Our Featured Song This Week – I Will Wait
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Video Games Better Than Crosswords for Slowing/Reversing Declines in Brain Function
A Wall Street Journal article reported on a government-funded study that found that playing Double Decision can slow and even reverse declines in brain function associated with aging, while playing crossword puzzles cannot.åÊ
Despite promising study results, WSJ reports that some doctors say there still isn’t enough evidence to prove such exercises will help people in everyday life.
The latest study on this topic, called the Iowa Healthy and Active Minds Study was a randomized controlled trial involving 681 healthy people. Participants were divided into two age groupsÛÓfrom 50 to 64, and 65 and over. People in each group were assigned either to play Road Tour, which has since been renamed Double Decision, or to do computerized crossword puzzles.
Double Decision briefly displays an image of a vehicle and a particular road sign. As the screen continually shifts, and assorted vehicles and road signs come and go, players must watch out for and identify the particular vehicle and sign that appeared at the game’s start. The game becomes more challenging as players advance levels.
Before beginning the study, participants were given standard cognitive tests, many involving executive-function tasks such as concentration and shifting from one mental task to another. The same tests were administered a year later. People assigned to do crossword puzzles showed typical cognitive one-year declines. But the groups who played the computer game showed a clear improvement compared with the normal loss of cognitive function as people age. The amount of improvement ranged from two to seven years.
Depressed or Lonely at Increased Risk of Cdiff (VIDEO)
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Depressed or Lonely at Increased Risk of Cdiff
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| Stay Positive My Friend! |
People who are depressed or lonely are at increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection, according to University of Michigan Health System researchers. Cdiff is nasty stuff. It
caused my mother to be rehospitalized a few times. Of course getting it would make you depressed too!
In one study, they interviewed nearly 16,800 participants every other year from 1992-2006. The average age of participants was 68. The researchers linked the interview information with data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Standard Analytical Files from a variety of healthcare settings.
The second study focused on C. diff patients in hospitals.åÊ
The results of the first study showed a relationship between depression and C. diff infection.åÊ
- Those with major depression were 36% more likely to get C. diff, and those with depressive disorders were 35% more likely to become infected.
åÊ - Widowed participants were 54% more likely to be diagnosed with C. diff, while people who did not live alone were 25% less likely to get the infection.
ÛÏSelf-reports of feeling sad or having emotional, nervous or psychiatric problems at baseline were also associated with the later development of CDI,Û the researchers wrote.
The second study showed that patients on Remeron (mirtazapine) and Prozac (fluoxetine) were twice as likely to be diagnosed with C. diff.
It remains unclear whether depression itself spurs microbial changes in the gut that are conducive to C. diff , or whether medications given to treat depression are the culprits.
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Stay positive my friends.
13 Percent of Americans aged 60+ Report Growing Memory Loss (VIDEO)
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