Author: Jeff Cassman

It can help clear the brain of toxins.

Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol is linked to a 45% lower risk of dementia, research concludes.

Moderate drinkers — those who drink no more than around a bottle and half of wine a week — saw the reduced risk in comparison to those who do not drink.

Moderate drinkers also had a lower risk of dementia than those who drank heavily.

As alcohol intake increases, so does the risk of dementia.

A couple of alcoholic drinks per day, though, can help clear the brain of toxins, some research finds.

Low levels of alcohol — the equivalent of around 2.5 standard drinks per day — may help to remove waste linked to Alzheimer’s disease and reduce inflammation in the brain.

The study’s authors write:

“We show that both long term alcohol abstinence and excessive alcohol consumption may increase the risk of dementia.

Given the number of people living with dementia is expected to triple by 2050 and the absence of a cure, prevention is key.”

The study’s conclusions come from an analysis of 9,087 people who were followed for around 23 years between 1985 and 1993.

Dr Sevil Yasar, writing in a linked editorial, said:

“The most intriguing finding from this study was the significantly increased risk of dementia among abstainers, including long term abstainers and participants who became abstainers, and that association was only present in those who abstained from wine.”

Dr Yasar continued:

“Wine, in addition to alcohol, contains polyphenolic compounds, which have been associated with neuroprotective effects on both neurodegenerative and vascular pathways, and with cardioprotective effects through inflammation reduction, inhibition of platelet aggregation, and alteration of lipid profile.”

One limitation of the study is that people who abstain from alcohol may have a history of overindulgence.

Along with the study design, this makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about causality.

The study was published in the BMJ (Sabia et al., 2018).

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A supplement that may help to manage pre-diabetes and diabetes.

Medication, certain diets, and exercise are effective in fighting diabetes, but there is a possible new way to control the disease.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia suggest that ketone drinks sold as a food supplement might help people with diabetes to keep their blood glucose levels under control.

Dr Jonathan Little, study lead author, said:

“There has been a lot of excitement and interest in ketone drinks and supplements, which have really only been on the market and available to consumers for the last couple of years.

Because they’re so new, there’s very little research on how they can influence metabolism and we’re among the first to look at their use in non-athletes.”

Type 2 diabetes is a life-long disease that causes the body’s blood glucose or sugar level to spike.

The condition occurs when either the body doesn’t respond to the insulin hormone or the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin.

Glucose is the main form of energy carried by the blood to all cells.

But people with diabetes, due to a lack of insulin, can’t use glucose for energy and so the excess sugar stays in the blood.

Dr Little said:

“It’s a disease that’s becoming alarmingly common in Canada and approaching what many would consider epidemic levels.

While type 2 diabetes can be controlled with medications or injectable insulin, many people are looking to options that don’t require taking pills every day or that are less invasive.”

A ketogenic or keto diet involves eating very low carb and high fat foods.

When a person is on a keto diet, the body produces ketones which are a source of energy from the fat breakdown.

However, ketone supplements claim they can do the same without restricting carbs.

Dr Little said:

“There is mounting evidence that a low carbohydrate ketogenic diet is very effective in controlling blood sugar and even reversing type 2 diabetes.

We wanted to know what would happen if artificial ketones were given to those with obesity and at risk for type 2 diabetes but who haven’t been dieting.”

So they tested this idea and asked participants to take a ketone drink on an empty stomach and half-an-hour later they consumed a drink that contained 75 grams of sugar.

Dr Little explained:

“It turns out that the ketone drink seemed to launch participants into a sort of pseudo-ketogenic state where they were better able to control their blood sugar levels with no changes to their insulin.

It demonstrates that these supplements may have real potential as a valuable tool for those with type 2 diabetes.”

But he pointed out that ketone supplements are not the perfect answer in controlling the disease.

Dr Little said:

“There are a number of problems that we still have to work out, including the fact that we still don’t know what the long-term effects of consuming ketones are.

And not to mention that the drink itself tastes absolutely terrible.”

A study suggests that the keto diet improves human health only if applied for a very short time as its negative effects begin straight after a week of…

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The activities that cause a 30 percent hit to learning and memory.

Getting enough bright light could be one of the simplest ways to improve memory and learning.

Too long spent indoors in dim lighting causes damaging changes to the brain’s structure and function, research finds.

Continual exposure to dim lighting hurts parts of the brain that are central to memory and learning.

The study of rodents found they lost 30 percent capacity in their hippocampus — a structure important for memory — when they were kept in dim light for four weeks.

However, when the rats were exposed to bright light for four further weeks, their performance and brain capacity recovered completely.

Professor Antonio Nunez, who led the study, said:

“When we exposed the rats to dim light, mimicking the cloudy days of Midwestern winters or typical indoor lighting, the animals showed impairments in spatial learning.

This is similar to when people can’t find their way back to their cars in a busy parking lot after spending a few hours in a shopping mall or movie theater.”

The study is the first to show the effects of changes in normal levels of environmental light on brain structure and function.

The researchers found that in dim light, there were significant reductions in the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

This peptide helps maintain healthy connections between neurons.

Joel Soler, the study’s first author, said:

“Since there are fewer connections being made, this results in diminished learning and memory performance that is dependent upon the hippocampus.

In other words, dim lights are producing dimwits.”

Light does not act directly on the hippocampus, though, but rather via other sites in the brain.

A peptide called orexin could be involved in how light influences the hippocampus.

It may be possible to use this information to provide a boost for people with eye problems.

Dr Lily Yan, study co-author, said:

“For people with eye disease who don’t receive much light, can we directly manipulate this group of neurons in the brain, bypassing the eye, and provide them with the same benefits of bright light exposure?

Another possibility is improving the cognitive function in the aging population and those with neurological disorders.

Can we help them recover from the impairment or prevent further decline?”

The study was published in the journal Hippocampus (Soler et al., 2017).

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At least 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s.

Having moderate or severe anxiety in midlife is linked to dementia later on, research finds.

Anxiety is strongly linked to the personality trait of neuroticism, which includes sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.

The extra risk could be related to the stress caused by a mental health condition.

The stress response to anxiety could accelerate the aging process in the brain, increasing cognitive decline.

Depression has already been linked to a doubling of the risk in developing dementia.

Tackling anxiety and depression in midlife could be a way to reduce dementia risk, the study’s authors write:

“Non-pharmacological therapies, including talking therapies, mindfulness-based interventions, and meditation practices, that are known to reduce anxiety in midlife, could have a risk-reducing effect, although this is yet to be thoroughly researched.”

The study was a meta-analysis, a type of research that pools together the results of other studies.

The researchers found four large studies examining the link between dementia and anxiety that together included almost 30,000 people.

All four studies found that moderate to severe anxiety was linked to developing dementia later on.

The researchers write:

“Clinically significant anxiety in midlife was associated with an increased risk of dementia over an interval of at least 10 years.”

Dr Sara Imarisio, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said:

“Mental health conditions like anxiety and depression have been linked to dementia before and many overlapping symptoms make a dementia diagnosis difficult.

This review took a high-quality approach, combining findings from four existing studies exploring anxiety as a risk factor for dementia.

[…]

It’s important to remember that just because there is an association between the two factors does not necessarily mean that anxiety causes dementia.

Dementia is caused by a complex mix of risk factors including age and genetics and although this study looked at dementia in people more than ten years after being diagnosed with anxiety, we know the diseases leading to dementia can begin in the brain up to twenty years before any symptoms show.”

The study was published in the journal BMJ Open (Gimson et al., 2018).

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Psychological studies support these six fascinating ways of fighting depressive symptoms.

1. Change how you see the future

It’s often assumed that it’s depression that causes a pessimistic view of the future.

But it could be the other way around, a study finds.

Being pessimistic about the future may actually cause depression.

There are three ways in which thinking about the future may cause depression:

• Poor generation of possible futures.
• Poor evaluation of possible future.
• Negative beliefs about the future.

Depression also likely feeds back into more negative views of the future, creating a vicious circle.

Try to address the way you think about the future — is there a way to be a little more optimistic about it?

2. Eat a Mediterranean diet

A Mediterranean diet including fruits, vegetables and legumes can prevent depression, a large study finds.

People only had to make relatively small changes to see the benefits.

Depression could be partly down to a lack of essential nutrients.

The benefits of the diet are likely related to higher levels of omega 3 and other essential nutrients.

3. Socialise face-to-face

Regular face-to-face communication reduces the risk of depression in older adults by half, a study finds.

In comparison, socialising by phone or email does not have the same beneficial effect.

Dr Alan Teo, who led the study, said:

“Research has long-supported the idea that strong social bonds strengthen people’s mental health.

But this is the first look at the role that the type of communication with loved ones and friends plays in safeguarding people from depression.

We found that all forms of socialization aren’t equal.

Phone calls and digital communication, with friends or family members, do not have the same power as face-to-face social interactions in helping to stave off depression.”

4. Identify with a group

It has long been known that social connections are vital for a person who is experiencing depression.

Research finds that it’s not just social groups which help those with depression, crucially it’s identifying with that group which helps alleviate depression.

The conclusions come from an Australian study of patients both at risk and diagnosed with depression who had joined a number of local groups.

These patients who strongly identified with the groups they’d joined — whether at the hospital for group therapy or in their hobbies — said they felt supported because they were ‘in it together’.

5. Give up Facebook for a week…or longer

Comparing yourself to other people on Facebook has been linked to depressive symptoms, a study finds.

While the social network can be a useful way of connecting with others, there may be psychological dangers.

Mai-Ly Steers, the study’s first author, said:

“One danger is that Facebook often gives us information about our friends that we are not normally privy to, which gives us even more opportunities to socially compare.

You can’t really control the impulse to compare because you never know what your friends are going to post.

In addition, most of our Facebook friends tend to post about the good things that occur in their lives, while leaving out the bad.

If we’re comparing ourselves to our friends’ ‘highlight reels,’ this may lead us to think their…

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