brain fitness

Weekend’s Better Brain Health Breakfast #7: Friends, Lovers, Puzzles, and Music

The power of love and friends for your health Staying married or good social connections can help you live longer are covered in this Washington post article. I have blogged on how social interactions can improve your health in a previous post. One interesting piece of data from the Washington post article is that social…

Reverse your brain aging: How to take 2 years off your brain age within 1 year

Reverse the brain aging process Wouldn’t it be great to reverse the age accumulated damage to your brain, stop the shrinking of your brain? Sound like marketing hype, but there is not much to sell as what does this brain ‘repair’ is simple exercise – walking (aerobic exercise). I previously posted about how the brain…

How playing the court jester can improve your brain

The court jester’s (harlequin) job was to entertain the court with his/her music and juggling abilities. The court members laughed at the jester (maybe not with him), but possibly the jester had the last laugh since his various entertaining endeavors possibly promoted in his brain greater plasticity and health. All this week I will discuss…

Exercise for healthy new neurons: even in middle age

Here is a follow-up to my Monday post on the quick rebound from an exercise layoff in the important brain health protein brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A new paper published in the Journal of Applied Physiology examined running, BDNF, trkB, neurogenesis (new neurons), and neurite outgrowth (branching of the new neurons) in middle age rodents.…

A layoff results in aerobic deconditioning what about the brain?

I have previously written a few times about how quickly deconditioning of aerobic fitness occurs after an exercise layoff (see here and here), but what about brain health? I have a perfect reason for writing this new piece because with my recent travel schedule (multiple cities, multiple meetings, etc), busy conferences, and maybe an extra…