Get Married; Have a
Better Brain
Married couples have a significantly lower risk of
Alzheimer’s disease than single individuals. We didn’t see that finding coming.
A research paper in
the Journal
of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry reported that singles had a 42%
higher risk of dementia than couples. Widowed had an average of 20% higher.
Curiously, divorced individuals had the same risk as married. Andrew Sommerlad,
MD of the University of London, along with fellow researchers Joshua Ruegger
and Archana Singh-Manoux MD, speculate that the benefit comes from social
contact, communication, looking-out for each other and more mental activity.
(We’ve written before on the extreme detriment of loneliness on health in
general and brain health in particular).
We’re speculating that the punch line is to get married if
you’re not….
Build Up Endurance;
Build Better Working Memory
We were recently explaining to someone that one of the
reasons that biological medicines are so expensive is that the factory workers
include post-docs. Someone asked us what a “post-doc” is. It’s someone who
already has a PhD in, say, bio-chemistry or bio-medical engineering, and is
doing even further studies. This little piece of background is a set up for
recently reported medical news about a study led by, you got it, post-docs
Dominik Moser and Gaille E. Doucet from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Along
with five more research team members, they showed that physical endurance is
linked to better working memory. Working memory is crucial to learning,
professional skills and performing complex tasks. For those of you who have
been plugging away running, biking, swimming, boxing, at CrossFit, Zumba,
power-walking, dancing or any of the hundreds of other aerobic activities, you
aren’t just doing your heart and muscles good, you’re building working memory
as well. Research
details here.
Shameless Plugs and
More
If you are considering buying any of our cool, brain-healthy
products for Christmas – act now. We are down to a handful of shipping days for
Christmas delivery. We’re tossing in some extras with every order while
supplies last.
Three gift ideas. Or, you can give them to yourself- you
were good this year, right?
1.
We have a super, lightweight, travel-friendly exercise
kit so that you can build that working memory. Stronger muscles just a bonus.
2.
Both our Brain
Booster fragrance kit (featuring Peppermint) and our Energy
Lift kit (featuring Cinnamon) will fill your home with holiday scents.
3.
We just added a third fragrance: Rosemary Mint,
in our Let’s
Just Chill kit. Rosemary, a fragrant herb used for centuries, is associated
with both memory and romance. Oh, and marriages.
(Flower bridal headpiece from Polyvore).
www.BigBrain.Place offers fun products that are good for your brain.
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