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New Brain Health Roadmap Announced

On June 10th something wonderful happened, and the media hasn't paid much attention yet. On that day, the National Public health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive health was released by the CDC and the Alzheimer's Association. The authors proposed a set of 44 actions to reach a lofty goal: To maintain or improve the cognitive performance of all adults across America. This is great timing, given all the research and media attention that this field is getting, and the aging of the baby boomer population.

I want to first share with you the 10 top actions proposed by this report, and then provide a quick glossary to explain the key words that you will hear more and more when discussing brain health.

Top recommendations:

1) To determine how diverse audiences think about cognitive health and its associations with lifestyle factors. This work has all-ready yielded in a phenomenal report on Baby boomers' current opinion of Brain health and fitness, that you can find in the website of the MetLife Foundation.

2) To disseminate the latest science to increase public understanding of cognitive health and to dispel common misconceptions. The discovery of lifelong neuroplasticity and neurogenesis (see glossary below) has given us a new positive view upon the human brain - This is still a concept not many know of. "Use it or lose it" and "Use It and Get More of It" needs to reach all people.

3) Help people understand the connection between risk and protective factors and cognitive health. Protective factors were well summarized in the MacArthur study of successful aging: good nutrition, mental and physical exercise, stress management and social engagement.

4) Assess the literature on risk factors (vascular risk and physical inactivity) and related interventions for relationships with cognitive health. As Dr. Marilyn S. Albert at John Hopkins points it out: All the things that we know are bad for your heart turn out to be bad for your brain.

5) More clinical trials will be conducted to determine the effect of reducing vascular risk factors on lowering the risk of cognitive decline and improving cognitive function. Recent findings presented at International conference on Prevention of Dementia are one big step in the right direction.

6) Further, more research will be conducted on other areas potentially affecting cognitive health such as nutrition, mental activity, and social engagement.

7) The last research focus is on determining the effect of physical activity on reducing the risk of cognitive decline and improving cognitive function.

8) The government will develop a population-based surveillance system to measure the public health burden of cognitive impairment in the United States.

9) Initiate policy changes at the federal, state, and local levels to promote cognitive health by engaging public officials.

10) Brain fitness will be included in Healthy People 2020, a set of health objectives for the nation that will serve as the foundation for state and community public health plans.

This initiative will help people of all ages take more control of our brain health in the same way we care about our nutrition and body health.

Now let's review some of the most relevant concepts in this field. This vocabulary will become familiar to all of us during the next years::

Brain fitness: the general state of good, sharp, brain and mind, especially as the result of mental and physical exercise and proper nutrition.

Brain fitness program: structured set of brain exercises, usually computer-based, designed to train specific brain areas and functions in targeted ways, and measured by brain fitness assessments.

Chronic stress: ongoing, long-term stress. Continued physiological arousal where stressors block the formation of new neurons and negatively impact the immune system's defenses.

Cognitive training: variety of brain exercises designed to help work out specific "mental muscles". The principle underlying cognitive training is to help improve "core" abilities, such as attention, memory, problem-solving, which many people consider as fixed.

Cognitive Reserve: theory that addresses the fact that individuals vary considerably in the severity of cognitive aging and clinical dementia. Mental stimulation, education and occupational level are believed to be major active components of building a cognitive reserve that can help resist the attacks of mental disease.

fMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that enables researchers see images of changing blood flow in the brain associated with neural activity. This allows images to be generated that reflect which structures are activated (and how) during performance of different tasks.

mindfulness-Based stress Reduction (MBSR): yoga and meditation practices designed to enable effective responses to stress, pain, and illness.

Neurogenesis: the process by which neurons are created all throughout our lives.

Neuroplasticity: the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections throughout life.

Exciting times ahead! We should all be looking forward what science will bring us to help develop and grow gracefully as we age.

Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of SharpBrains, http://www.sharpbrains.com which provides the latest science-based information for Brain Health and Brain exercise, and reviews programs such as MindFit, Posit Science, emWave, IntelliGym, Cogmed, and more. Dozens of publications, such as Scientific American Mind, CBS, Forbes, MSNBC, seattle times, New york Post, have highlighted SharpBrains website and information. Check http://www.sharpbrains.com/hottopics

posted by 8968 @ 11:55 PM 0 comments

Managing Stress - The First Defense To Manage Stress - Breathing

The first defense against unhealthy responses to stress is not Tylenol, Motrin... but instead deep breathing. Caution, if you suffer from panic - anxiety and or agoraphobia, this technique is not recommended until after the symptoms are history. This is because breathing techniques require internal focusing which is not recommended for anxiety sufferers. For them external relaxation techniques are recommended - see the resource box.

In response to stress, it is normal that our breathing is immediately affected. It becomes shallow and upper chest which is actually part of the defense mechanism. Even that a sigh is usually a tense upper chest unhealthy breadth.

We generally make three basic mistakes in breathing:
Were so consumed with our appearance that we learn to hold in our stomachs which greatly limits our breathing to the upper chest.
Then when we do take a deep breadth, we force our lungs to expand against our chest putting chest muscles in spasm. This can create chest and back pain.
Some of us lift our shoulders to take in that deep breadth. It's called "clavicle breathing" and it contributes to neck and headache.

Life is about stress and as we adapt to higher and higher levels of stress from one year to the next, our normal breathing becomes tense. Even as we sleep, we may breathe in a tense manner. The tense breathing also starves the body of much needed oxygen, affects our posture, and blocks our Chakras--the natural flow of energy through our bodies.

No matter what the physical health problem--headaches, neckaches, muscle pain... (all direct effects of stress), or disease such as cancer, heart disease... it's important to address breathing (except for anxiety sufferers as previously noted). The problem is that no one makes any money from deep breathing. No drugs are required so you will not hear an announcement on the radio, "Remember to do your stress reduction deep breathing exercise!"

Look for times during the day when you are feeling stressed, under pressure, in a rush, defensive, tense... It's during these times that instead of tensing as you normally would, that you instead remember to do your stress relief deep breathing.

And all you have to do to engage your first defense against stress is to consciously become aware of your breathing. Then shift from your upper chest tense breathing consciously to an abdominal breath.

How to take an abdominal breadththe first defense against stress:
Let your stomach and abdomen relax.
Breathe down through your chest into your stomach.
Let your stomach expand outward.
Let your chest expand slightly at the end of the breadth.

As you exhale:
Pull your stomach inward.
Expel all the air up through your chest.

If you can hear yourself breathe, you are breathing too fast. Ten to twelve breaths per minute is find. If you feel your shoulders lifting as you inhale, it is a tense breadth. Just let your shoulders be loose and limp as you inhale and exhale. Let your arms hang from your shoulder like rope.

If you have the time, take a class in yoga breathing to get in some serious breathing. yoga will provide many healthful benefits.

When to do your deep breathing: Make a list of times during the day when it would be appropriate to take advantage of the deep breathing stress management technique such as:
Whenever you're at a red light.
As youre waiting for your computer to load a program or shut down.
Before answering the phone or making a phone call.
As you listen to someone conversing with you.
Before eating or drinking.
Before entering a building or an office.
Whenever you notice yourself feeling stressed.
Whenever you can remember to take a deep breadth.

Remember, no one makes money on deep breathing so you will not hear an announcer on the radio reminding you to take your deep breadth exercise to manage stress.

See the resource box for a ready made cd for Abdominal Breathing with four different deep breathing exercises (including one to help reduce hyperventilation).

Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E NGH certified makes it easy to manage stress with http://www.dstressdoc.com breadth management techniques that also reduce hyperventilation. He is a is a prominent figure in the field of stress management and personal change. He is the creative force behind the best selling http://www.DStressDoc.com hypnosis self help cd's and a specialist with http://www.PanicBusters.com

posted by 8968 @ 8:09 AM 0 comments