I am not a subscriber to HBO and had therefore never watched the epic and highly celebrated series Game of Thrones. I was aware of its existence, but only after listening to one of my patients exclaim about it, did I decide to watch it. He told me that it would be violent, have a lot of nudity, and be magical (dragons ......... more »
Is diet related to dementia? For a long time, researchers have known two things: (i) poor dietary habits increase the risk of getting heart disease, and (ii) having heart disease increases the risks of dementia (1). The next question followed naturally: Does poor diet itself increase the risk of dementia? Researchers n......... more »
We humans are living longer. That’s the good news. The bad? After we turn 65, dementia rates double every five years in developed countries. And in developing ones, dementia rates double every seven years. (1) The conclusion seems unavoidable. The longer we live, the more likely we are to suffer dementia. All the m......... more »
Want to improve your chances of avoiding mild cognitive decline as you age? Or even of getting Alzheimer’s? Researchers have identified several things we can do. Among them, is this strong recommendation: Get off your couch. And get active. This is not new advice. Those of us 55 and older have ......... more »
This piece is about one of the virtues of having a Mindfulness practice. It is an effective way to gain mental flexibility. When I was younger I heard stories of older people being on the ground with the inability to get themselves off the floor. I remember thinking how odd that must be…just get up…right? Later,......... more »
We have all hear it. We all know that added sugars and syrups fuel obesity, trigger excess insulin secretion and boost inflammation, elevate triglycerides and cause cardio woes. But as our ole friends Drs. Oz and Roizen explain, they can also increase our risk for mental health. Roizen and Oz drew our attention t......... more »
Brains don’t like negative stress, so says the authors of a study, which was reported in the December 2014, edition of Psychology and Aging. The authors expected to find an association between so called cognitive decline and everyday memory problems being exacerbated by stress. One hundred and twelve people were s......... more »
As reported in the December 2014 journal Psychology and Aging, over 500 non-demented seniors participated in the so-called Berlin Aging Study. The subjects were 70-100 years old and were measured for memory performance 4 times over the course of 6 years. The researchers were measuring the complaints of the seniors abou......... more »
We are all familiar with the experience of having our mind wander. We're reading a book, and realize we've read the same page 5 times without any recollection of what we just read. Or when we are driving and realize we are way off course, but were so lost in thought we had no idea that we had missed our turn. As dis......... more »
In Part 1 of Healthy Brain Aging, I shared material from Glenn Smith, Ph.D. of the University of Florida, who wrote the lead article in the May-June 2016 issue of American Psychologist. His article entitled, Healthy Cognitive Aging and Dementia Prevention will continue to be the basis of the Part 3 in this series. I......... more »
In Part 1 of Healthy Brain Aging, I shared material from Glenn Smith, Ph.D. of the University of Florida, who wrote the lead article in the May-June 2016 issue of American Psychologist. His article entitled, Healthy Cognitive Aging and Dementia Prevention will continue to be the basis of the Part 2 in this series. I......... more »
Hating Dementia For those of us mere mortals who missed it, Glenn Smith, Ph.D. from the University of Florida, wrote the lead article in May-June 2016 issue of American Psychologist. His provocative and hopeful article is entitled, Healthy Cognitive Aging and Dementia Prevention. I would like to share some of his find......... more »
We have all done it. We get up from a chair in the living room to retrieve something in the kitchen, study, or bedroom (equal opportunity rooms). But after the first few steps walking through the doorway into the other room we, well…we have forgotten what we came into the room to get. It is hard to score if that proc......... more »
"Our results suggest that for older people, getting regular quite intensive exercise may help them keep their cognitive abilities longer," senior author, Clinton B. Wright, MD, University of Miami, commented to Medscape Medical News. The study that Dr. Wright was referring to was published online in Neurology on Mar......... more »