Tag Archives: brain

Brain Fitness

Did you know that you can exercise your brain? Too often people are so focused on body fitness that they fail to recognize the importance of brain fitness. Keeping your brain fit is just as important. Many people think that your brain stops developing at some point. But the truth is that it continues to adapt and rewire itself, even as you get older. Although mental decline can be caused by disease, if there is a decrease in memory or motor skills, this is usually due to a lack of brain stimulation. If you fail to use your brain, your … Continue reading →

Regular Exercise Can Make You Smarter

It’s not a claim made by a chain fitness club, but the results of a new study: Regular exercise can help stimulate your brain functions. According to new research published in the journal Hippocampus, elderly adults who are more physically fit tend to have bigger hippocampi and better spatial memory than those who are less fit. The hippocampus is a brain structure vital to certain types of memory. It is located deep inside the medial temporal lobe of the brain, and according to researchers, bigger is better when it comes to hippocampus size. Researchers believe certain activities modify hippocampus size … Continue reading →

Middle-Aged Women and Stroke

According to the American Stroke Association, more than one hundred thousand women in the United States under the age of sixty-five have a stroke each year. Compare that to the approximately 83,000 American women who suffer a heart attack! Most strokes occur when a clot blocks blood flow to the brain. There is another type of stroke that is comparably rare — a blood vessel in the brain bursting. If you’re going to worry about stroke (and you should), focus your worry on those clots. More statistics from the American Stroke Association: Stroke risk is highest in women between the … Continue reading →

IQ Test

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Schools are typically all about comparing students’ intelligence with numbers. When a child enters school, he or she will be given all different types of tests to determine where he or she falls in the percentage compared to other students. In most cases schools never actually put an IQ number to match an average student’s intelligence. However, when it is needed to get a better understanding of exactly how smart or intelligent someone is, an IQ test is often administered. An IQ test may be used when it is thought that a person is over or under intelligent. The test … Continue reading →

Falls and Brain Injury

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Breaking a hip isn’t the only thing to fear when an older adult has an unintentional fall. Brain injury can cause long-term problems, affect how a person functions, and even impact emotional well-being! Some unpleasant statistics from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control study: Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) from a fall resulted in nearly 8,000 deaths in seniors and more than 50,000 hospitalizations in 2005. The death and hospitalization rates for TBI increase as age increases. The average hospital stay for an older adult with a fall-related TBI is four days. The average cost of a hospital stay for an … Continue reading →

Marriage Can Make You Smarter

A study from Brigham Young University recently reported that a happy marriage could lower your blood pressure. Now neuroscience is noticing that marriage can make you smarter, too. In the early stages of a relationship (that first, exciting rush of love), your brain might not be in the right state for intellectual pursuits. A lot of the beginnings of love are driven by the euphoric feelings that come from dopamine — a brain chemical that produces powerful, pleasurable feelings. As relationships mature, dopamine levels become less important and other parts of the brain are engaged. In the later stages of … Continue reading →

Afraid of Losing Your Mind?

Do you ever feel like you might be going a little crazy? Your thoughts spin off in a lot of different directions. You forget important things, or worse — have that horrible feeling that you’ve forgotten something important and you have no idea what it is. You don’t have to let your brain run around without any guidance. There are lots of things you can do to boost your memory, fight aging, and protect your brain. Here are some more tips to keep your thinker in top form. Read a book. Yes, an actual book with a storyline and characters … Continue reading →

Nine Ways To Protect Your Brain

Our brains change as we age. They get smaller. They slow down. If you want to help keep your brain up to speed, try these nine tips to help protect your brain. Keep trying new things. Your brain LOVES novelty. New experiences stimulate the production of dopamine, a chemical your brain uses in learning and memory. Doing new things can help build up brain mass (counteract that shrinkage) and increase processing speed (combat that slowing down). If your life lacks novelty, the dopamine producing areas of your brain can shrink. Practice a skill or hobby. Playing an instrument, solving crossword … Continue reading →

What Aging Does To Your Brain

A lot of things are going on in your body at any one time — and every single one is controlled by your brain. No part of your body is immune to aging. As the years add up, your brain is changing. Neurons — the nerve cells in your brain — start to diminish in size and in number. Over the years, your brain volume decreases. That means your ability to recall details and facts slows down. Tangles are fibers that develop inside neurons. They can knot up and kill nerve cells. Plaques are sticky proteins that can build up … Continue reading →

Ten Ways to Help Your Child with Epilepsy Succeed in School

Childhood epilepsy can have a wide variety of causes. Head injury, infections of the brain, brain tumors, and genetic history could potentially be factors. However, in a great number of cases, no medical explanation for a child’s seizures can be determined. Children with epilepsy are eligible for special education, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA). As the parent of a child with epilepsy, there are adaptations in the regular classroom setting which you can request (and insist upon) for your child. An IEP meeting should be conducted where you can discuss these adaptations specifically … Continue reading →