Older Adult

Resistance Training Once per Week Improves Mental Functioning by 10+%

In the Next Brain Blog we track down and report on a full-range of ways to improve the function and longevity of your brain and mind.  There are many studies that prove physical exercise is good for your brain fitness and mental health.

But what type should you do,  what specifically does it improve and how long do the effects last? A new piece of research reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Resistance Training and Executive Function gives some specific answers.

They found that for older female adults resistance training (dumbbells and weight machines) one or twice a week for a year improved their abilities to plan, make decisions, focus and resolve conflicts by more that 10%.  These mental tasks all belong to what is called your executive function.

This is an impressive finding because it gives specifics on the type of exercise and the impact it will have. More to the point:

You can get a big boost in mental performance from a modest weekly investment in resistance training.

You don’t need to go to the gym or use fancy weight machines – low cost home exercise equipment will do the trick.

By the way, you can measure the efficiency of your executive function using the Stroop Test.  I will blog on that later in the month.

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Two Cups of Blueberry Juice Daily Significantly Improves Memory

What we eat and drink as well as the medications and supplements we take can strong determine the effectiveness of our cognitive functions and how long we have a health brain.   Expect to see many posts on ingestibles and how they can be used to develop YourNextBrain! in this blog.

Sometimes we will debunk findings.  For example the post, Herb Fails to Prove Out as Cognitive Enhancer, reviews evidence that Ginko Biloba the popular memory supplement does not work. Other times we will present brand new but preliminary positive findings. For example, the recent news release from the American Chemical Society that presents First Ever Evidence that Blueberry Juice Improves Memory in Older Adults. This is an exciting finding.

[Source]

To quote:

“In the study, one group of volunteers in their 70s with early memory decline drank the equivalent of 2-2 l/2 cups of a commercially available blueberry juice every day for two months. A control group drank a beverage without blueberry juice. The blueberry juice group showed significant improvement on learning and memory tests, the scientists say. “These preliminary memory findings are encouraging and suggest that consistent supplementation with blueberries may offer an approach to forestall or mitigate neurodegeneration,” said the report.”

A preliminary result but it does encourage some sensible personal experimentation. It would not be too hard to swap out a daily drink such as orange juice or a bottled water with blueberry juice. Simple before/after memory tests can be used to see if you are making any headway.

I am very interested to hear from readers with ideas or examples of personal experiments with blueberries as memory enhancers.