Posts Tagged ‘Alzheimer’s disease’
One of the most important ways to maintain brain fitness is by getting enough sleep.
Most of us know how we feel when we don’t get enough sleep. Research shows that lack of sleep can affect your memory, raise your blood pressure, and increase your risk of stroke.
But how do you get a good night’s sleep?
I’m teaching a class on brain fitness for the Lifelong Learning Institute at Nova Southeastern University, and once again I’m thinking a lot about what goes in to keeping your memory sharp as you get older.
The members of the class are interested in my presentation, and we’ve done several exercises to help them learn more about what they can do to maintain and improve their memory.
Nothing is more helpful than understanding how your memory works, and probably the most critical issue for older persons and their memory is attention. Although it’s obvious (once you think about it), if you don’t pay attention to something, you can’t remember it.
Even the most commons memory complaints I hear from patients are often related to memory. The number one complaint is “I went in to another room to get something and forgot why I was there.” Whenever I mention this, I see lots of nods of recognition in the audience.
For many people, this issue is caused by failing to maintain attention on a specific task. While you’re going to the other room, your mind moves on to another topic (maybe you notice something else you’ve been meaning to do). By the time you get to the other room, you’ve lost the task you were thinking about in the first place.
The solution is to maintain focus on what you want to do, at least until you’ve been able to encode the task in your memory. This means keeping the task in mind while you go to the other room or rehearsing it several times before you move to the new room.
When we’re younger, we can depend on some things in our memory working automatically. As we get older, things that used to work automatically may require a little extra attention. Often, it’s not your memory that isn’t working, it’s how you’re paying attention.
The folks at the Dakim BrainFitness System were kind enough to send a unit to me to use for a few days so that I could review their program. In the weeks since I sent it back to them, I’ve had some time to think about the program and I’m happy to say that it’s an excellent alternative to other computer-based brain fitness training programs.
Unlike most other programs, the Dakim System isn’t a software package that you have to install on your own computer. It arrives in a box, complete with a computer that’s already set up with the program. All you have to do is open up the box and plug in the computer.
And the computer that comes with the system is the most user-friendly machine I’ve ever seen. The initial set up is explained to you by the computer over speakers that are built in to the unit. And you don’t have to use a keyboard or a mouse to use the system. You just touch the screen to answer questions as the computer is set up. That’s also how you interact with the computer when you start the training program.
The training program includes a nice variety of tasks that tap attention, memory, and problem solving. The tasks use materials that are likely to be familiar to users over 50, such as movie clips from old films, and change quickly enough to keep you from getting bored. The unit can be connected to the Internet to get updated materials, so you will be able to use the System for a long time to come. The new material requires that you pay a monthly subscription, though, so that’s an extra cost of the system.
The program has multiple levels of difficulty, so you will be able to make steady progress as you work with it. The program is just right for many users over 50, but doesn’t include tasks that focus on working memory (remembering more than one thing at a time and then thinking about them) and it’s not clear to me how well it will help you develop processing speed (how fast you can take things in and make decisions about them). Other programs include these tasks, but in our experience they may be too difficult for many users. The Dakim System is likely to be accessible to almost every user.
Overall, then, the Dakim BrainFitness System is probably best suited for people who don’t already have a computer and don’t already know how to use a mouse and keyboard. The touch screen format makes the unit very easy to set up and use. The program content will give users a regular mental work out that will help them keep their brains working. I give the Dakim BrainFitness System an A+ for usability. The program content will help users keep the minds active, and will help you track your progress.
Update at 2:15 PM:The folks at Dakim point out to me that several of the subtests do, in fact, help train working memory. I stand corrected. They also let me know that they’re working on a speed of processing task for inclusion in a future update.
Clinicians and researchers working with older persons often are concerned that their patients will develop a syndrome called frailty. Frailty is usually defined by the occurrence of muscle weakness, slow walking speed, exhaustion, weight loss, and low levels of physical activity.
Frailty may make you think about someone who is quite old and infirm, but at least some people think of frailty as a physical equivalent to developing cognitive problems. Pre-frailty (having just a few of the characteristics of frailty) may be like mild cognitive impairment, a milder form of memory or other cognitive problems that may lead to dementia.
From this point of view, preventing frailty may be a route to preventing decline. Although frailty is defined by things like slow walking and muscle weakness, research shows that frailty is associated with memory problems and depression.
It might seem odd that muscle strength and walking speed go along with memory and depression. But besides the research that show they are related, there’s a good reason why they are linked. Frailty has been linked to higher levels of markers of inflammation such as the pro-inflammatory substances called cytokines. There are substances in your body that are increased when you are sick, but they also increase as you get older.
Evidence suggests that low grade but chronic inflammation may be a key factor in aging. Researchers are still studying the best ways to reduce the effects of inflammation, but it’s likely that exercise reduces levels of inflammatory substances. It is also possible (but not proven) that antioxidant supplements and some diets may help to reduce inflammation. These same things may help prevent frailty. Exercise may be an important defense against developing frailty as well as helping with cognitive decline.
New research published this week gives new clues to the genes related to developing Alzheimer’s disease. Two groups independently reported this week that the gene CLU was related to research participants’ chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease. CLU has the genetic material that allows the body to create a substance called clusterin. Clusterin has multiple functions, but importantly is involved in lipid transport (moving fatty substances in the body) and apoptosis (programmed cell death).
Clusterin is also called apolipoprotein J, and may be involved in removing amyloid plaques from the body. These plaques are key parts of the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. People who have certain forms of the gene are at higher risk for Alzheimer’s. The finding is reported this week in the journal Nature Genetics. Click here for the online report. Another group in France also report on the CLU gene.
The two groups reported on two other genes that may also be involved in Alzheimer’s pathology. Until recently, we have only been fairly sure that the gene for apolipoprotein E was a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. These new studies significantly advance our understanding of the role genes may have in developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Latest
- Meditation as Brain Training
- Brain Fitness and The Mind of a Monk
- Brain Fitness Tip: Training Without a Computer
Mindfulness meditation as practiced over a long period by experts makes clear changes in someone’s brain function. But what about those of us who don’t have a few years to sit in a monastery in the Himalayas? A new study shows that even brief meditation practice can improve attention.
I saw an interesting blog post yesterday evening on the site of the Huffington Post about the potential benefits of meditation – or at least about what one woman thinks might be the benefits. (more…)
Although many people are excited about the potential for using computers to train their brains, we shouldn’t forget that other techniques have been used to the train the brain for many centuries. I’m thinking about the large number of techniques for meditation. While free computer software still requires an investment in a computer, meditation only asks you to sit or lie quietly and focus your mind.
A recently-published study shows parts of the brain in long-term meditators are larger than the same parts of the brain in people who don’t meditate. The article by Eileen Luders and her colleagues appeared in a recent issue of the journal Neuroimage (Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 672-678, April 15, 2009). The study showed that portions of the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus were larger in persons who had been regular meditators for 5 or more years. The study is interesting because the parts of the brain that were larger are often thought to be important in helping people keep themselves emotionally balanced.
A number of strategies are likely to be helpful for meditators. There has been a great deal of interest over the last several years in mindfulness meditation. Researchers have studied how it can be used in reducing anxiety and depression. Mindfulness is based on Buddhist meditation (for a brief article, click here) but you don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice meditation. In fact, one of the most important persons who has promoted mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts. You can see a video presentation by him on YouTube by clicking here.