Secrets of Super-Ager 80-year-old brains, shown healthier by neuroimaging compared to the brains of folks 2-3 decades younger!

Science usually studies what’s wrong, but this scientist studied what was right, with brains that is. God bless Emily Rogalski out of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She gives us hope! Dr. Rogalski used imaging techniques to evaluate the part of the brain that indirectly tells us how healthy a brain is: the cortical thickness. The thicker the cortex, the more nerves live there. The more nerves we have, the better we can think, remember, and focus. The more nerves, the more agile and energetic our brains. Looking inside the brains of [...]

Should you pay more for organic foods? I love Stanford. When I practiced in Palo Alto, CA, in the days before the Internet, I would go to the Lane Medical Library most evenings after work to do extensive nutritional research. So I have much respect for their medical library, but NOT for the conclusions of their recent meta-analysis of organic vs. conventionally-raised/processed foods. Consumer, beware of headlines that may guide you to make unhealthy decisions for you and your loved ones! The Stanford research group under Smith-Spangler ran a review of numerous studies, called “data drudging,” to create a meta-analysis (looking [...]

Which foods lower blood pressure almost as effectively as medication, demonstrated by our old friend—data from the Framingham Heart Study of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes and NIH? If you can slurp at least one 6-ounce cup of yogurt every three days, you have, according to this study, a 31% decreased risk of developing high blood pressure. They used low-fat yogurt so as to be careful to not add calories, though I am more a fan of whole foods, including yogurt, and then lowering calories elsewhere, or burning off more calories through exercise. This was a 15-year study on [...]

This is the third large study in the last year to suggest potential eye disease from regular aspirin use.  It’s a small risk. Aspirin does protect against heart attack, stroke, and dementia, and when used for over 5 years, it protects against many types of cancer. But if you are part of the 1% who gets this serious eye disease, then statistics mean nothing. But the conclusions are still not set in stone, and a soon-to-be published study may even reflect opposite results. So, right now, aspirin use is a conundrum. Bottom line: Try to avoid it for pain control and [...]

Hearing loss accelerates decline of cognitive functions such as thinking and remembering. (Journal of American Medical Association on Line 2013). So using hearing aids, if hearing loss is occurring, is not just hearing protective, but also brain protective. But instead of relying only on hearing aids, look into aldosterone hormone testing and replacement, shown to be helpful in some adult cases of hearing loss. There is hearing-help in them there hormones!

Higher blood  levels of a plasticizer, called phthalates, have been linked  with women going through menopause two to 15 years earlier, which puts them at risk of all kinds of health woes from heart disease and diabetes to plain not feeling good or enjoying sex. Strive to purchase plastic-free cosmetics. Menopause 2012