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

Alzheimer's Prevention: The Latest Recommendations

  From the recent report of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine come general recommendations.
  Cognitive Training: there is currently no evidence to support a conclusion that cognitive training can prevent or delay mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's.
  Hypertension: manage blood pressure in those with hypertension (particularly in mid-life i.e.. 35-65) to prevent, delay or slow the progression of Alzheimer's.
  Physical activity: studies fail to demonstrate increasing physical activity prevents, delays or slows mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's. However, the report noted the other health benefits of increased physical activity such as lowering the risk of hypertension, stroke and obesity as well as symptoms of depression.
  Contrastly,to improve your life overall: consider the FINGER study out of Finland which found that targeting diet, exercise, vascular risk factors and brain training slowed cognitive decline in older adults.
Downloadable report: nationalacademies.org/Dementia

Reduce Parkinson's Disease Risk: Truncal Vagotomy ?

  Researchers out of Sweden reviewed patients that underwent truncal vagotomy (a surgical procedure that functionally disconnects multiple abdominal organs by cutting the vagus nerve supply to them) and found a decreased risk of developing Parkinson's disease compared to controls. In fact there was a greater decreased risk in those that underwent selective vagotomy (which disconnects only the stomach).
  These findings offer further support for the Braak hypothesis that Parkinson's disease starts in the gut and spreads to the brain.
Neurology 2017Apr 26

Brain Structure Changes When Learning with Music

  Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that people that practiced a movement task with the left hand to music showed a significant increase in structural connectivity in the white matter tracks that link auditory and motor regions on the right side of the brain.
  Future studies will look to apply this finding to motor rehabilitation programs such as after a stroke.
Brain Cogn. 2017;116:40-46

Is Parkinson's Disease an Autoimmune Disease?

  Following up an earlier study, researchers at Columbia and La Jolla have discovered a population of T cells in the blood of patients with Parkinson's disease that recognize alpha-synuclein peptides providing evidence that PD may be,in part,an autoimmune disease, and autoimmune targeted treatment could potentially slow or stop the disease process.
Nature 2017;Epub 2017 Jun21
Nat Commun 2014;5:3633

Hardening of Arteries in Brain Increases Risk of MCI and Dementia

  Vascular risk factors are known to be associated with dementia. This study suggests atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) intracranially (in brain) is associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI:Pre-dementia?) and dementia.
  Treating vascular risk factors may again decrease the development of atherosclerosis and decrease the prevalence of MCI and dementia.
Neurology 2017 Apr18;88:1556