Recent Longevity News for the fourteen days ending 8/13/14:

FDA Approves Cologuard for Colorectal Cancer Screening - Medscape, 8/11/14 - "The test is intended to be used as an adjunctive screening test to detect colorectal neoplasia-associated DNA markers and the presence of occult hemoglobin in human stool. A positive test result may indicate the presence of CRC or premalignant colorectal neoplasia. The device is not meant to be a replacement for colonoscopy and is intended to be used in conjunction with colonoscopy and other test methods according to recognized screening guidelines ... The safety and effectiveness of Cologuard was established in a large clinical trial that screened 10,023 individuals and compared the performance of Cologuard to the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), a commonly used noninvasive screening test that detects blood in the stool ... Cologuard detected 92% of colorectal cancers and 42% of advanced adenomas, as compared with FIT screening, which detected 74% of cancers and 24% of advanced adenomas"

Talk to Pregnant/Nursing Patients About Iodine Supplements - Medscape, 8/11/14 - "iodine deficiency in the United States is occurring at least marginally in about one third of pregnant women ... this deficiency may be compounded by environmental exposures that are ubiquitous: for example, perchlorate, which may take the place of iodide and thus make iodide less available for the thyroid and for breastmilk ... One reason for the deficiency in iodine is the increased consumption in the United States of processed foods; these don't contain, in general, iodized salt. The second contributor is that the supplements taken in pregnancy or by breastfeeding women, as we mentioned before, don't contain adequate amounts of iodine and are not always labeled correctly ... few supplements contain adequate amounts of iodine and labeling issues persist" - See iodine at Amazon.com.

Regular marijuana use bad for teens' brains - Science Daily, 8.9/14 - "Frequent marijuana use can have a significant negative effect on the brains of teenagers and young adults, including cognitive decline, poor attention and memory, and decreased IQ ... regular cannabis use, which we consider once a week, is not safe and may result in addiction and neurocognitive damage ... People who have become addicted to marijuana can lose an average of six IQ points by adulthood ... Brain imaging studies of regular marijuana users have shown significant changes in their brain structure ... frequent use of high potency THC can increase risk of acute and future problems with depression, anxiety and psychosis ... marijuana use among teenagers was higher in counties where larger numbers of people voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2004. In addition, teens in counties with more votes for the legalization of medical marijuana perceived marijuana use to be less risky"

Lipids boost the brain, study finds - Science Daily, 8/8/14 - "Consuming oils with high polyunsaturated fatty acid content, in particular those containing omega-3s, is beneficial for the health ... the presence of these lipids makes the membranes more malleable and therefore more sensitive to deformation and fission by proteins. These results, published on August 8, 2014 in Science, could help explain the extraordinary efficacy of endocytosis in neuron cells" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Coffee May Keep Your Ears From Ringing - WebMD, 8/8/14 - "Women who consumed less than 150 milligrams (mg) a day of caffeine (found in about one-and-a-half 8-ounce cups of coffee) were 15 percent more likely to develop tinnitus than those who consumed 450 mg to 599 mg a day of caffeine, the investigators found ... We know that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, and previous research has demonstrated that caffeine has a direct effect on the inner ear in both bench science and animal studies"

Vitamin D And Dementia: A Very Close Tie - Medscape, 8/6/14 - "Researchers obtained blood samples in 1992–1993 and in 2008; they measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentrations. They classified these samples as follows: less than 25 nmol/L (severely deficient), 25 nmol/L or greater to less than 50 nmol/L (deficient), and 50 nmol/L or greater (sufficient) ... After also adjustment for education, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol consumption, and depressive symptoms, the HRs for all-cause dementia were 1.53 in those who were vitamin D deficient and 2.25 for those who were severely deficient ... Low vitamin D levels likely affect cognition through both neurodegenerative and vascular mechanisms ... The findings suggest that the optimal vitamin D level to prevent dementia is 50 nmol/L. Others in the field argue that a higher level — 75 nmol/L — is better" - [Abstract] - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

BP Control: Not Too Low, Not Too High Is Best for Outcomes - Medscape, 8/6/14 - "end-stage renal disease (ESRD) ... We observed a U-shaped curve for the composite outcome of mortality/ESRD at systolic BP above 139 and below 130 mm Hg [and] diastolic BP below 60 and above 79 mm Hg ... A BP of 137/71 mm Hg was associated with the lowest risk of death or ESRD"

6 Foods That Make You Look Older - ABC News, 8/1/14 - "Sweets ... Alcohol ... White wine ... Charred meat ... Salty foods ... Processed meat"

Is Ginseng Effective for Cancer-Related Fatigue? - Medscape, 8/1/14 - "Barton and colleagues[1] performed a phase 3, multisite, double-blind, randomized trial evaluating the use of Wisconsin ginseng (P quinquefolius) (3% ginsenosides) 2000 mg daily vs placebo for 8 weeks in 364 patients with CRF. Fatigue was evaluated using the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF) ... At 4 weeks, change from baseline MFSI-SF score in the ginseng group (n = 147) was 14.4 vs 8.2 in the placebo group (n = 153) (P = .07). At 8 weeks, the ginseng group (n = 138) had a change in score of 20 vs 10.3 in the placebo group (n = 133) (P = .003). Patients receiving active cancer therapy reported greater benefit than those who had completed treatment. Self-reported toxicities were similar between groups" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Abstracts:

Efficacy of a novel water-soluble curcumin derivative versus sildenafil citrate in mediating erectile function - Int J Impot Res. 2014 Aug 7 - "The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of a novel curcumin derivative (NCD) versus sildenafil citrate in erectile signaling. The study was conducted on 10 control male rats and 50 diabetic male rats divided into the following groups: diabetic, curcumin, NCD, sildenafil and NCD combined with sildenafil ... NCD or its combination with sildenafil showed significant efficacy and more prolonged duration of action. In conclusion, NCD could enhance erectile function with more efficacy and more prolonged duration of action" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.  Related study:

• Molecular signalling of a novel curcumin derivative versus Tadalafil in erectile dysfunction - Andrologia. 2014 Jul 25 - "novel curcumin derivative (NCD) ... curcumin (CURC) ... In conclusion, a tendency was observed that CURC and NCD have high efficacy and more prolonged duration of action in enhancing erectile function"

Resveratrol: Inhibitory Effects on Metastatic Cell Behaviors and Voltage-Gated Na+ Channel Activity in Rat Prostate Cancer In Vitro - Nutr Cancer. 2014 Aug 7:1-12 - "These results suggest 1) that a significant mode of action of resveratrol is VGSC blockage and 2) that resveratrol has promise as a natural antimetastatic agent" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.

Effects of L-carnitine supplementation on oxidative stress and antioxidant enzymes activities in patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial - Nutr J. 2014 Aug 4;13(1):79 - "LC supplementation at a dose of 1000 mg/d was associated with a significant reduction in oxidative stress and an increase in antioxidant enzymes activities in CAD patients. CAD patients might benefit from using LC supplements to increase their anti-oxidation capacity" - See l-carnitine at Amazon.com.

Statin Use After Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis and Survival: A Population-Based Cohort Study - J Clin Oncol. 2014 Aug 4 - "Overall, statin use after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with reduced colorectal cancer-specific mortality (fully adjusted HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.84). A dose-response association was apparent; for example, a more marked reduction was apparent in colorectal cancer patients using statins for more than 1 year (adjusted HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.79). A reduction in all-cause mortality was also apparent in statin users after colorectal cancer diagnosis (fully adjusted HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.84)"

Association of coffee drinking with all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Public Health Nutr. 2014 Aug 4:1-13 - "Seventeen studies were included and evaluated in the meta-analysis. A U-shaped dose-response relationship was found between coffee consumption and all-cause mortality (P for non-linearity <0.001). Compared with non/occasional coffee drinkers, the relative risks for all-cause mortality were 0.89 (95 % CI 0.85, 0.93) for 1-<3 cups/d, 0.87 (95 % CI 0.83, 0.91) for 3-<5 cups/d and 0.90 (95 % CI 0.87, 0.94) for ≥5 cups/d, and the relationship was more marked in females than in males"

Vitamin d in blood and risk of prostate cancer: lessons from the selenium and vitamin e cancer prevention trial and the prostate cancer prevention trial - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2014 Aug;23(8):1447-9 - "The "U-shaped" curve may reflect detection bias. In the PCPT study, in which detection bias was minimized, serum 25-OHD levels were associated with a linear decrease in the risk of high-grade prostate cancers. The results from these large prevention trials support the hypothesis that circulating levels of 25-OHD decrease the risk of clinically relevant prostate cancers" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Regular Fish Consumption and Age-Related Brain Gray Matter Loss - Am J Prev Med. 2014 Jul 29 - "Data were analyzed from 260 cognitively normal individuals from the Cardiovascular Health Study with information on fish consumption from the National Cancer Institute Food Frequency Questionnaire and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) ... Weekly consumption of baked or broiled fish was positively associated with gray matter volumes in the hippocampus, precuneus, posterior cingulate, and orbital frontal cortex even after adjusting for covariates" - [Science Daily] - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

• Grey matter - Wikipedia - "Significant positive correlations have been found between grey matter volume in elderly persons and measures of semantic and short-term memory. No significant correlations with white matter volume were found. These results suggest that individual variability in specific cognitive functions that are relatively well preserved with ageing is accounted for by the variability of grey matter volume in healthy elderly subjects"

A soy-based phosphatidylserine/ phosphatidic acid complex (PAS) normalizes the stress reactivity of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal-axis in chronically stressed male subjects: a randomized, placebo-controlled study - Lipids Health Dis. 2014 Jul 31;13(1):121 - "randomly allocated to one of three study arms (placebo, PAS 200 and PAS 400 per day, respectively) ... Compared to placebo, a supplementation with a daily dose of PAS 400 was effective in normalizing the ACTH (p = 0.010), salivary (p = 0.043) and serum cortisol responses (p = 0.035) to the TSST in chronically high but not in low stressed subjects (all p > 0.05). Compared to placebo, supplementation with PAS 200 did not result in any significant differences in these variables" - See phosphatidylserine at Amazon.com.

Testosterone therapy and mortality risk - Int J Impot Res. 2014 Jul 31 - "There appears to be no change in mortality risk overall for men utilizing long-term testosterone therapy"

Fish Intake Is Associated with Slower Cognitive Decline in Chinese Older Adults - J Nutr. 2014 Jul 30 - "Among adults aged ≥65 y, compared with individuals who consumed <1 serving/wk (i.e., 100 g) fish, the mean annual rate of global cognitive decline was reduced by 0.35 point (95% CI: 0.13, 0.58) among those consuming ≥1 serving/week, equivalent to the disparity associated with 1.6 y of age. Fish consumption was also associated with a slower decline in composite and verbal memory scores" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Memory Loss):

Alternative News:

• Dietary advanced glycation end products are associated with decline in memory in young elderly - Mech Ageing Dev. 2014 Jul 15 - "We here provide for the first time evidence in which high levels of dietary AGE (dAGE) are associated with faster rate of decline in memory in 49 initially non-demented young elderly (p=0.012 in mixed regression models adjusting for sociodemographic and cardiovascular factors). Since modifying the levels of AGEs in the diet may be relatively easy, these preliminary results suggest a simple strategy to diminish cognitive compromise in the elderly and warrant further investigation"
• Tocotrienol Rich Fraction Reverses Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Learning and Memory in Aged Rats - Lipids. 2014 Jul 12 - "tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) ... Aged rats supplemented with TRF showed a markedly reduced level of anxiety, improved spatial learning and memory, reduced amount and severity of DNA damage, a reduced level of MDA, and increased levels of antioxidant enzyme activity and plasma/brain vitamin E compared with age-matched controls. In conclusion, TRF supplementation reverses spatial learning and memory decline and decreases oxidative stress in aged rats" - See vitamin E products at Amazon.com.
• B vitamin supplementation improves cognitive function in the middle aged and elderly with hyperhomocysteinemia - Nutr Neurosci. 2014 Jun 18 - "in Tianjin, China, aged 55-94 years old. Fifty-seven individuals with hyperhomocysteinemia were included in the intervention group (vitamin B group, which received 800 µg/day of folate, with 10 mg of vitamin B6 and 25 µg of vitamin B12) and 47 patients in the placebo group. The endpoint was the improvement in cognitive function as evaluated by Basic Cognitive Aptitude Tests (BCATs) ... The BCAT total score and four sub-tests scores (digit copy, Chinese character rotation, digital working memory, and recognition of meaningless figure) of BCAT at 14 weeks significantly increased only for the vitamin B group. Serum total homocysteine (tHcy) levels significantly decreased in the intervention group" - See B vitamins at Amazon.com.
• Milk and Dairy Consumption and Risk of Dementia in an Elderly Japanese Population: The Hisayama Study - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014 Jun 10 - "vascular dementia (VaD) ... The age- and sex-adjusted incidence of all-cause dementia, AD, and VaD significantly decreased as milk and dairy intake level increased (P for trend = .03 for all-cause dementia, .04 for AD, .01 for VaD)"
• Effects of Resveratrol on Memory Performance, Hippocampal Functional Connectivity, and Glucose Metabolism in Healthy Older Adults - J Neurosci. 2014 Jun 4;34(23):7862-7870 - "Twenty-three healthy overweight older individuals that successfully completed 26 weeks of resveratrol intake (200 mg/d) were pairwise matched to 23 participants that received placebo ... functional connectivity (FC) ... We observed a significant effect of resveratrol on retention of words over 30 min compared with placebo (p = 0.038). In addition, resveratrol led to significant increases in hippocampal FC, decreases in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and body fat, and increases in leptin compared with placebo (all p < 0.05). Increases in FC between the left posterior hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex correlated with increases in retention scores and with decreases in HbA1c" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.
• Mouse study offers new clues to cognitive decline - Science Daily, 5/8/14 - "The pathway begins with the B vitamin nicotinamide. Cells take dietary nicotinamide and, with a helper protein called Nampt, manufacture a molecule called NMN, which then is processed further to make NAD. When Stein eliminated Nampt from neural stem cells, several significant changes took place ... Levels of NAD dropped, and the neural stem cells stopped dividing; they stopped renewing themselves; and they stopped being able to create important cells that insulate axons, the "wires" that carry electrical signals throughout the brain. With less insulation, these signals slow down, impairing brain function"
  • What Is the Difference Between Niacin & Niacinamide? - LiveStrong.com - "Your body can convert niacin into niacinamide ... Niacin and niacinamide have identical function when used as vitamins ... their pharmacologic properties differ. For example, high doses of niacin can cause skin flushing. Niacinamide, however, does not have the same vasodialating, or blood-vessel widening, effects, that niacin has, so it does not lead to skin flushing" - Note:  You'll find contradictory information on the Internet but niacinamide will not raise HDL and niacin will.  See niacin at Amazon.com.
• A double-blind, randomized clinical trial of dietary supplementation on cognitive and immune functioning in healthy older adults - BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Feb 4;14:43 - "On the Controlled Oral Word Association Trial-S, the scores significantly increased for the Ginkgo Synergy(®) plus Choline arm from baseline to 6 months follow-up ... Our study showed isolated and modest effects of a Ginkgo biloba plus choline-based formula on cognitive and immune functioning among healthy older adults with no history of significant cognitive deficits" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com and citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Regular aerobic exercise boosts memory area of brain in older women - Science Daily, 4/9/14 - "The researchers tested the impact of different types of exercise on the hippocampal volume of 86 women who said they had mild memory problems, known as mild cognitive impairment -- and a common risk factor for dementia ... All the women were aged between 70 and 80 years old ... the results showed that the total volume of the hippocampus in the group who had completed the full six months of aerobic training was significantly larger than that of those who had lasted the course doing balance and muscle toning exercises ... No such difference in hippocampal volume was seen in those doing resistance training compared with the balance and muscle toning group ... at the very least, aerobic exercise seems to be able to slow the shrinkage of the hippocampus and maintain the volume in a group of women who are at risk of developing dementia"
• Green tea extract boosts your brain power, especially the working memory, new research shows - Science Daily, 4/7/14 - "green tea extract increases the brain's effective connectivity, meaning the causal influence that one brain area exerts over another. This effect on connectivity also led to improvement in actual cognitive performance: Subjects tested significantly better for working memory tasks after the admission of green tea extract ... healthy male volunteers received a soft drink containing several grams of green tea extract before they solved working memory tasks. The scientists then analyzed how this affected the brain activity of the men using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The MRI showed increased connectivity between the parietal and the frontal cortex of the brain. These neuronal findings correlated positively with improvement in task performance of the participants" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Clinical Investigation of the Protective Effects of Palm Vitamin E Tocotrienols on Brain White Matter - Stroke. 2014 Apr 3 - "Previous cell-based and animal studies showed mixed tocotrienols are neuroprotective, but the effect is yet to be proven in humans. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the protective activity of mixed tocotrienols in humans with white matter lesions (WMLs). WMLs are regarded as manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease, reflecting varying degrees of neurodegeneration and tissue damage with potential as a surrogate end point in clinical trials ... total of 121 volunteers aged ≥35 years with cardiovascular risk factors and MRI-confirmed WMLs were randomized to receive 200 mg mixed tocotrienols or placebo twice a day for 2 years ... the mean WML volume of the placebo group increased after 2 years, whereas that of the tocotrienol-supplemented group remained essentially unchanged" - My favorite: Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• What Is Fisetin? And Does It Slow Dementia? - Medscape, 4/3/14 - "The compound is known to have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on brain cells. They have now investigated the memory-protecting effects of fisetin in a strain of double-transgenic Alzheimer's disease (AD) mice. Three-month-old mice had fisetin added to their food. By 9 months of age, mice that had not received fisetin began performing more poorly in water mazes, a standard test of animal learning and memory. Mice fed fisetin daily performed as well as control mice without the Alzheimer's transgene at both 9 months and 1 year old. The researchers next found that in AD mice with memory impairment, pathways involved in cellular inflammation were activated. In fisetin-fed AD mice, those pathways were dampened, and anti-inflammatory molecules were activated" - See fisetin at Amazon.com.
• Plasma vitamin d levels and cognitive function in aging women: the nurses' health study - J Nutr Health Aging. 2014 - "Lower vitamin D levels were associated with significantly worse cognitive function 9 years later ... the mean global composite score averaging all the cognitive tests was 0.20 lower (95% Confidence Interval (CI):-0.33,-0.08; p-trend=0.009) in women in the lowest quintile (median=14.1 ng/mL) compared with women in the highest quintile of vitamin D (median=38.4 ng/mL). The observed differences were equivalent to the effect estimates we found for women who were approximately 4-6 years apart in age" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Dietary omega-3 deficiency reduces BDNF content and activation NMDA receptor and Fyn in dorsal hippocampus: Implications on persistence of long-term memory in rats - Nutr Neurosci. 2013 Nov 26 - "Omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids are important for adequate brain function and cognition. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how n-3 fatty acids influence the persistence of long-term memory (LTM) in an aversive memory task and to explore the putative mechanism involved ... brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) ... these data suggest that n-3 fatty acids influence the persistence of LTM by maintaining adequate levels of DHA and BDNF as well as by influencing the activation of NR2B and Fyn during the period of memory formation" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.
• Advantageous effect of theanine intake on cognition - Nutr Neurosci. 2014 Feb 7 - "Theanine, γ-glutamylethylamide, is one of the major amino acid components in green tea. On the basis of the preventive effect of theanine intake after weaning on stress-induced impairment of recognition memory, the advantageous effect of theanine intake on recognition memory was examined in young rats, which were fed water containing 0.3% theanine for 3 weeks after weaning ... The levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor and nerve growth factor in the hippocampus were significantly higher in theanine-administered rats than in the control rats. The present study indicates the advantageous effect of theanine intake after weaning on recognition memory. It is likely that theanine intake is of advantage to the development of hippocampal function after weaning" - See theanine at Amazon.com.
• Diets high in animal protein may help prevent functional decline in elderly individuals - Science Daily, 3/11/14 - "analysis included 1,007 individuals with an average age of 67.4 years who completed food questionnaires at the start of the study and seven years later ... Men in the highest quartile of animal protein intake had a 39 percent decreased chance of experiencing higher-level functional decline than those in the lowest quartile. These associations were not seen in women"
• Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later - Science Daily, 3/10/14 - "those who ate the healthiest diet at the average age of 50 had an almost 90 per cent lower risk of dementia in a 14-year follow-up study than those whose diet was the least healthy ... Vegetables, berries and fruits, fish and unsaturated fats from milk products and spreads were some of the healthy components, whereas sausages, eggs, sweets, sugary drinks, salty fish and saturated fats from milk products and spreads were indicated as unhealthy ... Even those who are genetically susceptible can at least delay the onset of the disease by favouring vegetable oils, oil-based spreads and fatty fish in their diet"
• Animal Protein Intake Is Associated with Higher-Level Functional Capacity in Elderly Adults: The Ohasama Study - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014 Feb 27 - "Participants were divided into quartiles according to intake levels of total, animal, and plant protein ... men in the highest quartile of animal protein intake had significantly lower risk of higher-level functional decline than those in the lowest quartile (odds ratio (OR) = 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.20-0.83; P for trend .01). These associations were not seen in women (OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.41-1.34; P for trend .37)"
• Vitamin D in Relation to Cognitive Impairment, Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers, and Brain Volumes - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2014 Feb 25 - "the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for cognitive impairment were as follows: 0.969 (0.948-0.990) per increase of 1 nmol/L of 25(OH)D and 4.19 (1.30-13.52) for 24(OH)D values less than 50 nmol/L compared with values greater than or equal to 50 nmol/L ... higher 25(OH)D levels were related to higher concentrations of CSF Aβ1-42 and greater brain volumes (eg, white matter, structures belonging to medial temporal lobe)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Nicotinamide and neurocognitive function - Nutr Neurosci. 2014 Feb 21 - "A literature review was conducted on the effects of nicotinamide and its derivatives as a preventive and therapeutic agent for disorders of neurocognitive function. Specific conditions examined include age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and ischaemic and traumatic brain injury ... nicotinamide may be beneficial in preserving and enhancing neurocognitive function ... Nicotinamide is non-toxic, inexpensive and widely available, and interventional studies in humans, using supplemental doses of nicotinamide, are now warranted" - See nicotinamide at Amazon.com.  It’s just one more nutrient to add to the arsenal that may have a synergistic effect to delay or help prevent Alzheimer’s or dementia.
  • What Is the Difference Between Niacin & Niacinamide? - LiveStrong.com - "Your body can convert niacin into niacinamide ... Niacin and niacinamide have identical function when used as vitamins ... their pharmacologic properties differ. For example, high doses of niacin can cause skin flushing. Niacinamide, however, does not have the same vasodialating, or blood-vessel widening, effects, that niacin has, so it does not lead to skin flushing" - Note:  You'll find contradictory information on the Internet but niacinamide will not raise HDL and niacin will.  See niacin at Amazon.com.
• Dietary omega-3 Fatty acids modulate large-scale systems organization in the rhesus macaque brain - J Neurosci. 2014 Feb 5;34(6):2065-74 - "Monkeys fed docosahexaenoic acid, the long-chain ω-3 fatty acid abundant in neural membranes, had cortical modular organization resembling the healthy human brain. In contrast, those with low levels of dietary ω-3 fatty acids had decreased functional connectivity within the early visual pathway and throughout higher-order associational cortex and showed impairment of distributed cortical networks. Our findings illustrate the similarity in modular cortical organization between the healthy human and macaque brain and support the notion that ω-3 fatty acids play a crucial role in developing and/or maintaining distributed, large-scale brain systems, including those essential for normal cognitive function" - See docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.
• Nutritional supplement improves cognitive performance in older adults, study finds - Science Daily, 2/6/14 - "The USF-developed nutritional supplement, containing extracts from blueberries and green tea combined with vitamin D3 and amino acids, including carnosine, was tested by the USF researchers in a clinical trial enrolling 105 healthy adults, ages 65 to 85 ... called NT-020 ... Those randomized to the group of 52 volunteers receiving NT-020 demonstrated improvements in cognitive processing speed, while the 53 volunteers randomized to receive a placebo did not ... Blueberries, a major ingredient in the NT-020 formula, are rich in polyphenols ... NT-020 is 95 percent polyphenols" - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com and carnosine products at Amazon.com.
• Fish Oil Might Guard Against Loss of Brain Cells - WebMD, 1/22/14 - "The more you consume the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils, the less likely you are to lose as many precious brain cells as you age ... the researchers tested levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the red blood cells of more than 1,000 older women. Eight years later, the women had MRI scans that measured their brain volumes. At the time of the scans, the women were an average of 78 years old ... Participants whose omega-3 levels were twice as high had a 0.7 percent higher brain volume ... The results suggest that the effect on brain volume is the equivalent of delaying the normal loss of brain cells that comes with aging by one to two years" - [Medscape] - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.
• Blueberry Supplementation Improves Memory in Middle-Aged Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet - J Agric Food Chem. 2014 Jan 21 - "To determine if supplementation of a high-fat diet with blueberries offers protection against putative high-fat diet-related declines, nine month old C57Bl/6 mice were maintained on low fat (10% fat calories) or high-fat (60% fat calories) diets with and without 4% freeze-dried blueberry powder ... Blueberry-supplementation prevented recognition memory deficits after 4 months on the diets ... After 5 months on the diets, mice consuming high-fat diet passed through the platform location less often than mice on low-fat diets during probe trials on days two and three of Morris water maze testing, whereas mice consuming high-fat blueberry diet passed through the platform location as often as mice on the low-fat diets" - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com.
• Serum docosahexaenoic and eicosapentaenoic acid and risk of cognitive decline over 10 years among elderly Japanese - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2014 Jan 8 - "Serum EPA was not associated with cognitive decline ... The study gives some indication that a moderately high level of serum DHA might prevent cognitive decline among community-dwelling elderly Japanese individuals" - See docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.
• Mediterranean Diet Improves Cognition - Medscape, 1/8/14 - "extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) ... In conclusion, an intervention with MedDiet supplemented with either EVOO or mixed nuts was associated with a better global cognitive performance after 6.5 years of follow-up compared with a control group who received advice on a lower-fat diet. Our findings support increasing evidence on the protective effects of the MedDiet on cognitive function" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Several forms of vitamin E protect against memory disorders, study says - Science Daily, 1/7/14 - "Studies investigating the link between vitamin E and memory disorders have usually focused on a single form of vitamin E, namely α-tocopherol, which is also used in vitamin E supplements. However, vitamin E exists in eight different natural forms, tocopherols and tocotrienols, all of which have antioxidant properties ... This recently published study comprises a sample of 140 over 65-year-old Finnish persons with no memory impairment at the onset of the study. During the eight-year follow-up, it was discovered that higher total serum levels of vitamin E, and higher levels of γ-tocopherol, β-tocotrienol and total tocotrienols in particular, seemed to protect against memory disorders. According to the researchers, the results show that the entire vitamin E family plays a role in memory processes" - See mixed tocopherols at Amazon.com.  My favorite is Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Cholesterol levels linked to early signs of Alzheimer's in brain - nbcnews.com, 12/30/13 - "Reed and his team studied brain scans of 74 patients in stroke clinics and senior centers using Pittsburgh Compound B, or PIB, a tracer dye that highlights amyloid in the brain. The patients were, for the most part, normal and free of any symptoms of dementia ... But when the scientists measured the cholesterol in their blood, and teased out the two types, they found that patients with high levels of low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol and low levels of high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol showed higher PIB levels ... That means that the good and bad effects of the two kinds of cholesterol may occur long before people develop Alzheimer’s symptoms, perhaps offering a new chance for early intervention ... The American Heart Association has long said that keeping levels of HDL “good” cholesterol up — above 60 milligrams per deciliter of blood — and levels of LDL “bad” cholesterol — below 100 mg/dL — can prevent heart disease. But this new study underscores the benefit for the brain" - See niacin at Amazon.com (to raise HDL.  See my niacin page).
• Serum levels of vitamin E forms and risk of cognitive impairment in a Finnish cohort of older adults - Exp Gerontol. 2013 Dec;48(12):1428-35 - "A sample of 140 non-cognitively impaired elderly subjects derived from the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Dementia (CAIDE) study was followed-up for 8years to detect cognitive impairment, defined as development of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's dementia. The association between baseline serum vitamin E and cognitive impairment was analyzed with multiple logistic regression after adjusting for several confounders ... Elevated levels of tocopherol and tocotrienol forms are associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment in older adults. The association is modulated by concurrent cholesterol concentration. Various vitamin E forms might play a role in cognitive impairment, and their evaluation can provide a more accurate measure of vitamin E status in humans" - [Nutra USA] - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• 35 year study finds exercise reduces risk of dementia - Science Daily, 12/10/13 - "The study identifies five healthy behaviors as being integral to having the best chance of leading a disease-free lifestyle: taking regular exercise, non-smoking, a low body weight, a healthy diet and a low alcohol intake ... The people who consistently followed four or five of these behaviors experienced a 60 per cent decline in dementia and cognitive decline -- with exercise being the strongest mitigating factor -- as well as 70 per cent fewer instances of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, compared with people who followed none"
• Cognition and nutrition - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2014 Jan;17(1):1-4 - "An increasing body of evidence has supported the role of the Mediterranean diet and extra-virgin olive oil in protecting cognition. A number of nutritional formulations to improve deteriorating memory are being studied. Undernutrition is associated with cognitive decline. Hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia cause cognitive impairment"
• Aerobic Exercise Improves Memory, Brain Function, Physical Fitness - Science Daily, 11/12/13 - "sedentary adults ages 57-75 were randomized into a physical training or a wait-list control group. The physical training group participated in supervised aerobic exercise on a stationary bike or treadmill for one hour, three times a week for 12 weeks ... By measuring brain blood flow non-invasively using arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI, we can now begin to detect brain changes much earlier than before ... One key region where we saw increase in brain blood flow was the anterior cingulate, indicating higher neuronal activity and metabolic rate. The anterior cingulate has been linked to superior cognition in late life ... Exercisers who improved their memory performance also showed greater increase in brain blood flow to the hippocampus, the key brain region affected by Alzheimer's disease"
• Magnesium levels vital to brain health as population ages - Science Daily,  11/4/13 - "the human brain begins shrinking after age 25. Structural changes and loss of brain synapses lead to rapid decline in cognitive health ... magnesium deficiency in adults may play a more important role in CI, and more seriously, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), than previously thought ... elevation of brain magnesium through dietary intake of magnesium threonate exerts substantial positive effects on brain synapes in a mouse model of AD, actually restoring aging brains to their youthful conditions ... the 'gold standard' of science, demonstrates that dietary supplementation of Magtein, patented magnesium threonate, can significantly enhance human cognitive functions and decrease symptoms of cognitive impairments ... We know that as we age our bodies naturally lose magnesium. For example, drinking coffee or caffeinated products increases the loss" - See Magtein at Amazon.com.
• Pomegranate Supplementation Protects against Memory Dysfunction after Heart Surgery: A Pilot Study - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:932401 - "Patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass graft and/or valve surgery were given either 2 g of pomegranate extract (in 2 POMx pills) or placebo (pills containing no pomegranate ingredients) per day from one week before surgery to 6 weeks after surgery. The patients were also administered a battery of neuropsychological tests to assess memory function at 1 week before surgery (baseline), 2 weeks after surgery, and 6 weeks after surgery. The placebo group had significant deficits in postsurgery memory retention, and the pomegranate treatment not only protected against this effect, but also actually improved memory retention performance for up to 6 weeks after surgery as compared to presurgery baseline performance" - See pomegranate at Amazon.com.
• High Glucose Linked to Poorer Memory, Even Without Diabetes - Medscape, 10/23/13 - "lowering blood glucose levels, possibly even to relatively low levels, might help preserve cognition ... Strategies that help lower blood glucose levels include a healthy Mediterranean-type diet and regular physical activity ... cross-sectional study included 141 healthy persons (mean age, 63.1 years) ... lower performance on 3 memory tasks (delayed recall, learning ability, and consolidation) was associated with higher levels of both the long-term marker of glucose control (HbA1c) and the short-term glucose marker ... For insulin, there was a "general trend going in the same direction" but correlations were less clear, and without the same direct relationship ... How low is it safe to go in terms of blood glucose levels? ... If you're used to low blood sugar levels, you can go quite low ... The idea is that the lower the A1c the better your brain function" - [Science Daily]
• High serum fatty acid protects against brain abnormalities - Science Daily, 10/17/13 - "3,660 people aged 65 and older underwent brain scans to detect so called silent brain infarcts, or small lesions in the brain that can cause loss of thinking skills, dementia and stroke. Scans were performed again five years later on 2,313 of the participants ... silent brain infarcts, which are only detected by brain scans, are found in about 20% of otherwise healthy elderly people ... those who had high long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content in blood had about 40% lower risk of having small brain infarcts compared to those with low content of these fatty acids in blood ... people who had high long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content in blood also had fewer changes in the white matter in their brains" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Statins and Cognition: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Short- and Long-term Cognitive Effects - Mayo Clin Proc. 2013 Sep 27 - "A systematic search was performed of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register from their inception to April 25, 2013 ... Long-term cognition studies included 23,443 patients with a mean exposure duration of 3 to 24.9 years. Three studies found no association between statin use and incident dementia, and 5 found a favorable effect. Pooled results revealed a 29% reduction in incident dementia in statin-treated patients"
• Coenzyme Q10 supplementation reverses age-related impairments in spatial learning and lowers protein oxidation - Age (Dordr). 2013 Oct;35(5):1821-34 - "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 ... 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.
• 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 at Amazon.com.
• Prospective study of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension- and Mediterranean-style dietary patterns and age-related cognitive change: the Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Sep 18 - "Participants included 3831 men and women ≥65 y of age who were residents of Cache County, UT, in 1995 ... Higher levels of accordance to both the DASH and Mediterranean dietary patterns were associated with consistently higher levels of cognitive function in elderly men and women over an 11-y period. Whole grains and nuts and legumes were positively associated with higher cognitive functions and may be core neuroprotective foods common to various healthy plant-centered diets around the globe"
• 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"

Other News:

• Brain may never fully recover from exposure to paint, glue, degreasers - Science Daily, 5/12/14 - "The study involved 2,143 retirees from the French national utility company. Researchers assessed the workers' lifetime exposure to chlorinated solvents, petroleum solvents, and benzene, including the timing of last exposure and lifetime dosage ... people with high, recent exposure to solvents were at greatest risk for memory and thinking deficits. For example, those with high, recent exposure to chlorinated solvents were 65 percent more likely to have impaired scores on tests of memory and visual attention and task switching than those who were not exposed to solvents ... The people with high exposure within the last 12 to 30 years showed impairment in almost all areas of memory and thinking, including those not usually associated with solvent exposure ... But what was really striking was that we also saw some cognitive problems in those who had been highly exposed much longer ago, up to 50 years before testing" - See paint masks at Amazon.com.
• Diabetes duration, severity associated with brain atrophy - Science Daily, 4/29/14 - "used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the association between severity and duration of type 2 diabetes mellitus and brain structure in 614 patients (mean age 62 years) at four participating centers ... longer duration of diabetes was associated with brain volume loss, particularly in the gray matter ... Diabetes duration correlated primarily with brain atrophy ... for every 10 years of diabetes duration, the brain of a patient with diabetes looks approximately two years older than that of a non-diabetic person, in terms of gray matter volume" - See my Insulin and Aging page.
• Gender-specific associations between lipids and cognitive decline in the elderly - Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2014 Feb 17 - "In men, a hypercholesterolemic pattern in late-life (high total cholesterol (T-C), low HDL-C, high LDL-C levels) was associated with a 25 to 50% increased risk of decline over 7 years in psychomotor speed, executive abilities, and verbal fluency ... In contrast, in women, a 30% higher rate of decline was found in psychomotor speed with high HDL-C levels and in executive abilities with low levels of LDL-C and triglycerides, in interaction with hormonal treatment. For men and women, vascular pathologies only slightly outweighed the risk related to lipids. This suggests a complex gender-specific pattern of cognitive decline involving genetic vulnerability in men and hormonal status in women" - Note:  Did I read that right?  HDL-C is good for cognition in men but bad for cognition in women?
• Mentally challenging jobs may keep your mind sharp long after retirement - Science Daily, 3/25/14 - "people who had worked in jobs with greater mental demands were more likely to have better memories before they retired and more likely to have slower declines in memory after retiring than people who had worked in jobs with fewer mental demands ... What people do outside of work could also be a factor ... Some people may be very active in hobbies and other activities that are mentally stimulating and demanding, while others are not"
• Too Much Booze Can Shave 6 Years off Men's Memory - ABC News, 1/15/14 - "studied the drinking habits of 5,054 men between the ages of 44 and 69, and measured their cognitive ability in four tests that assessed their short-term memory, problem solving skills and reasoning ability, among other things ... men who drank at least 36 grams of alcohol or more (about two and a half 13-ounce beers) had a faster decline in cognitive ability akin to someone 1.5 to 5.7 years older ... It’s an accelerated aging process ... In the first six to eight weeks, brain shrinkage can partially reverse ... Some of the effects that alcohol has on brain are reversible" - [Abstract]
• Angiotension receptor blockers reduce the risk of dementia - J Hypertens. 2014 Jan 8 - "a population-based cohort study with data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 24 531 matching pairs (1 : 1) of ARB-exposed and non-ARB-exposed patients were included. Each patient was individually tracked from 1997 to 2009 to identify incident cases of dementia (onset in 1999 or later) ... The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios for dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia were 0.54 (95% CI 0.51-0.59), 0.53 (95% CI 0.43-0.64) and 0.63 (95% CI 0.54-0.73) for patients with ARB treatments, respectively. In terms of cumulative dosage, patients with more than 1460 defined daily dose of ARBs had less risk than those patients with less than 1460 defined daily dose (hazard ratio 0.37 vs. 0.61; P < 0.05) ... These results suggest that ARB may be associated with a reduced risk of dementia in high vascular-risk individuals. Patients exposed to ARBs for higher cumulative doses experienced more protection from dementia and the subtypes" - See my telmisartan (an ARB) as a first line treatment page.
• Increased risk of dementia in patients with osteoporosis: a population-based retrospective cohort analysis - Age (Dordr). 2013 Dec 18 - "Using data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database ... After adjustment for potential risk factors, the osteoporosis patients exhibited 1.46-fold and 1.39-fold higher risk of dementia (95 % CI = 1.37-1.56) and Alzheimer's disease (95 % CI = 0.95-2.02), respectively, compared with the matched nonosteoporosis patients"
• Glucose Levels Linked to Dementia - Medscape, 11/14/13 - "This elegantly conducted study demonstrated that an increased risk for dementia was associated with higher glucose levels in populations with and without diabetes"
• Statin May Prevent Dementia, Memory Loss With Longer Use, Don't Pose Short-Term Cognition Problems - Science Daily, 10/1/13 - "statins do not affect short-term memory or cognition. In contrast, they say that when the drugs are taken for more than one year, the risk of dementia is reduced by 29 percent ... We looked at high-quality, randomized controlled trials and prospective studies that included more than 23,000 men and women with no prior history of cognitive problems. The participants in those studies were followed for up to 25 years ... Vascular dementia is caused by blockages in small blood vessels in the brain that prevent blood flow to certain areas. Medications such as statins that reduce plaque and inflammation in coronary arteries may also be having the same effect on blood vessels in the brain"
• Long-term use of statins reduces the risk of hospitalization for dementia - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Oct;230(2):171-6 - "A population-based, nested case-control study was carried out by including the cohort of 152,729 patients from Lombardy (Italy) aged 40 years or older who were newly treated with statins between 2003 and 2004. Cases were the 1380 patients who experienced hospitalization for dementia disease from initial prescription until 2010 ... Compared with patients who had very short statins coverage (less than 6 months), those on 7-24, 25-48, and >48 months of coverage respectively had risk reductions of 15% (OR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.74 to 0.98), 28% (OR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.85), and 25% (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.94). Simvastatin and atorvastatin were both associated with a reduced risk of dementia, while no similar evidence was observed for fluvastatin and pravastatin"
• High Blood Sugar and Dementia: No Diabetes Needed - Medscape, 9/19/13 - "The group who did not have diabetes had an average blood sugar of about 100 mg/dL as opposed to the diabetics whose levels were in the 170s. There was a J-shaped relationship between blood sugar and dementia in the diabetics. People who had a blood sugar of 140 mg/dL on average had more dementia, but the rates of dementia then went down to essentially zero and then went up again as the blood sugar rose higher. The nondiabetics had more of a straight-line correlation from the lowest level to the highest level"
• 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.