Brain Tricks

7 Simple Ways to Keep Your

Brain Young into Your 80’s, 90’s…
… And Even 100’s!

Lee Euler & The Editorial Team

at Brain Health Breakthroughs

© 2018 Online Publishing & Marketing, LLC

PO Box 1076 Lexington VA 24450

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

i
 IMPORTANT CAUTION

By reading this special report, you are demonstrating an interest in maintaining good and
vigorous health. This report suggests ways you can do that, but – as with anything in
medicine – there are no guarantees.

The author, editors, and publishers of this report are not doctors or professional health
caregivers. The information offered in the report is not meant to replace the attention or
advice of physicians or other healthcare professionals. Nothing contained in this report is
intended to be personal medical advice for any particular individual.

Every reader who needs treatment for a disease or health condition should first get the
advice of a qualified health care professional.

The authors, editors, and publishers believe the information in this report is accurate, but
its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. They are not responsible for any adverse effects or
results from the use of any of the suggestions described in this report.

As with any health treatment or lifestyle change, results of the treatments described in
this report will vary from one person to another.

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 Table of Contents
Six Foods that Protect You Against Alzheimer’s........................................................1

Navigating Your Own Way Stimulates Your Brain......................................................4

Easiest Way to Keep Your Brain from Aging...............................................................7

This Brain-Building Activity is Fun, But Potent!........................................................10

The Most Enjoyable Way to Boost Your Brain...........................................................12

Get Your Hearing Checked...........................................................................................16

The Best Treatment for Holding Off Alzheimer’s Disease.........................................19

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 Chapter 1
Six Foods That Protect You
Against Alzheimer’s

The science of how diet affects brain health has grown to such an extent that it even has
its own name – neuro-nutrition. And no wonder: there’s strong evidence that some
foods are especially good for cognitive functioning and memory.

Here we look at six of the best. . .

Olive Oil and Nuts: A study published in July, 2015 found that a Mediterranean diet
supplemented with either 33 ounces of extra virgin olive oil or 7 ounces of a mixture of
walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds per week for four years could improve memory and
thinking ability in 334 men and women in their 60s.

Dr. Emilio Ros, who led the study, said, “You can delay the onset of age-related mental
decline with a healthy diet rich in foods with a high antioxidant power, such as extra
virgin olive oil and nuts.

“Because the average age of participants was 67 when the trial began, one can say that
it is never too late to change your diet to maintain or even improve brain function.”

Senior clinical nutritionist Samantha Heller from New York Medical Center agrees,
“Healthy fats from foods like nuts and olive oil play crucial roles in brain function and
health.”

Citrus Fruit: These are high in antioxidants and contain the highest concentration of
flavanones - a subclass of flavonoids. They protect brain areas concerned with
perception and recognition.

Data from the Nurses' Health Study, which involved 69,622 participants over 14 years,
found those who consumed the most citrus fruit (mainly oranges and orange juice) had a
19% reduced risk of ischemic stroke, in which blood supply to the brain is blocked.

Victor Marchione, M.D., calls citrus fruit "the new brain food," and urges you to "add
some citrus fruits to your diet to get some brain protection."

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Fish: A study published in 2014 showed that healthy people past the age of 65 who eat
baked or broiled fish at least once a week have bigger brains. According to this article,
the fish can be virtually any kind; it doesn’t have to be “oily” fish such as salmon.

The participants had 14% more gray matter in areas associated with memory and four
percent more in areas associated with cognition.

Lead author Dr. Cyrus Raji raved about the results: "If you eat fish just once a week,
your hippocampus—the big memory and learning center—is 14% larger than in people
who don't eat fish that frequently.

"If you have a stronger hippocampus, your risk of Alzheimer's is going to go down.

"In the orbital frontal cortex, which controls executive function, it's a solid 4%. I don't
know of any drug or supplement that's been shown to do that."

Oxford University professor of physiology John Stein agrees, "Eating at least one portion
of fish a week can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by ten years."

Chocolate: A number of studies have shown that compounds called flavanols in

chocolate can increase cerebral blood flow, protect and help neurons grow, improve
memory and increase mental sharpness. They also have strong antioxidant and anti-
inflammatory properties.

Beatrice Golomb, Associate Professor at the University of California who has published
research on chocolate, says it is "rich in plant-based phytonutrients that have a range of
health effects. It has a number of important antioxidants, as well as having a lot of other
neuroactive properties."

Dark chocolate is richer in these phytonutrients and so will offer the most benefits. Milk
chocolate is merely dark chocolate diluted with other substances of little nutritional value,
mainly milk and sugar.

Berries: A rich source of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, berries also contain

compounds called anthocyanins which are another type of flavonoid. Together with
flavanols, these are among the most important nutrients when it comes to brain health.

Researchers have found anthocyanins can cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the
hippocampus to improve learning and memory and stall age-related mental decline.

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Scientists at the University of Cincinnati who carried out research into blueberries said
that "consistent supplementation with blueberries may offer an approach to forestall or
mitigate neurodegeneration.”

If you want to do more, also consider going all-out with the Mediterranean diet. The
evidence to date is that it’s highly protective of brain health (cardiovascular health as
well). As you may remember, this eating plan is rich in unsaturated fats (especially olive
oil), vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, polyphenols, certain spices and red wine.

References:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20308778
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25961184
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22363060
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25084680
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25344629
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25733639
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22535616

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 Chapter 2
Navigating Your Own Way
Stimulates Your Brain

The field of brain research is growing by leaps and bounds, and one thing the scientists
have found out for sure is that “it’s use or lose it” when it comes to your brain. People
who make their brains do a little work stave off memory and cognitive decline longer and
better than those who don’t.

A simple way to start is to turn off the GPS device in your car or phone and find your way
with a map.

A GPS device is great for making sure you get where you want to go, especially in an
unfamiliar locale. But by relieving your brain of the need to decipher how to get from
here to there, it reduces “spatial navigation” activities in your brain.

If you embark on your journeys the old-fashioned way – find your destination on a map,
figure out the best route, and stay on the roads you’ve mapped out in advance – your
challenged neurons may form stronger connections.

And there's plenty of evidence to show this can keep your brain bigger and its
performance more robust.

A series of studies on the brains of London taxi cab drivers performed before GPS
systems were available shows that the occupational necessity of learning how to travel
around a large, complicated city increases the gray matter in the hippocampus – the
brain section devoted to memory. (Gray matter is where all the synapses – connections
between neurons – are located.)

The British research also found that extra years behind the wheel – without a GPS –
meant a larger, better connected hippocampus.

That extra hippocampal tissue devoted to finding your way around could possibly lower
your risk of Alzheimer's disease: Research at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in
Germany demonstrates that the ability to navigate your way from one place to another is
one of the first mental capacities that starts to slip when Alzheimer's begins.

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Video Travel

Your navigational workouts don't even have to be on a real road. A study at Carnegie
Mellon University shows that merely learning how to maneuver through a route on a
video driving game can also improve your brain and neuronal connections.

The researchers say the folks in their study developed heightened interconnections
between the hippocampus and other parts of the brain involved in spatial navigation
when they learned a video travel route.

In addition, the video games helped boost the proper synchronization of neural activity in
the brain.

"The hippocampus has long been known to be involved in spatial learning, but only
recently has it been possible to measure changes in human brain tissues as synapses
become modified during learning," says researcher Tim Keller.

In this test, people spent about 45 minutes operating a video game that simulated
driving. Even this short amount of time was enough to produce significant structural
changes in the hippocampus and benefit connections among neurons.

And all of this raises the question: If we start to rely on our gadgets like GPS to help us
find where we’re going, how much harm are we doing to our memory? The brain and the
body generally follow the “use it or lose it” rule. Your muscles can shrink if you stop
using them and so, apparently, do unused parts of your brain.

So if you’re worried about your memory as you age, it’s fine to resort to a GPS when you
must. But you're probably better off having your GPS as a backup system to turn on if
you truly get lost. Don't use one as your primary tool in finding your way around.

I was very slow to start using GPS – it’s become a habit only recently – and I still like to
figure out where I’m going without it. My main GPS use is in dense urban areas where I
don’t have a detailed map – the “last half mile” problem.

In the bad old days, you’d have to ask someone for directions, or start out ahead of time
with a set of written instructions from the person you’re visiting.

It might be useful to check the GPS’s directions against a map before you start your trip,
just so you know where you are in space and have a mental picture of the road network.
One of the odd things about GPS, in my opinion, is that it reduces three-dimensional

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space to a series of “turn left, turn right” instructions, and you really don’t have any
context for where you are.

If you’ve ever navigated your own way with a map, you know it can be quite challenging.
And, depending on the quality of the map and your own savvy, you can get lost a time or
two on the typical road trip. But it’s good to make our brains do some problem-solving
work. If we have no problems to solve, eventually we’ll have no brains to solve them
with.

Much of the research on cognition indicates the need to exercise our brains by doing
things like learning a musical instrument or a new language, reading challenging books,
or taking up a hobby like knitting or painting. Use your head!

References:

i. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17024677
ii. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12699332
iii. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6259/430.full?sid=c46c5996-6207-4cf4-9c7a-
c9ea9f6a2091
iv. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26477660

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 Chapter 3
Easiest Way to Keep Your Brain from Aging

The brain is an organ particularly prone to damage from aging. But some brains age
more quickly than others.

You don’t have to fall victim to a brain that's becoming too old too soon. Researchers
have identified a way to keep your brain operating at a higher level for a longer time.
Following their advice can reduce the chances that your memory will falter.

The trick is to get enough quality sleep every night. It’s a “medicine” that easy, and free!

Scientists at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore analyzed the brain health of
66 older people as part of a project called the Singapore-Longitudinal Aging Brain Study.
They found that those who slept the least showed the most evidence of brain aging.

The short sleepers had memories that were weaker and their brain ventricles – areas in
the brain filled with cerebrospinal fluid – were significantly larger. (Ventricle enlargement
is a sign of brain function deterioration. It can also be a marker for Alzheimer's disease.)

"Our findings relate short sleep to a marker of brain aging," says, Dr June Lo, a member
of the research team.

The Duke-Nus researchers believe that all of us should be getting about seven hours of
sleep a night.

"Work done elsewhere suggests that seven hours a day for adults seems to be the
sweet spot for optimal performance on computer based cognitive tests. In coming years
we hope to determine what's good for cardio-metabolic and long term brain health too,"
says researcher Michael Chee, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at
Duke-NUS.

Women have More Trouble Getting Quality Sleep

The ideal is to get enough high-quality sleep in a dark, quiet bedroom kept fairly cool.
But studies indicate this may be more challenging for women as they age than for men.

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When scientists at the University of Oregon coordinated an international study of how
well people sleep, they found that women who were over the age of 50 were having
more sleep difficulties than men. This study seems to indicate that an optimal amount of
sleep is six to nine hours a night.

The analysis shows that people who sleep less than six hours nightly or more than nine
hours score lower on tests of mental powers than other people do.

"We wanted to look at aging, particularly dementia and cognitive decline as people get
older, and the importance of sleep. Our results provide compelling evidence that sleep
matters a lot," says researcher Theresa E. Gildner.

The study, which examined sleep patterns in six different countries, indicates that
women's sleep problems can primarily arise from postmenopausal bodily changes. Their
bladders frequently wake them up as does emotional turmoil after losing their husbands
and a lack of social support.

"Sleep is something that is important but often undervalued in our society,” warns
researcher J. Josh Snodgrass.

Fake Memory

In case you're still not convinced that sleep is crucial for your brain and memory, a study
at the University of California, Irvine, shows that skimping on sleep makes you more
susceptible to false memories.

This study demonstrates that depriving people of sleep makes it easier to convince them
they’ve witnessed things that never happened. In contrast, people who get plenty of
sleep are not so easily hoodwinked.

The message of all these studies is pretty clear: If you want to be wide awake to reality
and be able to navigate an independent life, you have to spend sufficient time in the
nightly fantasies of dreamland. Otherwise, you’re at greater risk of memory loss as you
age.

Sleep Occurs in Five Stages

Each time you sleep the process takes place in five consecutive stages that repeat
several times during the night:

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Sleep stage one: Initial light sleep. Eye movement and muscle activity slow. You may
experience sudden muscle contractions and see fragmentary images.

Stage two: Eyes stop moving and brain waves generally slow down.

Stage three: Very slow brain waves called delta waves begin with occasional faster
waves.

Stage four: Delta waves continue.

Stage five: This is REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Muscles are paralyzed, breathing
is irregular, blood pressure climbs, heart rate speeds and vivid dreams occur.

The Key to a Healthy Memory

A 12-year study of more than 300 seniors now shows that if your stage five REM sleep is
shortened, your chances of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia climb
substantially.

The study shows that the people who did not succumb to dementia spent 20 percent of
their sleep time in the REM stage. The folks who did get dementia during the study spent
an average of 17 percent of their sleep in REM sleep. The small percentage difference
turned out to make a big difference in mental health.

According to the researchers, every one percent drop in REM sleep was linked to a
nine percent increase in the risk for developing dementia.

But the time spent in the other four stages of sleep was not related to dementia. And
besides being linked to dementia, other researchers have found that REM sleep controls
the formation of memory during other phases of sleep.

A lab test in Japan demonstrates that if REM sleep is shortened or interrupted, the brain
waves of the other phases of sleep – which occur when the brain is establishing
memories – change in ways that hamper recall of events and information.

References

i. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25061245
ii. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24932140
iii. http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/15/0956797614534694.abstract
iv. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28835407
v. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26494173

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 Chapter 4
This Brain-Building Activity is Fun, But Potent!

It’s pretty obvious that dancing is good exercise.

But perhaps you don’t know it’s also a potent stress-reducer, and now scientific research
shows it’s good for your brain, too. You can do it with your favorite person… at home or
out in public… and as fast or slow as you like…the benefits you reap will be impressive.

A 21-year study (between 1980 and 2001) published in the New England Journal of
Medicine in 2003 followed the 469 participants of the Bronx Aging Study. The aim was
to research the correlation between participation in leisure activities and the
development of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Participants were between the ages of 75 and 85 and free from dementia at the
beginning of the study. They were interviewed about how often they indulged in cognitive
leisure activities such as writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles and playing
musical instruments, as well as physical activities like playing tennis or golf, swimming,
housework, bowling and dancing.

During the 21-year study researchers continually assessed participants’ brain functioning
through observation, neuropsychological tests and the Blessed test (a short screening
test designed to assess early cognitive impairment associated with dementia).

When the researchers put the rates of dementia together with the participants’ leisure
activities they made some remarkable discoveries…

When it came to cognitive activities, reading, playing board games and playing musical
instruments were associated with a lower risk of dementia.

But among physical activities, dancing was the only one linked with a lower risk of
dementia.1

While researchers discovered that reading correlated with a 35% reduction in the risk of
dementia, they found that dancing was associated with a 76% reduction. That
ranked as the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or
physical.2

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Strictly Ballroom

You may be wondering if every kind of dancing provides this neurological benefit. The
answer is… probably not. The study falls short in that it doesn’t clearly identify the types
of dancing the participants engaged in.

However, knowing what we do about neural pathways, we know that doing new things
that test and increase intelligence encourages the brain to create more synapses and
become stronger over time.

Dancing engages several brain functions at once: musical, emotional, rational and
kinesthetic (the connection between your brain and your body). It’s a type of activity that
fires up thousands of neural pathways. When done consistently and frequently, it keeps
your brain firing on all cylinders.

We can deduce, based on the age of the participants and the years when the study was
conducted, that they grew up in the 1920s 1930s and 1940s.

In those days, people danced in the social ballroom style of “lead and follow,” which
requires split-second decision making and attention to detail.

Dances like the foxtrot, cha-cha, quickstep, paso doble and rumba are lively, dynamic
dances that require two people to be in sync with the music and with each other, calling
for a great amount of concentration that builds neuroplasticity.

You have to practice – a lot – if you want to become good at it. “Building neuroplasticity”
basically means you rewire brain pathways to the point where an activity becomes
automatic and fairly effortless.

So free-form dancing and dance that simply retraces steps won’t give your brain the
workout and resulting benefit these other dances will, although they will reduce stress
and get your blood flowing, which are essential to overall good health. So if you like to
turn the radio on and move around, don’t stop.

Frequency is important as well. The more often you dance, the stronger your synapses
get.

References:

i. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022252#t=articleTop
ii. http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.htm

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 Chapter 5
The Most Enjoyable Way to Boost Your Brain

The image of the little old lady with her knitting needles might be a bit of a cliché, but she
knows something we don’t:

She’s actively protecting her brain from Alzheimer’s disease.

Crafting and generally being creative is quickly becoming recognized for its ability to
maintain memory, increase cognition, and ultimately fight off Alzheimer’s and dementia.

I’m talking about everything from your “standard” arts and crafts like painting, drawing,
quilting, knitting and crochet … and everything in between, from woodworking to floral
arrangement, from staining glass to decorating cakes.

Anything that gets your creative juices flowing and requires you to use your hands fits
the bill.

At first, crafting might seem too common or ho-hum to make a real difference, but you
might be surprised by the multiple prestigious studies and experts that support it as a
brain-boosting activity.

The Mayo Clinic’s Study of Aging is one of them.

Since 2004, researchers have been keeping tabs on people aged 70 to 89 in Olmstead
County, Minnesota, to investigate prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for mild
cognitive impairment and dementia.1

In one study based on the data they’ve collected so far, researchers compared various
activities—from traveling to watching TV—and whether each activity increased or
decreased a person’s likelihood of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s.

According to their data, crafting time was significantly associated with a decreased risk
of MCI or Alzheimer’s-type dementia. Reading books, engaging in computer activities,
and playing games were likewise linked to a sharper mind as people age.2

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Craft Your Way to Improved Neurochemistry

It makes sense: crafting exercises multiple areas of cognitive ability, like working
memory, learning and flexibility, pattern recognition, attention, problem solving, hand-eye
coordination, and mental imagery … and many more, depending on the craft.

And whether you’re following a complex beadwork pattern, discovering calligraphy, or

restoring an old car, there’s always a chance to learn a new technique and take your
craft of choice to a deeper level.

But crafting doesn’t stop at basic cognitive training … it affects an even higher level of
consciousness and neurochemistry, too.

Chronic stress and depression are known to be neuroinflammatory conditions, and both
are strongly associated with developing Alzheimer’s later in life.

It follows that reducing stress and increasing “happy brain chemicals” to avoid
depression would reduce your risk of dementia and disease later in life.

Crafting has the answer there, too.

As Victoria Schindler, occupational therapist, says, “Repetitive motions, like those in

knitting for example, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which quiets the
‘fight or flight’ response,” thus relieving stress and inflammation.3

The repetitive motions of knitting and crochet have also been shown to release
serotonin, a natural anti-depressant. And anecdotally, there are many reports of people
who have experienced relief from depression thanks to yarn crafts.

An international survey of over 3,500 knitters agrees — 81.5% of them reported feeling
happier after a knitting session.4

Let me add that yarn crafts aren’t just for the elderly. A great many young women go in
for knitting or crocheting (although I doubt if many men will ever be tempted).

And there’s a social aspect too – clubs, classes and knitting groups – so these hobbies
provide a social connection that’s of huge value for preserving mental health.

On top of it all, when your creation is complete, you have a sense of accomplishment.
You get to enjoy that framed Zen tangle in your office … or have the joy of giving

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someone you love a piece of jewelry you made yourself (I do know men who go in for
jewelry making – and, of course, armies of men enjoy wood working).

There’s one more benefit. If someone gives you a compliment on those wooden toys you
made for your grandchild, that stimulates a whole extra burst of happy brain chemicals.

I have to laugh at people who pay good money for Lumosity – a program to give your
brain a workout -- much less spend hours performing the dreary, boring brain exercises.

How about playing chess, learning a language or painting a picture? These are more
effective ways of giving your brain a workout, and they leave you with something to show
for it.

How Thick is Your “Buffer”?

When you make your brain do a little work, you take advantage of the theory of cognitive
reserve. By this is meant that when you use your brain a lot and build it up, you can
afford to lose more – and still have plenty left – if age starts to take a toll.

As clinical neuropsychologist Catherine Levisay explains, “The more stimulating your

environment is … the more you're increasing the complexity of the brain, the more you
can afford to lose. You’re building a buffer."3

And the more reserve or ‘buffer’ you have, the fewer symptoms you’ll likely experience.

Alzheimer’s disease first attacks the hippocampus, the part of the brain that plays a key
role in memory and learning.

So when you build your buffer with activities that bolster memory and learning … such
as crafting … you’re implementing a plan to help prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of
dementia.

The next time you sit down to work on a quilt or a sweater, think of it as increasing your
buffer as much as enjoying the act of creating something beautiful or useful.

And by the way, watching TV is not a hobby. The smart money says TV viewing in
general doesn’t make for a sharper mind.

The Mayo Clinic’s Study of Aging observed that decreased odds of cognitive impairment
go hand in hand with fewer hours spent watching TV … though the researchers didn’t
ask specifically what television programs were being watched.2

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References

i. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821441/
ii. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204924/
iii. http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/health/brain-crafting-benefits/
iv. http://bjo.sagepub.com/content/76/2/50

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 Chapter 6
Get Your Hearing Checked

Age-related hearing loss — technically called presbycusis — affects about one-third of

adults aged 65 to 74, and more than half of people 75 and older.

The condition is more than just an embarrassment for the afflicted and a frustration for
loved ones …

Studies show it could be a direct cause of devastating cognitive decline and dementia.

Thankfully, studies also show there’s hope — and that taking action to treat hearing loss
can make a real difference. Read on to discover what you can do to improve your quality
of life and prevent damage to your brain. . .

Hearing Loss Speeds Cognitive Decline

Numerous studies have shown a direct relationship between untreated hearing loss and
faster rates of cognitive decline.

In a 2011 study, Dr. Frank Lin and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University found
older adults with mild, moderate and severe hearing loss were (respectively) twice, three
times and five times as likely to develop dementia than the group with no hearing loss.1

A follow-up study published in 2013 confirmed the correlation between hearing loss and
accelerated cognitive decline in older adults in their late seventies. The researchers
found people with hearing loss had a 24% greater risk of cognitive impairment than
those without.2

In both studies, the findings held true regardless of age, sex, race, education, smoking,
diabetes and hypertension.

Hearing Loss Contributes to Shrinking Brain

The brain physically shrinks with age, and this brain loss is associated with loss of
memory and cognitive ability. So it’s of keen interest to learn in another study by Dr.
Lin’s team that hearing loss directly affects brain volume.

16
Over a six-year time span, the team used MRI scans to analyze brain volume changes in
participants with normal hearing and in those with impaired hearing.

They found the people with trouble hearing had lost an additional cubic centimeter of
brain tissue compared to those with normal hearing.3

The overall brain volume had decreased, but what was particularly interesting was that
the right temporal lobe lost significant volume. This region contains multiple layers of the
temporal gyri, which are responsible for processing sound and speech.

The temporal gyri are also associated with memory and sensory integration, and have
been shown to be affected by cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.4

The reason for the tissue loss is clear as a bell:

Use it or lose it.

If you can’t hear, the areas of your brain required to process audio and store it as
memory are essentially starved and wither from disuse, causing physical
neurodegeneration.

Hearing Aids and Nutrition Can Hep

Despite common belief, age-related hearing loss is not a lifelong sentence to deafness
and saying, “Huh?”

Supplements such as magnesium5, B12 and folate6 have been shown to improve
hearing. Other studies suggest selenium, alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), copper and zinc can all
help improve hearing loss.

Besides nutrition, wearing a hearing aid can make a significant difference in both quality
of life and maintaining brain volume. If you can hear and engage in conversation – or
even hear TV and music -- the areas of your brain responsible for processing speech get
a workout instead of atrophying.

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found people with
hearing loss who used a hearing aid showed no difference in cognitive decline than folks
in the normal hearing group.7

A hearing aid doesn’t just keep the brains of individuals with hearing loss healthy. A
National Council on the Aging (NCOA) survey showed people with hearing impairment

17
who started using a hearing aid reported significant improvements in relations with loved
ones, greater self-confidence, improved mental health and other benefits besides.8

I’m not surprised!

If you’ve been experiencing even gradual symptoms of hearing loss, do your brain a
favor and have an audiologist check it out. Ditto for loved ones who don’t hear as well as
they used to. Then take whatever measures are necessary to attend to it before it’s too
late.

Diminished hearing doesn’t have to mean diminished quality of life … much less actual
loss of brain tissue!

References

i. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21320988
ii. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23337978
iii. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811914000032
iv. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10219781
v. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8135325
vi. http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/69/3/564.short
vii. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26480972
viii. http://www.audiology.org/publications-resources/document-library/untreated-hearing-
loss-linked-depression-social-isolation

18
 Chapter 7
The Best Treatment for Holding Off
Alzheimer’s Disease

Clinical trials have already started on a therapy that researchers consider the most
promising on planet earth for fighting off Alzheimer's disease and other memory-
threatening conditions.

And while the treatment may not be a magic bullet that completely restores the brain's
full capacity, the scientists doing these trials think that right now it's the best hope for
rescuing brains on the brink of total memory loss.

It's so promising that in the future insurance companies may reimburse the costs of this
treatment.

It's not a new drug.

It's all natural.

It's called exercise.

The researchers looking into the beneficial effects of exercise on the aging brain say it
produces a spectrum of brain tissue improvements that no drug may ever be able to
match.

“There are multiple pathways for how it affects cognitive health, and that would be hard
to package into a single pill,” notes Teresa Liu-Ambrose, P.T., Ph.D., a researcher at the
University of British Columbia in Canada.

One of Dr. Liu-Ambrose's own studies showed that in people in their 60s and 70s with
cognitive problems, a six-month program that combined exercise with mental workouts
significantly improved scores on tests to measure thinking and reasoning abilities.

A Way to Fight Off Brain Aging

Research at Wake Forest shows that exercise changes the brain in ways that help it
resist memory deterioration. In this investigation, seniors engaged in six months of
moderately intense aerobic exercise sessions. At the beginning of the study, the

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participants were already suffering amnestic mild cognitive impairment (measurable
memory loss) and had high blood sugar as well.

The researchers found that in people over age 70, the levels of phosphorylated tau in
their cerebrospinal fluid dropped. This indicates their brain health improved – tau is a
protein in the brain's neurons that combines with phosphor during Alzheimer's disease.
The subsequent phosphorylation can cripple brain function.

During normal aging, the amount of phosphorylated tau gradually increases in the spinal
fluid. The fact that it actually fell in the people who were exercising means their brain
health was improving and the pace of brain aging was slowing.

The Anti-Alzheimer's Exercise Prescription

According to Laura Baker, a Wake Forest researcher, her studies indicate that for
exercise to do its brain magic, you need to do moderately intense aerobic workouts for at
least 6 months.

How intense? You should get your heart rate up to between 60 and 80 percent of its
maximum. Generally speaking, your maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age.
So if you're 55 years old, 60 to 80 percent of this rate is about 100 to 130 beats per
minute.

The research shows that keeping your heart rate in that range – with jogging, biking,
swimming, peddling an elliptical trainer or some other endurance activity – for at least 30
minutes, three or four times a week, seems to produce the best brain benefits.

But the most important thing is, do something. If the activities suggested above are too
ambitious for you, just take a half hour walk every day. This will give you nearly all the
benefits you might reap from more strenuous exercise like running or swimming.

Genetic Defense

These studies also demonstrate that exercise can negate the harm linked to genes that
makes you more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

A study at the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute shows that exercising not only reduced
wear and tear on the brain linked to aging but reduced the Alzheimer's risk in people with
genes designated ApoE, clusterin, and ABCA7 to the same level enjoyed by people who
do not have these brain-threatening genes.

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“We think of genetic risk as something you can’t change, but this shows there are things
one can do to protect against brain changes,” says researcher Stephanie Schultz.

Obviously, if you're concerned about your brain's future, you don't have to wait for more
research to confirm exercise's benefits. You can start getting more physical activity
today.

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