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  SWEETENERS THAT MAY IMPERIL YOUR BRAIN Sugar substitutes can make it easier to cut back on sugar. But a study of nearly 13,000 adults raises a question about what frequent use might mean for long-term brain health. Researchers found that people who consumed the most low- and no-calorie sweeteners had a 62% faster decline in memory and thinking skills than those who consumed the least. The difference was comparable to about 1.6 additional years of cognitive aging over the study period. Six sweeteners were linked to faster decline; one was not. The study does not show that sweeteners caused the decline. It found an association, not proof that these ingredients harm the brain. What the researchers studied The study, published in Neurology , followed 12,772 adults in Brazil for approximately eight years. Participants were, on average, 52 years old when it began. At the start, participants reported what they had eaten and drunk over the previous year. Researchers used those answers t...
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  TYPE 2 DIABETES BEATEN BACK WITH DIET AND EXERCISE For people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before age 45, the disease can move quickly. Blood sugar control may worsen sooner, and complications can develop earlier than they do for people diagnosed later in life. A new clinical trial offers a reason for cautious optimism: after six months, 54% of participants in an intensive diet-and-exercise program had achieved remission, compared with 4% receiving usual care. Remission means blood sugar has fallen below the diabetes threshold without glucose-lowering medication. It’s a meaningful result, but it isn’t a permanent cure. Researchers still need to learn whether participants can maintain the benefits over time. The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas , come from a trial led by Professor Kaberi Dasgupta of McGill University, Professor Thomas Yates of the University of L...
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  What the Ab Wheel Brings to Core Training The ab wheel doesn’t look like much. You kneel, grip the handles, roll forward, and pull back. Then you try it and discover that pulling back is the hard part. As the wheel moves away from your knees, your body forms a longer lever. Your trunk has to keep your lower back from sagging while your arms and shoulders help control the movement. Roll farther, and that job gets tougher. That makes the ab wheel a useful way to train core strength and control. It doesn’t make it automatically better than a crunch or plank. Research comparisons depend on which exercises were tested, how they were performed, and which muscles were measured. Why use an ab wheel? A rollout works the rectus abdominis —the muscle along the front of your abdomen—and calls on the obliques , shoulders, and upper body to help keep you steady. In a study of rollouts and Swiss-ball exercises , rollouts produced high activity in the upper and lower rectus abdominis and the o...
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  FOUR-MINUTE WORKOUTS: BUILDS STRENGTH IN SENIORS Four minutes is barely enough time to make a cup of tea. But a Penn State study suggests it may be enough time for a daily strength routine that helps older adults move more easily. In a 12-week trial, adults aged 65 and older who followed a four-minute exercise program improved their performance on tests of leg strength and balance . Those abilities matter in everyday life: they help people stand up from a chair, climb stairs, and stay steady on their feet. The findings, published in PLOS One , offer a more approachable starting point for people who find conventional workouts daunting. The study didn’t test whether the routine prevented falls or helped participants remain independent for longer. It did show that a small, consistent effort can improve physical abilities linked to both. A workout short enough to fit into the day The researchers designed the program, called FAST-2 , around four movements: push-ups, chair stands , t...
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  FISH OIL: LITTLE BRAIN IMPACT Millions of people take fish oil supplements hoping to keep their minds sharp as they age. A two-year clinical trial put that hope to the test—and found a striking gap between what the supplements delivered and what they achieved. The omega-3 fatty acid DHA reached participants’ central nervous systems. But people taking the supplements did no better on memory and thinking tests than people taking a placebo . The supplements also did not prevent shrinkage of the hippocampus , a brain region involved in memory that is vulnerable to Alzheimer’s -related changes. “We all wish there was a silver bullet for preventing Alzheimer’s, but our findings showed that fish oil supplements do not appear to protect brain health,” said Hussein Naji Yassine, MD , director of the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health and lead investigator. A direct test of a popular supplement The study, published in eBioMedicine , enrolled 365 adults ages 55 to 80 who rarely ate...
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  HIIT: A METHOD FOR RETAINING MUSCLE AS YOU AGE Source: University of the Sunshine Coast Losing fat is good. Losing muscle along with it? Not so much—especially later in life, when muscle plays a major role in strength, balance, mobility, and independence. A six-month study suggests high-intensity interval training , better known as HIIT , may help older adults avoid that trade-off. While both high- and moderate-intensity exercise reduced body fat, only HIIT preserved lean tissue . “We found that high, medium and low intensity exercises all led to modest fat loss, but only HIIT retained lean muscle,” said lead author and exercise physiologist Dr. Grace Rose of the University of the Sunshine Coast. The findings point to an important lesson: healthy aging isn’t simply about losing weight. What you lose matters. Six Months of Exercise Revealed a Key Difference The Australian research team studied 123 healthy older adults from the Greater Brisbane region . Participants were 72 years...
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  Mental Health and Mental Illness: How to Spot Problems and Get Help Mental health affects nearly everything we do—how we think, feel, make decisions, respond to stress, and connect with other people. It is more than the absence of a psychiatric diagnosis. A person with a diagnosed mental illness may feel stable and well for long periods. Meanwhile, someone without a diagnosis may be struggling with serious emotional distress. Mental health exists on a spectrum, and it can shift throughout a person’s life. Mental illness refers to conditions that cause clinically significant changes in mood, thought, perception, or behavior. These conditions include anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance-use disorders. There is no single way mental illness looks. Symptoms may appear once, return periodically, or continue for years. Two people with the same diagnosis can ...
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