May 07--EVANSTON, Ill. -- Music training has a lifelong good impact on the aging process, says a new study out of Northwestern University.

Researchers in the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern measured the automatic brain responses of younger and older musicians and non-musicians to speech sounds. Researchers discovered that older musicians had a distinct neural timing advantage. Researchers concluded that age-related delays in neural timing are not inevitable and can be avoided or offset with musical training.

"The older musicians not only outperformed their older non-musician counterparts, they encoded the sound stimuli as quickly and accurately as the younger non-musicians," said neuroscientist Nina Kraus. "This reinforces the idea that how we actively experience sound over the course of our lives has a profound effect on how our nervous system functions," she said.

Kraus, professor of communication sciences in the School of Communication and professor of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is co-author of "Musical experience offsets age-related delays in neural timing."

The data, with recent animal data from other research centers suggest that intensive training even late in life could improve speech processing in older adults and improve their ability to communicate in complex, noisy acoustic environments, said Don Caspary, a researcher on age-related hearing loss at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. "They support the idea that the brain can be trained to overcome, in part, some age-related hearing loss,"Caspary added.

"The contrasts are amazing," says Dr. Eliaz. "Chronic stress significantly reduces the immune response, while something as simple as family support or mindful meditation can boost it just as dramatically."

The negative effects of stress have been studied in a variety of cancers including breast, ovarian, and digestive tract. In one study cited by Dr. Eliaz, breast cancer risk doubled for women after a divorce, separation or the death of their spouse.

In addition to reducing our body's resistance to cancer, stress, depression and isolation also increase metastasis and tumor vascularization. While these facts may be daunting, there are solutions that can make a substantial difference.

In his presentation, Dr. Eliaz discussed a variety of mind-body techniques, including meditation, yoga and Qigong -- an ancient Chinese system of mindful exercises -- that can calm stress and restore the body's healthy balance. In particular, meditation reduces cortisol levels, pro-inflammatory cytokines, systolic blood pressure, anxiety, depression and stress. It also has been proven to increase multiple areas of cognitive function, including information processing, memory and decision making.

"Study after study shows that reducing stress, and its associated negative effects, boosts the immune system and enhances brain function," says Dr. Eliaz.

Read more here: 

http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=13390&Section=DISEASE

For More information about Qi Gong classes in the Tampa Bay Area contact Classical Medicine 

...kudzu may also prove helpful in cutting something else—alcohol consumption. Studies of the impact of kudzu on drinking alcohol have been conducted in the past, and this new study focused on puerarin, a specific component of the Chinese herb, to determine if it could reduce the amount of alcohol individuals consumed.

Ten twenty-something men and women participated in the study, which consisted of four 90-minute sessions. The sessions took place in simulated “apartments” which were equipped with a TV, DVD player, and a refrigerator stocked with the participant’s favorite beer and non-alcoholic beverages.

The participants were allowed to consume as many beers as they wanted (up to six) during the first session. After the session, they were each given either placebo or a pill containing puerarin and told to take it daily. They then returned for a second session.

Two weeks later, the subjects completed a third session, but after this occurrence they were given the pill they did not get the first time. After they took their assigned pills for one week, they returned for the fourth and final session.

When the subjects took puerarin, they drank significantly fewer beers (decline from 3.5 to 2.4). In addition, “we noted that their rate of consumption decreased, meaning they drank slower and took more sips to finish a beer,” explained lead author David Penetar, PhD, of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, which indicated an impact on binge drinking.

Read More: http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/chinese-herb-kudzu-may-reduce-binge-drinking-alcoholism

After assessing all the available data, the Swiss team concluded that the high quality investigations of pre-clinical basic research proved that homeopathic high-potency remedies induce “regulative and specific changes in cells or living organisms”.

The report also found that homeopathy treatment costs at least 15 per cent less than conventional medicine, even though those seeking homeopathy tended to have more chronic or serious ill health.

Homeopathy also led to less dependency on drugs. For example, in more than 500 patients with rheumatic disease, nearly one third were able to stop taking conventional medication, and another third reduced their use of drugs.

Homeopathic fertility treatment for women offered one of the largest cost savings of all, compared with standard medical treatments. It also saved on hospital bills, as well as indirect cost savings such as fewer days off sick when patients opted for homeopathy.

Importantly, homeopathy users reported fewer side-effects and better doctor-patient relationships.

When comparing patient satisfaction with homeopathic vs. conventional therapies in more than 3,000 subjects, significantly more homeopathic patients were “completely satisfied” with their results and treatment in comparison. (BMC Complement Altern. Med., 2008).

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120520/health-fitness/Homeopathic-results.420496

The results of meditation were noted to be an increased area of grey and white matter in the brain; literally inceasing brain function; while the calming benefits were found to ease complications of coronary arterial diseases. 

The role that meditation plays in brain development has been the subject of several theories and a number of studies. One of them, conducted at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that long-term meditators like Ms. Splain had greater gyrification — a term that describes the folding of the cerebral cortex, the outermost part of the brain.

Published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal in February, the study is the latest effort from the U.C.L.A. lab to determine the extent to which meditation may affect neuroplasticity — the ability of the brain to make physiological changes. Previous studies found that the brains of long-term meditators had increased amounts of so-called gray and white matter (the former is believed to be involved in processing information; the latter is thought of as the “wiring” of the brain’s communication system.)

It follows other studies examining possible links between meditation and physical benefits. In 2009, for example, a study presented at an American Heart Association meeting suggested that the mental relaxation produced by meditation has physiological benefits for people with established coronary artery disease.

The U.C.L.A. study, like previous ones, is inconclusive but intriguing. “You could argue that more folds mean more neurons,” said Dr. Eileen Luders, the recent study’s lead author, who practices meditation herself. “These are the processing units of the brain, and so having more might mean that you have greater cognitive capacities.”

Read more of this fascinating story here: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/business/retirementspecial/meditation-as-brain-builder-gains-scientific-support.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss

Janelle Tam, 16, won the $5,000 award in the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada for showing that cellulose, the woody material found in trees that enables them to stand, also acts as a potent anti-oxidant.

"Her super anti-oxidant compound could one day help improve health and anti-aging products by neutralizing more of the harmful free-radicals found in the body," Bioscience Education Canada said in a statement.

Tam's work involved tiny particles in the tree pulp known as nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC), which is flexible, durable, and also stronger than steel.

Tam, a student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, chemically bound NCC to a well-known nano-particle called a buckminster fullerene, or buckyballs, which are already used in cosmetic and anti-aging products.

"The new NCC-buckyball combination acted like a 'nano-vacuum,' sucking up free radicals and neutralizing them," said Bioscience Education Canada.

Since cellulose is already used as filler and stabilizer in many vitamin products, one day Tam hopes NCC will make those products into super-charged free radical neutralizers.

"It would be really nice to commercialize this," Tam, who moved to Canada five years ago, told AFP.

"I envision it more as an ingredient that would be added to existing formulations, so it could be added to tablets or bandaids for a wound dressing or it could be added to cosmetic cream."

She believes NCC may also be superior to Vitamin C or E because it is more stable, so it may work for longer periods of time.

"I think it also opens up a whole new field of research for NCCs," Tam added. "Doing research is like finding out things that no one has found out before, which I find really exciting."

Canada's national forest research institute, FPInnovations, has predicted a $250 million market in the coming decade for NCC.

A pulp and paper mill that opened in January in Quebec now serves as the world's first large-scale NCC production plant.

"When we founded the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada 19 years ago we believed then, as we do now, in the potential of our youth to develop the next big breakthrough in science," said Sanofi Pasteur Canada President Mark Lievonen, who presented the first place prize.

The judges came from Canada's National Research Council and other leading science institutions.

Now in a recent post by the very "LIKED" and "SHARED" story feed / web tech aggregator that is Gizmodo, it's reported that people that drink lots of coffee (up to 6 cups a day) were 10% less likely to die, during the term of the study v.s. the non-coffee drinkers. However, the benifits were noticed among those that were heavy drinkers of the stuff; drinking a single cup a day was found to not make the same amount of % difference. 

"The large-scale study, which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that men who drank six cups of coffee or more every day were 10 per cent less likely to die during the 14 years of the study. Women who drank six cups or more were 15 per cent less likely to die over that same period. The result, fairly obviously, suggests that coffee drinkers live longer.

The researchers have also shown that the effect is seen across almost all causes of death, including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections. The effect, however, seems to decline with lower consumption—and a single cup of coffee a day was found to have negligible effect." - Gawker 

"Coffee contains more than 1000 compounds that might affect the risk of death. The most well-studied compound is caffeine, although similar associations for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee in the current study and a previous study suggest that, if the relationship between coffee consumption and mortality were causal, other compounds in coffee—for example, antioxidants, including polyphenols—might be important."-National Cancer Institute

Read the original study here: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010

A study conducted at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) in the United Kingdom in conjunction with the University of Messina, Italy, confirms that key nutrients in pistachios are released during digestion and thus able to be absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. Polyphenols, carotenoids (vitamin A) and tocopherols (vitamin E), all with strong antioxidant qualities were quantified in the study.

Giuseppina Mandalari, Ph.D., research scientist at IFR and lead investigator says, "These results are significant as they are the first that show when the bioactive compounds in pistachios are released during digestion and are available to be taken up by the body." She continues, "This research indicates these nutrients would contribute to the beneficial relationship between pistachio consumption and health-related outcomes, such as heart disease."

"In addition, these results support the findings of the 2010 nationally-published study¹ and trials by researchers at Penn State University that addressed the positive effect of antioxidants from pistachios on LDL cholesterol," added Constance J. Geiger, Ph.D., R.D. who serves as a nutrition research consultant with the American Pistachio Growers.

This new data helps connect the dots between the bioactive compounds in pistachios, their release into the digestive tract and absorption into the blood. The Penn State study showed an increase in lutein and gamma-tocopherol in the blood was related to a decrease in oxidized LDL (bad) cholesterol, when pistachios were eaten daily, thereby contributing to a reduced risk of heart disease.

In the present study, researchers tested raw, roasted and salted pistachios and muffins made with raw pistachios in an in vitro model of digestion which simulates the human stomach and small intestine. The bioaccessibility of the nutrients in pistachios was evaluated at various stages during the digestion process. Each measurement was performed in triplicate for the three tested models.

No significant differences in bioaccessibility of the bioactive compounds were noted between raw and roasted salted pistachios in the stomach and small intestine. Only the presence of baked muffin limited the release of protocatechuic acid and luteolin in the gastric and duodenal compartments.

Lifestyle changes. Behavior modification - such as changing sleep habits by getting up at the same time every day and avoiding naps - produced significant improvements for older adults with chronic insomnia, according to a 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy. Seeing a therapist who specializes in insomnia might help 70 to 80 percent of people with chronic insomnia, often providing a "cure." (Pills treat the symptoms.) To find a sleep center where CBT is offered, call the American Academy of Sleep Medicine at 630-737-9700 or go to www.sleepcenters.org. Ask your insurer about coverage.

Exercise. A study of more than 3,000 adults, published in December in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity, found that 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous activity, such as running, improved sleep quality by as much as 65 percent. 

 

Read the full article here: 

http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=13358&Section=AGING

A recent study shows that people who regularly eat tree nuts -- including almonds, macadamias, pistachios, walnuts and cashews -- also have lower risks for Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease.

The researchers from Louisiana State University Agricultural Center found that nut consumption is linked with lower levels of an inflammation marker called C-reactive protein (which is associated with heart disease and other chronic conditions) and higher levels of the "good" kind of cholesterol.

In addition, people who regularly ate the tree nuts had lower body mass indexes (BMI, a ratio of height to weight) than people who didn't regularly eat nuts, the study said.

It should be noted that the study was funded by the nonprofit International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation. It appeared recently in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

The research included 13,292 adults whose diets were analyzed through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys between 1999 and 2004. The researchers considered a "tree nut consumer" as someone who ate at least a quarter of an ounce of nuts a day. The researchers found that about 18.6 percent of people between ages 19 and 50 and about 21 percent of people ages 51 and older were regular nut consumers.

The researchers found that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among people who regularly consumed the nuts was 5 percent lower than those who didn't consume the nuts. (Metabolic syndrome is known to be a risk factor for conditions like heart disease and diabetes.)

Read original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/15/-nuts-diabetes-heart-disease_n_1423911.html?ir=Health+News&ref=topbar