March 13, 2013

KEY BISCAYNE DOMINO CLUB 1ST ANNUAL DOMINO TOURNAMENT

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305-867-0051

Happy Birthday to!!!!…..

Myriam Lopez Riveron March 18

Carmen Hidalgo March 28

Watch Your Weight and Help Protect Your Brain

 

Staying healthy and maintaining a normal weight may be good not only for your body but also for your brain. A 10-year study of 6,401 British civil servants, initially ages 39 to 63, reports an association between being overweight or obese and impaired cognitive function. Combined with other health issues ("metabolic abnormalities") such as diabetes or high cholesterol, extra weight also increased the odds of mental decline over time.

"I think that it’s important to point out that metabolic abnormality was predictive of poorer cognitive performance regardless of BMI,” says Tammy Scott, PhD, a scientist at Tufts’ HNRCA Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory. “One of the most important findings of this study, though, was that amongst metabolically healthy individuals, higher BMI was associated with worse cognitive function. Furthermore, in the metabolically unhealthy group, higher BMI was associated with greater cognitive decline over a 10-year period. This trend over time was not seen in the metabolically healthy group."

Those associations, Scott says, underline the importance of maintaining a healthy weight—not only for your physical health but, apparently, for a healthy brain as well. Like obesity and overweight, moreover, most of the metabolic abnormalities also associated with poorer cognitive performance can be combated with healthy eating and lifestyle.

Cocoa Flavanols Could Be Good for Your Brain

 

As the weather cools, a cup of hot cocoa might hit the spot—and could boost your brainpower. A new clinical trial supported by chocolate-maker Mars reports that older adults with mild cognitive impairment improved scores on some mental tests when they consumed more cocoa flavanols, the antioxidant compounds credited with dark chocolate’s heart-health benefits.

“For the first time, regular cocoa flavanol consumption has been shown to positively affect cognitive function in older adults with early memory decline, "commented study author Giovambattista Desideri, PhD, of the University of L’Aquila in Italy. “Importantly, the improvements in cognitive function were seen over a relatively short period of time, and, while further research is required to confirm and expand on these findings, this provides encouraging evidence that regular consumption of cocoa flavanols might be effective in improving cognitive function in elderly subjects with mild cognitive impairment.”

Over eight weeks, researchers tested three levels of cocoa flavanols in dairy-based beverages among 90 elderly patients with mild impairment. Those randomly assigned to the high (990 milligrams of flavanols daily) and intermediate (520 milligrams) cocoa groups showed significantly greater improvement than those in the low (45 milligrams) group on “trail-making” tests, verbal fluency and composite cognition. Scores on the standard Mini Mental State Examination did not change significantly, however. “The differences between the intervention groups look to be clinically significant,” says Tammy Scott, PhD, a scientist at Tufts’ HNRCA Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory. “Keep in mind, while the participants had mild cognitive impairment, they were assessing executive function/processing speed, not memory. But the results look pretty impressive for a dietary intervention.