Weight loss and Weight Chat Blog

The other day I was listening to an interview on National Public Radio with Dean Oshler who has just written a book called From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords. During the interview I was surprised to hear Mr. Oshler challenge the widely held belief that regularly doing crossword puzzles is good for your brain fitness and can help stave off Alzheimer’s disease. Oshler’s problem with crossword solving is twofold: first, he believes the clinical data showing an advantage for puzzlers is both weak and only observational (”[The researcher] never said that there was a cause-and-effect relationship. He said there was a correlation. Maybe it just so happens that people who are mentally fit have a tendency to want to do crosswords in the first place”); second, we need variety in our mental exercise (”[Crosswords are] kind of the same activity over and over again. But the Alzheimer’s […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

There’s good news for those of you who like to do crafts, read books or play games. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic have found that those people who regularly engaged in mentally stimulating activities during middle age reduced their likelihood of developing mild cognitive impairment in older age by 40 percent. Similarly, those who did these activities when they were 65 and over reduced their chances of mental decline by 30 to 50 percent. The key factor seems to be the degree of mental involvement or challenge of the activity, because those who simply watched TV all day did not show a reduction in cognitive impairment (some TV is ok, but watching more than seven hours a day was associated with more mental decline than less than seven hours a day).
The study involved 197 people between the ages of 70 and 89 with mild cognitive impairment, or diagnosed memory loss, […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

Last time, I wrote about Ginkgo biloba being ineffective for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, which may have led you to wonder what actually can prevent it? In your Internet search, you might have been drawn in by the headline at CNN: “Five ways to keep Alzheimer’s away.” Unfortunately, that article, as with many similar ones that abound on the Internet, is long on hype and short on hard evidence. The article is so misleading, in fact, that before I tell you what’s really known about preventing Alzheimer’s I’d like to briefly puncture that particular hot air balloon.The CNN list of five ways to prevent Alzheimer’s begins with antioxidants, and in particular, vitamins A, C and E. They quote a psychiatrist who claims that “There are studies that suggest antioxidants might prevent dementia.” Yes, but those studies are seriously flawed and by no means definitive. […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com