Browsing Tag: Brain

Since 1970, life expectancy around the world has risen dramatically, with people living more than 10 years longer. That's the good news. The bad news is that starting when people are in their mid-to-late-20s, the brain begins to wither --

"While meditation is already practiced by millions, this is the first study to investigate its potential to reverse memory loss in patients with cognitive impairment," said Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.

Still, researchers aren't convinced that today's cutting-edge computers are a match for the highly-adaptive human brain. But that could soon change,...

For years in popular culture, the terms left-brained and right-brained have come to refer to personality types, with an assumption that some people use the right side of their brain more, while some use the left side more.

The researchers found that after the yoga exercise, the participants' cognitive performance had improved much more compared to after their aerobic sessions or at baseline.

In response to the world around it, the adolescent brain is a marvel of regeneration, wiring and rewiring itself constantly as its owner learns and refines the motor, social and perceptual skills that will form the foundation of his or her adult behavior.

Can yoga help reduce the stress that makes you look and feel older than your years? Does yoga help elevate your mood and make you mentally sharper? Will meditation enhance your spiritual outlook or give you a sense of peace and calm? As a Harvard neuro-scientist and a yoga practitioner for more than 40 years, I'm pleased to tell you the answers are a resounding "yes."

Young people who smoke cannabis for years run the risk of a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ, research suggests. The findings come from a study of around 1,000 people in New Zealand.

Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between brain cells. Now a further report by UCLA researchers suggests yet another benefit.

Beef is not the only meat to avoid. If you ask anyone what is the most toxic meat, most people would probably say pork. This has been true for some time because pigs have been famous for carrying viruses, parasites, and worms. Recently however, chicken has been dubbed the most toxic meat.

Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell. What is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau. This has immediate implications for developing treatments.

Participants in an 8 week meditation class experienced structural brain changes including increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection.

Many complications of diabetes, including kidney disease, foot problems and vision problems are generally well recognized. But the disease’s impact on the brain is often overlooked.

Is evil over? Has science finally driven a stake through its dark heart? Or at least emptied the word of useful meaning, reduced the notion of a numinous non-material malevolent force to a glitch in a tangled cluster of neurons, the brain?

Just ask someone who has started to age if it's a myth or not. In my experience they'll say "No, it's real."

The study suggests that people who meditate have stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy. Having stronger connections influences the ability to rapidly relay electrical signals in the brain. And significantly, these effects are evident throughout the entire brain, not just in specific areas.

Studies have found that meditation helps prevent the recurrence of depression, perhaps by producing changes in parts of the brain associated with learning and anxiety. A new study suggests that meditation may modulate brain waves called alpha rhythms, which help regulate the transmission of sensory input from the surrounding environment.

A study in the May 1 issue of the journal Sleep describes how changes in sleep that occur over a five-year period in late middle age affect cognitive function in later life. The findings suggest that women and men who begin sleeping more or less than 6 to 8 hours per night are subject to an accelerated cognitive decline that is equivalent to four to seven years of aging.

Researchers for the first time have shown that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults – a finding that could hold great potential for combating the progression of dementia.

During spiritual experience there’s a lot going on in the brain and some of that takes place in the parietal lobes — the part of our brain that’s responsible for creating our sense of self. This is the part of the brain that manages the distinction between self and the other.

All eyes in the operating room were on me. All ears waited. What was I to do? I had exhausted all of my options… all but one! I never thought of praying before this day. Although I had been an acolyte in the Episcopal Church as a youth, I had no interest in religion.

There are biological motivations behind the stereotypically poor decisions and risky behavior associated with adolescence, new research from a University of Texas at Austin psychologist reveals.

In India, where people eat curry almost every day, the Alzheimer's disease rate is one-fourth the U.S. rate. Now researchers think they may know why. Astudy in mice showed that the active ingredient in turmeric broke up brain plaques of amyloid beta, the abnormal protein buildup that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's.

The Science of Spirituality examined....

New research reveals how meditation changes the brain

Foods high in fat, salt and sugar alter the brain's chemistry in ways that compel people to overeat.