intake, and low diet quality score” on mortality (a.k.a. death).

This is a very neat set of data and speaks to the foresight of the researchers that set up this project. Back in 1976 a heap of questionnaires were sent out to a lot of nurses (almost 100,000) so researchers could gather information on the nurses’ diet, activity levels, smoking habits, body weight and alcohol consumption. Then, they pestered these nurses with questionnaires for several decades to see how their behaviors might be related to their overall health.

If you’ve been paying attention, the punch-line won’t be all that surprising. Poor lifestyle habits result in greater risk of dying. What is interesting is that the combination of those 5 lifestyle choices accounted for 55% of the deaths in the group of nurses who took part in the study. You have to remember the unfortunate reality that a percentage of people will die over a period of time due to accidents, and the researchers took this into account. Therefore, the deaths of more than half the women from this study were due to these unhealthy lifestyle choices.

Another interesting tidbit is that they found no alcohol consumption, or alcohol consumption greater than one or two drinks each day increased risk for death attributable to cardiovascular disease. In contrast, two or more alcohol drinks per day resulted in an increased risk of cancer. Just something to keep in mind when considering your family health history.

There were also some pretty substantial jumps in the risk for death (mortality) once a person accumulated at least 3 of the unhealthy behaviors. This is an important idea to keep in mind. How heavy of a burden can you deal with? One unhealthy behavior or condition may not be insurmountable, but two or three may be more than you can carry before you become exhausted. An even more precarious situation is when something unexpected comes along. The burden of unhealthy behaviors can be viewed as the slippery slope, and a major life event (e.g. death of a loved one) as the little nudge it takes to send you over the edge.

It might be useful to think of this scenario like the foundation of your house. You can think of your lifestyle choices as reinforcing, or chipping away at the foundation set-up by your genes. Your genetic inheritance may have provided you with a given stability to your foundation. Engaging in healthy behaviors would be similar to sealing the cement of your foundation and grading the lawn so that water runs away from your house.

In contrast, unhealthy behaviors actively deteriorate your foundation, almost like someone pounding away at your foundation with a ball-peen hammer…. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but over time problems will arise. Ping, ping ping….you have a chip. Ping, ping, ping…..now there is a crack. What happens when there is a little seismic activity in your neighborhood, or rain gets into the crack and freezes? That’s when big problems occur. Now think if you had five people with hammers pounding away on your foundation.

Again, it may not be much of a surprise that partaking in unhealthy behaviors resulted in substantially higher risk of dying. Although this study didn’t look at the effect of lifestyle choices on brain health, we know that a lot of these health issues travel together and can influence our brain. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, physical inactivity, all set the stage for decreased brain health over our lifetime. So be proactive, put the hammer down and reinforce your basement, you never know when it might rain!

By Simon J. Evans

The role of stress reduction is important to almost any health plan. Keeping your brain fit is no different. Constant stress, which plagues many in today’s society, causes an elevation of hormones, including cortisol, that can be bad for your health.

Now, let’s get something straight before we go any further. Cortisol is not some evil hormone that’s sole job is to make you fat and sick, as many late night infomercials would have you believe. It is a necessary part of your physiology and you would be dead without it. It is part of the flight, fight or fright response which helps you deal with immediate stressors and life-threatening situations. Even when you’re not stressed it plays important roles in vigilance and attention. Controlling cortisol levels with drugs is requires much caution.

Problems with cortisol occur when you stay stressed for long periods of time. The cortisol system is designed to turn on to help deal with stress and then turn off again when the stressor is passed. This can be psychological stress, like work, or physical stress, like a tiger attack. If you are constantly stressed and don’t turn it off, this can lead to problems with your immune system, weight regulation and, yes, brain function. Too much cortisol for too long can impair learning and memory.

OK, so cortisol is good if kept in check, but bad if it gets out of control.

So let’s get back to the title of this article. There is a lot of research in the psychology world showing that unhappy couples in negative relationships activate their stress systems much more frequently, which can eventually lead to poor health. This is probably fairly obvious. Arguments are stressful and we usually dwell on them for too long. Perhaps less obvious is that people in negative relationships are more prone to get stressed in other environment. Laboratory test show that people in negative relationships have an increased stress response to a social conflicts with anyone, not just their ball and chain.

The flipside of this was addressed in a new study published in October 2008 in Psychosomatic Medicine. Researchers looked at cortisol levels in middle age couples with young families to see if the quality of their intimate relationships affected their stress responses throughout the day. Previous studies show that good romantic relationships associate with longevity. Happy married couples, on average, live longer than unhappy couple or singles. In the new study, researchers wanted to know whether or not people in intimate relationships have lower cortisol and are less responsive to stressors from work.

Researchers equipped 51 couples with pocket computers that prompted them to answer some questions about what they had been doing to assess their exposure to stress and measure their levels of intimacy. They were also prompted to take saliva samples every three hours (except when sleeping) to test the level of cortisol, a measure of the level of activity of their stress system. This went on for six days in a row to ensure a good sampling. This is important because it’s the first study to get good measurements in everyday life, outside of the laboratory setting.

In the end, couples with higher levels of intimacy had lower cortisol throughout the day and decreased cortisol responses to stressful situations when they arose. In other words, people in positive relationships dealt much better with stress at the office (as measured by their hormonal response to stress) than those that had lower levels of intimacy in their home relationships. This provides another good reason to focus on balance in life. If you want to perform best at work, well, you know what you need to do at home . . .

Reference: Psychosomatic Medicine (2008) 70:883-889.

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

Written by Simon Evans

We’ve written before about the benefits of Tai Chi for your brain fitness and your immune system. In fact, we go into some detail on this topic in a couple sections of our new book, BrainFit for Life. Now a new study shows some striking effects of a year-long Tai Chi program at dramatically reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors.

The new paper published by Chin Lang et al. in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine details the evaluation of 53 patients with clinically problematic high cholesterol or triglycerides. About half of the patients in this study participated in a 12-month Tai Chi program while the other half continued their typical sedentary lifestyle. Since all of the patients were classified as high risk for cardiovascular illness, they remained on cholesterol reducing medication in both groups.

The group that received Tai Chi saw a significant improvement on many fronts. Their blood pressure dropped, their total cholesterol and ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL) went down, their insulin levels decreased and markers of excess inflammation fell as well. The sedentary control group saw a slight reduction in blood pressure but their cholesterol and triglyceride levels actually got worse - even though they remained on cholesterol reducing medication (chalk up another point for exercise).

Beyond these blood markers, the Tai Chi group also experienced improvements on measure of physical fitness. They significantly improved their exercising heart rate, oxygen uptake and ventilation. The sedentary group saw no such benefits, and, in fact, saw a decline in several fitness markers.

This study provides more positive data for the health benefits of Tai Chi. Why is it so good for you? No one really knows the definitive answer to that, but there are likely many factors.

First, Tai Chi involves slow and deliberate movements that help regulate breathing and focus, which contributes to better stress management. A plethora of studies have shown the health boosting benefits of reducing stress, so this alone is a major plus.

Second, Tai Chi provides moderate levels of exercise that mixes cardiovascular with strength training - holding those poses ain’t easy. Even though the movements are slow, practitioners experience a sustained elevation of heart rate. Maybe not as much as shakin’ your booty in a jazzercise class, but elevated all the same.

Third, Tai Chi helps improve balance and coordination. This is a huge benefit for older folks, since falling is the number one cause of injury in this age group. Younger folks glean benefit from this aspect as well, especially anyone engaged in athletics. Balance control is central to performance in many sports.

Fourth, often times, folks perform Tai Chi in a group setting, involving the social support aspect. We have written about the huge benefits of social support in the past. In fact, a couple other recent studies found that social support significantly helps recovery from a stroke or heart attack while social isolation makes it worse.

Tai Chi, considered a ‘soft martial art’, has been around in Chinese culture for a couple hundred years and is now making its way to the rest of the world. It shouldn’t be that difficult anymore to find a Tai Chi class in a community near you. Whether you’re a busy professional needing to reduce some stress, a retired individual needing to keep your brain and body fit or a patient fighting an illness, Tai Chi seems to have a little something for everyone.

Reference: Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2008) 14:7, 813-819.

By Simon J. Evans, PhD

A lot research has focused on omega-3 fats as good for body and brain function. Scientists have scrutinized these fats in everything from heart disease and diabetes to depression, bipolar illness, schizophrenia, ADHD and Alzheimer’s. The latest papers to add to the experimental pile come from a recent edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The new studies evaluate omega-3s in people in their 70s and 80s and relate to cognitive function, mood and mental well-being. The bottom line to the new findings is that having higher levels of omega-3s in your blood protects you from many cognitive problems of old age. The downside is that you can’t just start taking them in your 70s and expect quick results. However, longer use may still be beneficial.

So what’s the best way to boost omega-3 levels in your blood. First, you have to understand that there are different kinds of omega-3s that come from different sources. The kind of omega-3s that are good for your brain are called ‘long-chain’ omega-3s, most commonly DHA and EPA, and fish is the best source for these.

You may have heard that things like flaxseed oil and walnuts are high in omega-3s as well. Although this is true, these foods are only high in ‘short-chain’ omega-3s, which are not the kind that appear to have the most brain benefit.

To complicate things even further, most animals can convert the short-chain to long chain forms, but humans are not very good at this. If we want to increase long-chain omega-3s in our blood and increase our odds of aging with a healthy brain, eating sources of long-chain omega-3s is our best bet. Fish is the #1 source.

If you don’t eat about 3 servings of fish per week, you should really consider taking a fish oil supplement on a regular basis. If you are a vegetarian who does not eat fish at all, don’t fret, there are also algal oil supplements out there that have the long-chain omega-3s. After all, fish can’t make omega-3s either. They get them by eating marine plants (or eating other fish that eat marine plants). Fish are just good at concentrating omega-3s in their meat, so are a great source for us folks that don’t like chewing on seaweed.

Fish has been considered brain food for the better part of a couple of centuries. Whether you like it or not, our bodies are designed to run best on a diet high in marine sources. If you look at the cultures around the world who enjoy longevity and vibrant health into their old age, you will find fish as a staple in all of them.

There is nothing new to this advice. Only that we are now beginning to understand why fish and the omega-3s they give us, are important for many aspects of our mood and metabolism. Once again, science finally catches up to age-old wisdom to support what we have known all along - Fish is brain food, eat it and prosper.

Reference: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2008). 88: pp 595, 706, 714, 722.