Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/2/13.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Niacin, the fountain of youth - Science Daily, 9/30/13 - "Vitamin B3 -- also known as niacin -- and its metabolite nicotinamide in the worms' diet caused them to live for about one tenth longer than usual" - See niacin products at iHerb.

Diabetes increases risk of developing and dying from breast and colon cancer - Science Daily, 9/27/13 - "analyzed results from 20 trials that had taken place between 2007 and 2012, involving more than 1.9 million patients with breast or colon cancer, with or without diabetes ... patients with diabetes had a 23% increased risk of developing breast cancer and a 38% increased risk of dying from the disease compared to non-diabetic patients. Diabetic patients had a 26% increased risk of developing colon cancer and a 30% increased risk of dying from it compared to non-diabetic patients" - Note:  See my insulin and aging page for many more studies like this.

Researchers Tie Increased Throat Cancer Cases to HPV Infection - WebMD, 9/27/13 - "In a new study, investigators from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit analyzed U.S. government data and found that cancers of the base of the tongue, tonsils, soft palate and pharynx among adults aged 45 and younger increased 60 percent between 1973 and 2009. Collectively, these cancers are called oropharyngeal cancer ... Of the 1,600 patients in the study group, 90 percent were aged 36 to 44 and 73 percent were white. Fifty percent to 65 percent of the patients had surgery to remove their tumors. Patients who had both surgery and radiation had the highest five-year survival rate" - Note:  That’s what they told me eight years ago when I had tonsil cancer that spread to the lymph nodes in the neck that became the size of a golf ball. I refused radiation anyway and just went with surgery. I’m still here without the permanent side effects such as lack of saliva. I’m never seen hard numbers on it but my guess would be that adding radiation doesn’t add that much to your odds. My theory was that radiation might kill some of the satellite cancer cells but at the same time it weakens your immunity which might also be needed to fight those cancer cells. I’ve gone through at least ten doctors due to Navy turnover during checkups. Toward the latter, the doctors said that they would have done what I did. Their attitude changed over the years.

Folic acid deficiency can affect the health of great, great grandchildren - Science Daily, 9/27/13 - "the scientists used mice in which a gene called Mtrr was specifically mutated. The gene is key to the normal progression of the folic acid cycle and, when mutated, it results in abnormal folic acid metabolism causing similar effects to dietary folic acid deficiency. The researchers found that when either the maternal grandmother or the maternal grandfather had this Mtrr mutation, their genetically normal grandchildren were at risk of a wide spectrum of developmental abnormalities. These developmental abnormalities were also seen in the fourth and fifth generations of mice"

15 Myths and Facts About Cellulite - ABC News, 90/27/13 - "eating a well-balanced, plant-heavy diet can reduce inflammation throughout your body and help you maintain a healthy weight ... Staying hydrated—both by drinking water and by eating plenty of foods with high water content—will also keep your connective tissue strong and supple, and may even help you lose weight. Aim to eat more cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, and bell peppers, which (along with many other fruits and veggies) are all more than 90 percent water"

Wisconsin Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) to Improve Cancer-Related Fatigue - Medscape, 9/27/13 - "cancer-related fatigue (CRF) ... A multisite, double-blind trial randomized fatigued cancer survivors to 2000mg of American ginseng vs a placebo for 8 weeks ... Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory–Short Form (MFSI-SF) ... A statistically significant difference was seen at 8 weeks with a change score of 20 (SD = 27) for the ginseng group and 10.3 (SD = 26.1) for the placebo group (P = .003). Greater benefit was reported in patients receiving active cancer treatment vs those who had completed treatment. Toxicities per self-report and CTCAE grading did not differ statistically significantly between arms" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Big Breakfast May Be Best for Diabetes Patients - WebMD, 9/26/13 - "randomly assigned 59 people with type 2 diabetes to either a big or small breakfast group ... after 13 weeks, blood sugar levels and blood pressure dropped dramatically in people who ate a big breakfast every day. Those who ate a big breakfast enjoyed blood sugar level reductions three times greater than those who ate a small breakfast, and blood pressure reductions that were four times greater ... About one-third of the people eating a big breakfast ended up cutting back on the daily diabetic medication they needed to take. By comparison, about 17 percent of the small breakfast group had to increase their medication prescriptions during the course of the trial ... Rabinovitz speculated that a big breakfast rich in protein causes suppression of ghrelin, which is known as the "hunger hormone."

Experts Confirm That Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Reduces Risk of Mortality - Science Daily, 9/26/13 - "sample analyzed includes 25,682 deaths (10,438 due to cancer and 5,125 due to cardiovascular disease) among the 451,151 participants studied over more than 13 years ... a combined fruit and vegetable consumption of more than 569 grams per day reduces the risk of mortality by 10% and delays the risk of mortality by 1.12 years compared to a consumption of less than 249 grams per day ... for every 200 gram increase in daily fruit and vegetable consumption, the risk falls by 6% ... A diet rich in fruit and vegetables reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality by 15%" - Note: 569 grams is 20 ounces.

Common Diabetes Drugs May Carry Risk, Study Suggests - WebMD, 9/26/13 - "Both metformin (brand names include Glucophage and Fortamet) and sulfonylureas (glyburide and glipizide) are commonly prescribed as first-line therapies for patients and have been available since the 1950s ... Patients who took sulfonylureas only were 58 percent more likely to die from any cause than those who took metformin only ... Sulfonylureas work "by increasing insulin release from the beta cells in the pancreas," while metformin "acts by suppressing glucose production by the liver,""

Melatonin Helps Control Weight Gain as It Stimulates the Appearance of ‘beige Fat’ That Can Burn Calories Instead of Storing Them, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 9/25/13 - "chronic administration of melatonin sensitizes the thermogenic effect of exposure to cold, heightens the thermogenic effect of exercise and, therefore, constitutes excellent therapy against obesity. The fact is that one of the key differences between 'beige fat', which appears when administering melatonin, and 'white fat', is that 'beige fat' cell mitochondria express levels of UCP1 protein, responsible for burning calories and generating heat" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.  Supports previous studies:

• Melatonin might help in controlling weight gain and preventing heart diseases associated to obesity - Science Daily, 4/28/11 - "melatonin -a natural hormone produced by the body- helps in controlling weight gain -even without reducing the intake of food-, improves blood lipid profile -as it reduces triglicerids-, increases HDL cholesterol and reduces LDL cholesterol ... analyzed in young Zucker diabetic obese rats the effects of melatonin on obesity, dyslipidemia and high blood pressure associated to obesity. Melatonin was found to be beneficial for young rats that had not still developed any methabolic or heart disease"

Commonly prescribed statin linked to memory impairment, study in rats suggests - Science Daily, 9/25/13 - "tested pravastatin and atorvostatin (two commonly prescribed statins) in rat learning and memory models ... Rats were treated daily with pravastatin (brand name -- pravachol) or atorvostatin (brand name -- Lipitor) for 18 days ... pravastatin tended to impair learning over the last few days of treatment although this effect was fully reversed once treatment ceased. However, in the novel object discrimination task, pravastatin impaired object recognition memory. While no effects were observed for atorvostatin in either task"

Statins Tied to Cataract Risk - NYTimes.com, 9/25/13 - "scientists retrospectively examined 13,626 statin users and 32,623 nonusers, ages 30 to 85, who were part of a military health care system. The average length of statin use was about two years ... compared with nonusers, those who took statins had a 9 to 27 percent increased risk for cataracts" - Note:  It conflicts with other studies:

• Statins Prevent Cataracts, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 8/31/13 - "Statins lower the rate of cataract by 20 percent ... The risk of cataract was reduced by 50 percent when treatment was initiated in younger individuals (in their 40s) and the duration of therapy was longer (e.g. up to 14 years) ... The meta-analysis included 2,399,200 persons and 25,618 cataracts. The average duration of treatment was 54 months and average age was 61"

Nutrient Supplementation - Medscape, 9/25/13 - "men taking antioxidants had a statistically significant increase in both live birth rates and pregnancy rates. For those undergoing assisted reproduction, the odds ratio that antioxidant use would improve pregnancy rates was 4.18, with a 4.85-fold improvement in live birth rate also noted" - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com and Garden of Life, Vitamin Code, 50 & Wiser Men at Amazon.com.

High Serum Calcium Linked to Developing Diabetes - Medscape, 9/24/13 - "High concentrations of serum calcium—but not necessarily calcium intake—are associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, results from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS) show ... IRAS enrolled 863 nondiabetic subjects (age 40–69) at four centers ... the relationship between calcium concentration and incident diabetes was statistically significant but did not follow a linear relationship. Only subjects with the highest concentrations of calcium (>2.38 mmol/L) had a significantly increased risk of developing diabetes"

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

Long-term resveratrol treatment prevents ovariectomy-induced osteopenia in rats without hyperplastic effects on the uterus - Br J Nutr. 2013 Sep 30:1-11 - "In conclusion, Res treatment not only improves BMD and trabecular microarchitecture but also does not affect the uterus and Res might be a potential remedy for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.

Coenzyme Q10 supplementation reverses age-related impairments in spatial learning and lowers protein oxidation - Age (Dordr). 2013 Oct;35(5):1821-34 - "the current study assessed the effect of CoQ intake in older mice for which cognitive and psychomotor impairments were already evident. Separate groups of young (3.5 months) and relatively old mice (17.5 months) were fed a control diet or a diet supplemented with low (0.72 mg/g) or high (2.81 mg/g) concentrations of CoQ for 15 weeks. After 6 weeks, the mice were given tests for spatial learning (Morris water maze), spontaneous locomotor activity, motor coordination, and startle reflex. Age-related impairments in cognitive and psychomotor functions were evident in the 17.5-month-old mice fed the control diet, and the low-CoQ diet failed to affect any aspect of the impaired performance. However, in the Morris water maze test, old mice on the high-CoQ diet swam to the safe platform with greater efficiency than the mice on the control diet. The old mice supplemented with the high-CoQ diet did not show improvement when spatial performance was measured using probe trials and failed to show improvement in other tests of behavioral performance. Protein oxidative damage was decreased in the mitochondria from the heart, liver, and skeletal muscle of the high-CoQ-supplemented mice and, to some extent, in the brain mitochondria. Contrasting with the deleterious effect of long-term CoQ supplementation initiated during young adulthood previously published, this study suggests that CoQ improves spatial learning and attenuates oxidative damage when administered in relatively high doses and delayed until early senescence, after age-related declines have occurred. Thus, in individuals with age-associated symptoms of cognitive decline, high-CoQ intake may be beneficial" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.

Oral Caffeine During Voluntary Exercise Markedly Inhibits Skin Carcinogenesis and Decreases Inflammatory Cytokines in UVB-Treated Mice - Nutr Cancer. 2013 Sep 26 - "Ultraviolet B (UVB)-pretreated SKH-1 mice were treated with water, caffeine (0.1 mg/ml), voluntary running wheel exercise (RW) or caffeine together with RW for 14 wk. Treatment of the mice with caffeine, RW, or caffeine plus RW decreased skin tumors per mouse by 27%, 35%, and 62%, respectively, and the tumor volume per mouse was decreased by 61%, 70%, and 85%, respectively"

High Dose Atorvastatin Reduces Periodontal Inflammation: A Novel Pleiotropic Effect of Statins - J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013 Sep 23 - "Eighty-three adults with risk factors or with established atherosclerosis, who were not taking high-dose statins, were randomized to atorvastatin 80 mg vs. 10mg in a multicenter, double-blind trial to evaluate the impact of atorvastatin on arterial inflammation ... After 12 weeks, there was a significant reduction in periodontal inflammation in patients randomized to atorvastatin 80 vs. 10 mg (ΔTBR mean [95 CI], 80mg vs. 10mg group = -0.43 [-0.83, -0.02], p=0.04). Between-group differences were greater in patients with higher periodontal inflammation at baseline (-0.74 [-1.29, -0.19], p=0.01) and in patients with severe bone loss at baseline (-0.61 [-1.16, -0.054], p=0.03). Furthermore, the changes in periodontal inflammation correlated with changes in carotid inflammation"

Effects of the DASH diet on blood pressure in patients with and without metabolic syndrome: results from the DASH trial - J Hum Hypertens. 2013 Sep 26 - "This paper is a subgroup analysis of the DASH trial, in which we examined the effect of study diets on BP in participants with and without MS ... participants were randomized to receive a control diet, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, or the DASH diet ... In the MS subgroup, the DASH diet compared with the control diet reduced systolic BP by 4.9 mm Hg (P=0.006) and diastolic BP by 1.9 mm Hg (P=0.15). In the Non-MS subgroup, corresponding net BP reductions were 5.2 mm Hg (P<0.001) and 2.9 mm Hg (P<0.001), respectively"

Maternal fatty acids in pregnancy, FADS polymorphisms, and child intelligence quotient at 8 y of age - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Sep 25 - "These results support the positive role of maternal arachidonic acid and DHA on fetal neural development although the effects on child IQ by 8 y of age were small (0.1 SD) with other factors contributing more substantially. The endogenous synthesis of these FAs by FADS genes, especially FADS2, may also be important" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Is Dairy Intake Associated to Breast Cancer? A Case Control Study of Iranian Women - Nutr Cancer. 2013 Sep 25 - "100 cases and 175 controls ... Dietary data were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire ... We observed that higher consumption of total dairy intake was accompanied with reduced breast cancer risk [odds ratio (OR) = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.04-0.38]. A similar inverse association was also observed for higher intakes of low-fat and fermented dairy products (P for trend <0.05). Lower intake of high-fat dairy was associated with reduced odds of breast cancer, and no significant association was found between nonfermented dairy and breast cancer risk. Our study demonstrates the protective effects of high intakes of total dairy, low-fat and fermented dairy, as well as low intakes of high-fat dairy products against breast cancer risk and shows no association with nonfermented dairy" - Note:  Did I read that right, '0.14' or an 86% reduction in risk?  See my yogurt recipe at the top of my yogurt page.

Lower dietary vitamin E intake during the second trimester is associated with insulin resistance and hyperglycemia later in pregnancy - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2013 Sep 25 - "Women with singleton pregnancies (n=205) underwent a 3-h oral glucose tolerance test at 30 weeks gestation and were asked to recall second trimester dietary intake ... Higher dietary vitamin E intake was associated with lower fasting glucose, lower HOMA insulin resistance, and higher Matsuda insulin sensitivity index after covariate adjustment including serum adiponectin among women consuming daily multivitamin supplements" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.

Calcium and Vitamin D Supplementation in Postmenopausal Women - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Sep 24 - "At an ambulatory research center, 159 postmenopausal healthy white women participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel, longitudinal factorial study that began in December 2008 and ended in April 2011. It was 6 months in duration ... Supplementation of the diet with 1200 mg calcium/d reduces bone turnover markers, whereas supplementation with up to 100 μ g vitamin D3/d does not" - Note:  100 micrograms is 4,000 IU.

Vitamin K status and cognitive function in healthy older adults - Neurobiol Aging. 2013 Dec;34(12):2777-83 - "Using data from the Québec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging (NuAge), a cross-sectional analysis was conducted to examine the associations between vitamin K status, measured as serum phylloquinone concentrations, and performance in verbal and non-verbal episodic memory, executive functions, and speed of processing. The sample included 320 men and women aged 70 to 85 years who were free of cognitive impairment. After adjustment for covariates, higher serum phylloquinone concentration (log-transformed) was associated with better verbal episodic memory performances (F = 2.43, p = 0.048); specifically with the scores (Z-transformed) on the second (β = 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.13-0.82), third (β = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.06-0.75), and 20-minute delayed (β = 0.47; 95% CI = 0.12-0.82) free recall trials of the RL/RI-16 Free and Cued Recall Task" - See vitamin K products at iHerb.

Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Intake and Risk of Colorectal Cancer Nutr Cancer. 2013 Sep 20 - "A total of 68,109 Washington residents aged 50-76 completed a questionnaire between 2000-2002 and were followed for CRC through 2008 (n = 488). Persons using fish oil supplements on 4+ days/wk for 3+ yr experienced 49% lower CRC risk than nonusers (hazard ratio = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.26-1.00; P trend = 0.06). The association between fish oil use and decreased CRC risk was primarily observed for men (P interaction = 0.02; P trend men = 0.02; P trend women = 0.88) and for colon cancer (P difference = 0.05; P trend colon = 0.03; P trend rectum = 0.87). Although dark fish and total EPA + DHA intake were not associated with CRC risk overall, these associations varied by genetic risk (P interaction = 0.009 and 0.02, respectively), with inverse associations observed among low-moderate genetic risk groups and positive associations observed among high risk groups" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Serum Calcium Concentration and Prostate Cancer Risk: A Multicenter Study - Nutr Cancer. 2013 Sep 20 - "This study sought to further evaluate the possible effects of serum calcium level on prostate cancer (PC) risk, with considering the age, body mass index (BMI), and sex steroid hormones. Using data from a prospective multicenter study, serum calcium concentration, as well as thorough demographic and medical characteristics, were determined in 194 cases with newly diagnosed, clinicopathologically confirmed PC and 317 controls, without any malignant disease, admitted to the same network of hospitals ... An increase of 1 mg/dl in serum calcium level was associated with a significant decrease in PC risk (OR = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.34-0.76). Our findings reveal the inverse association between serum total and ionized concentrations and PC risk, which supports the hypothesis that calcium may protect against PC" - Note:  Conflicts with some previous studies.

• Calcium consumption may cause prostate cancer in Chinese, research suggests - Science Daily, 6/1/10 - "Results showed a 25 percent increased risk of prostate cancer when comparing those who consumed, on average, 659 mg vs. 211 mg of total calcium a day ... Major food sources of calcium in this population consisted of: vegetables (19.3 percent), dairy (17.3 percent), grain products (14.7 percent), soyfoods (11.8 percent), fruit (7.3 percent) and fish (6.2 percent). However, the researchers stress that there was no positive association with prostate cancer risk and any one particular food source ... Among men with less than average BMI (median BMI was 22.9 kg/m2), the researchers found a twofold increased risk of prostate cancer"
• Too Much Calcium In Blood May Increase Risk Of Fatal Prostate Cancer - Science Daily, 9/3/08 - "Comparing men in the top third with men in the bottom third, we found a significantly increased hazard for fatal prostate cancer"
• The Effect of High Calcium Levels on Prostate Cancer - Physician's Weekly, 8/13/07 - "the relative risk of prostate cancer for 2,000 mg/day or more of calcium intake was 1.63. Conversely, a 1.26 relative risk calculation was observed for ingestion of less than 1,000 mg/day of calcium"

• Too much calcium may raise prostate cancer risk - Nutra USA, 11/15/05 - "men who consumed more than 2000mg of calcium per day nearly doubled their risk of developing prostate cancer"

Food Intake and the Risk of Endometrial Endometrioid Adenocarcinoma in Japanese Women - Nutr Cancer. 2013 Sep 20 - "The present study examined the association between food intake and endometrial cancer restricted to endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EEA) using a case-control study in Japanese women ... completed a questionnaire ... the higher intakes of vegetables [odds ratio (OR) = 0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.26-0.83], peanuts (OR = 0.48, CI = 0.27-0.86), fish (OR = 0.52, CI = 0.29-0.93), boiled egg (OR = 0.24, CI = 0.33-0.92), instant noodles (OR = 1.94, CI = 1.12-3.34), instant food items (OR = 2.21, CI = 1.31-3.74), and deep-fried foods (OR = 2.87, CI = 1.58-5.21) were associated with a risk for EEA" - Note the 76% reduction in risk with boiled egg.

Effects of Pioglitazone on Bone in Postmenopausal Women With Impaired Fasting Glucose or Impaired Glucose Tolerance: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Sep 20 - "Meta-analyses of clinical studies have suggested an increased incidence of peripheral fractures in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus taking pioglitazone ... Twenty-five sites (in the United States) enrolled participants in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study ... The intervention consisted of pioglitazone 30 mg/d (n = 78) or placebo (n = 78), increased to 45 mg/d after 1 month, for 12 months of treatment total, followed by 6 months of washout/follow-up ... Maximal-dose pioglitazone had no effects on BMD or bone turnover, while improving glycemic control as expected, in postmenopausal women with impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance"

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

• Norton 360 (2014) Review & Rating - PCMag.com, 9/26/13 - "Norton 360 (2014) takes all the protective power that's packed into Norton Internet Security (2014) and adds a comprehensive local/online backup system plus a collection of effective performance tuneup tools. It's an Editors' Choice security mega-suite"
  • Norton 360 at Amazon

Health Focus (Memory Loss):

Related Topics:

• Alzheimer's Disease

Popular Supplements:

• B vitamins / ginkgo / acetyl-l-carnitine / red yeast rice / statins / melatonin / NAHD / phosphatidylserine / alpha lipoic acid / Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) / ginseng / vinpocetine / Huperzine A / creatine

Alternative News:

• Fish oil could help protect alcohol abusers from dementia - Science Daily, 9/8/13 - "pooled the results of 143 studies, found that moderate social drinking may reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment. (Moderate drinking is defined as a maximum of two drinks per day for men and 1 drink per day for women.) ... exposed cultures of adult rat brain cells to amounts of alcohol equivalent to more than four times the legal limit for driving. These cell cultures were compared with cultures of brain cells exposed to the same high levels of alcohol, plus a compound found in fish oil called omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Researchers found there was about 90 percent less neuroinflammation and neuronal death in the brain cells exposed to DHA and alcohol than in the cells exposed to alcohol alone" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Synaptophysin and the dopaminergic system in hippocampus are involved in the protective effect of rutin against trimethyltin-induced learning and memory impairment - Nutr Neurosci. 2013 Sep 2 - "Trimethyltin-induced spatial learning impairment showed a dose-dependent mode. Synaptophysin but not growth-associated protein 43 was decreased in the hippocampus after trimethyltin administration. The concentration of dopamine decreased, while homovanillic acid increased in the hippocampus after trimethyltin administration. Mice pretreated with 20 mg/kg of rutin for 7 consecutive days exhibited improved water maze performance. Moreover, rutin pretreatment reversed the decrease of synaptophysin expression and dopamine alteration" - See rutin products at iHerb.
  • Rutin - Wikipedia -"Rutin is a citrus flavonoid glycoside found in buckwheat,[4] the leaves and petioles of Rheum species, and asparagus ... Rutin is also found in the fruit of the fava d'anta tree (from Brazil), fruits and flowers of the pagoda tree, fruits and fruit rinds (especially the citrus fruits orange, grapefruit, lemon, and lime) and apple; berries such as mulberry, ash tree fruits and cranberries ... Rutin (quercetin rutinoside), like quercitrin, is a glycoside of the flavonoid quercetin. As such, the chemical structures of both are very similar, with the difference existing in the hydroxyl functional group. Both quercetin and rutin are used in many countries as medications for blood vessel protection"
• A Ginkgo Biloba Extract Promotes Proliferation of Endogenous Neural Stem Cells - Science Daily, 7/23/13 - "Researchers found that the ginkgo biloba extract EGb761 promoted and prolonged the proliferation of neural stem cells in the subventricular zone and dentate gyrus of rats with vascular dementia. The cells continued to proliferate at 4 months. EGb761 also significantly improved learning and memory in rats with vascular dementia" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Diabetes Drug May Protect the Brain - WebMD, 7/15/13 - "Metformin makes muscle tissue more receptive to insulin, a hormone necessary for sugar (glucose) to get into the body's cells and tissues to provide fuel. It also decreases the amount of glucose made in the liver. Sulfonylureas stimulate the production of insulin. TZDs make muscle and fat tissue more receptive to insulin, and they decrease the amount of glucose made in the liver ... Compared to people taking sulfonylureas, those on metformin had a 20 percent decreased risk of developing dementia, according to the study. There was no difference in dementia risk for those on TZDs or insulin compared to those on sulfonylureas ... one theory stemming from animal research is that metformin may play a role in the development of new brain cells (neurogenesis). It has also been linked to reduced inflammation ... A drug like metformin, [which is] an insulin sensitizer in the body, may also be an insulin sensitizer in the brain" - See metformin at The Antiaging Store.
• Vitamin B: Choline intake improves memory and attention-holding capacity, experts say - Science Daily, 7/11/13 - "In the first experiment, scientists administered choline to rats during the third term of gestation ... the scientists concluded that prenatal choline intake improves long-term memory in the resulting offspring once they reach adulthood ... In the second experiment, the researchers measured changes in attention that occurred in adult rats fed a choline supplement for 12 weeks, versus those with no choline intake. They found that the rats which had ingested choline maintained better attention that the others when presented with a familiar stimulus" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Long-term Ginsenoside Rg1 Supplementation Improves Age-Related Cognitive Decline by Promoting Synaptic Plasticity Associated Protein Expression in C57BL/6J Mice - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2013 Jul 5 - "In aging individuals, age-related cognitive decline is the most common cause of memory impairment. Among the remedies, ginsenoside Rg1, a major active component of ginseng, is often recommended for its antiaging effects ... This study employed a scheme of Rg1 supplementation for female C57BL/6J mice, which started at the age of 12 months and ended at 24 months, to investigate the effects of Rg1 supplementation on the cognitive performance. We found that Rg1 supplementation improved the performance of aged mice in behavior test and significantly upregulated the expression of synaptic plasticity-associated proteins in hippocampus, including synaptophysin, N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunit 1, postsynaptic density-95, and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha, via promoting mammalian target of rapamycin pathway activation. These data provide further support for Rg1 treatment of cognitive degeneration during aging" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.
• Healthy Lifestyle Habits Linked to Better Memory - Medscape, 6/13/13 - "A random sample of 18,552 adults in all 50 states participated in this study, which was conducted between December 2011 and the end of January 2012 ... Older adults who did not eat healthily had an OR of 1.86 for memory problems compared with those who reported better eating habits ... Smoking increased the OR for memory problems to 1.88 in young adults compared with nonsmokers ... Weekly exercise was linked to better memory in the middle-aged and older groups, but not in their younger peers ... Obesity predicted memory problems in the 2 older groups"
• Preventing Alzheimer's disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 20 - "Is it possible to prevent atrophy of key brain regions related to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD)? One approach is to modify nongenetic risk factors, for instance by lowering elevated plasma homocysteine using B vitamins. In an initial, randomized controlled study on elderly subjects with increased dementia risk (mild cognitive impairment according to 2004 Petersen criteria), we showed that high-dose B-vitamin treatment (folic acid 0.8 mg, vitamin B6 20 mg, vitamin B12 0.5 mg) slowed shrinkage of the whole brain volume over 2 y. Here, we go further by demonstrating that B-vitamin treatment reduces, by as much as seven fold, the cerebral atrophy in those gray matter (GM) regions specifically vulnerable to the AD process, including the medial temporal lobe ... B vitamins lower homocysteine, which directly leads to a decrease in GM atrophy, thereby slowing cognitive decline" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com and vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Resveratrol improves learning and memory in normally aged mice through microRNA-CREB pathway - Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2013 May 15 - "Here we report that, after intraventricular injection of RSV for one week in 8-9 month-old mice, the long-term memory formation and the LTP induction from hippocampus CA1 were improved ... These findings demonstrate a role for RSV in cognition and a microRNA-CREB-BDNF mechanism by which RSV regulates these processes, demonstrating its value as a potential therapeutic target against CNS disorders in aging" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.
• Mediterranean diet seems to boost aging brain power - Science Daily, 5/21/13 - "Participants, who were all taking part in the PREDIMED trial looking at how best to ward off cardiovascular disease, were randomly allocated to a Mediterranean diet with added olive oil or mixed nuts or a control group receiving advice to follow the low-fat diet typically recommended to prevent heart attack and stroke ... After an average of 6.5 years, they were tested for signs of cognitive decline using a Mini Mental State Exam and a clock drawing test ... The average scores on both tests were significantly higher for those following either of the Mediterranean diets compared with those on the low fat option"
• DHA supplementation improved both memory and reaction time in healthy young adults: a randomized controlled trial - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Mar 20 - "Healthy adults (n = 176; age range: 18-45 y; nonsmoking and with a low intake of DHA) completed a 6-mo randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind intervention in which they consumed 1.16 g DHA/d or a placebo ... reaction time (RT) ... DHA supplementation improved memory and the RT of memory in healthy, young adults whose habitual diets were low in DHA. The response was modulated by sex" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Better Midlife Fitness Linked to Lower Dementia Risk - Medscape, 2/4/13 - "Dementia is the second most feared disease after cancer ... study included 19,458 individuals participating in the Cooper Clinic Longitudinal Study at the Cooper Institute ... followed for an average of 25 years ... participants with the highest fitness level (quintile 5) at midlife had a 36% reduction in risk of developing dementia from any cause during follow-up than those in the lowest fitness category (quintile 1) ... animal studies have suggested that increased fitness and activity correlates with a reduction in brain atrophy and loss of cognition, and changes in amyloid have been seen with regular activity"
• Aerobic Exercise Boosts Brain Power, Review Finds - Science Daily, 12/13/12 - "this is published in a new review by Hayley Guiney and Liana Machado from the University of Otago, New Zealand ... fitter individuals scored better in mental tests than their unfit peers. In addition, intervention studies found scores in mental tests improved in participants who were assigned to an aerobic exercise regimen compared to those assigned to stretch and tone classes"
• Mild vitamin B12 deficiency associated with accelerated cognitive decline - Science Daily, 12/5/12 - "examined data from 549 men and women enrolled in a cohort of the Framingham Heart Study, focusing on scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a short list of questions and tasks commonly used to screen for dementia. The subjects were divided into five groups, based on their vitamin B-12 blood levels ... Being in the two lowest groups was associated with significantly accelerated cognitive decline ... Rapid neuropsychiatric decline is a well-known consequence of severe vitamin B-12 deficiency, but our findings suggest that adverse cognitive effects of low vitamin B-12 status may affect a much larger proportion of seniors than previously thought" - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D tied to women's cognitive performance - Science Daily, 11/30/12 - "Higher vitamin D dietary intake is associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease ... low vitamin D levels among older women are associated with higher odds of global cognitive impairment and a higher risk of global cognitive decline ... Slinin's group based its analysis on 6,257 community-dwelling older women who had vitamin D levels measured during the Study of Osteopathic Fractures" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Effects of supplementation with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on cognitive performance and cardiometabolic risk markers in healthy 51 to 72 years old subjects: a randomized controlled cross-over study - Nutr J. 2012 Nov 22;11(1):99 - "Fish oil n-3 PUFA (3g daily) were consumed during 5weeks separated by a 5 week washout period in a cross-over placebo controlled study, including 40 healthy middle aged to elderly subjects ... Supplementation with n-3 PUFA resulted in better performance in the WM-test compared with placebo (p < 0.05). In contrast to placebo, n-3 PUFA lowered plasma triacylglycerides (P < 0.05) and systolic blood pressure (p < 0.0001). Systolic blood pressure (p < 0.05), f-glucose (p = 0.05), and s-TNF-alpha (p = 0.05), were inversely related to the performance in cognitive tests ... Intake of n-3 PUFA improved cognitive performance in healthy subjects after five weeks compared with placebo. In addition, inverse relations were obtained between cardiometabolic risk factors and cognitive performance, indicating a potential of dietary prevention strategies to delay onset of metabolic disorders and associated cognitive decline" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Diabetes drug improves memory, study suggests - Science Daily, 11/21/12 - "treatment with the anti-insulin-resistance drug rosiglitazone enhanced learning and memory as well as normalized insulin resistance. The scientists believe that the drug produced the response by reducing the negative influence of Alzheimer's on the behavior of a key brain-signaling molecule" - Note:  Rosiglitazone is the one that they say increases the risk of heart disease.  Pioglitazone is in the same class of drugs but they claim that increases the chances of bladder cancer.  Personally I don't have diabetes but I take low dose metformin and pioglitazone.  See my Insulin and Aging page.  See pioglitazone at OffshoreRx1.com.
• Feel-good hormone helps jog memory, finds study of seniors - Science Daily, 11/8/12 - "Half of the test participants had first taken a placebo and the remainder had taken Levodopa. This substance, also known as L-DOPA, is able to reach the brain from the bloodstream, and there it is converted into dopamine ... after six hours memory performance changed. Test subjects with Levodopa recognised up to 20 per cent more photos than the members of the comparison group. The ratio between the amount of Levodopa taken and the body weight of the test subjects proved to be decisive for an optimal dose" - Yeah but I think if I remember correctly, you buildup a tolerance to Levodopa and it no longer works.  IAS sells it.
• Tea drinking and cognitive function in oldest-old Chinese - J Nutr Health Aging. 2012;16(9):754-8 - "Regular tea drinking is associated with better cognitive function in oldest-old Chinese"
• Effects of Sun Ginseng on Memory Enhancement and Hippocampal Neurogenesis - Phytother Res. 2012 Oct 29 - "Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer has been used in traditional herb prescriptions for thousands of years. A heat-processing method has been used to increase the efficacy of ginseng, yielding what is known as red ginseng. In addition, recently, a slightly modified heat-processing method was applied to ginseng, to obtain a new type of processed ginseng with increased biological activity; this new form of ginseng is referred to as Sun ginseng (SG) ... These results suggest that SG has memory-enhancing activities and that these effects are mediated, in part, by the increase in the levels of pERK and pAkt and by the increases in cell proliferation and cell survival" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.
• Omega-3 intake heightens working memory in healthy young adults - Science Daily, 10/25/12 - "In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have determined that healthy young adults ages 18-25 can improve their working memory even further by increasing their Omega-3 fatty acid intake ... After six months of taking Lovaza -- an Omega-3 supplement approved by the Federal Drug Administration -- the participants were asked to complete this series of outpatient procedures again. It was during this last stage, during the working memory test and blood sampling, that the improved working memory of this population was revealed" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
• Conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Dementia: Influence of Folic Acid and Vitamin B12 Use in the VITA Cohort - J Nutr Health Aging. 2012;16(8):687-94 - "Increased serum homocysteine and low folate levels are associated with a higher rate of conversion to dementia ... The self-reported combined use of folic acid and vitamin B12 for more than one year was associated with a lower conversion rate to dementia. Serum levels of homocysteine and vitamin B12 as measured at baseline or at five years were not associated with conversion. Higher folate levels at baseline in females predicted a lower conversion rate to dementia. The assessment of brain morphological parameters by magnetic resonance imaging revealed higher serum folate at baseline, predicting lower medial temporal lobe atrophy and higher levels of homocysteine at baseline, predicting moderate/severe global brain atrophy at five years. Users of vitamin B12 or folate, independent of time and pattern of use, had lower grades of periventricular hyperintensities and lower grades of deep white matter lesions as compared to non-users" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com and vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Eating lots of carbs, sugar may raise risk of cognitive impairment - Science Daily, 10/16/12 - "People 70 and older who eat food high in carbohydrates have nearly four times the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, and the danger also rises with a diet heavy in sugar, Mayo Clinic researchers have found. Those who consume a lot of protein and fat relative to carbohydrates are less likely to become cognitively impaired ... Researchers tracked 1,230 people ages 70 to 89 who provided information on what they ate during the previous year ... A high carbohydrate intake could be bad for you because carbohydrates impact your glucose and insulin metabolism"
• Caffeine may block inflammation linked to mild cognitive impairment - Science Daily, 10/8/12 - "Freund's team examined the effects of caffeine on memory formation in two groups of mice -- one group given caffeine, the other receiving none. The two groups were then exposed to hypoxia, simulating what happens in the brain during an interruption of breathing or blood flow, and then allowed to recover ... The caffeine-treated mice recovered their ability to form a new memory 33 percent faster than the non-caffeine-treated mice. In fact, caffeine had the same anti-inflammatory effect as blocking IL-1 signaling. IL-1 is a critical player in the inflammation associated with many neurodegenerative diseases ... caffeine blocks all the activity of adenosine and inhibits caspase-1 and the inflammation that comes with it, limiting damage to the brain and protecting it from further injury"
• Dietary Antioxidants May Keep Dementia at Bay - Medscape, 9/19/12 - "Dietary antioxidants, specifically vitamin C and beta-carotene, may protect older adults against dementia ... evaluated serum levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, lycopene, and coenzyme Q10 in 74 adults with mild dementia (Mini–Mental State Examination score of 24 or lower) and 158 cognitively healthy age- and sex-matched control participants. The average age of study participants was 78.9 years ... those with dementia had significantly lower blood vitamin C and beta-carotene levels" - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com.
• Higher Free Thyroxine Levels Predict Increased Incidence of Dementia in Older Men: The Health In Men Study - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Sep 13 - "Men who developed dementia had higher baseline FT(4) (16.5 +/- 2.2 vs. 15.9 +/- 2.2 pmol/liter, P = 0.004) but similar TSH (2.2 +/- 1.4 vs. 2.3 +/- 1.6 mU/liter, P = 0.23) compared with men who did not receive this diagnosis. After adjusting for covariates, higher FT(4) predicted new-onset dementia (11% increased risk per 1 pmol/liter increase in FT(4), P = 0.005; quartiles Q2-4 vs. Q1: adjusted hazard ratio = 1.76, 95% confidence interval = 1.03-3.00, P = 0.04). There was no association between TSH quartiles and incident dementia. When the analysis was restricted to euthyroid men (excluding those with subclinical hyper- or hypothyroidism), higher FT(4) remained associated with incident dementia (11% increase per unit increment, P = 0.03; Q2-4 vs. Q1: adjusted hazard ratio = 2.02, 95% confidence interval = 1.10-3.71, P = 0.024)" - Note:  There is also an association with a low T3/T4 ration and insulin resistance.  I alternate between taking T4 on day and T3 the next.  Doctor's seem to refuse to prescribe both.  See T3 at International Anti-aging Systems.
  • Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance is associated with low T(3)/T(4) ratio in pre diabetic euthyroid pakistani subjects - J Diabetes Complications. 2012 Jul 11 - "Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance are associated with low T(3)/T(4) ratio in pre-diabetic euthyroid Pakistani subjects"
• Brainy beverage: Study reveals how green tea boosts brain cell production to aid memory - Science Daily, 9/5/12 - "The team found that the EGCG treated mice required less time to find the hidden platform. Overall the results revealed that EGCG enhances learning and memory by improving object recognition and spatial memory ... We have shown that the organic chemical EGCG acts directly to increase the production of neural progenitor cells, both in glass tests and in mice" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Tocopherols and tocotrienols plasma levels are associated with cognitive impairment - Neurobiol Aging. 2012 Oct;33(10):2282-90 - "Vitamin E includes 8 natural compounds (4 tocopherols, 4 tocotrienols) with potential neuroprotective activity. α-Tocopherol has mainly been investigated in relation to cognitive impairment ... Low plasma tocopherols and tocotrienols levels are associated with increased odds of MCI and AD" - [Nutra USA] - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Cocoa May Sharpen Aging Brain - WebMD, 8/13/12 - "included 90 elderly people who already had mild cognitive impairment (MCI) ... For eight weeks, they drank a cocoa drink that had high, medium, or low amounts of antioxidants called flavanols. Those who got high and medium levels of flavanols in their drink did better on tests of attention and other mental skills, compared to people who got low amounts of flavanols" - - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com (yeah it's not cocoa but I'll bet it covers most of the flavanons).
• Supplement May Aid Vascular Dementia Memory Problems - Medscape, 8/1/12 - "at 9 months, there was a significant difference in Mini–Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores in citicoline users vs nonusers ... A psychostimulant, citicoline has been shown to inhibit brain cell death associated with cerebral ischemia. It has also been shown to inhibit neurodegeneration and is able to increase neuroplasticity and noradrenaline and dopamine levels in the central nervous system ... Those in the active treatment group received oral citicoline at a dose of 500 mg twice a day" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Gingko biloba extract EGb 761®: clinical data in dementia - Int Psychogeriatr. 2012 Aug;24 Suppl 1:S35-40 - "Research into Gingko biloba extract EGb 761® has been ongoing for many years. Early studies showed that the extract was superior to placebo in improving symptoms of dementia, and this has been confirmed by more recent research. The GINDEM-NP, GOTADAY and GOT-IT! studies showed that 240 mg/day EGb 761® improved cognitive function, neuropsychiatric symptoms, activities of daily living, and quality of life in patients with mild to moderate dementia compared with placebo, with results reproducible in independent trials. The strength of the effect in terms of improvements in neurosensory symptoms associated with old age and dementia was strong enough to be detected by caregivers and independent clinicians. A combination of 240 mg/day EGb 761® and 10 mg/day (initially 5 mg/day) donepezil was also more effective than either drug alone. Regarding the improvement of neuropsychiatric symptoms, a cross-comparison of studies with different antidementia agents suggests that EGb 761® is at least as effective as memantine, galantamine, and donepezil. Safety data revealed no important safety concerns with EGb 761®" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Nutrient mixture improves memory in patients with early Alzheimer's - Science Daily, 7/10/12 - "Wurtman came up with a mixture of three naturally occurring dietary compounds: choline, uridine and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA ... These nutrients are precursors to the lipid molecules that, along with specific proteins, make up brain-cell membranes, which form synapses. To be effective, all three precursors must be administered together ... In animal studies, he showed that his dietary cocktail boosted the number of dendritic spines, or small outcroppings of neural membranes, found in brain cells. These spines are necessary to form new synapses between neurons ... 40 percent of patients who consumed the drink improved in a test of verbal memory, while 24 percent of patients who received the control drink improved their performance ... Patients, whether taking Souvenaid or a placebo, improved their verbal-memory performance for the first three months, but the placebo patients deteriorated during the following three months, while the Souvenaid patients continued to improve ... as the trial went on, the brains of patients receiving the supplements started to shift from patterns typical of dementia to more normal patterns. Because EEG patterns reflect synaptic activity, this suggests that synaptic function increased following treatment, the researchers say" - Avoid the patent mark-up.  See citicholine at Amazon.com, uridine at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Body iron is associated with cognitive executive planning function in college women - Br J Nutr. 2012 Jun 7:1-8 - "The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between body Fe, in the absence of Fe-deficiency anaemia, and neuropsychological function in young college women. Healthy, non-anaemic undergraduate women (n 42) provided a blood sample and completed a standardised cognitive test battery consisting of one manual (Tower of London (TOL), a measure of central executive function) and five computerised (Bakan vigilance task, mental rotation, simple reaction time, immediate word recall and two-finger tapping) tasks. Women's body Fe ranged from - 4.2 to 8.1 mg/kg. General linear model ANOVA revealed a significant effect of body Fe on TOL planning time (P = 0.002). Spearman's correlation coefficients showed a significant inverse relationship between body Fe and TOL planning time for move categories 4 (r - 0.39, P = 0.01) and 5 (r - 0.47, P = 0.002). Performance on the computerised cognitive tasks was not affected by body Fe level. These findings suggest that Fe status in the absence of anaemia is positively associated with central executive function in otherwise healthy college women" - See iron supplements at Amazon.com.
• Greater purpose in life may protect against harmful changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease - Science Daily, 5/7/12 - "These findings suggest that purpose in life protects against the harmful effects of plaques and tangles on memory and other thinking abilities. This is encouraging and suggests that engaging in meaningful and purposeful activities promotes cognitive health in old age ... The Rush Memory and Aging Project, which began in 1997, is a longitudinal clinical-pathological study of common chronic conditions of aging. Participants are older persons recruited from about 40 continuous care retirement communities and senior subsidized housing facilities in and around the Chicago Metropolitan area"
• Eating more berries may reduce cognitive decline in the elderly - Science Daily, 4/26/12 - "The research team used data from the Nurses' Health Study -- a cohort of 121,700 female, registered nurses between the ages of 30 and 55 who completed health and lifestyle questionnaires beginning in 1976 ... increased consumption of blueberries and strawberries appear to slow cognitive decline in older women. A greater intake of anthocyanidins and total flavonoids was also associated with reduce cognitive degeneration. Researchers observed that women who had higher berry intake delayed cognitive aging by up to 2.5 years ... while they did control for other health factors in the modeling, they cannot rule out the possibility that the preserved cognition in those who eat more berries may be also influenced by other lifestyle choices, such as exercising more" - See blueberry extract at Amazon.com.
• Does Lithium Prevent Alzheimer's Disease? - Drugs Aging. 2012 Apr 14 - "Lithium salts have a well-established role in the treatment of major affective disorders. More recently, experimental and clinical studies have provided evidence that lithium may also exert neuroprotective effects. In animal and cell culture models, lithium has been shown to increase neuronal viability through a combination of mechanisms that includes the inhibition of apoptosis, regulation of autophagy, increased mitochondrial function, and synthesis of neurotrophic factors. In humans, lithium treatment has been associated with humoral and structural evidence of neuroprotection, such as increased expression of anti-apoptotic genes, inhibition of cellular oxidative stress, synthesis of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), cortical thickening, increased grey matter density, and hippocampal enlargement ... A recent placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) showed that long-term lithium treatment may actually slow the progression of cognitive and functional deficits, and also attenuate Tau hyperphosphorylation in the MCI-AD continuum" - See lithium supplement at Amazon.com.
• "Metabolic syndrome" in the brain: Deficiency in omega-3-fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signaling and cognition - J Physiol. 2012 Apr 2 - "high-dietary fructose consumption leads to increase in insulin resistance index, insulin and triglyceride levels, which characterize MetS. Rats fed on an n-3 deficient diet showed memory deficits in Barnes Maze, which were further exacerbated by fructose intake. In turn, n-3 deficient diet and fructose interventions disrupted insulin receptor signaling in hippocampus as evidenced by a decrease in phosphorylation of insulin receptor and its downstream effector Akt. We found that high fructose consumption with n-3 deficient diet disrupts membrane homeostasis as evidenced by an increase in the ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids and levels of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), a marker of lipid peroxidation. Disturbances in brain energy metabolism due to n-3 deficiency and fructose treatments were evidenced by a significant decrease in AMPK phosphorylation and its upstream modulator LKB1 as well as a decrease in Sir2 levels. The decrease in phosphorylation of CREB, synapsin I and synaptophysin (SYP) levels by n-3 deficiency and fructose shows the impact of metabolic dysfunction on synaptic plasticity. All parameters of metabolic dysfunction related to the fructose treatment were ameliorated by the presence of dietary n-3 fatty acid. Results showed that dietary n-3 fatty acid deficiency elevates the vulnerability to metabolic dysfunction and impaired cognitive functions by modulating insulin receptor signaling and synaptic plasticity" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Concord grape juice supplementation and neurocognitive function in human aging - J Agric Food Chem. 2012 Apr 2 - "older adult subjects with Mild Cognitive Impairment consumed Concord grape juice or placebo for 16-weeks and were administered assessments of memory function and brain activation pre- and post-intervention. Participants who consumed grape juice showed reduced semantic interference on memory tasks. We also observed relatively greater activation in anterior and posterior regions of the right hemisphere with functional magnetic resonance imaging in the grape juice treated subjects. These findings provide further evidence that Concord grape juice can enhance neurocognitive function in older adults with mild memory decline" - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.
• A Simple Way to Preserve Cognitive Function - Medscape, 4/3/12 - "The investigators found significantly reduced rates of cognitive decline with increasing energy expenditure. The equivalent of a daily 30-minute walk at a brisk pace led to rates of cognitive decline similar to those of women 5-7 years younger"
• Iron deficiency can cause cognitive impairment in geriatric patients - J Nutr Health Aging. 2012;16(3):220-4 - "Transferrin saturation was significantly lower in the patients with dementia (p=0.040). It was found that patients with iron deficiency had lower MMSE scores (p<0.001) and this relationship was also present in patients without anemia" - See Feosol Ferrous Sulfate Iron Supplement Therapy, Tablets - 125 ea (Pack of 2).
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Brain Age Better - WebMD, 2/27/12 - "the results suggest diets lacking in omega-3 fatty acids may cause the brain to age faster ... people whose DHA levels were in the bottom 25% of the group had lower brain volumes compared with people with higher DHA levels ... In addition, people with both low DHA and all the other omega-3 fatty acid levels scored lower on tests of visual memory, processing, and abstract thinking ... Researchers say the results suggest that low DHA and other omega-3 fatty acid levels are associated with a pattern of memory and brain function problems even in people free of dementia" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Good aerobic capacity promotes learning - Science Daily, 2/13/12 - "It was found that rats with intrinsically high aerobic capacity clearly outperformed those with intrinsically low aerobic capacity. It must be emphasized that the animals were not given any physical exercise before the learning test. Thus, the results suggest that it is the aerobic capacity and not physical activity alone that is related to flexible cognition"
• Chronic Administration of Cardanol (Ginkgol) Extracted from Ginkgo biloba Leaves and Cashew Nutshell Liquid Improves Working Memory-Related Learning in Rats - Biol Pharm Bull. 2012;35(1):127-9 - "These findings suggest that cardanol is one of the components in Ginkgo biloba leaves that improves cognitive learning ability" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Vitamins B, C, D and E and Omega-3 Strengthen Older Brains - NYTimes.com, 1/2/12 - "Higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin D and vitamin E are associated with better mental functioning in the elderly, a new study has found ... Higher blood levels of trans fats, on the other hand, were significantly associated with impaired mental ability and smaller brain volume"
• Oral folic acid and vitamin B-12 supplementation to prevent cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms--the Beyond Ageing Project: a randomized controlled trial - Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Dec 14 - "FA + vitamin B-12 improved the TICS-M total (P = 0.032; effect size d = 0.17), TICS-M immediate (P = 0.046; d = 0.15), and TICS-M delayed recall (P = 0.013; effect size d = 0.18) scores at 24 mo in comparison with placebo. No significant changes were evident in orientation, attention, semantic memory, processing speed, or informant reports ... Long-term supplementation of daily oral 400 μg FA + 100 μg vitamin B-12 promotes improvement in cognitive functioning after 24 mo, particularly in immediate and delayed memory performance"
• Eating fish reduces risk of Alzheimer's disease - Science Daily, 11/30/11 - "This is the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer's risk ... people who consumed baked or broiled fish at least one time per week had better preservation of gray matter volume on MRI in brain areas at risk for Alzheimer's disease ... Each patient underwent 3-D volumetric MRI of the brain. Voxel-based morphometry, a brain mapping technique that measures gray matter volume, was used to model the relationship between weekly fish consumption at baseline and brain structure 10 years later ... consumption of baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis was positively associated with gray matter volumes in several areas of the brain. Greater hippocampal, posterior cingulate and orbital frontal cortex volumes in relation to fish consumption reduced the risk for five-year decline to MCI or Alzheimer's by almost five-fold ... Consuming baked or broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain's gray matter by making them larger and health"
• B vitamins may slow cognitive decline: Oxford University study - Nutra USA, 10/25/11 - "A daily combination of folic acid, and vitamins B6 and B12 was associated with a 30% reduction in levels of the amino acid homocysteine, and improvements in a range of mental tests, including global cognition and episodic memory ... One interpretation [of the data] is that lowering homocysteine concentrations by administering B vitamins slows brain atrophy, which in turn slows both cognitive and clinical decline ... The Vitacog study involved 266 people over the age of 70 with diagnosed mild cognitive impairment. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or a B vitamin supplement providing 0.8 mg per day of folic acid, 0.5 mg of vitamin B12 and 20 mg of vitamin B6" - [Abstract]
• Boosting mental performance with fish oil? - Science Daily, 10/21/11 - "overall, taking either of two different types of fish oil supplement for three months had no consistent impact on mental function in 18 -- 35-year-olds, however they did find evidence of reduced mental fatigue and faster reaction times. Contrary to popular belief, these results suggest that taking omega-3 or fish oil supplements may not have an immediate or measureable impact on mental performance in healthy young adults, possibly due to the fact that this population is already performing at its mental peak or that higher doses or longer than 12 weeks supplementation are required ... Interestingly, in the second of these studies it was found that taking DHA-rich fish oil over the same time period did increase blood flow to active areas of the brain during performance of similar mental tasks. The researchers claim these findings could have implications for mental function later on in life, as evidence suggests regularly eating oily fish or taking omega-3 supplements may prevent cognitive decline and dementia, and increased blood flow to the brain may be a mechanism by which this occurs" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin B12, cognition, and brain MRI measures: A cross-sectional examination - Neurology. 2011 Sep 27;77(13):1276-82 - "Concentrations of all vitamin B12-related markers, but not serum vitamin B12 itself, were associated with global cognitive function and with total brain volume. Methylmalonate levels were associated with poorer episodic memory and perceptual speed, and cystathionine and 2-methylcitrate with poorer episodic and semantic memory. Homocysteine concentrations were associated with decreased total brain volume. The homocysteine-global cognition effect was modified and no longer statistically significant with adjustment for white matter volume or cerebral infarcts. The methylmalonate-global cognition effect was modified and no longer significant with adjustment for total brain volume ... Methylmalonate, a specific marker of B12 deficiency, may affect cognition by reducing total brain volume whereas the effect of homocysteine (nonspecific to vitamin B12 deficiency) on cognitive performance may be mediated through increased white matter hyperintensity and cerebral infarcts. Vitamin B12 status may affect the brain through multiple mechanisms" - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Low vitamin B12 levels may lead to brain shrinkage, cognitive problems - Science Daily, 9/26/11 - "Older people with low blood levels of vitamin B12 markers may be more likely to have lower brain volumes and have problems with their thinking skills ... An average of four-and-a-half years later, MRI scans of the participants' brains were taken to measure total brain volume and look for other signs of brain damage ... Having high levels of four of five markers for vitamin B12 deficiency was associated with having lower scores on the cognitive tests and smaller total brain volume ... On the cognitive tests, the scores ranged from -2.18 to 1.42, with an average of 0.23. For each increase of one micromole per liter of homocysteine -- one of the markers of B12 deficiency -- the cognitive scores decreasedby 0.03 standardized units or points" - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Effects of n-3 fatty acids, EPA v. DHA, on depressive symptoms, quality of life, memory and executive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a 6-month randomised controlled trial - Br J Nutr. 2011 Sep 20:1-12 - "Depressive symptoms may increase the risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia. Consumption of n-3 PUFA may alleviate both cognitive decline and depression ... A total of fifty people aged >65 years with MCI were allocated to receive a supplement rich in EPA (1.67 g EPA+0.16 g DHA/d; n 17), DHA (1.55 g DHA+0.40 g EPA/d; n 18) or the n-6 PUFA linoleic acid (LA; 2.2 g/d; n 15). Treatment allocation was by minimisation based on age, sex and depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale, GDS). Physiological and cognitive assessments, questionnaires and fatty acid composition of erythrocytes were obtained at baseline and 6 months (completers: n 40; EPA n 13, DHA n 16, LA n 11). Compared with the LA group, GDS scores improved in the EPA (P = 0.04) and DHA (P = 0.01) groups and verbal fluency (Initial Letter Fluency) in the DHA group (P = 0.04). Improved GDS scores were correlated with increased DHA plus EPA (r 0.39, P = 0.02). Improved self-reported physical health was associated with increased DHA. There were no treatment effects on other cognitive or QOL parameters. Increased intakes of DHA and EPA benefited mental health in older people with MCI. Increasing n-3 PUFA intakes may reduce depressive symptoms and the risk of progressing to dementia. This needs to be investigated in larger, depressed samples with MCI" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Aerobic exercise may reduce the risk of dementia, researchers say - Science Daily, 9/7/11 - "Researchers examined the role of aerobic exercise in preserving cognitive abilities and concluded that it should not be overlooked as an important therapy against dementia ... Examples include walking, gym workouts and activities at home such as shoveling snow or raking leaves ... We culled through all the scientific literature we could find on the subject of exercise and cognition, including animal studies and observational studies, reviewing over 1,600 papers, with 130 bearing directly on this issue ... brain imaging studies have consistently revealed objective evidence of favorable effects of exercise on human brain integrity"
• Fish oil's impact on cognition and brain structure identified in new study - Science Daily, 8/17/11 - "Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital's Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center have found positive associations between fish oil supplements and cognitive functioning as well as differences in brain structure between users and non-users of fish oil supplements ... compared to non-users, use of fish oil supplements was associated with better cognitive functioning during the study. However, this association was significant only in those individuals who had a normal baseline cognitive function and in individuals who tested negative for a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease known as APOE4. This is consistent with previous research ... The unique finding, however, is that there was a clear association between fish oil supplements and brain volume ... In other words, fish oil use was associated with less brain shrinkage in patients taking these supplements during the ADNI study compared to those who didn't report using them" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Exercise has numerous beneficial effects on brain health and cognition, review suggests - Science Daily, 7/25/11 - "In a new review article highlighting the results of more than a hundred recent human and animal studies on this topic, Michelle W. Voss, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her colleagues show that both aerobic exercise and strength training play a vital role in maintaining brain and cognitive health throughout life ... The review suggests that aerobic exercise is important for getting a head start during childhood on cognitive abilities that are important throughout life. For example, physical inactivity is associated with poorer academic performance and results on standard neuropsychological tests, while exercise programs appear to improve memory, attention, and decision-making. These effects also extend to young and elderly adults, with solid evidence for aerobic training benefiting executive functions, including multi-tasking, planning, and inhibition, and increasing the volume of brain structures important for memory"
• French adults' cognitive performance after daily supplementation with antioxidant vitamins and minerals at nutritional doses: a post hoc analysis of the Supplementation in Vitamins and Mineral Antioxidants (SU.VI.MAX) trial - Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jul 20 - "This study included 4447 French participants aged 45-60 y who were enrolled in the SU.VI.MAX study (1994-2002), which was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. From 1994 to 2002, participants received daily vitamin C (120 mg), β-carotene (6 mg), vitamin E (30 mg), selenium (100 μg), and zinc (20 mg) in combination or as a placebo. In 2007-2009, the cognitive performance of participants was assessed with 4 neuropsychological tests (6 tasks). Principal components analysis (PCA) was performed to identify cognitive-function summary scores. Associations between antioxidant supplementation and cognitive functions, in the full sample and by subgroups, were estimated through ANOVA and expressed as mean differences and 95% CIs. Subgroup analyses were performed according to baseline characteristics ... Subjects receiving active antioxidant supplementation had better episodic memory scores (mean difference: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.02, 1.20). PCA indicated 2 factors that were interpreted as showing verbal memory and executive functioning. Verbal memory was improved by antioxidant supplementation only in subjects who were nonsmokers or who had low serum vitamin C concentrations at baseline"
• Exercise Sharpens Older Minds - WebMD, 7/20/11 - "Two new studies add to growing evidence that physical activity helps to keep older people's brains sharp ... women in the highest two-fifths of physical activity had substantially lower rates of cognitive decline than women in the lowest exercise bracket ... In the second study, researchers used a more objective measure of energy expended during physical activity, employing the so-called doubly labeled water technique to determine how much water a person loses ... Over the next two to five years, those in the highest third of energy expenditure were substantially less likely to develop clinical cognitive impairment than those in the lowest third ... About 2% of people in the highest third suffered declines in cognitive function, compared with 5% in the middle third and 17% in the lowest third"
• Habitual sugar intake and cognitive function among middle-aged and older Puerto Ricans without diabetes - Br J Nutr. 2011 Jun 1:1-10 - "Intake of added sugars, mainly fructose and sucrose, has been associated with risk factors for cognitive impairment, such as obesity, the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The objective of this analysis was to examine whether habitual intakes of total sugars, added sugars, sugar-sweetened beverages or sweetened solid foods are associated with cognitive function. The present study included 737 participants without diabetes, aged 45-75 years, from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study, 2004-9. Cognitive function was measured with a battery of seven tests: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), word list learning, digit span, clock drawing, figure copying, and Stroop and verbal fluency tests. Usual dietary intake was assessed with a validated FFQ. Greater intakes of total sugars, added sugars and sugar-sweetened beverages, but not of sugar-sweetened solid foods, were significantly associated with lower MMSE score, after adjusting for covariates. Adjusted OR for cognitive impairment (MMSE score < 24) were 2.23 (95 % CI 1.24, 3.99) for total sugars and 2.28 (95 % CI 1.26, 4.14) for added sugars, comparing the highest with lowest intake quintiles. Greater intake of total sugars was also significantly associated with lower word list learning score. In conclusion, higher sugar intake appears to be associated with lower cognitive function, but longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the direction of causality"
• Nutritional Supplement Boosts Cognition in Healthy Women - Medscape, 6/21/11 - "Citicoline, a naturally occurring substance found in the brain and liver and marketed as a nutritional supplement, enhanced aspects of cognition in healthy women and may have a role in mitigating the cognitive decline associated with normal aging ... It may also improve the attention deficits associated with psychiatric disorders ... The women were divided into 3 groups of 20 and randomly assigned to receive a daily oral citicoline dose of 250 mg (low dose) or 500 mg (high dose) or placebo for 28 days ... participants who received low- or high-dose citicoline showed improved attention, demonstrating fewer commission and omission errors on the CPT-II compared with the placebo group" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Mystery ingredient in coffee boosts protection against Alzheimer's disease - Science Daily, 6/21/11 - "A yet unidentified component of coffee interacts with the beverage's caffeine, which could be a surprising reason why daily coffee intake protects against Alzheimer's disease. A new Alzheimer's mouse study by researchers at the University of South Florida found that this interaction boosts blood levels of a critical growth factor that seems to fight off the Alzheimer's disease process ... The new study does not diminish the importance of caffeine to protect against Alzheimer's. Rather it shows that caffeinated coffee induces an increase in blood levels of a growth factor called GCSF (granulocyte colony stimulating factor). GCSF is a substance greatly decreased in patients with Alzheimer's disease and demonstrated to improve memory in Alzheimer's mice ... The boost in GCSF levels is important, because the researchers also reported that long-term treatment with coffee (but not decaffeinated coffee) enhances memory in Alzheimer's mice. Higher blood GCSF levels due to coffee intake were associated with better memory ... First, GCSF recruits stem cells from bone marrow to enter the brain and remove the harmful beta-amyloid protein that initiates the disease. GCSF also creates new connections between brain cells and increases the birth of new neurons in the brain ... An increasing body of scientific literature indicates that moderate consumption of coffee decreases the risk of several diseases of aging, including Parkinson's disease, Type II diabetes and stroke"
• Fatty Acids and Cognitive Decline in Women - Medscape, 6/13/11 - "In this cohort of older women, greater MUFA intake was associated with less cognitive decline over a 3-year period. Previous studies generally but not invariably support this association. One previous prospective study found greater dietary MUFA intake to be associated with less cognitive decline,[10] a second found a trend in the same direction,[9] a third found a trend in the same direction in restricted analyses,[6] and three others were null.[7,8,11] None of the null studies had multiple measures of diet; one assessed diet using a measure of fatty acid composition of erythrocyte membranes,[7] but that study assessed cognitive decline exclusively using the Mini-Mental State Examination, which is probably not as sensitive as the neuropsychological test battery used in this study ... MUFA is thought to be one of the major protective components of the traditional Mediterranean diet, in which it is derived primarily from olive oil (median 46 g/d).[10] Two recent prospective studies of the Mediterranean diet have found greater adherence to be associated with less cognitive decline and lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD).[31,32] One of these studies found an effect of the Mediterranean diet on an individual cognitive domain, namely memory.[31] This finding is consistent with the observed protective effect of MUFA on memory in the WHI CCW. In addition, the current study found an association between MUFA and less decline in visual–spatial abilities (copying and matching), a finding not previously made to the knowledge of the authors of the current study. Decline in visuospatial function has been associated with driving errors in older adults[33] and has also been suggested as a potential predictor (along with amnestic impairment) of transition from mild cognitive impairment to AD ... Several pathways may explain the apparent relationship between MUFA intake and cognitive function. MUFA and MUFA derivatives have antiinflammatory effects in vivo,[35,36] which may be important because chronic inflammation appears to be a precursor of symptomatic AD.[37–39] Oxidative stress has also been demonstrated in patients with mild cognitive impairment and AD,[40] and derivatives from MUFA, including low-molecular-weight phenols, have been found to have antioxidant effects.[41] MUFA may also exert their potentially beneficial effects on cognition indirectly by decreasing cardiovascular risk by reducing macrophage uptake of plasma oxidized low-density lipoprotein, apolipoprotein B, and f triglycerides" - Click here for my olive oil mayonnaise recipe.
• Science builds for attention boosting potential of Cognizin Citicoline - Nutra USA, 5/18/11 - "Citicoline has been shown to have a variety of cognitive-enhancing and neuroregenerative properties in pre-clinical and clinical studies ... Our findings suggest that citicoline may mitigate the cognitive decline associated with normal aging and may ameliorate attentional deficits associated with psychiatric disorders" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Musical experience offsets some aging effects: Older musicians excel in memory and hearing speech in noise compared to non-musicians - Science Daily, 5/11/11 - "when compared to their non-musician counterparts -- musicians 45- to 65-years-old excel in auditory memory and the ability to hear speech in noisy environments ... Difficulty hearing speech in noise is among the most common complaints of older adults, but age-related hearing loss only partially accounts for this impediment that can lead to social isolation and depression ... It's well known that adults with virtually the same hearing profile can differ dramatically in their ability to hear speech in noise ... The musicians -- who began playing an instrument at age 9 or earlier and consistently played an instrument throughout their lives -- bested the non-musician group in all but visual working memory, where both groups showed nearly identical ability ... Music training "fine-tunes" the nervous system"
• Green tea extract shows memory boosting activity: Study - Nutra USA, 5/4/11 - "A combination of a green tea extract with L-theanine was associated with improvements in immediate and delayed recall, and general memory, according to findings published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods ... As a natural ingredient with a long history of consumption, LGNC-07 [ – a combination of green tea extract and L-theanine - ] should be considered as a potential nutraceutical candidate for enhancing cognitive performance" - [Abstract] - See Jarrow Formulas, Theanine 200 at iHerb.
• Moderate exercise dramatically improves brain blood flow in elderly women - Science Daily, 4/12/11 - "it's never too late for women to reap the benefits of moderate aerobic exercise. In a 3-month study of 16 women age 60 and older, brisk walking for 30-50 minutes three or four times per week improved blood flow through to the brain as much as 15% ... At study's end, the team measured blood flow in the women's carotid arteries again and found that cerebral blood flow increased an average of 15% and 11% in the women's left and right internal carotid arteries, respectively. The women's VO2 max increased roughly 13%, their blood pressure dropped an average of 4%, and their heart rates decreased approximately 5% ... A steady, healthy flow of blood to the brain achieves two things. First, the blood brings oxygen, glucose and other nutrients to the brain, which are vital for the brain's health. Second, the blood washes away brain metabolic wastes such as amyloid-beta protein released into the brain's blood vessels. Amyloid-beta protein has been implicated in the development of Alzheimer's disease"
• Older age memory loss tied to stress hormone receptor in brain - Science Daily, 4/6/11 - "one receptor was activated by low levels of cortisol, which helped memory. However, once levels of this stress hormone were too high they spilled over onto a second receptor. This activates brain processes that contribute to memory impairment ... high levels of the stress hormone in aged mice made them less able to remember how to navigate a maze. The memory recall problem was reversed when the receptor linked to poor memory was blocked ... lowering the levels of these stress hormones will prevent them from activating a receptor in the brain that is bad for memory ... The researchers are currently investigating a new chemical compound which blocks an enzyme -- 11beta-HSD1 -- that is involved in producing stress hormones within cells"
• Exercise helps overweight children think better, do better in math - Science Daily, 2/10/11 - "Regular exercise improves the ability of overweight, previously inactive children to think, plan and even do math ... MRIs showed those who exercised experienced increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex -- an area associated with complex thinking, decision making and correct social behavior -- and decreased activity in an area of the brain that sits behind it. The shift forward appears consistent with more rapidly developing cognitive skills ... And the more they exercised, the better the result. Intelligence scores increased an average 3.8 points in those exercising 40 minutes per day after school for three months with a smaller benefit in those exercising 20 minutes daily ... Animal studies have shown that aerobic activity increases growth factors so the brain gets more blood vessels, more neurons and more connections between neurons. Studies in older adults have shown exercise benefits the brain and Davis's study extends the science to children and their ability to learn in school"
• Antioxidant effect of astaxanthin on phospholipid peroxidation in human erythrocytes - Br J Nutr. 2011 Jan 31:1-9 - "Phospholipid hydroperoxides (PLOOH) accumulate abnormally in the erythrocytes of dementia patients, and dietary xanthophylls (polar carotenoids such as astaxanthin) are hypothesised to prevent the accumulation ... After 12 weeks of treatment, erythrocyte astaxanthin concentrations were higher in both the 6 and 12 mg astaxanthin groups than in the placebo group. In contrast, erythrocyte PLOOH concentrations were lower in the astaxanthin groups than in the placebo group. In the plasma, somewhat lower PLOOH levels were found after astaxanthin treatment. These results suggest that astaxanthin supplementation results in improved erythrocyte antioxidant status and decreased PLOOH levels, which may contribute to the prevention of dementia" - See astaxanthin products at iHerb.
• Exercise May Slow Age-Related Memory Loss - Science Daily, 1/31/11 - "A new study suggests moderate aerobic exercise may slow or even reverse age-related memory loss in older adults by increasing the size of the hippocampus ... one year of moderate aerobic exercise, like walking, in a group of older adults increased the volume of hippocampus by 2%, which effectively reversed the age-associated shrinkage by one to two years ... Brain scans taken at the start of the study and again one year later showed that the right and left sides of the hippocampus increased by 2.12% and 1.97%, respectively, in the aerobic exercise group ... these regions decreased in volume in the comparison group by 1.40% and 1.43%, respectively"
• Adherence to a Mediterranean-type dietary pattern and cognitive decline in a community population - Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Dec 22 - "investigated whether adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern or to the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) is associated with cognitive change in older adults ... For both scoring systems, higher scores connote greater adherence ... Mean (+/-SD) scores for participants were 28.2 +/- 0.1 for the MedDiet and 61.2 +/- 9.6 for the HEI-2005. White participants had higher energy-adjusted MedDiet scores but lower HEI-2005 scores than did black participants. Higher MedDiet scores were associated with slower rates of cognitive decline (β = +0.0014 per 1-point increase, SEE = 0.0004, P = 0.0004) after adjustment for age, sex, race, education, participation in cognitive activities, and energy. No such associations were observed for HEI-2005 scores"
• Creatine may beef up brain function: Study - Nutra USA, 12/13/10 - "A battery of cognitive tests were performed by the women, both before and after the five days of study, with results showing that memory improved by about 40 percent in the vegetarians consuming the creatine supplements" - [Abstract] - See creatine at Amazon.com.
• The influence of creatine supplementation on the cognitive functioning of vegetarians and omnivores - Br J Nutr. 2010 Dec 1:1-6 - "Creatine supplementation influences brain functioning as indicated by imaging studies and the measurement of oxygenated Hb ... Creatine supplementation did not influence measures of verbal fluency and vigilance. However, in vegetarians rather than in those who consume meat, creatine supplementation resulted in better memory. Irrespective of dietary style, the supplementation of creatine decreased the variability in the responses to a choice reaction-time task" - See creatine at Amazon.com.
• Low vitamin D status associated with cognitive decline: Study - Nutra USA, 12/2/10 - "A total of 5,596 women, not taking vitamin D supplements were divided into 2 groups according to their baseline weekly staus: either inadequate (less than 35 micrograms per week) or recommended (more than 35 micrograms per week) ... Compared to women with recommended weekly vitamin D dietary intakes, women with inadequate intakes were reported to have lower scores on the SPMSQ mental state questionnaire" - [Abstract] - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• The effect of phosphatidylserine-containing omega-3 fatty acids on memory abilities in subjects with subjective memory complaints: a pilot study - Clin Interv Aging. 2010 Nov 2;5:313-6 - "PS-omega-3 supplementation resulted in 42% increase in the ability to recall words in the delayed condition" - See phosphatidylserine at Amazon.com and Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D, neurocognitive functioning and immunocompetence - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2010 Nov 23 - "The skeletal muscle and brain have a vitamin D receptor and the central nervous system has a capacity to activate vitamin D. Low vitamin D status has been linked to poor performance in neurocognitive testing in elderly. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with muscle weakness, depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and a lower motor neuron-induced muscle atrophy ... Correcting vitamin D deficiency and preventing vitamin D deficiency in children and adults should be a high priority for healthcare professionals to reduce risk for a wide variety of neurological disorders. Children and adults should take at least 400 international unit IU and 2000 IU vitamin D/day, respectively, to prevent vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D and Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly U.S. Population - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2010 Nov 2 - "The multivariate adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of cognitive impairment in participants who were 25(OH)D insufficient (≥50 < 75 nmol/L), deficient (≥25 < 50 nmol/L), and severely deficient (<25 nmol/L) in comparison with those sufficient (≥75 nmol/L) were 0.9 (0.6-1.3), 1.4 (1.0-2.1), and 3.9 (1.5-10.4), respectively (p for linear trend = .02). Log-transformed levels of 25(OH)D were also significantly associated with the odds of cognitive impairment (p = .02). Conclusions: These findings suggest that vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased odds of cognitive impairment in the elderly U.S. population" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Dietary intake of vitamin D and cognition in older women: A large population-based study - Neurology. 2010 Nov 16;75(20):1810-6 - "Compared to women with recommended weekly vitamin D dietary intakes (n = 4,802; mean age 80.4 +/- 3.8 years), women with inadequate intakes (n = 794; mean age 81.0 +/- 3.8 years) had a lower mean SPMSQ score (p < 0.001) and more often had an SPMSQ score <8 (p = 0.002). We found an association between weekly vitamin D dietary intake and SPMSQ score (β = 0.002, p < 0.001). Inadequate weekly vitamin D dietary intakes were also associated with cognitive impairment (unadjusted odds ratio = 1.42 with p = 0.002; full adjusted odds ratio = 1.30 with p = 0.024)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• DHA improves memory and cognitive function in older adults, study suggests - Science Daily, 11/8/10 - "DHA taken for six months improved memory and learning in healthy, older adults with mild memory complaints ... This study reinforces the principle that consumers will reap the most benefit from their DHA supplements -- and many supplements -- when they are taken over time and before a health concern is imminent" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• B-complex vitamins may help slow progression of dementia - Science Daily, 10/27/10 - "Large doses of B-complex vitamins could reduce the rate of brain shrinkage by half in elderly people with memory problems and slow the progression of dementia ... patients who already exhibit signs of dementia and test positive for high levels of homocysteine are more likely to respond well to the large doses of B vitamins. Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood, and high blood levels are linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease"
• Walk much? It may protect your memory down the road - Science Daily, 10/13/10 - "walking at least six miles per week may protect brain size and in turn, preserve memory in old age ... people who walked at least 72 blocks per week, or roughly six to nine miles, had greater gray matter volume than people who didn't walk as much, when measured at the nine-year time point after their recorded activity. Walking more than 72 blocks did not appear to increase gray matter volume any further ... those who walked the most cut their risk of developing memory problems in half"
• B vitamins slow brain atrophy in people with memory problems - Science Daily, 9/12/10 - "on average the brains of those taking the folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12 treatment shrank at a rate of 0.76% a year, while those in the placebo group had a mean brain shrinkage rate of 1.08%. People with the highest levels of homocysteine benefited most, showing atrophy rates on treatment that were half of those on placebo"
• Vitamin B is revolutionary new weapon against Alzheimer's Disease telegraph.co.uk, 9/9/10 - "Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) – a kind of memory loss and forgetfulness – and Alzheimer's ... On average, taking B vitamins slowed the rate of brain atrophy by 30 per cent, and in many cases reductions was as high as 53 per cent were seen"
• Eating berries may activate the brain's natural housekeeper for healthy aging - Science Daily, 8/23/10 - "berries, and possibly walnuts, activate the brain's natural "housekeeper" mechanism, which cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other mental decline ... natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits, vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline"
• B vitamins and the aging brain examined - Science Daily, 8/17/10 - "An analysis of volunteers' blood samples showed that lower levels of one B vitamin, folate, were associated with symptoms of dementia and poor brain function, also called "cognitive decline," ... In women, but not men, low levels of folate were associated with symptoms of depression. In fact, female volunteers whose plasma folate levels were in the lowest third were more than twice as likely to have symptoms of depression as volunteers in the highest third ... In research with vitamin B-12, the SALSA team determined that a protein known as holoTC, short for holotranscobalamin, might be key to a new approach for detecting cognitive decline earlier and more accurately"
• Luteolin Inhibits Microglia and Alters Hippocampal-Dependent Spatial Working Memory in Aged Mice - J Nutr. 2010 Aug 4 - "Taken together, the current findings suggest dietary luteolin enhanced spatial working memory by mitigating microglial-associated inflammation in the hippocampus. Therefore, luteolin consumption may be beneficial in preventing or treating conditions involving increased microglial cell activity and inflammation" - See Jarrow Formulas, CarotenALL, Mixed Carotenoid Complex at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D status and measures of cognitive function in healthy older European adults - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Aug 11 - "Serum 25(OH)D was significantly and inversely correlated with four assessments within the spatial working memory (SWM) test parameter (SWM between errors (r=-0.166; P=0.003); SWM between errors 8 boxes (r=-0.134; P=0.038); SWM strategy (r=-0.246; P<0.0001); and SWM total errors (r=-0.174; P<0.003)). When subjects were stratified on the basis of tertiles (T) of serum 25(OH)D (<47.6 (T(1)); 47.6-85.8 (T(2)); and >85.8 (T(3)) nmol/l), fewer errors in SWM test scores occurred in subjects in the third T when compared with the first T (P<0.05-0.084). Stratification by sex showed that these differences between tertiles strengthened (P<0.001-0.043) in the females, but the differences were not significant (P>0.6) in males.Conclusions:Vitamin D insufficiency, but not deficiency, is widespread in the older population of several European countries. Low vitamin D status was associated with a reduced capacity for SWM, particularly in women" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Olive oil extract shows brain protecting benefits - Nutra USA, 8/3/10 - "the olive oil compound reduced the cell damaging effects of the oxidative and nitrosative stress in a dose-dependent manner, with higher doses providing increased protection" - [Abstract] - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Cytoprotective effects of olive mill wastewater extract and its main constituent hydroxytyrosol in PC12 cells - Pharmacol Res. 2010 Jun 16 - "Following a short-term exposure (30min) to the compounds of interest, cells were subjected to oxidative or nitrosative stress by adding either ferrous iron or sodium nitroprusside to the cell culture medium for 18h, respectively. Cytotoxicity was assessed by measuring MTT reduction, cellular ATP levels and mitochondrial membrane potential in the absence and presence of HT or HT-rich olive mill wastewater extract. The results we obtained mainly confirm our previous observation of promising cytoprotection of brain cells by HT-rich olive mill wastewater extract in different stressor paradigms" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Memory's master switch: Molecular power behind memory discovered - Science Daily, 7/29/10 - "Higher concentrations of GABA near a synapse induced a stronger activation of its receptors, weakening basal synapse strength. As a result, GABA makes this synapse more liable to the formation of new memories" - See GABA at Amazon.com.
• Nutrient blend improves function of aging brain: rat study - Nutra USA, 7/21/10 - "NT-020 is a combination of blueberry, green tea extract, carnosine and vitamin D3 ... The NT-020 group demonstrated increased adult neural stem cell proliferation in the two main stem cell niches in the brains and improvement in learning and memory"
• Natural substance NT-020 aids aging brains in rats, study finds - Science Daily, 7/20/10 - "Aging has been linked to oxidative stress, and we have previously shown that natural compounds made from blueberries, green tea, and amino acids, such as carnosine, are high in antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activity .... The combination of these nutrients, called NT-020, creates a synergistic effect that promotes the proliferation of stem cells in the aged animals ... NT-020 may have not only a positive effect on the stem cell niche ... NT-020 may have far-reaching effects on organ function beyond the replacement of injured cells, as demonstrated by cognitive improvement in the NT-020 group"
• Vitamin d and risk of cognitive decline in elderly persons - Arch Intern Med. 2010 Jul 12;170(13):1135-41 - "The multivariate adjusted relative risk (95% confidence interval [CI]) of substantial cognitive decline on the MMSE in participants who were severely serum 25(OH)D deficient (levels <25 nmol/L) in comparison with those with sufficient levels of 25(OH)D (>/=75 nmol/L) was 1.60 (95% CI, 1.19-2.00). Multivariate adjusted random-effects models demonstrated that the scores of participants who were severely 25(OH)D deficient declined by an additional 0.3 MMSE points per year more than those with sufficient levels of 25(OH)D. The relative risk for substantial decline on Trail-Making Test B was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.03-1.51) among those who were severely 25(OH)D deficient compared with those with sufficient levels of 25(OH)D. No significant association was observed for Trail-Making Test A. CONCLUSION: Low levels of vitamin D were associated with substantial cognitive decline in the elderly population studied over a 6-year period, which raises important new possibilities for treatment and prevention" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Antioxidants and Long-term Risk of Dementia - Arch Neurol. 2010 Jul;67(7):819-25 - "Compared with participants in the lowest tertile of vitamin E intake, those in the highest tertile were 25% less likely to develop dementia (hazard ratio, 0.75" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Eating foods rich in vitamin E associated with lower dementia risk - Science Daily, 7/12/10 - "the one-third of individuals who consumed the most vitamin E (a median or midpoint of 18.5 milligrams per day) were 25 percent less likely to develop dementia than the one-third of participants who consumed the least (a median of 9 milligrams per day)" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Moderate Physical Activity Linked to Lower Dementia Risk - Medscape, 7/12/10 - "Compared with those with lower levels of activity, participants reporting moderate to heavy physical activity had a 45% lower risk for dementia over time"
• Regular Tea Consumption May Slow Cognitive Decline - Medscape, 7/12/10 - "Participants who drank tea 5 to 10 times per year, 1 to 3 times per month, 1 to 4 times per week, or 5 or more times per week had average annual rates of cognitive decline that were 17%, 32%, 37%, and 26% lower, respectively, than those of non-tea-drinkers" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Low vitamin D levels associated with cognitive decline - Science Daily, 7/12/10 - "An estimated 40 percent to 100 percent of older adults in the United States and Europe are deficient in vitamin D ... Participants who were severely deficient in vitamin D (having blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of less than 25 nanomoles per liter) were 60 percent more likely to have substantial cognitive decline in general over the six-year period and 31 percent more likely to experience declines on the test measuring executive function than those with sufficient vitamin D levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D and mental agility in elders - Science Daily, 6/25/10 - "The participants, ages 65 to 99 years, were grouped by their vitamin D status, which was categorized as deficient, insufficient, or sufficient. Only 35 percent had sufficient vitamin D blood levels. They had better cognitive performance on the tests than those in the deficient and insufficient categories, particularly on measures of "executive performance," such as cognitive flexibility, perceptual complexity, and reasoning. The associations persisted after taking into consideration other variables that could also affect cognitive performance" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Aerobic fitness and multidomain cognitive function in advanced age - Int Psychogeriatr. 2010 Jun 22:1-11 - "The moderately-fit group achieved significantly better scores on the global cognitive score (U = 97, p = 0.04), and a significant correlation was found between peak VO2 and attention, executive function, and global cognitive score (rs = .37, .39, .38 respectively). The trend for superior cognitive scores in the moderate-fitness compared to the low-fitness groups was unequivocal, both in terms of accuracy and reaction time.Conclusion: Maintenance of higher levels of cardiovascular fitness may help protect against cognitive deterioration, even at an advanced age"
• Phosphatidylserine Containing omega-3 Fatty Acids May Improve Memory Abilities in Non-Demented Elderly with Memory Complaints: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial - Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2010 Jun 3;29(5):467-474 - "The results indicate that PS-DHA may improve cognitive performance in non-demented elderly with memory complaints. Post-hoc analysis of subgroups suggests that participants with higher baseline cognitive status were most likely to respond to PS-DHA" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.comand phosphatidylserine products at iHerb.
• Improved cognitive-cerebral function in older adults with chromium supplementation - Nutr Neurosci. 2010 Jun;13(3):116-22 - "In a placebo-controlled, double-blind trial, we randomly assigned 26 older adults to receive either chromium picolinate (CrPic) or placebo for 12 weeks ... Although learning rate and retention were not enhanced by CrPic supplementation, we observed reduced semantic interference on learning, recall, and recognition memory tasks. In addition, fMRI indicated comparatively increased activation for the CrPic subjects in right thalamic, right temporal, right posterior parietal, and bifrontal regions. These findings suggest that supplementation with CrPic can enhance cognitive inhibitory control and cerebral function in older adults at risk for neurodegeneration" - See chromium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Regular aerobic exercise is good for the brain - Science Daily, 4/26/10 - "Regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood flow to the brain ... monkeys who exercised regularly at an intensity that would improve fitness in middle-aged people learned to do tests of cognitive function faster and had greater blood volume in the brain's motor cortex than their sedentary counterparts ... This suggests people who exercise are getting similar benefits ... When the researchers examined tissue samples from the brain's motor cortex, they found that mature monkeys that ran had greater vascular volume than middle-aged runners or sedentary animals. But those blood flow changes reversed in monkeys that were sedentary after exercising for five months"
• Low Vitamin D Level Tied to Cognitive Decline - WebMD, 4/16/10 - "Two new studies add to evidence that older people with low levels of vitamin D may be more likely to suffer from cognitive impairment. ... Results showed that the lower their score on the test, the lower their vitamin D levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Learning keeps brain healthy: Mental activity could stave off age-related cognitive and memory decline - Science Daily, 3/2/10
• DHA brain benefits may extend to middle age - Nutra USA, 3/1/10 - "Higher DHA was related to better performance on tests of nonverbal reasoning and mental flexibility, working memory, and vocabulary ... increasing levels of DHA were associated with improved mental function in a “generally linear" - [Abstract] - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• DHA May Prevent Age-Related Dementia - J Nutr. 2010 Feb 24 - "DHA is pleiotropic, acting at multiple steps to reduce the production of the beta-amyloid peptide, widely believed to initiate AD. DHA moderates some of the kinases that hyperphosphorylate the tau-protein, a component of the neurofibrillary tangle. DHA may help suppress insulin/neurotrophic factor signaling deficits, neuroinflammation, and oxidative damage that contribute to synaptic loss and neuronal dysfunction in dementia. Finally, DHA increases brain levels of neuroprotective brain-derived neurotrophic factor and reduces the (n-6) fatty acid arachidonate and its prostaglandin metabolites that have been implicated in promoting AD. Clinical trials suggest that DHA or fish oil alone can slow early stages of progression, but these effects may be apolipoprotein E genotype specific, and larger trials with very early stages are required to prove efficacy. We advocate early intervention in a prodromal period with nutrigenomically defined subjects with an appropriately designed nutritional supplement, including DHA and antioxidants" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Serum Phospholipid Docosahexaenonic Acid Is Associated with Cognitive Functioning during Middle Adulthood - J Nutr. 2010 Feb 24 - "higher DHA (mol %) was related to better performance on tests of nonverbal reasoning and mental flexibility, working memory, and vocabulary (P </= 0.05). These associations were generally linear. Associations between DHA and nonverbal reasoning and working memory persisted with additional adjustment for participant education and vocabulary scores ... Among the 3 key (n-3) PUFA, only DHA is associated with major aspects of cognitive performance in nonpatient adults <55 y old. These findings suggest that DHA is related to brain health throughout the lifespan and may have implications for clinical trials of neuropsychiatric disorders" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• The Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761((R)) and its main constituent flavonoids and ginkgolides increase extracellular dopamine levels in the rat prefrontal cortex - Br J Pharmacol. 2010 Jan 25 - "A single oral dose of EGb 761 (100 mg.kg(-1)) had no effect on monoamine levels. However, following chronic (100 mg.kg(-1)/14 days/once daily) treatment, the same dose significantly increased extracellular dopamine and noradrenaline levels, while 5-HT levels were unaffected. Chronic treatment with EGb 761 showed dose-dependent increases in frontocortical dopamine levels and, to a lesser extent, in the striatum. The extracellular levels of HVA and DOPAC were not affected by either acute or repeated doses. Treatment with the main constituents of EGb 761 revealed that the increase in dopamine levels was mostly caused by the flavonol glycosides and ginkgolide fractions, whereas bilobalide treatment was without effect. Conclusions and implications: The present results demonstrate that chronic but not acute treatment with EGb 761 increased dopaminergic transmission in the PFC. This finding may be one of the mechanisms underlying the reported effects of G. biloba in improving cognitive function" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• A mind at rest strengthens memories, researchers find - Science Daily, 1/27/10
• Magnesium May Improve Memory - WebMD, 1/27/10 - "increasing brain magnesium using a newly developed compound, magnesium-L-threonate (MgT), improves learning abilities, working memory, and short- and-long-term memory in rats. The magnesium also helped older rats perform better on a battery of learning tests ... The researchers cite that only 32% of Americans get the recommended daily allowance of magnesium" - See Jarrow Formulas, Magnesium Optimizer Citrate at Amazon.com.
• Coffee Break Boosts Memory - WebMD, 1/27/10 - "Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that information you just learned"
• Blueberry juice improves memory in older adults - Science Daily, 1/20/10 - "In the study, one group of volunteers in their 70s with early memory decline drank the equivalent of 2-2 l/2 cups of a commercially available blueberry juice every day for two months. A control group drank a beverage without blueberry juice. The blueberry juice group showed significant improvement on learning and memory tests" - See blueberry extract at Amazon.com.
• Running Boosts Brainpower - WebMD, 1/19/10 - "Running may do more than improve your cardiovascular fitness and overall physique. It might actually make you smarter ... Scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say that running has a profound impact on the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory"
• Association of vitamin D deficiency with cognitive impairment in older women: cross-sectional study - Neurology. 2010 Jan 5;74(1):27-32 - "Cognitive impairment was defined as a Pfeiffer Short Portable Mental State Questionnaire (SPMSQ) score <8 ... Compared with women with serum 25(OH)D concentrations > or =10 ng/mL (n = 623), the women with 25(OH)D deficiency (n = 129) had a lower mean SPMSQ score (p < 0.001) and more often had an SPMSQ score <8 (p = 0.006). There was no significant linear association between serum 25(OH)D concentration and SPMSQ score (beta = -0.003, 95% confidence interval -0.012 to 0.006, p = 0.512). However, serum 25(OH)D deficiency was associated with cognitive impairment (crude odds ratio [OR] = 2.08 with p = 0.007; adjusted OR = 1.99 with p = 0.017 for full model; and adjusted OR = 2.03 with p = 0.012 for stepwise backward model). CONCLUSIONS: 25-Hydroxyvitamin D deficiency was associated with cognitive impairment in this cohort of community-dwelling older women" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Blueberry Supplementation Improves Memory in Older Adults (dagger) - J Agric Food Chem. 2010 Jan 4 - "Blueberries contain polyphenolic compounds, most prominently anthocyanins, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, anthocyanins have been associated with increased neuronal signaling in brain centers, mediating memory function as well as improved glucose disposal, benefits that would be expected to mitigate neurodegeneration ... At 12 weeks, improved paired associate learning (p = 0.009) and word list recall (p = 0.04) were observed. In addition, there were trends suggesting reduced depressive symptoms (p = 0.08) and lower glucose levels (p = 0.10). We also compared the memory performances of the blueberry subjects with a demographically matched sample who consumed a berry placebo beverage in a companion trial of identical design and observed comparable results for paired associate learning. The findings of this preliminary study suggest that moderate-term blueberry supplementation can confer neurocognitive benefit and establish a basis for more comprehensive human trials to study preventive potential and neuronal mechanisms" - See blueberry extract at Amazon.com.
• Young adults who exercise get higher IQ Scores - Science Daily, 12/2/09 - "The study shows a clear link between good physical fitness and better results for the IQ test. The strongest links are for logical thinking and verbal comprehension ... Being fit means that you also have good heart and lung capacity and that your brain gets plenty of oxygen ... This may be one of the reasons why we can see a clear link with fitness, but not with muscular strength. We are also seeing that there are growth factors that are important"
• Cardiovascular Fitness May Sharpen Mind - WebMD, 11/30/09 - "A large new study links cardiovascular fitness in early adulthood to increased intelligence, better performance on cognitive tests, and higher educational achievement later in life ... When researchers looked at twins, they found that environmental factors rather than genetics appeared to play the largest role in these associations. Non-shared environmental influences accounted for 80% or more of differences in academic achievement, whereas genetics accounted for less than 15% of these differences"
• 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, dementia, and cerebrovascular pathology in elders receiving home services - Neurology. 2009 Nov 25 - "Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency was associated with all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease, stroke (with and without dementia symptoms), and MRI indicators of cerebrovascular disease. These findings suggest a potential vasculoprotective role of vitamin D" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Olive Oil and Cognition: Results from the Three-City Study - Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2009 Oct 30;28(4):357-36 - "Participants with moderate or intensive use of olive oil compared to those who never used olive oil showed lower odds of cognitive deficit for verbal fluency and visual memory. For cognitive decline during the 4-year follow-up, the association with intensive use was significant for visual memory (adjusted OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.69-0.99) but not for verbal fluency (OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.70-1.03) in multivariate analysis" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Olive oil component could avert Alzheimer’s - Nutra USA, 10/20/09 - "ADDLs bind within the neural synapses of the brains of Alzheimer's patients and are believed to directly disrupt nerve cell function, eventually leading to memory loss, cell death and global disruption of brain function ... incubation with oleocanthal changed the structure of ADDLs by increasing the protein's size" - [Abstract] - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Alzheimer's-associated Abeta oligomers show altered structure, immunoreactivity and synaptotoxicity with low doses of oleocanthal - Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2009 Oct 15;240(2):189-97 - "results indicate oleocanthal is capable of altering the oligomerization state of ADDLs while protecting neurons from the synaptopathological effects of ADDLs and suggest OC as a lead compound for development in AD therapeutics" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Antioxidant OPCs may boost memory: Animal study - Nutra USA, 10/16/09 - "The results showed that OPC-consuming animals had “improved spatial and object recognition impairment”" - [Abstract] - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.
• Oligomeric proanthocyanidins improve memory and enhance phosphorylation of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 in senescence-accelerated mouse prone/8 - Br J Nutr. 2009 Oct 13:1-11 - "This indicates that oligomers result in an increase in the densities of axons, dendrites and synapses. To investigate the protective mechanisms of oligomers against brain dysfunction with ageing, we carried out a receptor tyrosine kinase phosphorylation antibody array, and clarified that the administration of oligomers led to an increase in the phosphorylation of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-2, suggesting the neuroprotective role of oligomers. The phosphorylation of VEGFR-2 was more greatly increased in the hypothalamus and choroid plexus than in other brain regions of SAMP8. Memory in oligomer-treated mice was impaired by SU1498, a VEGFR-2-specific antagonist. Elucidating the relationship between memory impairment with ageing and VEGFR-2 signalling may provide new suggestions for protection against memory deficit in the ageing brain" - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.
• High-Carb, High-Fat Diets Better for Cognitive Performance - Medscape, 9/1/09 - "Diets high in carbohydrates or fat can lead to significantly better cognitive-performance and inflight-testing scores in pilots than diets high in protein"
• 'Brain Exercises' May Delay Memory Decline In Dementia - Science Daily, 8/4/09 - "People who engage in activities that exercise the brain, such as reading, writing, and playing card games, may delay the rapid memory decline that occurs if they later develop dementia"
• Antioxidant effect of lutein towards phospholipid hydroperoxidation in human erythrocytes - Br J Nutr. 2009 Jul 22:1-5 - "These results suggest that lutein has the potential to act as an important antioxidant molecule in erythrocytes, and it thereby may contribute to the prevention of dementia" - See lutein at Amazon.com.
• Exercise Cuts Decline in Mental Skills - WebMD, 7/13/09 - "sedentary older people who began new exercise programs curbed their rate of cognitive decline, especially when it came to the ability to process complex information quickly ... people who were consistently sedentary had the worst mental skills. On a standard test that measures overall cognitive function, including memory, attention span and problem-solving, "they scored the worst at the beginning and experienced the fastest rate of cognitive decline,""
• DHA Appears Beneficial for Patients Diagnosed With Mild Cognitive Impairment - Doctor's Guide, 7/13/09 - "Algal DHA appears to have a significant impact on early episodic memory changes and its benefits are roughly equivalent to having the learning and memory skills of someone 3 years younger" - [WebMD] - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Soy may help men remember anniversaries: Study - Nutra USA, 7/9/09 - "men receiving the isoflavones required 18 per cent fewer attempts to correctly complete the tasks, committed 23 per cent fewer errors, and achieved the tasks in 17 per cent less time than they did during the placebo phase" - [Abstract] - See soy isoflavones at Amazon.com.
• Soya isoflavone supplementation enhances spatial working memory in men - Br J Nutr. 2009 Jun 1:1-7 - "Compared with placebo supplementation, there were 18 % fewer attempts (P = 0.01), 23 % fewer errors (P = 0.02) and 17 % less time (P = 0.03) required to correctly identify the requisite information" - See soy isoflavones at Amazon.com.
• Oily fish may reduce dementia risk: Transcontinental study - Nutra USA, 7/8/09 - "Almost 15,000 people aged 65 or over were surveyed. After adjusting for various confounders and pooling the data from all the sites, the researchers report that they observed a dose-dependent inverse association between dementia and fish consumption" - [Abstract] - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Dietary fish and meat intake and dementia in Latin America, China, and India: a 10/66 Dementia Research Group population-based study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jun 24 - "We found a dose-dependent inverse association between fish consumption and dementia (PR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.91) that was consistent across all sites except India and a less-consistent, dose-dependent, direct association between meat consumption and prevalence of dementia (PR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.31)" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Caffeine Reverses Memory Impairment In Mice With Alzheimer's Symptoms - Science Daily, 7/6/09 - "Coffee drinkers may have another reason to pour that extra cup. When aged mice bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease were given caffeine – the equivalent of five cups of coffee a day – their memory impairment was reversed"
• Aerobic Activity May Keep The Brain Young - Science Daily, 6/29/09 - "The brain’s blood vessels naturally narrow and become more tortuous with advancing age, but the study showed the cerebrovascular patterns of active patients appeared “younger” than those of relatively inactive subjects. The brains of these less active patients had increased tortuosity produced by vessel elongation and wider expansion curves"
• Silibinin prevents amyloid beta peptide-induced memory impairment and oxidative stress in mice - Br J Pharmacol. 2009 Jun 22 - "Silibinin (silybin), a flavonoid derived from the herb milk thistle (Silybum marianum), has been shown to have antioxidative properties; however, it remains unclear whether silibinin improves Abeta-induced neurotoxicity ... Silibinin prevented the memory impairment induced by Abeta(25-35) in the Y-maze and novel object recognition tests. Repeated treatment with silibinin attenuated the Abeta(25-35)-induced accumulation of malondialdehyde and depletion of glutathione in the hippocampus ... Silibinin prevents memory impairment and oxidative damage induced by Abeta(25-35) and may be a potential therapeutic agent for Alzheimer's disease" - See silymarin at Amazon.com.
• Alcohol consumption as a risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline: meta-analysis of prospective studies - Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2009 Jul;17(7):542-55 - "Alzheimer disease (AD) ... vascular dementia (VaD) ... The pooled relative risks (RRs) of AD, VaD, and Any dementia for light to moderate drinkers compared with nondrinkers were 0.72 (95% CI = 0.61-0.86), 0.75 (95% CI = 0.57-0.98), and 0.74 (95% CI = 0.61-0.91), respectively. When the more generally classified "drinkers," were compared with "nondrinkers," they had a reduced risk of AD (RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.47-0.94) and Any dementia (RR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.53-0.82) but not cognitive decline. There were not enough data to examine VaD risk among "drinkers." Those classified as heavy drinkers did not have an increased risk of Any dementia compared with nondrinkers, but this may reflect sampling bias. Our results suggest that alcohol drinkers in late life have reduced risk of dementia. It is unclear whether this reflects selection effects in cohort studies commencing in late life, a protective effect of alcohol consumption throughout adulthood, or a specific benefit of alcohol in late life"
• Statins Can Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease, According To New Study - Science Daily, 6/22/09 - "They clearly demonstrated that treatment with a statin called Lovastatin could prevent the death of nerve cells under these conditions. The statins not only prevented cells from dying but also prevented the loss of memory capacity that normally occurs after such cell death. In a previous study Dolga had showed that these statins stimulate the protective capacity of tumor necrosis factor, which is a key player in the brain’s immune response" - [Abstract] - Note:  Lovastatin is in red yeast rice.  See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Pretreatment with Lovastatin Prevents N-Methyl-D-Aspartate-Induced Neurodegeneration in the Magnocellular Nucleus Basalis and Behavioral Dysfunction - J Alzheimers Dis. 2009 Mar 6 - "From these studies we conclude that treatment with lovastatin may provide protection against neuronal injury in excitotoxic conditions associated with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease" - Note:  Lovastatin (that's the generic name and therefore shouldn't be capitalized) is in red yeast rice.  See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• How to Stay Sharp in Old Age - WebMD, 6/9/09 - "People who exercised moderately to vigorously at least once a week were 31% more likely to maintain their cognitive function. People with at least a high school education were nearly three times as likely to stay sharp. Nonsmokers were nearly twice as likely to keep their mental edge"
• Soya isoflavone supplementation enhances spatial working memory in men - Br J Nutr. 2009 Jun 1:1-7 - "Volunteers were randomised to take four capsules/d containing soya isoflavones (116 mg isoflavone equivalents/d: 68 mg daidzein, 12 mg genistein, 36 mg glycitin) or placebo for 6 weeks, and the alternate treatment during the following 6 weeks. Assessments of memory (verbal episodic, auditory and working), executive function (planning, attention, mental flexibility) and visual-spatial processing were performed at baseline and after each treatment period. Isoflavone supplementation significantly improved spatial working memory (P = 0.01), a test in which females consistently perform better than males. Compared with placebo supplementation, there were 18 % fewer attempts (P = 0.01), 23 % fewer errors (P = 0.02) and 17 % less time (P = 0.03) required to correctly identify the requisite information. Isoflavones did not affect auditory and episodic memory (Paired Associate Learning, Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Task, Backward Digit Span and Letter-Number Sequencing), executive function (Trail Making and Initial Letter Fluency Task) or visual-spatial processing (Mental Rotation Task). Isoflavone supplementation in healthy males may enhance cognitive processes which appear dependent on oestrogen activation"
• Is Vitamin D Deficiency Linked To Alzheimer's Disease And Vascular Dementia? - Science Daily, 5/26/09 - "Several studies have correlated tooth loss with development of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia. There are two primary ways that people lose teeth: dental caries and periodontal disease. Both conditions are linked to low vitamin D levels, with induction of human cathelicidin by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D being the mechanism ... There is also laboratory evidence for the role of vitamin D in neuroprotection and reducing inflammation, and ample biological evidence to suggest an important role for vitamin D in brain development and function ... those over the age of 60 years should consider having their serum 25(OH)D tested, looking for a level of at least 30 ng/mL but preferably over 40 ng/mL, and supplementing with 1000-2000 IU/day of vitamin D3 or increased time in the sun spring, summer, and fall if below those values" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D for Quicker Thinking? - WebMD, 5/21/09 - "Men in their 60s and 70s with low levels of vitamin D were the most likely participants to have low scores on the visual scanning and processing test" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Folate Deficiency May Triple Dementia Risk in the Elderly - Medscape, 3/3/09 - "individuals who were folate deficient at study outset were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.
• Role of Huperzine A in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease - Ann Pharmacother. 2009 Feb 24 - "AD is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder for which there is no cure; available therapies only decrease cognitive decline. Huperzine A, an alkaloid derived from Chinese club moss (H. serrata), acts as a selective inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase and may also display neuroprotective properties. Preliminary data suggest that huperzine A may improve cognition; studies ranging from 8 to 12 weeks have found improvements in the Mini-Mental State Examination score of 1-5 points ... Although use of huperzine A has shown promising results in patients with AD, data supporting its use are limited by weak study design" - See huperzine at Amazon.com.
• Mediterranean Diet May Preserve Memory - WebMD, 2/9/09 - "The Mediterranean diet consists of larger doses of fish, vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, and unsaturated fatty acids; low amounts of dairy products, meat, and saturated fats; and a moderate amount of alcohol ... average 4.5 year follow-up period. Those in the top one-third of Mediterranean diet scores had a 28% lower risk (compared to those in the bottom third) of developing a cognitive impairment"
• Coffee lovers face lower dementia risk - MSNBC, 2/3/09 - "among 1,400 Finnish adults followed for 20 years, those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in middle-age were two-thirds less likely than non-drinkers to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's disease"
• Low Levels Of Vitamin D Link To Cognitive Problems In Older People - Science Daily, 1/22/09 - "Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin", and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people ... as levels of Vitamin D went down, levels of cognitive impairment went up. Compared to those with optimum levels of Vitamin D, those with the lowest levels were more than twice as likely to be cognitively impaired" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Midlife Coffee And Tea Drinking May Protect Against Late-life Dementia - Science Daily, 1/14/09 - "coffee drinkers at midlife had lower risk for dementia and AD later in life compared to those drinking no or only little coffee. The lowest risk (65% decreased) was found among moderate coffee drinkers (drinking 3-5 cups of coffee/day). Adjustments for various confounders did not change the results. Tea drinking was relatively uncommon and was not associated with dementia/AD"
• Neuroprotective Effects of (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate on Aging Mice Induced by D-Galactose - Biol Pharm Bull. 2009 Jan;32(1):55-60 - "aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effects of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the main polyphenolic constituent of green tea ... Oral administration of EGCG (2 mg/kg or 6 mg/kg) for 4 weeks significantly improved the cognitive deficits in mice and elevated T-SOD and GSH-Px activities, decreased MDA contents in the hippocampus, and reduced the cell apoptosis index and expression of cleaved caspase-3 in the mouse hippocampus. The results suggest that EGCG has potent neuroprotective effects on aging mice induced by D-gal through antioxidative and antiapoptotic mechanisms, indicating that EGCG is worthy of further study in aging" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Blood Sugar Linked To Normal Cognitive Aging - Science Daily, 12/30/08 - "Beyond the obvious conclusion that preventing late-life disease would benefit the aging hippocampus, our findings suggest that maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of diabetes, could help maintain aspects of cognitive health. More specifically, our findings predict that any intervention that causes a decrease in blood glucose should increase dentate gyrus function and would therefore be cognitively beneficial" - [WebMD]
• Berry Compound Reduces Aging Effect - Science Daily, 12/28/08 - "in aging rats, pterostilbene was effective in reversing cognitive decline and that improved working memory was linked to pterostilbene levels in the hippocampus region of the brain"
• Exercise Increases Brain Growth Factor And Receptors, Prevents Stem Cell Drop In Middle Age - Science Daily, 11/27/08 - "exercise significantly slows down the loss of new nerve cells in the middle-aged mice. They found that production of neural stem cells improved by approximately 200% compared to the middle-aged mice that did not exercise. In addition, the survival of new nerve cells increased by 170% and growth by 190% compared to the sedentary middle-aged mice. Exercise also significantly enhanced stem cell production and maturation in the young mice. In fact, exercise produced a stronger effect in younger mice compared to the older mice"
• Ginkgo biloba has no benefits against dementia: Study - Nutra USA, 11/19/08 - "The GEM Study involved 3,069 community volunteers with an average age of 79.1 ... Commenting on the study, Dr Fabricant said the study had two major limitations: “One, it looks exclusively at people almost 80 years old who are far more likely to have Alzheimer’s, while ignoring those in middle ages, where the risk for developing the disease rises quickly and prevention could best be analyzed,” ... Two, it excludes completely any consideration of the strong and established role that family history plays with Alzheimer’s. You can’t do a study on the weather without looking at wind and rain.”"
• Physical Exercise Keeps Brain Young - WebMD, 11/19/08 - "The brain-boosting effects of exercise diminish rapidly after early middle age ... mice that worked out every day grew 2.5 times more new brain cells than couch potato mice. And in the exercising mice, far more of these new neurons survived, grew, and integrated into existing brain networks"
• Surfing the Web Stimulates Older Brains - WebMD, 10/14/08 - "Middle-aged to older adults who know their way around the Internet had more stimulation of decision-making and complex reasoning areas of the brain than peers who were new to web surfing ... reading didn’t stimulate the same number of brain areas as Internet searching"
• Raised homocysteine and low folate and vitamin B-12 concentrations predict cognitive decline in community-dwelling older Japanese adults - Clin Nutr. 2008 Oct 1 - "Reduced folate and vitamin B-12 concentrations were independently associated with cognitive decline"
• Low plasma eicosapentaenoic acid and depressive symptomatology are independent predictors of dementia risk - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Sep;88(3):714-21 - "A high plasma EPA concentration may decrease the risk of dementia, whereas high ratios of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids and of AA to DHA may increase the risk of dementia, especially in depressed older persons. The role of EPA in dementia warrants further research" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Aging - Lack of B12 Linked to Brain Shrinkage - New York Times, 9/8/08 - "The group with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 lost twice as much brain volume as those with the highest levels" - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin B12 Boasts Brain Benefits - WebMD, 9/8/08 - "None of the people in the study had a vitamin B12 deficiency ... When the researchers compared the results, they found that people who had higher vitamin B12 levels were six times less likely to experience brain shrinkage compared with those who had lower levels of the vitamin in their blood"
• Walking Boosts Brainpower - WebMD, 9/2/08 - "Those in the exercise group scored higher on cognitive tests and had better delayed recall. For example, they could more accurately remember a list of words after a certain amount of time had passed than those in the other group ... Unlike medication, which was found to have no significant effect on mild cognitive impairment at 36 months, physical activity has the advantage of health benefits that are not confined to cognitive function alone, as suggested by findings on depression, quality of life, falls, cardiovascular function, and disability"
• B-vitamin Deficiency May Cause Vascular Cognitive Impairment - Science Daily, 9/2/08 - "Mice fed a diet deficient in folate and vitamins B12 and B6 demonstrated significant deficits in spatial learning and memory compared with normal mice"
• Caffeine Reduces Cognitive Decline in Women - Medscape, 8/9/08 - "French researchers report that women who drank more than 3 cups of coffee per day had less decline during 4 years of follow-up compared with those who drank a cup or less. However, no such effect was seen in men ... Risk for Decline on Cognitive Endpoints at 4 Years for Women Drinking More Than 3 Cups of Coffee Per Day at Baseline vs 1 or More Cups ... Verbal Retrieval ... 0.67 ... Visuospatial Memory ... 0.82"
• Tea Drinking May Help Protect Against Cognitive Impairment and Decline - Medscape, 7/14/08 - "Independent of other risk factors, total tea intake was significantly associated with a lower prevalence of cognitive impairment, defined as an MMSE score of 23 or less. Compared with ORs for rare or no tea intake, ORs for low, medium, and high levels of tea intake were 0.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40 - 0.78), 0.45 (95% CI, 0.27 - 0.72), and 0.37 (95% CI, 0.14 - 0.98), respectively"
• Nutrient cocktail may boost memory and learning: study - Nutra USA, 7/10/08 - "It may be possible to use this [combination] to partially restore brain function in people with diseases that decrease the number of brain neurons, including, for example, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, strokes and brain injuries. Of course, such speculations have to be tested in double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials ... supplemented the diets of gerbils with uridine (in its monophosphate form, 0.5 per cent) and choline (0.1 per cent), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 300 mg/kg/day) for four weeks ... At the end of the study, significant increases in phospholipid levels in the brain were observed when the compounds were given together, while administration of only DHA or UMP or UMP plus choline produced smaller increases" - [Abstract] - See citicholine at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Dietary uridine enhances the improvement in learning and memory produced by administering DHA to gerbils - FASEB J. 2008 Jul 7 - "These findings demonstrate that a treatment that increases synaptic membrane content can enhance cognitive functions in normal animals" - See citicholine at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Low Levels Of Good Cholesterol Linked To Memory Loss, Dementia Risk - Science Daily, 6/30/08 - "Researchers defined low HDL as less than 40 mg/dL ... At age 60, participants with low HDL had a 53 percent increased risk of memory loss compared to the high HDL group" - [WebMD] - The best way to increase HDL is niacin.  See niacin at Amazon.com.  Start slow maybe even with the 100 mg capsules.  It took me about three months to get immune to the flush from 2000 mg per day.  Taking it with soup seems to be the best.
• Exercise May Cut Risk of Dementia - WebMD, 6/3/08 - "In a study of more than 1,400 adults, those who were physically active in their free time during middle age were 52% less likely to develop dementia 21 years later than their sedentary counterparts. Their chance of developing Alzheimer's disease was slashed even more, by 62%"
• Active Social Life May Delay Memory Loss Among US Elderly Population - Science Daily, 5/29/08 - "individuals with the highest social integration had the slowest rate of memory decline from 1998 to 2004. In fact, memory decline among the most integrated was less than half the rate among the least integrated. These findings were independent of sociodemographic factors (such as age, gender, and race) and health status in 1998. The researchers found that the protective effect of social integration was largest among individuals with fewer than 12 years of education"
• Study supports Pycnogenol for better memory in elderly - Nutra USA, 3/18/08 - "150mg of Pycnogenol ... three months, the participants receiving Pycnogenol had "significantly improved" memory, as seen in a factor that combined accuracy scored from spatial working memory and numeric working memory tasks" - See Pycnogenol at Amazon.com.
• DHEAS Levels Linked to Cognitive Function in Women - Medscape, 3/13/07 - "There are data that suggest that DHEA and DHEAS may have neuroprotective effects and that the decline in the production of these steroids with healthy aging may contribute to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration, and thus cognitive decline ... women with higher circulating levels of DHEAS performed better on executive function tests. A positive association was also observed between circulating DHEAS and higher scores on tests of simple concentration and working memory in women with more than 12 years of education" - See DHEA at Amazon.com.
• Gingko may boost memory - if you remember to take it - Nutra USA, 2/28/08 - "The new study involved 118 people age 85 and older with no memory problems. The elderly subjects were randomly assigned to receive either a ginkgo biloba extract (240 mg daily, provided by Thorne Research) or placebo for three years. The extracts were independently verified to contain at least six per cent terpene lactones and 24 per cent flavone glycosides ... when the researchers considered only people who followed the directions in taking the study pills, they found that people took at least 84 per cent of the supplements as directed had a 68 per cent lower risk of developing mild memory problems" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• A randomized placebo-controlled trial of ginkgo biloba for the prevention of cognitive decline - Neurology. 2008 Feb 27 - "In the secondary analysis, where we controlled the medication adherence level, the GBE group had a lower risk of progression from CDR = 0 to CDR = 0.5 (HR = 0.33, p = 0.02), and a smaller decline in memory scores" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Folate Deficiency Associated With Tripling Of Dementia Risk, Study Shows - Science Daily, 2/5/08 - "Folate deficiency is associated with a tripling in the risk of developing dementia among elderly people" - See iHerb folic acid products.
• n-3 Fatty acids, hypertension and risk of cognitive decline among older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study - Public Health Nutr. 2008 Jan;11(1):17-29 - "Word Fluency Test (WFT) ... an increase of one standard deviation in dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (% of energy intake) and balancing long-chain n-3/n-6 decreased the risk of 6-year cognitive decline in verbal fluency with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.79 (0.66-0.95) and 0.81 (0.68-0.96), respectively, among hypertensives. An interaction with hypertensive status was found for dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (g day-1) and WFT decline (likelihood ratio test, P = 0.06). This exposure in plasma cholesteryl esters was also protective against WFT decline, particularly among hypertensives (OR = 0.51" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Moderate Exercise May Cut Dementia Risk - WebMD,12/19/07- "Moderate physical activity (such as walking and climbing stairs) may help prevent dementia in people aged 65 and older"
• Dietary intake adequacy and cognitive function in free-living active elderly: A cross-sectional and short-term prospective study - Clin Nutr. 2007 Dec 12 - "mini-mental state examination (MMSE) ... subjects whose consumption of calcium was above the dietary reference intake had a significantly higher odds ratio (OR) of improving their MMSE (OR=5.41; 95% CI: 1.44-20.29)" - See calcium products at Amazon.com.
• DHEA sulfate levels are associated with more favorable cognitive function in women - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Dec 11 - "In the multiple linear regression analysis the DHEAS term made a significant independent positive contribution to the Controlled Oral Word Association Test score, a measure of executive function. In addition, women with a DHEAS level in the highest tertile who also had more than 12 years of education performed better on both Digit Span Forward and Digit Span Backward tests which are tests of simple concentration and working memory respectively" - See DHEA at Amazon.com.
• Increased B12 levels could ward off dementia - Nutra USA, 11/16/07 - "The longitudinal cohort study followed 1648 participants for 10 years, and found a doubling in holotranscobalamin (holoTC) concentrations was associated with a 30 per cent slower rate of cognitive decline ... increased levels of the amino acid homocysteine doubled the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment" - [Abstract] - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Fish for brain health supported by trio of studies - Nutra USA, 11/14/07 - "These recent reports are novel in that they address the association of n-3 fatty acid intake and cognitive function in non-demented individuals and, thus, present a shift in the attention to earlier stages of cognitive decline with the hope of preventing progression to states of dementia and disability before they become irreversible" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Eating Fish, Omega-3 Oils, Fruits And Veggies Lowers Risk Of Memory Problems - Science Daily, 11/13/07 - "people who regularly consumed omega-3 rich oils, such as canola oil, flaxseed oil and walnut oil, reduced their risk of dementia by 60 percent compared to people who did not regularly consume such oils. People who ate fruits and vegetables daily also reduced their risk of dementia by 30 percent compared to those who didn't regularly eat fruits and vegetables ... people who ate fish at least once a week had a 35-percent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and 40-percent lower risk of dementia, but only if they did not carry the gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's, called apolipoprotein E4, or ApoE4 ... Given that most people do not carry the ApoE4 gene, these results could have considerable implications in terms of public health" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• The role of folate in depression and dementia - J Clin Psychiatry. 2007;68 Suppl 10:28-33 - "folate deficiencies may be caused by improper absorption and utilization, often due to genetic polymorphisms. Individuals, therefore, can have insufficient levels or lack needed forms of folate, despite adequate intake. Supplementation with the active form of folate, methyltetrahydrofolate, which is more readily absorbed, may be effective in the prevention and treatment of both depression and dementia" - See folic acid at Amazon.com.
• Low vitamin B-12 status and risk of cognitive decline in older adults - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1384-91 - "Low vitamin B-12 status was associated with more rapid cognitive decline" - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Cognitive performance among the elderly and dietary fish intake: the Hordaland Health Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1470-8 - "In the elderly, a diet high in fish and fish products is associated with better cognitive performance in a dose-dependent manner" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• n 3 Fatty acid proportions in plasma and cognitive performance in older adults - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1479-85 - "In this population, plasma n-3 PUFA proportions were associated with less decline in the speed-related cognitive domains over 3 y" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Diet Linked To Cognitive Decline And Dementia - WebMD, 11/6/07 - "An article published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences highlights information on the benefits of diets high in fruit, vegetables, cereals and fish and low in saturated fats in reducing dementia risk"
• Diet Of Walnuts, Blueberries Improve Cognition; May Help Maintain Brain Function - Science Daily, 11/6/07 - "Diets containing two percent, six percent, or nine percent walnuts, when given to old rats, were found to reverse several parameters of brain aging, as well as age-related motor and cognitive deficits"
• The role of folate in depression and dementia - J Clin Psychiatry. 2007;68 Suppl 10:28-33 - "folate deficiencies may be caused by improper absorption and utilization, often due to genetic polymorphisms. Individuals, therefore, can have insufficient levels or lack needed forms of folate, despite adequate intake. Supplementation with the active form of folate, methyltetrahydrofolate, which is more readily absorbed, may be effective in the prevention and treatment of both depression and dementia" - folic acid at Amazon.com.
• n-3 Fatty acids, hypertension and risk of cognitive decline among older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study - Public Health Nutr. 2007 Jul 12;:1-13 - "Word Fluency Test (WFT) ... Findings indicated that an increase of one standard deviation in dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (% of energy intake) and balancing long-chain n-3/n-6 decreased the risk of 6-year cognitive decline in verbal fluency with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.79 (0.66-0.95) and 0.81 (0.68-0.96), respectively, among hypertensives. An interaction with hypertensive status was found for dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (g day-1) and WFT decline (likelihood ratio test, P = 0.06). This exposure in plasma cholesteryl esters was also protective against WFT decline, particularly among hypertensives (OR = 0.51"
• Plasma folate concentration and cognitive performance: Rotterdam Scan Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Sep;86(3):728-34 - "After multivariate adjustment, the mean change in test score per 1-SD increase in plasma folate was 0.05 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.09) for global cognitive function, 0.08 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.13) for psychomotor speed, and 0.02 (95% CI: -0.04, 0.07) for memory function ... The odds ratio relating a 1-SD increase in plasma folate to the presence compared with the absence of severe white matter lesions was 0.79 (95% CI: 0.66, 0.94), whereas no relation was seen between folate status and hippocampal or amygdalar volume" - See folic acid at Amazon.com.
• Caffeine May Help Women's Memory - WebMD, 8/6/07 - "Women who reported drinking at least three cups of coffee or tea per day at the study's start showed less of a drop in their test scores during the study, compared with women who reported consuming at most one daily cup of tea or coffee ... The biggest benefit was seen in the women's verbal memory"
• Tea, Chocolate Chemical May Boost Memory - WebMD, 5/30/07 - "studied epicatechin, which is a type of antioxidant called a flavonol, in female mice ... The mice that consumed epicatechin did better at memorizing the maze than the mice that got no epicatechin. The mice that consumed epicatechin and also ran on their running wheels had the best results of all"
• Moderate Alcohol Use May Slow Progression to Dementia - Medscape, 5/21/07 - "Moderate drinkers with MCI who consumed 1 or fewer drink per day of wine had a significantly lower rate of progression to dementia than did abstainers (HR, 0.15"
• Fish consumption, n-3 fatty acids, and subsequent 5-y cognitive decline in elderly men: the Zutphen Elderly Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Apr;85(4):1142-7 - "Fish consumers had significantly (P = 0.01) less 5-y subsequent cognitive decline than did nonconsumers. A linear trend was observed for the relation between the intake of EPA+DHA and cognitive decline (P = 0.01). An average difference of approximately 380 mg/d in EPA+DHA intake was associated with a 1.1-point difference in cognitive decline" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Plasma n-3 fatty acids and the risk of cognitive decline in older adults: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Apr;85(4):1103-11 - "Promoting higher intakes of n-3 HUFAs in the diet of hypertensive and dyslipidemic persons may have substantial benefits in reducing their risk of cognitive decline in the area of verbal fluency"
• Folate And B12 May Influence Cognition In Seniors - Science Daily, 2/12/07 - "People with normal vitamin B12 status performed better if their serum folate was high ... But for people with low vitamin B12 status, high serum folate was associated with poor performance on the cognitive test ... For seniors, low vitamin B12 status and high serum folate was the worst combination" - See iHerb folic acid products and vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Report: Nutritional Strategies To Preserve Memory And Cognition - Life Extension Magazine, 2/07
• Folic acid effects two-faced depending on B12 levels, says study - Nutra USA, 1/31/07 - "In this study of older Americans in the age of folic acid fortification, we found direct associations between high serum folate and both anaemia and cognitive impairment in subjects with low vitamin B12 status ... Among subjects with normal vitamin B12 status, on the other hand, high serum folate was associated with protection from cognitive impairment" - See vitamin B12 at Amazon.com.
• Effect of 3-year folic acid supplementation on cognitive function in older adults in the FACIT trial: a randomised, double blind, controlled trial - Lancet. 2007 Jan 20;369(9557):208-16 - "Folic acid supplementation for 3 years significantly improved domains of cognitive function that tend to decline with age"
• Folic Acid Improves Cognitive Performance in Older Adults - Medscape, 1/19/07 - "Patients were randomized to either placebo or 800 µg daily of folic acid for 3 years ... 3 years of treatment with folic acid conferred on individuals resulted in the performance of someone 4.7 years younger for memory, 1.7 years younger for sensorimotor speed, 2.1 years younger for information processing speed, and 1.5 years younger for global cognitive function" - See folic acid at Amazon.com.
• Can Fish Intake Predict Chances Of Developing Dementia? - Science Daily, 1/3/07 - "the participants who reported consuming an average of about three servings of oily fish a week--equivalent to blood levels of DHA at 180 milligrams daily--were associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing dementia of all types, including Alzheimer's disease. No other fatty acid blood level was independently linked to the risk of dementia" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Higher Level Of Certain Fatty Acid Associated With Lower Dementia Risk - Science Daily, 11/28/06 - "men and women in the quartile with the highest DHA levels had a 47 percent lower risk of developing dementia and 39 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than the other three quartiles with lower DHA levels ... those in the top quartile of blood DHA levels reported that they ate an average of .18 grams of DHA a day and an average of three fish servings a week. Participants in the other quartiles ate substantially less fish" - See DHA at Amazon.com.  My favorite is Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Vegetables May Help Save Brain's Vigor - WebMD, 10/23/06 - "All participants had some mental slowdown as they aged ... But the yearly slowdown was 40% slower for people who ate the most vegetables -- three or four servings daily -- compared with those who ate less than one serving daily"
• Natural Chemical Found In Strawberries Boosts Memory In Healthy Mice - Science Daily, 10/20/06 - "Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, stimulates signaling pathways that enhance long-term memory"
• Berries May Help Keep Brain Sharp - WebMD, 8/24/06 - "The radiated rats that had eaten the plain chow performed worst on the maze tests and had the lowest dopamine levels of any of the rats ... But the berry-eating, radiated rats didn't show those shortfalls. Their test results were generally comparable to those of rats that hadn't been radiated"
• Apple Juice May Boost Memory - WebMD, 8/4/06 - "consumption of antioxidant-rich foods such as apples and apple juice can help reduce problems associated with memory loss"
• Preventive Maintenance For the Brain - WashingtonPost.com, 2/21/06 - "increased mental activity throughout life appears to preserve brainpower ... those who exercised the most -- at least three times a week -- were least likely to develop Alzheimer's disease ... diet (for brain health, nutritionists suggest a diet low in saturated fats and rich in vegetables, fruit and fish with omega-3 fatty acids), social life (an active one is thought to improve immunity and reduce inflammation, believed to play a role in Alzheimer's) and health problems like diabetes and heart disease"
• Green Tea May Do Wonders for the Brain - WebMD, 2/17/06 - "Those who reported drinking the most green tea were least likely to show cognitive impairment, based on their test scores ... Drinking at least two daily cups of green tea was tied to the lowest risk of cognitive impairment" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Staying active helps keep the mind sharp - MSNBC, 1/16/06 - "healthy people who reported exercising regularly had a 30 to 40 percent lower risk of dementia"
• Folic Acid to Boost Memory? - Dr. Weil, 12/13/05 - "those who took the folic acid had memory scores equal to people five and a half years younger"
• Low Vitamin E Serum Levels Correlate With Dementia Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/05 - "those individuals in the bottom tertile of vitamin E plasma levels were at significantly higher risk not only of being demented (OR 2.6, 95% CI) but also of having impaired cognitive function (OR 2.2, 95% CI), compared with the highest vitamin E tertile"
• Eating Fish Associated with Slower Cognitive Decline - Doctor's Guide, 10/12/05 - "Consuming fish at least once a week was associated with a 10% per year slower rate of cognitive decline in elderly people ... consumption of one omega-3 fatty acid in particular, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is important for memory performance in aged animals" - See DHA at Amazon.com.  My favorite is Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Fish Fights Aging in the Brain - WebMD, 10/10/05 - "eating fish at least once a week slowed the rate of mental or cognitive decline in elderly people by 10%-13% per year ... Researchers attribute the protective effects of fish on the brain to omega-3 fatty acids" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Obesity at Midlife Raises Dementia Risk Later - WebMD, 10/10/05 - "people who were obese at midlife were nearly 2.5 times more likely to develop dementia more than 20 years later than those who were normal weight ... high blood pressure and total cholesterol levels at midlife also doubled the risk of dementia in later life ... when a person had all three of these risk factors at midlife, the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease was six times higher"
• Fish Consumption and Cognitive Decline With Age in a Large Community Study - Arch Neurol. 2005;62 - "Compared with a decline rate in score of –0.100 SU/y among persons who consumed fish less than weekly, the rate was 10% slower (–0.090 SU/y) among persons who consumed 1 fish meal per week and 13% slower (–0.088 SU/y) among persons who consumed 2 or more fish meals per week"
• Preserving and Restoring Brain Function - Life Extension Magazine, 10/05 - "Clinical trials using small groups of patients with cognitive decline demonstrated significant improvements with phosphatidylserine supplementation, especially among patients in the early stages"
• Veggies May Keep an Aging Brain Sharp - WebMD, 9/28/05
• Leafy Green Vegetables May Help Keep Brains Sharp Through Aging - Science Daily, 9/26/05 - "men who obtained more folate in their diets showed significantly less of a decline in verbal fluency skills over the course of three years than did men with lower dietary folate intake ... High folate levels, both in the diet and in the blood, also appeared to be protective against declines in another category of cognitive skills known as spatial copying"
• Exercise could build brain cells in elderly, study suggests - USAToday, 9/20/05 - "Older mice that exercised on a running wheel developed new brain cells and learned a new task more effectively than older mice that took it easy all day"
• Midlife Obesity Linked to Late-Life Dementia - WebMD, 4/28/05 - "For those with an obese BMI (30 or higher) in middle age, the risk of dementia in old age was 74% higher than for those with normal BMI. For those who were overweight (BMI of 25-29.9), late-life dementia risk was 35% higher than those with normal BMI"
• Fruit and vegetable consumption and cognitive decline in aging women - Ann Neurol 2005;57:713-720 - "Fruits were not associated with cognition or cognitive decline. However, total vegetable intake was significantly associated with less decline. Specifically, on a global score combining all tests, women in the highest quintile of cruciferous vegetables declined slower (by 0.04 unit; 95% confidence interval, 0.003, 0.07; p trend = 0.1) compared with the lowest quintile. Women consuming the most green leafy vegetables also experienced slower decline than women consuming the least amount (by 0.05 unit; 95% confidence interval, 0.02, 0.09; p trend < 0.001). These mean differences were equivalent to those observed for women about 1 to 2 years apart in age"
• Preventing Age-Related Cognitive Decline - Life Extension Magazine, 4/05 - "Free radicals are a significant culprit, interfering with energy metabolism, blood flow, and nerve structure and function. Mitochondrial energy boosters, vitamins, hormones, and other antioxidants are effective weapons in the war against oxidative stress, safely enhancing energy production and blood flow, suppressing inflammation, maintaining the structural integrity of nerve cell components, and facilitating neuronal activity"
• Low Fatty Acid Levels, Dementia Associated in Large Study - Clinical Psychiatry News, 3/05 - "The n-3 fatty acids are an important component of the neuronal membrane, influencing membrane fluidity and all the related functions, such as signal transduction and enzyme function ... Subjects with dementia had the lowest n-3 fatty acid plasma concentrations ... Subjects with dementia had the highest plasma concentrations of saturated fatty acids" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Cardiovascular Exercise Improves the Aging Brain - Clinical Psychiatry News, 2/05 - "Cardiovascular exercise improves cognitive performance and cortical function in elderly people, and it also appears to roll back age-related losses in brain volume"
• Neuropsychology of vitamin B12 deficiency in elderly dementia patients and control subjects - J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2005 Mar;18(1):33-38 - "cobalamin deficiency may cause a reversible dementia in elderly patients"
• Physical Activity in Old Age Keeps Mind Sharp - WebMD, 12/28/04 - "elderly men who decreased the duration or intensity of their physical activity level over a 10-year period experienced a greater decline in cognitive skills, such as attention, memory, and language skills, than men who maintained the intensity of their physical activity"
• MIT: Magnesium May Reverse Middle-age Memory Loss - Science Daily, 12/27/04 - "In the cover story of the Dec. 2 issue of Neuron, MIT researchers report a possible new role for magnesium: helping maintain memory function in middle age and beyond ... magnesium helps regulate a key brain receptor important for learning and memory" - See iHerb magnesium products.
• Memory Loss - Medscape, 12/7/04 - "diets high in saturated fats and trans-unsaturated fats are associated with greater declines in cognitive functioning.[21] The antioxidants vitamins E and C are thought to reduce risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD),[22] and folate, vitamins B12 and B6 have been shown to play a role in cognitive functioning in women.[23-25] Two recent reviews support the positive influences of a "heart-healthy" diet on reducing risk of cognitive decline[26] and AD.[27] Foods high in vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, unsaturated fat, and nonhydrogenated fat are the most likely to reduce risk of cognitive decline"
• Patients who follow standard preventive health advice may protect themselves against dementia - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/04 - "Eat more veggies ... Eat less saturated fat ... Turn off the TV ... Keep your brain, body, and social life active"
• Nourishing Your Noggin - WebMD, 9/22/04 - "For a long time, people believed that a common component of vitamin E called alpha tocopherol was most important, but another form called gamma tocopherol is definitely a protective antioxidant in brain disorders"
• Walk Away From Dementia - WebMD, 9/21/04 - "Those who walked more than 2 miles a day were nearly half as likely to get dementia as men who walked less than one-quarter mile a day"
• Berries Good For Your Memory - Intelihealth, 7/16/04 - "rats that had blueberry matter added to their diet at age 15 months -- middle age in the rat world, and the time memory problems begin -- did much better on memory tests at 19 months (old age in rats) than same-age rats eating the same diet without blueberries"
• Homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B-12 in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia - Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jul;80(1):114-22 - "Subjects in the lowest folate tertile had significantly higher adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for mild cognitive impairment ... Hyperhomocysteinemia was significantly associated with dementia" - See iHerb folic acid products.
• Memory enhancer named best new ingredient - Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, 4/04 - "Citicoline is a form of choline that helps replenish the brain with phosphatidylserine ... In a double-blind trial of 84 elderly patients with mild to moderate memory loss, subjects who took 1000mg of citicoline daily for six weeks showed improvement in the acquisition of new information and its recall and improvement in global memory efficiency" - See iHerb citicoline products.
• Diet May Improve Cognition, Slow Aging, And Help Protect Against Cosmic Radiation - Intelihealth, 11/10/03 - "The role of diet in cognitive function is one of the vastly understudied areas in the neurosciences ... old dogs that were on an antioxidant diet performed better on a variety of cognitive tests than dogs that were not on the diet ... aged rats on the blueberry-enriched diet had lower NF-kappaB levels than aged rats fed a control data ... among the aged rats, the higher the NF-kappaB levels, the poorer their memory scores"
• Soy Isoflavones May Improve Cognition in Postmenopausal Women - Healthwell Exchange Daily News, 10/2/03 - "Women taking soy isoflavones had significant improvements in recall, logical thinking, planning tasks, and attention compared with women taking a placebo, which translates to better memory and ability to focus on a particular task"
• Creatine May Boost Brain Performance - WebMD, 8/13/03 - "Forty-five vegetarian young adults received either 5 grams of creatine or a placebo powder for six weeks, followed by six weeks of no supplementation. The groups were then switched, and the placebo group received creatine for six weeks and vice versa ... The researchers found that creatine supplementation gave a "significant, measurable boost to brain power." In a memory test that asked participants to recall a string of numbers, people taking creatine recalled an average of 8.5 numbers vs. seven for people not taking the supplement" - See iHerb creatine products.
• E and C May Give Older Women a Mental Edge - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 8/03 - "The women who had taken vitamin C and E supplements for more than 10 years scored an average of 1.5 years younger in cognitive function than those not taking vitamins. The results were even more marked for those with low dietary vitamin E intake: Women with the lowest 30 percent of dietary vitamin E intake who did not take supplements tested two years older in mental function than women who compensated for low dietary intake with antioxidant supplements"
• Chinese Herb [Gastrodine (also called gastrodin)/Gastrodia elata]  May Treat Vascular Dementia - WebMD, 6/11/03 - "Patients who took gastrodine three times a day for 12 weeks did better on tests of mental function and behavior than patients who took Duxil"
• Antioxidants May Protect Against Alcohol Damage - Intelihealth, 6/3/03 - "fed rats a liquid diet containing alcohol for six weeks ... They found a 66 percent decrease in the number of new cells in crucial parts of the brain and an increase in cell death of more than 227 percent ... But in rats that also received injections of the antioxidant ebselen, the damage to developing cells did not occur ... The antioxidant ebselen was used because it is known to have protective effects in the liver and digestive tract and has few side effects in humans"
• Cognitive decline and fatty acid composition of erythrocyte membranes - Am. J. of Clinical Nutr., 4/03 - "studied the relation between erythrocyte membrane fatty acid composition and cognitive decline in free-living volunteers ... Higher proportions of both stearic acid (saturated, 18:0) and total n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids were associated with greater risk of cognitive decline ... Conversely, a higher proportion of total n-3 fatty acids was associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline"
• Effects of Obesity Reach Into Brain - WebMD, 3/5/03 - "obesity works independently -- as well as in conjunction with other risk factors -- to cause a decline in thinking ability, especially memory and learning ... participants may have suffered from heart disease risk factors that were undetectable 50 years ago ... other social and psychological factors associated with obesity and overeating, such as depression and anxiety, may have also affected the decline ... may damage brain function by making it harder for blood to reach the brain, similar to high blood pressure and heart disease"
• Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: Vitamins Can Help Prevent - WebMD, 2/28/03 - "High levels of a substance in the blood called homocysteine tops the list of potentially new risk factors for heart disease, stroke, and now dementia. A new study suggests that high homocysteine levels are linked with mental declines associated with Alzheimer's disease in elderly people ... High homocysteine levels can be treated very easily with vitamins, including folate, niacin, and B-12"
• HDL Cholesterol Level Linked To Longevity, Cognitive Function - Clinical Psychiatry News, 2/03 - "A group of centenarians maintained significantly higher than normal HDL cholesterol levels, and within the group the parameter was strongly correlated with cognitive function ... The centenarians' offspring were also significantly healthier than their spouses: They were half as likely to have diabetes or heart attacks and had significantly lower blood pressure. No strokes occurred among the offspring ... The presence of HDL might explain the health and longevity in these families. The serum concentration of HDL typically declines with age by a mean of 5 mg/dL every 8 years ... Had the decline followed the normal pattern, the centenarians' HDL would have been about 20 mg/dL. But the actual mean value in the group was 55 mg/dL" - See my HDL page for ways to raise it.
• Exercise Saves Brain Cells - WebMD, 1/29/03 - "aerobic exercise can help protect brain tissue from age-related damage and mental decline ... the brain loses an average of 15% to 25% of its tissue between the ages of 30 and 90 ... exercise decreased the amount of brain-tissue loss associated with aging"
• Using Complementary Treatments - PsychiatricTimes.com, 11/15/02 - "Ginseng is known as an adaptogen. Animal studies report a reversal of scopolamine-induced memory deficits in rats, an increase in acetylcholine uptake and improved learning performance. In humans, two randomized, controlled trials reported some improvement in cognitive function over eight and 12 weeks of ginseng use. Another study, looking specifically at 50 elderly subjects, reported improvement over baseline measures ... Research has shown huperzine A to be a selective and reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. It also has been shown to lessen neuronal toxicity caused by glutamate. Initial small investigations reported improvement in cognitive functions of subjects with AD ... Phosphatidylserine is active at cell membranes, including synaptic membrane zones. Partial improvement of learning and recall capacity was noted in subjects with age-related cognitive decline"
• Cognitive Training Improves Memory, Reasoning, Concentration In Seniors - Doctor's Guide, 11/13/02
• An Indian Spice for Alzheimer’s? - Dr. Weil, 6/12/02 - "Curcumin blocked the accumulation of beta-amaloid plaque and also appeared to reduce inflammation related to Alzheimer’s disease in neurologic tissue. The rats fed curcumin also performed better on memory tests than rats on normal diets ... Researchers at the University of Illinois have also found that it helps prevent plaque formation. And preliminary studies at Vanderbilt University suggest that curcumin may block the progression of multiple sclerosis ... only low dose curcumin reduced plaque in the Alzheimer’s disease studies ... Turmeric appears to have significant anti-inflammatory and cancer-protective effects as well"
• Active Life Keeps Brain Healthy - WebMD, 5/21/02 - "An active lifestyle -- even if begun only in middle age -- spurs brain-cell growth and lowers risk of Alzheimer's disease ... In another study published in the same issue of the Annals of Neurology, researchers find that a particular chemical in the blood may be linked to Alzheimer's and other dementing diseases ... The chemical is called hs-CRP. It is a sign of inflammation -- the body's protective response to injury or infection" - See my inflammation page for natural ways to reduce it.
• Nutrition Affects Thinking in Elderly - WebMD, 4/25/02 - "In this study of healthy elderly people, higher concentrations of folic acid and vitamin B-12 were associated with increased memory and thinking ability"
• Caffeine Sharpens the Mind - WebMD, 12/20/01 - "The researchers looked at 40 people over 65 and tested their memory in the morning and again in the afternoon a few days later. Each time, they drank a 12 oz. cup of coffee before going through a series of memory tests. Some drank decaffeinated coffee and some had the real thing but were not told which one they were getting ... those who drank decaffeinated coffee "showed a significant decline in memory performance from morning to afternoon," Ryan says. Those who drank the caffeine had no fall in their memory test scores"
• Memory vitamins - Life Extension Magazine, 9/01 - "Folate and vitamin B12 work together to enhance cognition"
• It is Never Too Late to Regenerate Your Brain - Life Extension Magazine, 6/01 - "Lower your stress, lower your cortisol levels and it is likely that your brain can regenerate its powers to learn and remember"
• Alzheimer's Disease May Be Linked to Deficiencies in Vitamin B12 or Folate - Doctor's Guide, 5/8/01 - "Study authors theorized that vitamin B12 or folate deficiencies affect Alzheimer's disease by influencing neurotransmitters or the levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the body. Either vitamin B12 or folate deficiency can increase homocysteine levels. Homocysteine has a neurotoxic effect that could lead to cell death or neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease"
• Folic Acid May Reduce Age-Related Memory Problems - WebMD, 4/27/01 - "High homocysteine levels were independently associated with poor performance on the memory tests, as were low levels of the vitamin folic acid. Folic acid, or folate, has been shown to significantly lower homocysteine levels ... a cocktail of three vitamin supplements -- folic acid, B12, and B6 -- can dramatically lower homocysteine levels, even in those who get the recommended levels of the vitamins in their diets ... Homocysteine levels naturally increase as you age ... Jacobsen, 62, recommends taking 400-800 mcg of folic acid every day and 25-100 mg of vitamin B6. He says it is not clear if B12 supplementation is beneficial in younger people, but it does appear to benefit those over 50. He takes 500 mcg of B12 each day"
• Exercise Shown to Help Keep Elderly Minds More Alert - WebMD, 4/10/01 - "after taking into consideration factors such as age, sex, and level of education, people who engaged in all levels of physical activity from low to high had lower risks for thinking impairment, and were also less likely to have Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia"

Memory and Hypertension:

• Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and Alzheimer's Disease Progression in Older Adults: Results from the Réseau sur la Maladie d'Alzheimer Français Cohort - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013 Sep 3 - "Memory clinics from 16 university hospitals in France ... Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) ... Continuous ACE-Is users had a 4-year decline in MMSE of 6.4 +/- 1.6 points (P < .001), intermittent ACE-Is users of 7.9 +/- 1.1 points (P < .001), continuous or intermittent users of other antihypertensive drugs of 8.8 +/- 0.7 points (P < .001), and never-users of 10.2 +/- 0.6 points (P < .001). MMSE decline between the four groups was significantly different (adjusted P = .02) ... The use of ACE-Is in older adults with AD is associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline independent of hypertension"
• Antihypertensive drugs decrease risk of Alzheimer disease: Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study - Neurology. 2013 Aug 2 - "Secondary longitudinal data analysis of the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study in older adults at least 75 years of age with normal cognition (n = 1,928) or MCI (n = 320) over a median 6.1-year period ... Hazard ratio for incident AD dementia among participants with normal cognition was 0.51 in diuretic (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.31-0.82), 0.31 in ARB (95% CI 0.14-0.68), 0.50 in ACE-I (95% CI 0.29-0.83), 0.62 in CCB (95% CI 0.35-1.09), and 0.58 in BB (95% CI 0.36-0.93) users and was not significantly altered when mean systolic blood pressure was above 140 mm Hg" - Note:  Sounds like the ARB's left the others in the dust.  See my telmisartan as a first line treatment page.
• Optimal Blood Pressure for Cognitive Function - Medscape, 7/31/13 - "Systolic BP (SBP) of approximately 135 mmHg and diastolic BP (DBP) of approximately 80 mmHg were associated with optimal cognitive function after adjusting for other variables"
• A High-Salt Diet Further Impairs Age-Associated Declines in Cognitive, Behavioral, and Cardiovascular Functions in Male Fischer Brown Norway Rats - J Nutr. 2013 Jul 17 - "we tested the effect of high salt (HS) on anxiety, learning-memory function, and blood pressure (BP) in male Fischer brown Norway (FBN) rats. Adult (A; 2 mo) and old (O; 20 mo) male rats were fed normal-salt (NS; 0.4% NaCl) or HS (8% NaCl) diets for 4 wk after being implanted with telemeter probes for conscious BP measurement. Thereafter, tests to assess anxiety-like behavior and learning-memory were conducted. The rats were then killed, and samples of plasma, urine, and brain tissue were collected. We found that systolic BP was higher in O-NS (117 +/- 1.2 mm Hg) than in A-NS (105 +/- 0.8 mm Hg) rats (P < 0.05). Furthermore, BP was higher in O-HS (124 +/- 1.4 mm Hg) than in O-NS (117 +/- 1.2 mm Hg) rats (P < 0.05). Moreover, anxiety-like behavior (light-dark and open-field tests) was not different between A-NS and O-NS rats but was greater in O-HS rats than in A-NS, O-NS, or A-HS rats (P < 0.05). Short-term memory (radial arm water maze test) was similar in A-NS and O-NS rats but was significantly impaired in O-HS rats compared with A-NS, O-NS, or A-HS rats (P < 0.05). Furthermore, oxidative stress variables (in plasma, urine, and brain) as well as corticosterone (plasma) were greater in O-HS rats when compared with A-NS, O-NS, or A-HS rats (P < 0.05). The antioxidant enzyme glyoxalase-1 expression was selectively reduced in the hippocampus and amygdala of O-HS rats compared with A-NS, O-NS, or A-HS rats (P < 0.05), whereas other antioxidant enzymes, glutathione reductase 1, manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD), and Cu/Zn SOD remained unchanged. We suggest that salt-sensitive hypertension and behavioral derangement are associated with a redox imbalance in the brain of aged FBN rats"
• Optimal Blood Pressure for Cognitive Function: Findings from an Elderly African-American Cohort Study - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013 May 6 - "Systolic BP (SBP) of approximately 135 mmHg and diastolic BP (DBP) of approximately 80 mmHg were associated with optimal cognitive function after adjusting for other variables ... High and low BP were associated with poorer cognitive performance. A joint optimal region of SBP and DBP for cognitive function has been identified, which may provide useful clinical information on optimal BP control in cognitive health and lead to better quality of life for elderly adults"
• High Blood Pressure and Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013 Jan 10 - "Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR Sum) score ... Participants with MCI with two or three annual occasions of high BP values (systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg) had significantly faster decline on neuropsychological measures of visuomotor sequencing, set shifting, and naming than those who were normotensive on all three occasions. High systolic BP values were associated as well with faster decline on the CDR Sum score"
• Midlife and Late-Life Blood Pressure and Dementia in Japanese Elderly: The Hisayama Study - Hypertension. 2011 May 9 - "We followed up a total of 668 community-dwelling Japanese individuals without dementia, aged 65 to 79 years, for 17 years and examined the associations of late-life and midlife hypertension with the risk of vascular dementia and Alzheimer disease using the Cox proportional hazards model ... The age- and sex-adjusted incidence of vascular dementia significantly increased with elevated late-life blood pressure levels (normal: 2.3, prehypertension: 8.4, stage 1 hypertension: 12.6, and stage 2 hypertension: 18.9 per 1000 person-years; P(trend)<0.001), whereas no such association was observed for Alzheimer disease (P(trend)=0.88). After adjusting for potential confounding factors, subjects with prehypertension and stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension had 3.0-fold, 4.5-fold, and 5.6-fold greater risk of vascular dementia, respectively, compared with subjects with normal blood pressure. Likewise, there was a positive association of midlife blood pressure levels with the risk of vascular dementia but not with the risk of Alzheimer disease. Compared with those without hypertension in both midlife and late life, subjects with midlife hypertension had an ≈5-fold greater risk of vascular dementia, regardless of late-life blood pressure levels. Our findings suggest that midlife hypertension and late-life hypertension are significant risk factors for the late-life onset of vascular dementia but not for that of Alzheimer disease in a general Japanese population. Midlife hypertension is especially strongly associated with a greater risk of vascular dementia, regardless of late-life blood pressure levels"
• Abdominal fat at middle age associated with greater risk of dementia: Obesity linked to lower total brain volume - Science Daily, 5/20/10 - "excess abdominal fat places otherwise healthy, middle-aged people at risk for dementia later in life ... 24.3 million people have some form of dementia, with 4.6 million new cases annually"
• Lowering Systolic BP in Midlife Reduces the Risk of Late-Life Dementia - Medscape, 5/17/10 - "17.7% of cases could be attributed to prehypertension (systolic BP 120 to <140 mm Hg), regardless of treatment status, or 11 excess cases per 1000"
• Lowering Midlife Levels of Systolic Blood Pressure as a Public Health Strategy to Reduce Late-Life Dementia. Perspective From the Honolulu Heart Program/Honolulu Asia Aging Study - Hypertension. 2010 Apr 19 - "Compared with those with SBP <120 mm Hg, untreated, and <50 years of age at baseline, 17.7% (95% CI: 4.6% to 29.1%) of the cases were attributable to prehypertensive levels (SBP: 120 to <140 mm Hg) of SBP, translating into 11 excess cases per 1000. Among those who did not report taking antihypertensive medication in midlife, 27% (95% CI: 8.9% to 42.1%) of dementia cases can be attributed to systolic BP >/=120 mm Hg, translating into 17 excess cases per 1000. Although population-attributable risk estimates for population subgroups may differ by relative risk for dementia or prevalence of elevated levels of blood pressure, these data suggest that reducing midlife systolic BP is an effective prevention strategy to reduce risk for late-life dementia"
• Hypertension Drugs May Cut Alzheimer's Risk - WebMD, 1/12/10 - "The patients taking an angiotensin receptor blocker had a 19% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those taking lisinopril and a 24% lower risk compared to use of other blood pressure/heart medications. People taking both an ACE inhibitor and an angiotensin receptor blocker, which both target the angiotensin system, had a 46% lower risk of dementia compared with those taking other medications"
• Dementia linked to high blood pressure years earlier - Science Daily, 1/12/10 - "Women who, at the start of the study, were hypertensive, meaning a blood pressure of 140/90 or higher, had significantly more white matter lesions on their MRI scans eight years later than participants with normal blood pressure. Lesions were more common in the frontal lobe, the brain's emotional control center and home to personality, than in the occipital, parietal or temporal lobes"
• Hypertension Linked to White-Matter Disease Progression: Study - Medscape, 1/7/10 - "Long-standing hypertension is strongly associated with progression of white-matter hyperintensity (WMH), which is known to be associated with new or worsening cognitive impairment and dementia"
• Antihypertensive Therapy Slows Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer Disease - Medscape, 9/29/09 - "patients using antihypertensive treatments had significantly higher MMSE scores at 1, 2, and 3 years, compared with patients not taking antihypertensive treatments"
• High Blood Pressure Linked To Memory Problems In Middle Age - Science Daily, 8/26/09 - "The study found that people with high diastolic blood pressure, which is the bottom number of a blood pressure reading, were more likely to have cognitive impairment, or problems with their memory and thinking skills, than people with normal diastolic readings ... For every 10 point increase in the reading, the odds of a person having cognitive problems was seven percent higher" - [Abstract]
• High Blood Pressure May Make It Difficult For The Elderly To Think Clearly - Science Daily, 12/15/08 - "subjects whose average systolic blood pressure was 130 or higher saw a significant decrease in cognitive function when their blood pressure spiked ... study subjects whose average blood pressure was low or normal saw no change in their cognitive functioning – even when their blood pressure shot up"
• Angiotensin Receptor Blockers Are Lower Incidence, Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily, 7/27/08 - "Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have, for the first time, found that angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs)—a particular class of anti-hypertensive medicines—are associated with a striking decrease in the occurrence and progression of dementia" - Note:  Telmisartan, which I've been saying should be a first line treatment, is an ARB.  See telmisartan at OffshoreRx1.com.
• n-3 Fatty acids, hypertension and risk of cognitive decline among older adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study - Public Health Nutr. 2008 Jan;11(1):17-29 - "Word Fluency Test (WFT) ... an increase of one standard deviation in dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (% of energy intake) and balancing long-chain n-3/n-6 decreased the risk of 6-year cognitive decline in verbal fluency with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.79 (0.66-0.95) and 0.81 (0.68-0.96), respectively, among hypertensives. An interaction with hypertensive status was found for dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids (g day-1) and WFT decline (likelihood ratio test, P = 0.06). This exposure in plasma cholesteryl esters was also protective against WFT decline, particularly among hypertensives (OR = 0.51" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• High Blood Pressure Associated With Risk For Mild Cognitive Impairment - Science Daily, 12/12/07 - "Hypertension (high blood pressure) was associated with an increased risk of all types of mild cognitive impairment that was mostly driven by an increased risk of non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment ... Preventing and treating hypertension may have an important impact in lowering the risk of cognitive impairment"
• High Blood Pressure May Heighten Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily, 11/28/07 - "Having hypertension, or high blood pressure, reduces blood flow in the brains of adults with Alzheimer's disease"
• Arterial Stiffness and Memory and Concentration - Medscape, 11/23/07 - "Increasing pulse-pressure levels and higher baseline pulse-wave velocity — indications of increased arterial stiffness — were linked to a decline in memory and concentration among aging individuals who participated in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging"
• High Blood Pressure Or Irregular Heartbeat Linked To Alzheimer's Disease Progression - Science Daily, 11/5/07 - "10 with high blood pressure (systolic pressure over 160) at the time of AD diagnosis showed a rate of memory loss roughly 100 percent faster than those with normal blood pressure ... 10 with atrial fibrillation at the time of the diagnosis showed a rate of memory decline that was 75 percent faster than those with normal heartbeats"
• Antihypertensive Treatment May Help Maintain Memory - Medscape, 9/27/07 - "Pretreatment correlation of parietal and prefrontal change was 0.61 vs 0.94 after treatment. According to the investigators, similar differences were observed for all areas, with an average pretreatment correlation of 0.66 vs an average posttreatment correlation of 0.91"
• Some Hypertension Drugs May Help Reduce Dementia Risk - Science Daily, 5/5/07 - "Centrally acting drugs include captropril (Capoten®), fosinopril (Monopril®), lisinopril (Prinivil® or Zestri®), perindopril (Aceon®), ramipril (Altace®) and trandolapril (Mavik®) ... The study found a link between taking centrally active ACE inhibitors and lower rates of mental decline as measured by the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam, a test that evaluates memory, language, abstract reasoning and other cognitive functions"
• Elderly Blood Pressure Variability Affects Cognitive Function - Doctor's Guide, 5/26/06 - "study suggested that lowering the systolic BP by 20 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure by 10 mm Hg would have a considerable beneficial effect on the preservation of cognitive abilities in the whole population"
• Senior Moment? Check Blood Pressure - WebMD, 5/17/06 - "the greater the numeric differences in blood pressure readings during the day, the greater the risk of cognitive dysfunction"
• Sustained Blood Pressure Treatment Lowers Dementia Risk In Elderly - Science Daily, 4/10/06 - "each year of treatment reduced the risk of developing dementia during the follow-up period by about 3 percent. Compared with men who were never treated for hypertension, the risk of developing dementia during the follow-up period was: ... 60 percent lower in those treated more than 12 years -- similar to the risk in a control group of 446 men with normal blood pressure"
• Hypertension Control May Lower Risk of Dementia - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/13/05 - "effective antihypertensive therapy may reduce cognitive decline in these patients"
• Brain May Benefit by Lowering Blood Pressure - WebMD, 9/7/05 - "lowering blood pressure may halt or slow the progression of brain abnormalities called white matter hyperintensities (WMH) ... WMH may be accompanied by dementia, depression, and trouble with walking"
• High Blood Pressure Related Decline in Cognitive Function Affects Adults Young and Old - Doctor's Guide, 10/5/04 - "To the extent that BP (blood pressure) effects on cognition are not reversible, it is important to prevent an increase in BP levels as early as possible in the life cycle"
• Hypertension Linked to Cognitive Decline at All Ages - Medscape, 10/4/04
• High Blood Pressure Causes Memory Lapse? - WebMD, 9/23/03 - "some short-term memory lapses often attributed to aging may actually result from having high blood pressure"
• Low Blood Pressure and Risk of Dementia in the Kungsholmen Project: A 6-Year Follow-up Study - Archives of Neurology, 2/03 - "Subjects with very high systolic pressure (>180 vs 141-180 mm Hg) had an adjusted relative risk of 1.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-2.3; P = .07) for Alzheimer disease, and 1.6 (95% CI, 1.1-2.2) for dementia ... high diastolic pressure (>90 mm Hg) was not associated with dementia incidence, whereas extremely low diastolic pressure (65 vs 66-90 mm Hg) produced an adjusted relative risk of 1.7 (95% CI, 1.1-2.4) for Alzheimer disease and 1.5 (95% CI, 1.0-2.1; P = .03) for dementia"
• Blood Pressure Linked To Cognitive Performance In Elderly Men - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/03 - "Diastolic blood pressure at 68 years of age showed an inverse relationship to men's performance on verbal, spatial and speed assessments when tested at 81 years ... systolic blood pressure at 68 years showed an inverse relationship with spatial performance"
• BP Lowering May Halt Descent Into Dementia - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/02 - "Dr. Hansson served as cochair of SCOPE, a 15-nation study in which 4,937 mildly hypertensive patients aged 70-89 were randomized to the angiotensin-receptor blocker candesartan or diuretic-based therapy. Serial Mini-Mental Status Exams (MMSEs) conducted during more than 18,000 patient-years of follow-up demonstrated that among individuals with a baseline MMSE of 24-28—indicative of normal to slightly impaired cognitive function—those in the candesartan arm had a mean 0.5-point decline in MMSE scores during follow-up, compared with a 6-point drop in those on a diuretic. The cognitive benefit was even more pronounced in patients over age 85"
• Blood Pressure Medication Preserves Cognitive Function In Older African-Americans - Doctor's Guide, 10/14/02
• Blood Pressure Drugs Keep Brain Healthy - KGTV.com, 10/14/02 - "the continuous use of medications to lower blood pressure reduced the risk of memory loss by more than one-third"
• Lowering High Blood Pressure Can Reverse Some Dementia in the Elderly, Improves Memory and Thinking Limited by Vascular Dementia - WebMD, 5/18/01 - "At 12 weeks, both thinking and memory improved by 15% to 40%, and there were similar improvements in gait and other movements, says Jacobson. These improvements were still present at six months"
• Blood Pressure Control Improves Cognitive Function In Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/01 - "When the tests were repeated at 12 and 24 weeks, patients averaged a 15-40 percent improvement in the areas of executive function, memory, concentration and information processing, as well as spatial skills and some motor function"
• Cognitive Effects Seen With Mild Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 2/19/01 - "But even in these young, high functioning, mild hypertensives you can find differences and deficits in cognitive function of about 4 Intelligence Quotient (IQ) points."

Other News:

• Statins and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults with Normal Cognition or Mild Cognitive Impairment - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013 Sep 3 - "Research volunteers with normal cognition at baseline evaluated an average 4.1 times over 3.4 years (1,244 statin users, 2,363 nonusers) and with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at baseline evaluated an average 3.9 times over 2.8 years (763 users, 917 nonusers) ... Cognitive performance was assessed according to 10 neuropsychological indices and the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SOB) ... Of participants with normal cognition at baseline, statin users performed significantly better across all visits in attention (Trails A) and had significantly slower annual worsening in CDR-SOB scores (P = .006) and slower worsening in Mini-Mental State Examination scores than nonusers (which was not significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons, P = .05). For participants with MCI, statin users performed significantly better across all visits on attention measures (Trail-Making Test Part A), verbal skills (Category Fluency), and executive functioning (Trail-Making Test Part B, Digit Symbol, and Digits Backward), but there were no differences in cognitive decline between users and nonusers"
• High dose statins prevents dementia, study suggests - Science Daily, 8/31/13 - "the current study examined whether statin use was associated with new diagnoses of dementia. The researchers used a random sample of 1 million patients covered by Taiwan's National Health Insurance ... The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for dementia were significantly inversely associated with increased daily or total equivalent statin dosage. The HRs for the three tertiles of mean equivalent daily dosage (lowest to highest) were 0.622, 0.697 and 0.419 vs control ... Patients who received the highest total equivalent doses of statins had a 3-fold decrease in the risk of developing dementia ... Almost all the statins (except lovastatin) decreased the risk for new onset dementia when taken at higher daily doses. A high mean daily dosage of lovastatin was positively associated with the development of dementia, possibly because lovastatin is a lipophilic statin while the anti-inflammatory cholesterol lowering effect of lovastatin is not comparable to that of atorvastatin and simvastatin" - Note: The brand names are Mevacor (lovastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium), Zocor (simvastatin), etc.
• Plasma cortisol in Alzheimer's disease with or without depressive symptoms - Med Sci Monit. 2013 Aug 19;19:681-9 - "Cortisol is presumed to be a risk factor for stress- and age-related disorders, such as depressive disorder and Alzheimer's disease (AD) ... Plasma cortisol concentration was measured in 80 AD patients (35 of them with depressive symptoms), 27 elderly depressive patients without AD, and 37 elderly controls ... Compared to controls, a significant increase of mean plasma cortisol was found in AD patients but not in depressive patients. Plasma cortisol was positively correlated with cognitive impairment in AD patients. We confirmed a U-shaped association between plasma cortisol and major depression and a linear association between plasma cortisol and AD without depressive symptoms. Significantly increased relative risk of disease in people with high plasma cortisol was found for AD with depressive symptoms and for AD with mild dementia"
• Dementia risk tied to blood sugar level, even with no diabetes - Science Daily, 8/7/13 - "more than 2,000 Group Health patients age 65 and older in the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study ... in people without diabetes, risk for dementia was 18 percent higher for people with an average glucose level of 115 milligrams per deciliter compared to those with an average glucose level of 100 mg/dl. And in people with diabetes, whose blood sugar levels are generally higher, dementia risk was 40 percent higher for people with an average glucose level of 190 mg/dl compared to those with an average glucose level of 160 mg/dl ... The most interesting finding was that every incrementally higher glucose level was associated with a higher risk of dementia in people who did not have diabetes" - [Abstract]
• People With Impaired Glucose Tolerance Can Show Cognitive Dysfunction -Science Daily, 7/16/13 - "she examined 31 previous studies regarding cognitive performance under various dietary conditions. She found that the impaired glucose tolerance group showed difficulties in 12 of 27 cognitive test outcomes, including word recognition, visual verbal learning test, visual spatial learning test, psychomotor test and Corsi block-tapping. The impaired glucose tolerance group was made up of all middle-aged women who appeared to be in general good health ... She pointed to a 2009 Japanese study of 129 people in their 80s, 55 of whom had impaired glucose tolerance or Type 2 diabetes. All the subjects in the study consumed more than 30 grams of dietary fiber per day and exercised two to four times per week over a two-year period. Within that timeframe, the 36 people with impaired glucose tolerance showed improvements in delayed recall and block design tests. The Type 2 diabetes group showed improvement in dementia, delayed recall and their mental state"
• Putting Off Retirement May Help Stave Off Alzheimer's - WebMD, 7/15/13 - "Researchers analyzing health and insurance records of more than 429,000 self-employed workers found a 3 percent reduction in dementia risk for each extra year at the age of retirement. Workers evaluated had been retired for an average of more than 12 years, and 2.65 percent of the group had dementia ... There seems to be growing evidence that staying cognitively [mentally] active is really important to reducing a person's risk, and perhaps professional activity may be one of those cognitive activities ... noted several caveats to keep in mind when interpreting the study's meaning ... self-employed workers may be inherently different than company-employed workers, with differences in skill sets, work environment, stress and social mobility that might affect the study's results"
• Do dietary patterns influence cognitive function in old age? - Int Psychogeriatr. 2013 Jun 4:1-15 - "Our results suggest a pattern of reverse causation or confounding; a higher childhood cognitive ability (and adult socioeconomic status) predicts adherence to a "healthy" diet and better cognitive performance in old age. Our models show no direct link between diet and cognitive performance in old age; instead they are related via the lifelong-stable trait of intelligence"
• Passive smoking increases risk of severe dementia, according to study in China - Science Daily, 1/9/13 - "The study of nearly 6,000 people in five provinces in China reveals that people exposed to passive smoking have a significantly increased risk of severe dementia syndromes"
• Effects of Type 2 Diabetes on 12-Year Cognitive Change: Results from the Maastricht Aging Study - Diabetes Care. 2012 Dec 28 - "Individuals with baseline type 2 diabetes show accelerated cognitive decline, particularly in information-processing speed and executive function, compared with individuals without diabetes. In incident diabetes, decline in speed becomes detectable first, and cognitive decline seems to increase with increasing exposure time"
• Even in normal range, high blood sugar linked to brain shrinkage - Science Daily, 9/3/12 - "The study involved 249 people age 60 to 64 who had blood sugar in the normal range as defined by the World Health Organization. The participants had brain scans at the start of the study and again an average of four years later ... Those with higher fasting blood sugar levels within the normal range and below 6.1 mmol/l (or 110 mg/dL) were more likely to have a loss of brain volume in the areas of the hippocampus and the amygdala, areas that are involved in memory and cognitive skills, than those with lower blood sugar levels. A fasting blood sugar level of 10.0 mmol/l (180 mg/dL) or higher was defined as diabetes and a level of 6.1 mmol/l (110 mg/dL) was considered impaired, or prediabetes ... blood sugar on the high end of normal accounted for six to 10 percent of the brain shrinkage"
• Your Brain -- Use It or Lose It - Medscape, 7/12/12 - "It is not yet known whether an active cognitive lifestyle and social engagement directly affect the brain and cerebral vasculature, whether people who are more resilient neurologically have more active cognitive lifestyles, or whether predisposition to greater resiliency is linked to predisposition to cognitive activity. However, improvement of cognitive decline by cognitive retraining (JW Psychiatry Oct 17 2011) suggests that a two-way interaction between the environment and the brain might protect against dementia via several mechanisms"
• Diabetes shrinks elderly brain - Science Daily, 5/7/12 - "While some brain volume loss is a normal part of aging, the researchers found that elderly people with blood sugar levels in flux, as well as type 2 diabetes, lost almost two and a half times more brain volume than their peers over two years. The reduction in size of the frontal lobe -- associated with higher mental functions like decision-making, emotional control, and long term memory -- has a significant impact on cognitive function and quality of life"
• Poor Dental Health Linked to Dementia Onset - Medscape, 4/13/12 - "those who had few teeth and who did not use dentures or who did not visit a dentist regularly had a significantly higher risk for dementia onset than the participants who practiced better dental health practices ... Gum Disease a Likely Culprit ... The participants who had few teeth without dentures had a significantly higher risk of developing dementia than those who had 20 teeth or more (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.85 ... Not having a regular dentist was also a significant risk factor for dementia onset (HR, 1.44 ... One possibility is that periodontal disease...increases concentrations of circulating inflammatory markers [that] may be involved in the pathogenesis of dementia. A second possibility is that poor nutrition, including decreased intake of vitamins, may result from tooth loss and dementia onset"
• Brain insulin resistance contributes to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease - Science Daily, 3/23/12 - "This is the first study to directly demonstrate that insulin resistance occurs in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease ... Our research clearly shows that the brain's ability to respond to insulin, which is important for normal brain function, is going offline at some point ... We believe that brain insulin resistance may be an important contributor to the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease ... The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is increased by 50 percent in people with diabetes ... insulin resistance of the brain occurs in Alzheimer's disease independent of whether someone has diabetes ... The investigators used samples of postmortem brain tissue from non-diabetics who had died with Alzheimer's disease, stimulated the tissue with insulin, and measured how much the insulin activated various proteins in the insulin-signaling pathways ... three insulin-sensitizing medicines are already approved by the FDA for treatment of diabetes. These drugs readily cross the blood-brain barrier and may have therapeutic potential to correct insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease and MCI" - Note:  I suspected this for a long time.  It doesn't say what those three drugs are but I'm guessing metformin and Actos are two of them.  I don't have diabetes but I take low doses of both.  My doc says I'm crazy.  See metformin and pioglitazone (Actos) at OffshoreRx1.com.
• More Evidence That ARBs Have Cognitive Benefits - Medscape, 3/23/12 - "After stopping their antihypertensive medications, the patients were randomly assigned to the ARB candesartan (n = 20), the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) lisinopril (n = 18), or the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (n = 15) ... After adjustment for age and baseline score on the Mini-Mental State Examination, patients taking candesartan showed the greatest improvements on tests assessing executive function ... Our findings further support observational data showing that ARB use is associated with lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease compared with the use of ACEIs or other antihypertensives ... As reported previously by Medscape Medical News, Dr. Kehoe and colleagues recently published a study showing a 53% lower risk for Alzheimer's disease in older adults prescribed an ARB compared with those prescribed other antihypertensive agents"
• Impaired Insulin Sensitivity as Indexed by the HOMA Score Is Associated With Deficits in Verbal Fluency and Temporal Lobe Gray Matter Volume in Elderly Men and Women - Diabetes Care. 2012 Feb 1 - "homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) ... The HOMA-IR was negatively correlated with verbal fluency performance, brain size (S1), and temporal lobe gray matter volume in regions known to be involved in speech production (Brodmann areas 21 and 22, respectively) ... These cross-sectional findings suggest that both pharmacologic and lifestyle interventions improving insulin signaling may promote brain health in late life but must be confirmed in patient studies"
• Depressive symptoms, antidepressant use, and future cognitive health in postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study - Int Psychogeriatr. 2012 Feb 3:1-13 - "mild cognitive impairment (MCI) ... Antidepressant use was associated with a 70% increased risk of MCI, after controlling for potential covariates including the degree of depressive symptom severity. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) were both associated with MCI (SSRIs: hazard ratios (HR), 1.78 [95% CI, 1.01-3.13]; TCAs: HR, 1.78 [95% CI, 0.99-3.21]). Depressed users (HR, 2.44 [95% CI, 1.24-4.80]), non-depressed users (HR, 1.79 [95% CI, 1.13-2.85]), and depressed non-users (HR, 1.62 [95% CI, 1.13-2.32]) had increased risk of incident MCI. Similarly, all three groups had increased risk of either MCI or dementia, relative to the control cohort"
• Study: Mental decline can start at 45 - USATODAY.com, 1/6/12 - "Among men aged 45 to 49, reasoning skills declined by nearly 4 percent, and for those aged 65 to 70 those skills dropped by about nearly 10 percent ... For women, the decline in reasoning approached 5 percent for those aged 45 to 49 and about 7 percent for those 65 to 70, the researchers found"
• Glucose tolerance status and risk of dementia in the community: The Hisayama Study - Neurology. 2011 Sep 20;77(12):1126-34 - "The age- and sex-adjusted incidence of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD) were significantly higher in subjects with diabetes than in those with normal glucose tolerance. These associations remained robust even after adjustment for confounding factors for all-cause dementia and AD, but not for VaD (all-cause dementia: adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.19 to 2.53, p = 0.004; AD: adjusted HR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.18 to 3.57, p = 0.01; VaD: adjusted HR = 1.82, 95% CI = 0.89 to 3.71, p = 0.09). Moreover, the risks of developing all-cause dementia, AD, and VaD significantly increased with elevated 2-hour postload glucose (PG) levels even after adjustment for covariates, but no such associations were observed for fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels: compared with those with 2-hour PG levels of <6.7 mmol/L, the multivariable-adjusted HRs of all-cause dementia and AD significantly increased in subjects with 2-hour PG levels of 7.8 to 11.0 mmol/L or over, and the risk of VaD was significantly higher in subjects with levels of ≥11.1 mmol/L ... Our findings suggest that diabetes is a significant risk factor for all-cause dementia, AD, and probably VaD. Moreover, 2-hour PG levels, but not FPG levels, are closely associated with increased risk of all-cause dementia, AD, and VaD"
• How Exercise Can Keep the Brain Fit - NYTimes.com, 7/27/11 - "While the wholly sedentary volunteers, and there were many of these, scored significantly worse over the years on tests of cognitive function, the most active group showed little decline. About 90 percent of those with the greatest daily energy expenditure could think and remember just about as well, year after year ... The same message emerged from another study published last week in the same journal. In it, women, most in their 70s, with vascular disease or multiple risk factors for developing that condition completed cognitive tests and surveys of their activities over a period of five years. Again, they were not spry. There were no marathon runners among them. The most active walked. But there was “a decreasing rate of cognitive decline” among the active group, the authors wrote. Their ability to remember and think did still diminish, but not as rapidly as among the sedentary ...scientists from the Aging, Mobility and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of British Columbia and other institutions have shown, for the first time, that light-duty weight training changes how well older women think and how blood flows within their brains. After 12 months of lifting weights twice a week, the women performed significantly better on tests of mental processing ability than a control group of women who completed a balance and toning program, while functional M.R.I. scans showed that portions of the brain that control such thinking were considerably more active in the weight trainers"
• Humans Alone See Brains Shrink With Age, Researchers Find - WSJ, 7/26/11 - "they found the human brains lost significant volume over time, while the chimpanzees didn't ... Stress can affect brain size. So can depression, research shows. Diet can be a factor, too. More broadly, though, humanity's unusual shrinking brain just may be the price our species pays for living so much longer than other primates ... During those extra decades of life, natural cell-repair mechanisms may wear out and neural circuits wither, the researchers said. As the brain normally ages, it acquires the neural equivalent of sore knees and stiff fingers. Natural grooves in the brain widen. Healthy swellings subside. And tangles of damaged neurons become dense thickets of dysfunctional synapses"
• Plasma homocysteine and cognitive decline in older hypertensive subjects - Int Psychogeriatr. 2011 May 6:1-9 - "Higher homocysteine showed an independent association with greater cognitive decline in three domains: speed of cognition (β = -27.33, p = 0.001), episodic memory (β = -1.25, p = 0.02) and executive function (β = -0.05, p = 0.04). The association with executive function was no longer significant after inclusion of folate in the regression model (β = -0.032, p = 0.22). Change in working memory and attention were not associated with plasma homocysteine, folate or B12. High homocysteine was associated with greater decline with a Cohen's d effect size of approximately 0.7 compared to low homocysteine. Conclusions: In a population of older hypertensive patients, higher plasma homocysteine was associated with cognitive decline"
• Packing on the pounds in middle age linked to dementia - Science Daily, 5/2/11 - "people who were overweight or obese at midlife had an 80 percent higher risk of developing dementia, Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia in late life compared to people with normal BMI"
• Study links inflammation in brain to some memory decline - Science Daily, 4/13/11 - "adults with measureable levels of C reactive protein recalled fewer words and had smaller medial temporal lobes ... Scientists don't know if the inflammation indicated by the C reactive protein is the cause of the memory loss, if it reflects a response to some other disease process or if the two factors are unrelated. But if inflammation causes the cognitive decline, relatively simple treatments could help"
• High cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age tied to early memory problems - Science Daily, 2/21/11 - "people who had higher cardiovascular risk were more likely to have lower cognitive function and a faster rate of overall cognitive decline compared to those with the lowest risk of heart disease. A 10-percent higher cardiovascular risk was associated with poorer cognitive test scores in all areas except reasoning for men and fluency for women. For example, a 10 percent higher cardiovascular risk was associated with a 2.8 percent lower score in the test of memory for men and a 7.1 percent lower score in the memory test for women ... Higher cardiovascular risk was also associated with a 10-year faster rate of overall cognitive decline in both men and women compared to those with lower cardiovascular risk"
• Long-term exposure to pesticides may be linked to dementia - Science Daily, 12/1/10
• Protein in the urine: A warning sign for cognitive decline - Science Daily, 11/21/10 - "low amounts of albumin in the urine, at levels not traditionally considered clinically significant, strongly predict faster cognitive decline in older women ... participants with a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio of >5 mcg/mg at the start of the study experienced cognitive decline at a rate 2 to 7 times faster in all cognitive measures than that attributed to aging alone over an average 6 years of follow-up"
• 'Sweet 16' tool may be useful for detecting cognitive impairment - Science Daily, 11/8/10
• High-Quality Relationships May Have Long-Term Protective Effect Against Dementia - Medscape, 10/28/10 - "participants older than 65 years showed those who reported being satisfied with their relationships at baseline had a 23% reduced risk of developing dementia from 5 to 15 years later compared with those who were not satisfied"
• Metabolic syndrome in 25% of older people with intellectual disability - Fam Pract. 2010 Oct 11 - "intellectual disabilities (IDs) ... The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in the population with ID is significantly higher than that in the general Dutch population aged ≥50 years"
• Promising drug candidate reverses age-related memory loss in mice - Science Daily, 10/12/10 - "Such memory loss has been linked with high levels of 'stress' steroid hormones known as glucocorticoids which have a deleterious effect on the part of the brain that helps us to remember. An enzyme called 11beta-HSD1 is involved in making these hormones and has been shown to be more active in the brain during aging ... We found that life-long partial deficiency of 11beta-HSD1 prevented memory decline with aging. But we were very surprised to find that the blocking compound works quickly over a few days to improve memory in old mice suggesting it might be a good treatment for the already elderly ... We previously showed that carbenoxolone, an old drug that blocks multiple enzymes including 11beta-HSD1, improves memory in healthy elderly men and in patients with type 2 diabetes after just a month of treatment, so we are optimistic that our new compounds will be effective in humans. The next step is to conduct further studies with our preclinical candidate to prove that the compound is safe to take into clinical trials, hopefully within a year"
• Metabolic Syndrome, Brain MRI, and Cognition - Diabetes Care. 2010 Sep 17 - "MetS exerts detrimental effects on memory and executive functioning in community-dwelling subjects without clinical strokes or dementia. Men are more affected than women, particularly if they have high inflammatory markers"
• Mild memory loss is not a part of normal aging, new research finds - Science Daily, 9/15/10 - "Simply getting older is not the cause of mild memory lapses often called senior moments ... even the very early mild changes in memory that are much more common in old age than dementia are caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias ... The very early mild cognitive changes once thought to be normal aging are really the first signs of progressive dementia"
• Moderate drinking, especially wine, associated with better cognitive function - Science Daily, 8/18/10

• Gum inflammation linked to Alzheimer's disease - Science Daily, 8/3/10 - "cognitively normal subjects with periodontal inflammation are at an increased risk of lower cognitive function compared to cognitively normal subjects with little or no periodontal inflammation ... subjects with Alzheimer's disease had a significantly higher level of antibodies and inflammatory molecules associated with periodontal disease in their plasma compared to healthy people ... the Digit Symbol Test, or DST, a part of the standard measurement of adult IQ ... periodontal inflammation at age 70 was strongly associated with lower DST scores at age 70. Subjects with periodontal inflammation were nine times more likely to test in the lower range of the DST compared to subjects with little or no periodontal inflammation" - Note:  See my dental page.  Gum disease has been linked to several other heath conditions including diabetes and heart disease.  Over the years I've tried several methods for gum disease including floss, Periostat and Arestin and here is the only method that worked:

  • Periogard - Needs a prescription but is usually available at you dentist for around $10.
  • Sunstar Butler Proxabrush GUM Eez-Lok Handle
  • Sunstar Butler Proxabrush GUM Eez-Lok Handle - a better model than the above
  •  Sunstar Butler GUM Proxabrush Refill Ultra Wide (618) - use this wide brush for the back teeth
  • Butler 612 Soft Picks or Butler Ultra-Fine - use these narrower brushes for the front teeth
  • Soak the brush in the Periogard than run it between your teeth.