cognitive tests Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Eating Organic Helps Kids Score Higher on Cognitive Tests, According to Study

AHA Publisher — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 07:19:05 +0000

Stephanie Woods via NaturalHealth365 – Have you ever noticed that you have more energy when you eat nutrient-rich, organic food and have a better overall feeling of wellness than when you eat fast food? There’s a reason for that, and researchers are linking an organic diet to improved cognition and higher academic performance in children. The study, published in Environmental Pollution, was conducted by researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. It took an in-depth look at environmental hazards that children come into contact with regularly. Without examining unique lifestyle factors individually, the researchers concluded that “healthy diets, including eating organic diets, are richer than fast food diets in nutrients necessary for the brain…” According to the study, antioxidants, vitamins, and fatty acids found in a balanced, healthy diet are credited with enhancing cognitive function in children. A Large-Scale Study of 1,300 Participants Examines the Connection Between Children’s Diet and Cognitive Development The researchers chose nearly 1,300 mother-child pairs from those enrolled in the pan-European study, Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) Project. HELIX has a number of various projects spanning several European countries The children participating in the study ranged in age from 6 to 11 years old, all in good health. In addition, because the participants were already a part of HELIX, researchers already had data on the mothers’ pregnancies and birth experiences as well as urine samples for all participants. They used each participant’s home addresses to evaluate the area for environmental exposures, such as level of pollution and how close they were to parks and natural areas. The researchers administered tests to both child and mother to determine specific lifestyle factors, alcohol use and smoking by either or both parents, the child’s diet, their environment indoors, level of physical activity, and other habits. Researchers tested the children’s working memory, attention function, and fluid intelligence through both clinical tests and computer evaluations. Then, they combined these scores as an overall level of cognition. Pesticides and Other Chemicals Have a Detrimental Impact on Cognitive Health The researchers concluded that eating organic foods helped children score higher in tests measuring working memory and fluid intelligence. Lower scores on each of the tests were found to have several contributing factors. For instance, children who scored lower on fluid intelligence tests tended to have a diet high in fast food. They were also regularly exposed to tobacco smoke and experienced house crowding. Children with lower scores on working memory tests tended to regularly be exposed to poor indoor air quality. Pesticides and other chemicals in conventional foods – and their absence in organic foods – are believed to be the primary reason for the study results. Children are smaller, so the levels of these dangerous chemicals in their bodies are higher. Other studies have linked pesticides to ADHD, developmental problems, and lower IQ in children. It is important to note that organophosphate insecticides which are specifically associated with lower IQ scores in children are still commonly used on vegetables and fruit in the United States. What’s the bottom line? While the test results seem to reveal a direct link between test scores and diet and environmental factors, more research is needed to provide solid evidence that an organic, nutrient-rich diet improves cognitive performance. Nevertheless, this offers some solid evidence to switch to an organic diet, dramatically lowering pesticide levels in the body. No doubt, eating organic food will take you one step closer to better health and higher brainpower. Sources for this article include: BeyondPesticides.org ScienceDirect.com App.Dimensions.AI ScienceDirect.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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A Smartphone Technology to Diagnose Psychiatric Diseases

AHA Publisher — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 07:00:52 +0000

ISRAEL21c Staff via Israel21c – According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from diagnosable psychiatric disorders such as clinical depression or schizophrenia. But they can only be diagnosed based on the observation and description of symptoms. That’s the problem Israeli medical startup Montfort (Mon4T) aims to solve with its newly launched Brain Profiler. This science-based method looks at mental disorders as brain disturbances that can be accurately diagnosed in a clinical manner. Developed by practicing psychiatrist and Technion lecturer Dr. Abraham Peled, the approach bridges between classical psychiatry and computational neuroscience. “We cannot fix a system if we do not know exactly what is wrong with it. It is absolutely critical that we discover the causes of mental disorders if we ever hope to cure them,” Peled said. “The frustration of not being able to truly cure these patients drove me to change my approaches and connect to the digital world and to algorithms, including Montfort’s EncephaLog application.” Montfort already uses smartphone technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide FDA-cleared digital neurological tests for patients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. As a result of the cooperation with Peled in the past year, Montfort added to its test protocol indicators assessing anxiety, depression and more. Montfort translates the collected digital indicators into terms that psychiatrists are familiar with, such as depression, anxiety or psychosis, and suggests a neurological explanation, said Peled. “As a next step, the diagnosed network disturbance will be demonstrated by EEG, a procedure that was previously very complicated to conduct and therefore available only in hospitals, but is now available to any patient at home.” The Brain Profiler will also be used far from home soon, as it was selected as one of the technologies to accompany Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe on his journey to the International Space Station at the beginning of 2022. The astronauts will use the Montfort app to do motor and cognitive self-tests while physicians on Earth monitor their functioning in real time. Montfort CEO Dr. Ziv Yekutieli said, “With the complexity of the human brain in general, and psychiatric disorders in particular, psychiatrists have a hard time keeping up with advances in other medical fields. A practitioner has to take clinical decisions based on subjective and non-quantitative data, which is gathered at random, short clinical visits, that do not reflect the patient’s actual status throughout his or her daily life. These difficulties limit the psychiatrist’s ability to treat the patient optimally, and limit pharmaceutical companies’ ability to develop new drugs.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Scientists Develop Simple Blood Test for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease

AHA Publisher — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 07:00:20 +0000

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology via EurekAlert – An international research team led by HKUST has developed a simple but robust blood test from Chinese patient data for early detection and screening of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for the first time, with an accuracy level of over 96%. Currently, doctors mainly rely on cognitive tests to diagnose a person with AD. Besides clinical assessment, brain imaging and lumbar puncture are the two most commonly used medical procedures to detect changes in the brain caused by AD. However, these methods are expensive, invasive, and frequently unavailable in many countries. Now, a team led by Prof. Nancy IP, Vice-President for Research and Development at HKUST, has identified 19 out of the 429 plasma proteins associated with AD to form a biomarker panel representative of an “AD signature” in the blood. Based on this panel, the team has developed a scoring system that distinguishes AD patients from healthy people with more than 96% accuracy. This system can also differentiate among the early, intermediate, and late stages of AD, and can be used to monitor the progression of the disease over time. These exciting findings have led to the development of a high-performance, blood-based test for AD, and may also pave the way to novel therapeutic treatments for the disease. “With the advancement of ultrasensitive blood-based protein detection technology, we have developed a simple, noninvasive, and accurate diagnostic solution for AD, which will greatly facilitate population-scale screening and staging of the disease,” said Prof. Nancy Ip, Morningside Professor of Life Science and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at HKUST. The work was conducted in collaboration with researchers at University College London and clinicians in local hospitals including the Prince of Wales Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The discovery was made using the proximity extension assay (PEA) – a cutting-edge ultrasensitive and high-throughput protein measurement technology, to examine the levels of over 1,000 proteins in the plasma of AD patients in Hong Kong. As the most comprehensive study of blood proteins in AD patients to date, the work has recently been published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, and has also been featured and actively discussed on different scholarly exchange platforms on AD research such as Alzforum. AD, which affects over 50 million people worldwide, involves the dysfunction and loss of brain cells. Its symptoms include progressive memory loss as well as impaired movement, reasoning, and judgment. While patients often only seek medical attention and are diagnosed when they have memory problems, AD affects the brain at least 10-20 years before symptoms appear. To read the original article click here.

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Discover How Eating Mixed Berries Can SUPERCHARGE Your Brain Function

AHA Publisher — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:00:39 +0000

Joy Jensen via NaturalHealth365 – You probably know about the popular adage, “you are what you eat.” Right? Well, science continues to back that saying up … especially when it comes to your brain function. Growing research supports the positive (and negative) effects of the foods you eat on your body, mind and spirit – in particular the brain. That’s especially true of foods containing flavonoids, which are found in many vegetables, fruits, and other plant products. Rich in antioxidants, they work by powerfully warding off the threat of toxins, as well as other health benefits. Flavonoids have been shown to help protect the brain and support brain function. In fact, new research shows that eating mixed berries, which are high in flavonoids, can help improve brain function and cognitive performance. New study concludes: Eating the right foods can really boost brain function Researchers wanted to test findings from previous animal models and conducted research on a group of 40 healthy adults between 20 and 30 years of age. Participants were provided with a berry smoothie that included blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries blended with water. A placebo was matched for vitamin C and carbohydrates. After consuming the smoothies, participants in the study engaged in tasks designed to measure mental flexibility, response times, and more at two, four, and six hours after drinking the smoothie. The results showed that those drinking the berry smoothie had increased accuracy on cognitive tests even up to six hours after consumption. They also had quicker response times! Those who had the placebo saw a decreased performance throughout the day as cognitive fatigue set in. Researchers concluded that consuming mixed berries, which are an excellent source of flavonoids, improve cognitive brain functions in the test subjects. While this new study backs up the brain function benefits of mixed berries, it’s not the first study to show the benefits of a high intake of berries. A previous study published in Annals of Neurology reported that a high intake of blueberries, strawberries, and other flavonoid-rich berries delayed memory decline in aging women. Best of all, it’s a simple dietary modification you can make to reduce memory decline and boost brain function. Understanding the extra health benefits of consuming enough flavonoids Beyond improving brain function and slowing age-related memory decline, a high intake of flavonoids offers many other health benefits, too! Additional benefits include: Decreased diabetes risk: One meta-analysis showed that a high intake of flavonoids was associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Cancer-fighting benefits: Some flavonoids may keep cancer cells from multiplying, although additional research is needed. Reduced heart attack risk: Flavonoids found in soy, coffee, and tea may reduce the risk of having a stroke or heart attack. How can you enjoy the benefits of flavonoids? I’m glad you asked! One of the best ways is to start eating more berries: blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Organic, of course. (To avoid eating unwanted chemicals in your diet.) Toss them into your salads, slice them in cereal, top your yogurt with berries, or eat them alone as a healthy snack. Sources for this article include: NaturalHealthResearch.org, Harvard.edu, Healthline.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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Spearmint Offers Cognitive Benefits to Both Young and Aging Adults, According to New Research

AHA Publisher — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 07:00:12 +0000

Joy Jensen via NaturalHealth365 – Spearmint, also known as garden mint, is a type of mint that’s very similar to peppermint, although it has its own unique taste. Its pleasantly sweet flavor makes it a popular flavoring for chewing gum, toothpaste, candy, and mouthwash. The potent garden mint is used to create a variety of medicinal products, and spearmint oil is known for its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Along with many health uses, it’s been investigated for its brain benefits, too. In the past, various studies have been done to show that routine supplementation with garden mint extract resulted in improve cognitive performance in aging adults who already experienced age-related memory problems. However, more recent research found that it also offers cognitive benefits to young adults, as well. How Spearmint Helps to Support Healthy Brain Function Since studies previously proved the effectiveness of spearmint for people between 50 and 70 years of age who had age-related memory problems, scientists hypothesized that regular supplementation with garden mint would also provide cognitive performance benefits to active, younger individuals as well. Extensive cognitive tests were done to evaluate the participants in the study before it began. Some of the study participants were given 900 mg of the garden mint extract, and others were given a placebo. Cognitive tests were done again on days 7, 30, and 90 after supplementation began. Those taking the spearmint extract had significant cognition improvements, particularly in sustained attention. This was the first time that improved attention was seen in a group of healthy, young individuals taking spearmint extract, and it shows the potent cognitive benefits spearmint offers to young and old alike. Spearmint has been proven to offer a variety of cognitive benefits in previous studies, too. Some studies show it’s a more effective stimulant than coffee, providing a more reliable energy boost along with improvements in concentration, memory, and overall brain health. In aging adults, it’s been proven to improve attention span, concentration, and overall brain function. Beyond the Brain: How Does This Garden Mint Support Optimal Health? Beyond the new and previously discovered brain health benefits of spearmint, this herb offers a variety of health benefits that make it worth regular consumption. Just a few spearmint health benefits include: Promotes healing of digestive issues: Helps relieve symptoms of nausea, indigestion, gas, and vomiting. Packed with antioxidants: The high concentration of antioxidants in spearmint makes it effective at reducing the risk of chronic health conditions. Lowers the risk of infections: Spearmint does more than freshen breath – it has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, too. This means it can kill bacteria and help you avoid infections. Positive blood sugar effect: Some studies have shown promise in spearmints’ ability to help lower blood glucose. Reduce stress in your life: Spearmint tea is often used to calm anxiety and reduce the risk of insomnia. Ease joint discomfort: Since it has anti-inflammatory properties, studies have found that essential oils made from spearmint help to lower the discomfort associated with arthritis. To enjoy the brain and overall health benefits of spearmint, it’s easy to incorporate this herb into your diet. Garden mint tea is probably the easiest way to enjoy this herb. In addition, garden mint extracts and herbal supplements are available to help you enjoy the benefits, if you don’t care to drink tea. To read the original article click here.

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