Metabolic syndrome makes for more senior moments

Metabolic syndrome is a catch-all term used to cover a number of different risk factors for health problems, such as high blood pressure, a pot belly, high blood fats (triglycerides), high blood sugar and low 'good' cholesterol - to be defined as having metabolic syndrome you need to have at least three of the above. Researchers from the French National Institute of Health Research in Bordeaux studied 7,087 people aged 65 and over from three French cities. They tested them for metabolic syndrome and gave them a series of memory and cognitive tests two and four years later. Those people (16%) with metabolic syndrome were 20% more likely to show a decline on the memory test and 13% more likely to show a decline on a test of visual working memory.Specifically, higher triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol were linked to poorer memory scores; diabetes, but not higher fasting blood sugar, was linked to poorer visual working memory and word fluency scores.

Language learning could stave off senior moments

People who speak more than two languages could be at a lower risk of developing memory problems as they grow older. Researchers from the Public Research Centre for Health in Luxembourg - where many people are multilingual - studied 230 men and women with an average age of 73. Those people who spoke four or more languages were five times less likely to develop cognitive problems compared to those who were only bilingual and people who spoke three languages were three times less likely. The study's results took into account the age and education of its participants.

Heart risk and cognitive decline

Researchers from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research have added more weight to the growing body of evidence that a healthy heart is linked to keeping one's mental faculties as one grows older. The researchers studied 4,827 men and women who had an average age of 55 when the study started. At the start of the study the participants were given a Framingham heart-risk score based on their age, sex, cholesterol, blood pressure and whether they smoked or had diabetes. The participants then took cognitive tests measuring their reasoning, memory, fluency and vocabulary three times over the next ten years. The people with a higher cardiovascular risk at the start of the study were more likely to have lower cognitive function and a faster overall rate of cognitive decline. A 10% higher cardiovascular risk was associated with a 2.8% lower score in the memory test for men and a 7.1% fall in women.

Mediterranean diet may lead to fewer senior moments

Researchers from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago have been adding to the evidence which suggests that a Mediterranean diet can prevent cognitive decline in older people. The researchers studied 4,000 people aged 65 and over and gave their diets scores based on how closely they matched a traditional Mediterranean diet - high in wine, fruit, vegetables, legumes, olive oil and fish and low in saturated fat and red meat. The study found that those participants who adhered most closely to a Mediterranean diet had a slower cognitive decline even after taking into account the influence of other factors such as education.

Alcoholics, memories and self-delusion

Being an alcoholic is known to have a number of harmful effects on people's cognition and new research suggests that it damages people's memory without them being aware of it. Anne-Pascale Le Berre from the Universite de Caen/Basse-Normandie in France studied memory and people's awareness of it in a sample of 56 people, half of whom were alcoholics. The participants were given a memory test and also asked to predict their performance. The alcoholics did less well on the memory tests but had a tendency to overestimate their capacities, thinking that their memory was as effective as the healthy controls despite their worse performance.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the title of this post.

Memories: conscious and unconscious

There are two different ways of remembering things. One is by a deliberate effort of conscious recall while the other can occur involuntarily through the associations produced by sound, smell or bodily sensations. Kristiina Kompus from Umea University in Sweden has been using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencaphalography (EEG) to look into the differences between these two types of memory. Conscious recollection was found to involve the upper part of the frontal lobe, whereas unconscious recollection originated in the part of the brain which normally dealt with the sensations that triggered off people's memories. Kompus found that memories did not have to be particularly strong to be activated in this way and that memories recollected spontaneously did not activate the brain more than those recollected deliberately.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100311092122.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Blueberry juice is latest memory booster

Last year researchers from the University of Cincinnati found that purple grace juice could help with memory loss and now they have found evidence that blueberry juice could do the same. The researchers studied a small group of people who were in their 70s and who had early signs of memory loss. Half the participants drank a pint of blueberry juice every day for 2-3 months while the other half drank a similar placebo. After just 12 weeks those who drank the juice were better at recalling words from a list, scored better on word association tests and were less likely to feel depressed. The results were described as a 'significant improvement.' Blueberries contain a compound of chemicals called anthocyanins which help improve the flow of information to the brain and halt the speed at which cells deteriorate with age.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7048574/Daily-pint-of-blueberry-juice-could-help-stop-memory-loss-study-suggests.html

Exercise and memory problems: more new evidence

Two studies from the U.S. have added to the evidence that exercise can help to stave off memory problems as we get older. In the first study researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine compared two groups of 70-year-olds with mild memory problems. One group took an hour of high-intensity exercise with a trainer four days a week while the other group did gentle stretching. After six months the group doing the high-intensity exercise showed improvements in their thinking skills; something that was more marked among the women. In another study researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that older people who had exercised since middle age were 39% less likely to have memory problems while those who exercised into old age were almost a third less likely. Unfortunately light exercise such as bowling, slow dancing or golf with a buggy did not reduce the risk of memory problems.

Diabetes, ketoacidosis and memory problems

Diabetic ketoacidosis occurs when the body lacks insulin and burns fat for energy instead of sugar. This can lead to nausea, vomiting and fatigue and a feeling of mental sluggishness. There is anecdotal evidence of children with diabetes having memory problems and a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis looked into the links between diabetes, ketoacidosis and memory problems in a study of 62 children. 33 of the children had had an episode of diabetic ketoacidosis in the past and these children were found to perform significantly worse on memory tests.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019134718.htm

Working memory and distractions

Working memory is the kind of memory we use in everyday life to remember things such as phone numbers on a short-term basis and is different to our long-term memories of facts, knowledge and events in our life. Researchers at the University of Oregon looked into the effects of people's working-memory capacity on their attention and found that the more working memory they had the less easily they were distracted. The researchers monitored the participants' brain activity as they studied images on a computer screen, recognizing a shape with a missing component and then identifying the object as it moved to a different location. As the task went on the participants were increasingly distracted by split-second flashes of light. As the distractions mounted some participants were able to maintain their performance while others slipped. People who can focus more intently tend to have higher 'fluid intelligence'; they score more highly on achievement tests, do better in maths and tend to learn second languages more easily. The researchers are currently looking into whether easily-distracted people might be more creative and imaginative.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806141712.htm

HIV, alcohol and memory

More than half of people infected with the HIV virus say that they also drink heavily. Researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine looked into the effects of these factors on people's memory and fount that HIV and heavy drinking combined had a greater negative effect than either did separately. They studied 164 people; 40 of them had HIV, 38 had chronic alcoholism, 47 had HIV and chronic alcoholism and 39 were neither alcoholic nor HIV positive. Those participant who were both alcoholic and HIV positive had more trouble in learning new information and although their working memory was fine their episodic (autobiographical) memory was impaired. Episodic memory is linked to a part of the brain called the medial temporal lobe which is affected by both HIV and alcohol abuse.

You can read more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090723175425.htm

Memory programmes work for milder problems

Older people with mild memory problems can be helped by memory-training programmes. Memory training has been found to help healthy older adults with positive effects being reported up to 5 years afterwards in some studies. Researchers at La Trobe University in Melbourne studied 54 older people with mild memory problems. Half were placed into a memory-rehabilitation group and half formed a control group. The rehabilitation group took part in five, weekly, 90-minute sessions that used problem-solving techniques to deal with memory difficulties. The participants who undertook the programme showed significant improvements in their everyday memory and in their knowledge and use of memory strategies although they didn't themselves feel that their memories were improving.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5687YS20090709?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

What did I come online to do ...?

Amber Johnson has compiled a list of 50 top tips to improve your memory ranging from diet and lifestyle tips to tricks and tools to help you remember things.

You can find Amber's tips at

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2009/06/50-ways-to-make-your-memory-more-like-an-elephants/

Paxil, cognition and people with cancer

People with cancer often have problems with their memory and attention. The 'circuits' in the brain responsible for the cognitive problems in cancer patients are also linked to depression and researchers from the University of Rochester in New York looked into the effectiveness of the antidepressant Paxil in helping with these cognitive problems. They studied 800 people with cancer aged between 22 and 87. The study showed that even taking into account its effects on depression Paxil still had a 'significant effect' on cognitive functioning.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5536L220090604?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Cognitive problems don't always turn into dementia

The risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) developing into dementia could be less than previously thought, according to a review of studies carried out by researchers at Leicester University and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. Using information from 41 studies they found that only 10% of people in high-risk groups and 5% of people in low-risk groups with MCI went on to develop dementia. Even after a longer time only 20-40% of people with MCI went on to develop dementia.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5355CL20090406?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=451

Music, memories and MRI scans

People's memories can often be triggered by music and a study of 13 students by researchers at the University of California, Davis looked to see what happens in people's brains when this was going on. The students were played excerpts of 30 different tunes, chosen to have been in the charts when they were growing up, at the same time as they had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. After each excerpt the student responded to questions about the tune including whether it was familiar or not, how enjoyable it was and whether it was associated with any particular incident, episode or memory. How many memories a tune triggered corresponded to the amount of activity in the upper part of the medial pre-frontal cortex; part of the brain where memories of our past are supported and retrieved. This part of the brain is one of the last to be affected by Alzheimer's disease and it has often been observed that tunes can bring back memories in Alzheimer's sufferers when little else does.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090223221230.htm

Calories and memories

Eating fewer calories may improve older people's memories, according to research carried out by the University of Munster in Germany. The study had 50 participants who were either normal weight or overweight. They were divided into three groups: one cut their calories by 30%, another group increased their consumption of unsaturated fatty acids by up to 20% and a third group made no changes. After three months the group who restricted their calories showed, on average, a 20% increase in their verbal memory scores whereas the other group showed no significant changes in their memory performance. The memory improvements in the calorie-restricted groups were correlated with a decrease in their insulin levels and in substances associated with inflammation in the body.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE50Q7S220090127?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

PTSD and memory

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often report difficulties with learning, memory and attention and several studies have shown that participants with PTSD display poorer performance on several tests of learning and memory. However, the picture could be complicated by people's age, how old they were when they experienced their trauma, their intelligence, whether they have other mental-health difficulties and if they take illegal drugs or drugs to treat their PTSD. And there have been no studies into the links between PTSD, memory performance and how well people cope in their working and personal lives. A Dutch study compared 25 veterans with PTSD to 25 veterans without the condition. It found that the veterans with PTSD had similar IQ scores but displayed deficits in figural and logical memory, measures of learning and immediate and delayed verbal memory. The worse people's performance on the memory tests the worse was their current social and occupational functioning.

Geuze, Gilbert ... [et al] - Neuropsychological performance is related to current social and occupational functioning in veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder Depression and Anxiety January 2009, 26(1), 7-15

Pregnant women's memory problems

There are anecdotal reports of women experiencing memory problems during pregnancy and these reports have been confirmed by studies of retrospective memory, such as word-learning tasks. Researchers at Australian Catholic University looked at prospective memory in pregnant women i.e. the ability to remember to do things such as attend appointments or take medication. They compared the performances of 20 pregnant and non-pregnant women on a board game called Virtual Week, which involved remembering to carry out daily tasks, and on a task in which they were required to 'check in' with a portable device at the same time four times each day. The pregnant women were no worse at the board game but were significantly worse at the second task. This impairment remained even 13 months after giving birth although by this point the women with young children were more likely to remember later that they had forgotten to 'check in.'

You can find out more about this research at

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2008/11/pregnancy-affects-womens-memory-for.html

Can't remember what I forgot

A new book on memory loss - 'Can't remember what I forgot' by Sue Halpern - has highlighted the importance of exercise in helping to stave off memory loss. The book surveys the scientific progress - or lack thereof - in the hunt for a cure for Alzheimer's and concludes the 'one incontrovertible means of neurogenesis' is aerobic exercise. Exercise promotes new cell growth in old brains by increasing their blood volume and in turn cell growth improves memory. Exercise also increased the amount of brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor in the brain, again stimulating cell growth. Exercise was unable to prevent the growth of amyloid plaques, one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, but it did allow the brain to cope with them better.

You can read the New York Review of Books review of Can't Remember What I Forgot at

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22110?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=124186609&utm_campaign=December+4,+2008+issue&utm_term=Just+Remember+This