Monday, November 20, 2017

Action Video Games to Boost Brain Power : NOPE

  Researchers in Montreal found that habitual players of action video games have less gray matter in their hippocampus (a part of the brain that regulates emotions and is associated with long-term memory and spatial navigation).
  The greater the hippocampal atrophy the greater the risk of Alzheimer's disease as well as depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
 Interestingly, researchers found that 90 hours of playing action video games (Call of Duty, Killzone, and Borderlands 2) led to hippocampal atrophy (shrinkage) while 90 hours of playing 3D-platform video games led to an INCREASE in gray matter within the hippocampus.
Mol Psychiatry. 2017 Aug 8

Tumeric to Improve Memory

  From researchers at UCLA, daily oral curcumin (tumeric) may improve memory, mood and attention in cognitively normal middle-age and older adults
  Previous studies suggested that curcumin's anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-amyloid and possible anti-tau properties may offer neuro-protective benefits. Prior human trials regarding the effects of circumin have been heretofore inconclusive.
  Doses tested of curcumin were 90 mg twice daily.
  GI side effects are possible such as abdominal pain and gastritis.
2017 Alzheimer's association International Conference