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Why Brain Health Matters
Read More: Why Brain Health MattersJune is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. Did you know the human brain weighs 3 pounds? If that seems a little light for everything your brain does — we feel you. Three pounds is a toaster or a bag of apples. But, every day, your 3-pound, zero-ounce brainy organ works to regulate senses, emotions, thoughts,…
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Eat These 5 Foods to Improve Your Brain Health
Read More: Eat These 5 Foods to Improve Your Brain HealthJune is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. If we are what we eat, what happens when you’re equal measure sugar-free coffee creamer and chicken salad (asking for a friend)? Short answer: You may want to rethink your diet. And while you’re thinking, add in some ingredients that can help boost your brain health. Eating plans…
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Parkinson’s Disease and Gut Health. What’s the Connection?
Read More: Parkinson’s Disease and Gut Health. What’s the Connection?April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month. On a recent episode of the popular Apple TV show Shrinking, actor Michael J. Fox made a cameo as a real-life representation of someone living with Parkinson’s disease. “I fall three times a day,” he said. “I’m thinking of becoming a stunt man.” Balance issues and uncontrollable body tremors…
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Research Suggests Your Brain Adapts Very Differently From First To Second Pregnancy
Read More: Research Suggests Your Brain Adapts Very Differently From First To Second PregnancyResearch has shown that pregnancy can have a big impact on your brain, priming you to bond with your little one and to tackle the parenthood challenges ahead. But a new study analysing the brains of second-time moms has uncovered even more detail about the specific changes between a woman’s first and second pregnancies. The latest data provides…
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Multiple Brain Aneurysms Changed My Life — And I’m So Much Better For It
Read More: Multiple Brain Aneurysms Changed My Life — And I’m So Much Better For ItAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector September is Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month. It was Aug. 11, 2022. I was working remotely that day. During a Zoom call with my boss and colleagues, while discussing a new project I would lead, I heard and felt a big pop go off in my head. Suddenly the voices…
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Can Semaglutide Prevent Alzheimer’s?
Read More: Can Semaglutide Prevent Alzheimer’s?June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. Promising research alert! If you watch TV or any screen at all, you’ve probably heard of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, or GLP-1 drugs. The popular prescription weight-loss medications help manage blood sugar and reduce appetite in people living with Type 2 diabetes and obesity. GLP-1 drugs have…
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6 Things Neurologists Would Never Do If They Wanted To Protect Their Brain Health
Read More: 6 Things Neurologists Would Never Do If They Wanted To Protect Their Brain HealthAll of your organs are crucial to your well-being, with the exception of a select few (looking at you, appendix). But if you had to rank the ones you really, really want to protect, your brain should definitely be one of the top contenders. After all, your brain is your body’s command centre, overseeing basic life…
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Removing the Mask: Autism in Women
Read More: Removing the Mask: Autism in WomenApril is Autism Acceptance Month. Like many women with autism, Dana Waters had no idea she was autistic until she was an adult. “We really do look different,” said the psychologist and professor at Antioch University in Seattle. “The assessment measures developed as the norm were based on young white boys. The problem with early…
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Sleeping Pills May Harm Your Brain
Read More: Sleeping Pills May Harm Your BrainMarch is National Sleep Awareness Month. For most of my life, sleep has been simple. As a kid, my dad would read me a bedtime story — usually “The Giving Tree” — and I’d be asleep before the Boy took all the tree’s branches. (That book is deep, BTW.) And I could sleep anywhere. From…
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Losing Many Women in My Family to Dementia Inspired Me to Donate My Brain to Science
Read More: Losing Many Women in My Family to Dementia Inspired Me to Donate My Brain to ScienceJune is Alzehimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. As told to Nicole Audrey Spector “Why would you donate your brain to science?” It’s a question I’ve been asked a lot since I decided to, well, donate my brain to science. The answer? It begins with love. In my case, it’s my love for the 13 women…
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10 Fun Activities to Keep Your Brain Sharp
Read More: 10 Fun Activities to Keep Your Brain SharpJune is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. Your brain is a big deal. After all, you do use it every day. Just by simply existing, your brain uses more energy than any other organ — not to mention the energy it requires to make decisions, think critically, process emotions and so on. Given the importance…
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New Research Shows Where Women Carry Fat Could Protect Them From Brain Disease
Read More: New Research Shows Where Women Carry Fat Could Protect Them From Brain DiseaseWhen it comes to protecting from brain disease, we know a few rules that’ll help us age gracefully: exercise regularly and go easy on the sugar and fats. But a new study has linked the natural fat deposits in female bodies as a key protector against brain disease. Not all fat is bad Like avocados,…
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A New Study Shows That Nightmares Are A Good Predictor Of Future Dementia
Read More: A New Study Shows That Nightmares Are A Good Predictor Of Future DementiaWe spend a third of our lives asleep. And a quarter of our time asleep is spent dreaming. So, for the average person alive in 2022, with a life expectancy of around 73, that clocks in at just over six years of dreaming. Yet, given the central role that dreaming plays in our lives, we still…
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What Is Brain Fog?
Read More: What Is Brain Fog?Sabina Brennan just couldn’t find the words — literally. She was in the middle of writing a book when she started experiencing brain fog in October 2021. “It felt like there was just nothing in my brain,” Brennan said. “I was struggling to read and write. Coherent sentences just seemed out of my grasp. I…
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Gut Health and Brain Health. What’s the connection?
Read More: Gut Health and Brain Health. What’s the connection?Have you ever had to do a presentation or a big test and felt butterflies in your stomach? Did you wonder why the stress was causing stomach pains? You can thank a little-known nervous system in your gut for that. Most of us have heard of the central nervous system (CNS), which is made of…
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Alzheimer’s, Anxiety, Brain health, Depression, Fatigue, Insomnia, mental health, Self-Care, sleep, Sleep disorders
This Is Your Brain on No Sleep
Read More: This Is Your Brain on No SleepThe day after not sleeping well, you may feel a little foggy, a bit hungrier than normal, slower to react, irritable and perhaps even a bit down in the dumps. Or you may feel perfectly fine — even finer if you’re fueling up with caffeine. Whether you notice yourself feeling off or you feel nothing…
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You & Your Brain: A Collaboration of HealthyWomen, Prevention & Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement at Cleveland Clinic
Read More: You & Your Brain: A Collaboration of HealthyWomen, Prevention & Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement at Cleveland ClinicA message from Maria Shriver Have you ever had a gut feeling about a decision? Or felt sick to your stomach over bad news? Experts say that’s because the gut is nearly as powerful a force as the brain, affecting your physical and mental health. Join moderator Joan Lunden and leading experts in brain health…
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What Is Aphasia? An Expert Explains the Condition Forcing Bruce Willis to Retire From Acting
Read More: What Is Aphasia? An Expert Explains the Condition Forcing Bruce Willis to Retire From ActingSwathi Kiran, Boston University Actor Bruce Willis, 67, is “stepping away” from his career in film and TV after being diagnosed with aphasia, his family announced on March 30, 2022. In a message posted on Instagram, his daughter, Rumer Willis, said that the condition was “impacting his cognitive abilities.” Swathi Kiran, director of the Aphasia…
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What You Eat Can Reprogram Your Genes – an Expert Explains the Emerging Science of Nutrigenomics
Read More: What You Eat Can Reprogram Your Genes – an Expert Explains the Emerging Science of NutrigenomicsBy Monica Dus, University of Michigan People typically think of food as calories, energy and sustenance. However, the latest evidence suggests that food also “talks” to our genome, which is the genetic blueprint that directs the way the body functions down to the cellular level. This communication between food and genes may affect your health,…
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50 Years Ago, the First CT Scan Let Doctors See Inside a Living Skull – Thanks to an Eccentric Engineer at the Beatles’ Record Company
Read More: 50 Years Ago, the First CT Scan Let Doctors See Inside a Living Skull – Thanks to an Eccentric Engineer at the Beatles’ Record CompanyBy X-rays beam through each ‘slice’ of brain, oriented at each degree from 1 to 180 in a semicircle.Edmund S. Higgins, Calculating the strength of each X-ray once it’s passed through the object, and working backward with an impressive algorithm, it is possible to construct an image.Edmund S. Higgins, Schematic diagram of the CT scanner…
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Why Students Learn Better When They Move Their Bodies Instead of Sitting Still at Their Desks
Read More: Why Students Learn Better When They Move Their Bodies Instead of Sitting Still at Their DesksBy Katie Headrick Taylor, University of Washington My son’s kindergarten teachers, holding class on Zoom last year, instructed: “Eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet, bodies still.” However, I noticed my 6-year-old’s hands would stay busy with items found around our house, building with Legos, shaping clay or doodling with a crayon. While some might describe…
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As a Political Commentator and Consultant, I Was Used to Pivoting. But Brain Surgery Spun My Life in a Whole New Direction.
Read More: As a Political Commentator and Consultant, I Was Used to Pivoting. But Brain Surgery Spun My Life in a Whole New Direction.As told to Jaimie Seaton In early 2020, I started getting increasingly painful and exhausting headaches. But Covid-19 was just starting to ramp up, the country was on lockdown and I was busy working remotely as a political consultant — so I dismissed them as added stress from Covid and focused on work. “Everyone is…
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I Survived a Stroke at 30
Read More: I Survived a Stroke at 30As told to Shannon Shelton Miller I was only 30 when I had an ischemic stroke that developed when blood clots traveled to my brain. Within hours, I went from completing work at home on my couch to hearing a doctor tell me I could die. People assume only older people have strokes, but no…
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Aging well, Alzheimer’s, Brain health, Fitness, healthy aging, Lifestyle, Menopause, Nutrition, Obesity, Perimenopause, Prevention, Preventive health, Weight Loss, Weight management
Keep Your Brain Healthy at Every Age
Read More: Keep Your Brain Healthy at Every AgeMedically reviewed by Rudy Tanzi, Ph.D. In honor of Women’s Health Month, we’re exploring the importance of brain health for women of all ages. Join HealthyWomen’s CEO Beth Battaglino and Dr. Gayatri Devi of Park Avenue Neurology for a Q&A on all things related to brain health on Instagram Live today at 11:45 am EDT.…
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Vape Sellers Are Using Popular Music Videos to Promote E-Cigarettes to Young People – and It’s Working
Read More: Vape Sellers Are Using Popular Music Videos to Promote E-Cigarettes to Young People – and It’s WorkingBy Jon-Patrick Allem, University of Southern California Research that my colleagues and I recently conducted demonstrates that electronic cigarette product placement in music videos is associated with vaping among minors. The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 prohibits product placement for cigarettes and chew tobacco in television, music videos and motion pictures, but those restrictions…
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Brain health, Cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, Heart disease, Medical tests, Prevention, Preventive health, smoking, Stroke
Is Smelling Burnt Toast a Sign That You’re Having a Stroke?
Read More: Is Smelling Burnt Toast a Sign That You’re Having a Stroke?If you’re smelling burnt toast, the first thing you should probably do is check your toaster. Although lots of people think smelling something burning is a sign of a stroke, there’s no solid evidence this is true. The idea of smelling phantom burning toast may be kind of amusing — but strokes are serious. They…
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Alzheimer’s, Brain health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Dementia, Health disparities, Prevention, Preventive health, Research, Vaccinations
Dementia Patients Are at Greater Risk for Covid-19, Particularly African Americans and People With Vascular Dementia
Read More: Dementia Patients Are at Greater Risk for Covid-19, Particularly African Americans and People With Vascular DementiaBy Michael S. Jaffee, University of Florida and Steven DeKosky, University of Florida New research is shedding light on how dementia can increase people’s risk for developing COVID-19, particularly among two groups: African Americans and people with vascular dementia. The headline findings of a recent study revealed that dementia patients overall face twice the risk…
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Aging well, Alzheimer’s, Brain health, COVID-19, Fitness, healthy aging, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Weight Loss
15 (More) Minutes With Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Read More: 15 (More) Minutes With Dr. Sanjay GuptaDr. Sanjay Gupta recently took time out from his hectic schedule to speak with HealthyWomen’s editor-in-chief, Jaimie Seaton. An award-winning journalist, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, professor of neurosurgery and practicing neurosurgeon, Dr. Gupta discussed his new book, “Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age” with Seaton. The book explains the connection between the…
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Aging well, Alzheimer’s, Brain health, COVID-19, Fitness, healthy aging, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Weight management
15 Minutes With Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Read More: 15 Minutes With Dr. Sanjay GuptaDr. Sanjay Gupta recently took time out from his hectic schedule to speak with HealthyWomen’s editor-in-chief, Jaimie Seaton. An award-winning journalist, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, professor of neurosurgery and practicing neurosurgeon, Dr. Gupta discussed his new book, “ Does Forgetting a Name or Word Mean That I Have Dementia? Racism Linked To Cognitive Decline in…
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The Personal and Financial Toll Alzheimer’s Takes on Women of Color
Read More: The Personal and Financial Toll Alzheimer’s Takes on Women of ColorWhen Stephanie Monroe began her advocacy work on Capitol Hill to fight Alzheimer’s disease, she had no idea of the upheaval her own family would face when an Alzheimer’s diagnosis hit home years later. To care for her father, who has Alzheimer’s, Monroe and her siblings pay $4,600 a month for their parents to live…
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Retiring Early Can Be Bad For the Brain
Read More: Retiring Early Can Be Bad For the BrainBy Plamen Nikolov, Binghamton University, State University of New York The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea People who retire early suffer from accelerated cognitive decline and may even encounter early onset of dementia, according to a new economic study I conducted with my doctoral student Alan Adelman.…
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Does Forgetting a Name or Word Mean That I Have Dementia?
Read More: Does Forgetting a Name or Word Mean That I Have Dementia?By Laurie Archbald-Pannone, University of Virginia The number of cases of dementia in the U.S. is rising as baby boomers age, raising questions for boomers themselves and also for their families, caregivers and society. Dementia, which is not technically a disease but a term for impaired ability to think, remember or make decisions, is one…
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Racism Linked To Cognitive Decline in African American Women
Read More: Racism Linked To Cognitive Decline in African American WomenLynn Rosenberg, Boston University; Patricia Coogan, Boston University, and Yvette Cozier, Boston University, The Conversation African Americans have higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than white Americans. Chronic stress, associated with cognitive impairment and reduced volume in the brain’s memory area, could be a culprit. But racism may be one of the ultimate causes.…
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How COVID-19 Might Increase Risk of Memory Loss and Cognitive Decline
Read More: How COVID-19 Might Increase Risk of Memory Loss and Cognitive DeclineNatalie C. Tronson, University of Michigan Of all frightening ways that the SARS-COV-2 virus affects the body, one of the more insidious is the effect of COVID-19 on the brain. It is now clear that many patients suffering from COVID-19 exhibit neurological symptoms, from loss of smell, to delirium, to an increased risk of stroke.…
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Brain Scientists Haven’t Been Able to Find Major Differences Between Women’s and Men’s Brains, Despite Over a Century of Searching
Read More: Brain Scientists Haven’t Been Able to Find Major Differences Between Women’s and Men’s Brains, Despite Over a Century of SearchingAri Berkowitz, University of Oklahoma People have searched for sex differences in human brains since at least the 19th century, when scientist Samuel George Morton poured seeds and lead shot into human skulls to measure their volumes. Gustave Le Bon found men’s brains are usually larger than women’s, which prompted Alexander Bains and George Romanes…
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Alzheimer’s Caregiving Is a Labor of Love
Read More: Alzheimer’s Caregiving Is a Labor of LoveFor Doris Woodward, it started with small things: forgetting her keys and locking herself out of the apartment. Her daughter Loretta Woodward Veney noticed but wasn’t alarmed. All the women in her family lived to a ripe old age, and her mother was only 77. Then one day in 2006, Woodward missed her all-time favorite…
