"According to this, if I'm highly fit, I'm 70 percent less likely to
die. Let's hear it for immortality!"

That note was in an e-mail sent to me by HSI researcher Michele Cagan.
Michele's comment addressed this sentence from an Associated Press
article: "The Veterans Affairs researchers found that the 'highly fit'
men in the study had half the risk of death as those who were the least
fit. Being 'very highly fit' cut the risk even more, by 70 percent."

The last I heard, our chance of dying is pretty uniform at 100 percent,
no matter how highly fit we may be. So it's safe to assume that the AP
article was talking about the risk of premature death.

If you can't be immortal, the next best thing is a healthy longevity,
and the Veterans Affairs study confirms that a little daily exercise
will help that effort.

Another recent study from Yale University School of Medicine reveals
what appears to be the primary nutritional element needed to keep your
body in good working order for at least a century.

********************************
Saying "no" to decline
********************************

As the Yale team noted in a January issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association, their objective was to find out if low
blood levels of nutrients might be associated with physical function
decline in older subjects.

STUDY PROFILE

* Researchers recruited nearly 700 subjects who were 65 or older
* Blood samples from each subject were tested for levels of folate,
and vitamins B6, B12, D, and E
* The physical condition of each subject was assessed with the
Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), a standardized tool
for evaluating lower extremity function in older people
* These same assessments were conducted again with each subject
three years later
* Of the five nutrients tested, only low levels of vitamin E were
linked with a decline in physical function

The researchers noted that their study doesn't establish vitamin E
deficiency as a specific cause of physical function decline. But they
suggested that insufficient vitamin E might create an imbalance between
oxidants and antioxidants. The resulting oxidative stress might prompt
DNA, muscle, and neuronal impairment.

********************************
Heart protection
********************************

The Yale team notes that Clinical trials should be mounted to determine
if optimal vitamin E levels might reduce functional decline and the
onset of disability in older people.

Actually, we already have a few trials that show just how important it
is to maintain adequate E levels as we age.

In 2005 I told you about a Brigham and Women's Hospital study in which
nearly 40,000 women over the age of 45 were divided into three groups
and assigned to take either 600 IU of vitamin E each day, a low dose
aspirin, or a placebo. After 10 years, results showed that women in the
vitamin E group over the age of 65 had a 50 percent lower risk of dying
from heart disease compared to the other two groups. Heart attack risk
was also lowered by nearly 35 percent in this group.

And I've told you before about another intervention study that
recruited more than 600 subjects over the age of 65. For one year, each
subject received either 200 IU of vitamin E daily or a placebo. The
results: Vitamin E supplements had a preventive effect on upper
respiratory infections. Subjects who took E supplements had a 20
percent reduced risk of coming down with a common cold.

HSI Panelist Dr Allan Spreen, recommends 400 IU of vitamin E daily
(ideally as d-alpha or mixed tocopherols), along with 200 micrograms of
selenium. Dr. Spreen: "Both selenium and vitamin E are intimately
associated with stimulation of the part of the immune system dealing
with production of immunoglobulins." The immune system uses
immunoglobulins (or antibodies) to identify and neutralize viruses and
bacteria.

Talk to your doctor before adding an E supplement or selenium to your
daily regimen. Meanwhile, you can get vitamin E from a variety of food
sources, including eggs, liver, nuts and seeds, spinach, broccoli,
peaches, wheat germ, and vegetable oils.


******************************
...and another thing
******************************

Obesity increases middle-aged women's risk of suffering a stroke, a
study suggests. US researchers have linked an almost threefold increase
in the number of female stroke victims to a rise in the number of
overweight victims.



Sources:
"Serum Micronutrient Concentrations and Decline in Physical Function
Among Older Persons" Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.
299, No. 3, 1/23/08, jama.ama-assn.org

Today we are fortunate to interview Dr. Jerri Edwards, an
Associate Professor at University of South Florida's School
of Aging Studies and Co-Investigator of the influencial
ACTIVE study. Dr. Edwards was trained by Dr. Karlene K.
Ball, and her research is aimed toward discovering how
cognitive abilities can be maintained and even enhanced
with advancing age.

Alvaro Fernandez (AF): Please explain to our readers your
main research areas.

Jerri Edwards (JE): I am particularly interested in how
cognitive interventions may help older adults to avoid or
at least delay functional difficulties and thereby maintain
their independence longer. Much of my work has focused on
the functional ability of driving including assessing
driving fitness among older adults and remediation of
cognitive decline that results in driving difficulties.

Some research questions that interest me include, how can
we maintain healthier lives longer? How can training
improve cognitive abilities, both to improve those
abilities and also to slow-down, or delay, cognitive
decline? The specific cognitive ability that I have studied
the most is processing speed, which is one of the cognitive
skills that decline early on as we age.

AF: Can you explain what cognitive processing speed is, and
why it is relevant to our daily lives?

JE: Processing speed is mental quickness. Just like a
computer with a 486 processor can do a lot of the same
things as a computer with a Pentium 4 processor, but it
takes much longer, our minds tend to slow down with age as
compared to when we were younger. We can do the same tasks,
but it takes more time. Quick speed of processing is
important for quick decision making in our daily lives.
When you are driving, if something unexpected happens, how
quickly can you notice the situation and decide how to
react?

AF: Please describe how the ACTIVE trial used the cognitive
training program, and what the results were found to be
when they were published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association in December 2006?

JE: I was a co-investigator of the ACTIVE study, a
multi-site, controlled study, with thousands of adults over
sixty-five, to evaluate the effectiveness of three
different cognitive training methods with three different
groups:

- The first group used a memory training program including
a variety of traditional memory techniques such as
mnemonics and the method of loci.

- The second group was trained in learn inductive reasoning
skills.

- The third group was exposed to computer-based programs to
train processing speed.

All 3 groups spent the same amount of time in their
respective training programs, around 2 hours a week for 5
weeks, going through exercises of increasing difficulty.
The ACTIVE study was designed to track participants'
performance over a number of years, so, after this initial
5-week intervention, some groups received training booster
sessions, after 1 year and again after 3 years.

Willis and colleagues published the 5-year results in JAMA
last December and the results were very positive. All 3
types of cognitive programs were shown to have an effect
immediately after the program, after 3 years, and after 5.
But, the results of the group that used a computer-based
program to train processing speed showed clear short-term
and long-term results. Individuals who experienced improved
speed of processing also showed better performance on tasks
of instrumental activities of daily living such as quickly
finding an item on a crowded pantry shelf and reading
medication bottles. They also reacted to road signs more
quickly. We found this transfer of training in our prior
studies using the training protocol as well.

In short, significant percentages of the participants
improved their memory, reasoning and information-processing
speed across all three methods. The most impressive result
was that, when tested five years later, the participants in
the computer-based program had less of a decline in the
skill they were trained in than did a control group that
received no cognitive training.

AF: The results of the ACTIVE study were quite impressive
and contributed in large part to the amount of media
coverage about brain fitness last year. However, as you
have probably seen, there is a good deal of confusion about
brain fitness among the media and the public at large. Can
you help our readers understand two common questions: 1)
Why are new programs better than, say, doing crosswords
puzzles?, and 2) Can one really say that these programs can
reverse age-related decline?

To answer the first question, I would say that a crossword
puzzle is not a form of cognitive training. It can be
stimulating, but it is not a form of structured mental
exercise that has been shown to improve specific cognitive
skills - other than the skill of doing crossword puzzles,
of course.

In terms of the second question, it is too early to say
whether we can really reverse decline in a permanent way.
There are many skills involved and the studies are not long
enough to really compare different trajectories. What we
can say is that by doing some exercises, one can improve
cognitive speed of processing by 146-250%, and that a
significant portion of that improvement stays even after 5
years. We cannot say more definitively.

But I think it is noteworthy to be able to say that, in all
of the programs tested, the payoff from cognitive training,
or what we can call "mental exercise", seemed far greater
than we are accustomed to getting from physical exercise.
Just imagine if you could say that 10 hours of workouts at
the gym every day this month was enough to help keep you
fit five years from now.

AF: Research like this seems to present major opportunities
for society. For example, wouldn't insurance companies, or
the AARP, want to sponsor more research and evaluate
whether to offer this type of training to their members?
Won't major employers see opportunities to improve the
performance of older employees by identifying the cognitive
skills that may need the most improvement and offering
tailored training? We could speculate that a person with
faster processing abilities will also be able to make
faster decisions and learn faster...

JE: That makes sense, based on what we know. Cognitive
abilities evolve in different ways as we age, and some
typically start to decline in our thirties. Cognitive
interventions may help train and improve those abilities,
and there is already research that strongly indicates where
and how training can be useful. More research is still
required to deliver more precise and tailored interventions
in a variety of environments. I suspect we will see the
field grow significantly - and not just for aging-related
priorities. Cognitive training may become useful for a
variety of health conditions, such as Parkinson's and
Alzheimer's patients, for example. More research will help
researchers refine assessments and training programs.

About the Author:

Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of
SharpBrains.com, which provides the latest science-based
information for Brain Fitness combined with fun brain
teasers. SharpBrains has been recognized by Scientific
American Mind, Newsweek, Forbes. Alvaro holds MA in
Education and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The
Science of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning
Institute. You can learn more at
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog

Who has not heard "Use It or Lose It". Now, what is "It"?
Last week I gave a talk at the Italian Consulate in San
Francisco, and one of the areas attendants seemed to enjoy
the most was learning what our brains are and how they
work, peaking into the "black box" of our minds. Without
understanding at least the basics, how can we make good
decisions about our own brain health and fitness?

Let's review at a glance:

The brain is composed of 3 "brains" or main sub-systems,
each named after the evolutionary moment in which the
sub-system is believed to have appeared.

1) Neocortex, or Human Brain, is the most recent area,
where we perform high-level thinking and complex
integrative tasks. Other mammals do have this part too, but
in smaller proportion of the whole brain volume. This is
where we have our right and left hemispheres.

The Neocortex is composed of

-Frontal Lobes: or the CEO of the Brain, for sophisticated
brain functions such as planning and conceptualizing.

-Parietal lobes: dealing with movement, the senses, and
some forms of recognition

-Temporal lobes: auditory processes and language

-Occipital: visual processing center (credit: Morphonix)

B) Limbic System, or Mammalian Brain, critical for emotions
and for memory,

Emotions are generated here, as well as the appetites and
urges that help us survive. For instance, the amygdala gets
triggered to prepare us to deal with a threatening
situation, resulting in our feeling of fear. The
hippocampus is key in the formation of memory.

C) Cerebellum and Stem, or Reptilian Brain, that regulates
basic vital variables such as breathing, heartbeat and
motor coordination.

When we exercise our brains, we put our Neurons and
connections between neurons in action.

Given the diversity of functions outlined above, it is
clear that different activities are going to activate
different brain areas, which scientists now know thanks to
neuroimaging techniques. There is no one magic bullet that
is best (either crosswords puzzles, or computer-based
programs, or physical exercise): we do need a variety of
mental stimulation or "brain exercises".

"Cells that fire together wire together" means that
synapses-unions between neurons- get solidified the more
often the respective neurons "talk" to each other.

Here you have some tips that can help you put all this
theory into practice:

- Be curious! Get to know your local library and community
college, look for local organizations or churches that
offer classes or workshops

- Do a variety of things, including things you aren't good
at (if you like to sing, try painting too)

- Work puzzles like crosswords and sudoku or play games
like chess and bridge

- Try a computerized brain fitness program for a customized
workout

- If you can only do one thing, learn something new every
day!

About the Author:

Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of
SharpBrains.com, which provides the latest science-based
information for Cognitive Fitness and Cognitive Training,
and has been recognized by Scientific American Mind,
MarketWatch, Forbes, and more. Alvaro holds MA in Education
and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The Science
of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute.
You can learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/

50% of Americans are overweight. This is an alarming statistic by itself. But what is worse is that they spend US$40 billion annually on dieting and weight-loss products. It is unimaginable that Americans can be spending so much but still be fighting the losing battle against obesity. The sheer proportion of the sample size will make most dieticians sit up and take notice. The dichotomy of effort and results speak for a grave problem plaguing the diet and weight-loss industry. By now, you will hopefully begin to question: Perhaps the products and programs Americans are paying for are not all they are cut out to be?

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Frankly, the future looks bleak for those attempting to lose weight. One has to sift slowly through cover-ups and lies in order to find a solution. Hopefully, Tom Venuto's program is the start of a resurgence in the industry. There will be an outcry once greater light is shed on the behind-the-scenes workings of this industry. It is not sustainable to keep pulling the wool over the eyes of consumers. They have a right to ethical products and unexaggerated marketing. In Winston Churchill's words, 'The truth is great and it shall prevail'. The weight-loss industry has to seek treatment for its own disease before it can help anyone else lose weight.

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