A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that practicing the meditative Chinese martial art tai chi may help alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms, and resistance training might also help with certain aspects of the disease. The study, conducted by scientists from the Oregon Research Institute, compared three different types of interventions in the [...]

An Australian study recently released a shocking finding: every hour of television a person watches shortens their life by an average of 22 minutes. Looking at the behavior of 11,000 participants, the Queensland scientists found that people who watched around 6 hours of TV each day lived an average of almost 5 years less than [...]

I’ve just gotten back from a very exciting scientific meeting in Greece (yes, the life of a brain scientist occasionally has its perks!) I had the opportunity to visit our collaborators in the Long-Lasting Memories consortium. This research group, with members in Greece, Spain, Austria, France, and Cyprus, is working to develop a combined brain [...]

A few days ago, we hosted a Q&A session on Facebook about brain plasticity and brain fitness with Posit Science founder Dr. Michael Merzenich. For those who missed the discussion and prefer to read it in transcript form, I’ve re-posted it here. Question: I would love to know what Dr. Merzenich thinks about brain plasticity [...]

I have a dog named Easy. He’s quite handsome, as you can see in this picture. According to a new study, he might also be my “secret weapon” to healthier living–as long as I walk him on a regular basis. In the study, researchers from Michigan State University investigated whether walking a dog is a [...]

A few weeks ago, we hosted an excellent Q&A session on Facebook about movement, exercise, and the brain. Movement specialist M.A. Greenstein, PhD, aka Dr. G, answered people’s questions and I think we all learned a lot! For those who missed the discussion and prefer to read it in transcript form, I’ve re-posted it here. [...]

As if you needed yet another reason to fear high cholesterol and high blood pressure: a new study has shown that people with elevated cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age exhibit more problems with their memories as they age, as compared to people with good cardiovascular health. The study was conducted in nearly 5,000 [...]

Time Magazine got it wrong.  Naming Mark Zuckerberg “Person of the Year” is okay but a better choice would have been the first Boomer to turn 65 in 2011.  That person, whomever he or she may be, is literally at the forefront of a tsunami that will change our world. NPR reported this morning that [...]

Last week I wrote about some very healthy, happy centenarians and talked about a recent study on people aged 100+ that found some commonalities across those living long and well. Today I saw that Dr. Mark Lachs has just come out with a new book called Treat Me, Not My Age which purports to give [...]

Ed. note: Today we are pleased to present the third in a series of guest posts from Camille S. Finley, MBA, MPH. Camille is a fitness expert with a specialization in applying exercise and nutrition choices for brain health. In this series, she pairs specific workouts with recipes from the Thinkfood cookbook. Click on her [...]