The brain continues to put up a fight even as neurodegenerative diseases like dementia damage certain areas and functions. In fact, recent findings in a Baycrest-University of Arizona study suggest that one method the brain uses to counter these diseases is the reassigning of tasks to different regions. Continue reading “Brain combats dementia by shifting resources”
Does physical activity influence the health of future offspring?
Physical and mental exercise is not only beneficial for your own brain, but can also affect the learning ability of future offspring — at least in mice. This particular form of inheritance is mediated by certain RNA molecules that influence gene activity. These molecules accumulate in both the brain and germ cells following physical and mental activity. Prof. André Fischer and colleagues from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Goettingen and Munich and the University Medical Center Goettingen (UMG) report these findings in the journal Cell Reports. Continue reading “Does physical activity influence the health of future offspring?”
Known risk factors largely explain links between loneliness and first time heart disease/stroke
Conventional risk factors largely explain the links observed between loneliness/social isolation and first time heart disease/stroke, finds the largest study of its kind published online in the journal Heart. Continue reading “Known risk factors largely explain links between loneliness and first time heart disease/stroke”
Space is proved hostile to DNA
Spending a year in space not only changes your outlook, it transforms your gene expression. Continue reading “Space is proved hostile to DNA”
Holding hands can sync brainwaves, ease pain, study shows
Reach for the hand of a loved one in pain and not only will your breathing and heart rate synchronize with theirs, your brain wave patterns will couple up too, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Continue reading “Holding hands can sync brainwaves, ease pain, study shows”
Watching too much television could cause fatal blood clots
Spending too much time in front of the television could increase your chance of developing potentially fatal blood clots known as venous thrombosis. Even trying to counterbalance hours of TV watching through adequate exercise is not effective warns Yasuhiko Kubota of the University of Minnesota in the US. Kubota is the lead author of a study in Springer’s Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis. Continue reading “Watching too much television could cause fatal blood clots”
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