How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain – NYTimes.com

New research offers further evidence that exercise can improve brain functioning and cognition. Exercise may also slow the aging process for the brain.

If you need help getting or staying motivated to change your lifestyle to include exercise, working with a health psychologist and nutritionist can help.

Check out this excerpt from a recent NY Times article.

The value of mental-training games may be speculative, as Dan Hurley writes in his article on the quest to make ourselves smarter, but there is another, easy-to-achieve, scientifically proven way to make yourself smarter. Go for a walk or a swim. For more than a decade, neuroscientists and physiologists have been gathering evidence of the beneficial relationship between exercise and brainpower. But the newest findings make it clear that this isn’t just a relationship; it is the relationship. Using sophisticated technologies to examine the workings of individual neurons — and the makeup of brain matter itself — scientists in just the past few months have discovered that exercise appears to build a brain that resists physical shrinkage and enhance cognitive flexibility. Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does.

via How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain – NYTimes.com.

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Scans Show Altered Brain Connectivity in Chronic Back Pain.

New research shows that patients with chronic low back pain have different brain functioning than those without chronic low back pain. And, alleviation of pain can result in changes in the altered brain functioning. This suggests that seeking pain management services and pain treatment might impact brain functioning.

If you have acute or chronic pain, working with a health psychologist who specializes in pain management can be helpful. Additionally, if you feel that your cognitive functioning or memory have changed, neuropsychological testing might also be helpful. These services are available at Commonwealth Psychology Associates in Boston and Newton.

Excerpt from report:

February 28, 2012 Palm Springs, California — Patients with chronic low back pain CLBP have altered brain connectivity on functional magnetic resonance imaging compared with healthy controls, and experience temporary changes in this pattern when their pain is exacerbated, a new study shows.

“What we are seeing is there is at least some type of plasticity in the system,” explained lead author Marco Loggia, PhD, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, in an interview with Medscape Medical News. “The system is somehow being disrupted by the presence of pain.”Dr. Marco Loggia.

The findings “bring us closer to the development of an objective biomarker — a brain reading of pain, to tell us how much pain a person is feeling,” he said.

The new report was presented here at the American Academy of Pain Medicine AAPM 28th Annual Meeting.

via Scans Show Altered Brain Connectivity in Chronic Back Pain.

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Parkinson’s Drug Speeds Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery.

A medication commonly used to treat Parkinson’s disease appears to speed the recovery of patients with severe traumatic brain injury, a new study finds.

The research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, examined the use of amantadine in patients with serious brain injuries. Prior evidence had been limited about whether the drug was effective, though it is regularly given to these patients.

In the study, 184 patients who were in a vegetative or minimally conscious state were treated with amantadine or a placebo for a month, one to four months after suffering a traumatic brain injury.

While the medication didnt lead vegetative patients to full consciousness, it appeared to accelerate patients recovery in a meaningful way. At the end of four weeks of treatment, 18.6% of patients taking amantadine remained completely unconscious compared to 31.6% in the placebo group.

Patients with traumatic brain injuries or movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease often have cognitive problems including weaknesses in memory, attention and language. If you or a loved one are experiencing cognitive problems, neuropsychological testing can help identify the problems and aid in treatment planning.

To view article: Drug Speeds Brain-Injury Recovery, Study Says – WSJ.com.

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Heart procedures linked to cognitive decline, neuropsychological problems.

In a new study of German heart patients, people who had invasive bypass surgery and those who underwent less-invasive stent placement showed declines in thinking and memory skills a few months after the procedures.

Doctors have long been concerned about cognitive decline in patients who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting CABG because of blocked arteries, and indeed, memory deficits were more significant after those procedures than after stenting.

Still, the findings don’t prove its the procedures themselves that cause memory decline — it could just be that plaque buildup in blood vessels in both the heart and the brain is causing a variety of problems in the same patients.

If you or a loved one have experienced cognitive changes related to a cardiac condition or cardiac procedure, neuropsychological testing may be helpful. Neuropsychological testing is available at Commonwealth Psychology Associates in Boston.

Read article at: Heart procedures linked to cognitive decline | Reuters.

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How Child Abuse Primes the Brain for Future Mental Illness. Treatment Can Help.

New research suggests that abuse during childhood results in alterations in brain structures and functioning that can leave the child vulnerable to mental and behavioral health problems later in life. As adults, these children may be especially vulnerable to depression, PTSD and addiction.

But, there also has been research showing that psychological treatment and psychopharmacological treatment can alter brain structures and functioning in positive ways that may help these individuals cope better with future stressors.

Excerpt:

A brain scan study pinpoints the changes associated with child abuse that may raise peoples risk of depression, PTSD and addictions later in life.

Child maltreatment has been called the tobacco industry of mental health. Much the way smoking directly causes or triggers predispositions for physical disease, early abuse may contribute to virtually all types of mental illness.

Now, in the largest study yet to use brain scans to show the effects of child abuse, researchers have found specific changes in key regions in and around the hippocampus in the brains of young adults who were maltreated or neglected in childhood. These changes may leave victims more vulnerable to depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD, the study suggests.

Harvard researchers led by Dr. Martin Teicher studied nearly 200 people aged 18 to 25, who were mainly middle class and well-educated. They were recruited through newspaper and transit ads for a study on “memories of childhood.” Because the authors wanted to look specifically at the results of abuse and neglect, people who had suffered other types of trauma like car accidents or gang violence were excluded.

MORE: Study: How Chronic Stress Can Lead to Depression

via How Child Abuse Primes the Brain for Future Mental Illness | Healthland | TIME.com.

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Emergency stroke care improves in Massachusetts hospitals, but 8 hospitals lag behind.

Massachusetts hospitals have substantially improved care for stroke patients in the emergency room, although some have lagged behind in using a potentially life-saving drug (known as “tPA”), new state health department data show.

During 2009 and 2010 combined, 80 percent of stroke patients who were eligible for the drug – which can dissolve the blood clots that trigger most strokes – received it. That was up from 71 percent in 2008 and 2009.

Eight hospitals, however, ranked significantly below average in the most recent period, suggesting that they did not give the drug – called intravenous tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA – to patients who could have benefited from it. Studies have shown that when given soon after a stroke, the drug can improve a patient’s recovery.

Cognitive testing and neuropsychological testing in greater Boston are available.

more from article: Emergency stroke care improves in Massachusetts hospitals – The Boston Globe.

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Deep Brain Stimulation Creates New Neurons, Boosts Memory

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has already been shown to be an effective treatment for many symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Now, researchers are investigating the usefulness of DBS for treating problems related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which can devastate memory and other cognitive functions. Currently, there are few options for treating the symptoms of AD and more effective treatments are needed.

Neuropsychological testing is often used to aid in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease and also is used to measure cognitive changes that can occur with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). To learn more about neuropsychological testing or schedule an appointment for a neuropsychological assessment, call 617-259-1895 or visit Commonwealth Psychology Associates.

 

Excerpt from report:

New studies in animal models show not only that stimulating targeted regions of the brain improves spatial memory but also that neurogenesis explains, at least in part, this cognitive improvement.

Results of these and other experiments provide support for ongoing research into deep brain stimulation DBS in patients with Alzheimers disease AD.

The possibility of using electrical stimulation to reconstruct damaged circuits in the brain “gives us hope not only of improving symptoms of AD but also of changing the natural course of the illness — slowing it down — and thats quite exciting,” one of the study authors, Andres M. Lozano, MD, PhD, senior scientist in the Division of Brain Imaging and Behavior Systems–Neuroscience at the Toronto Western Research Institute, Ontario, Canada, said to Medscape Medical News.

The study was published in the September issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

via Deep Brain Stimulation Creates New Neurons, Boosts Memory.

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Multiple sclerosis patient finishes 50th marathon | Reuters

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological condition that harms the brain and can affects one’s ability to walk and also one’s cognitive abilities, such as memory and attention. While it can be a debilitating condition, one man has beat the odds.

Patrick Finny was diagnosed with MS in 1998 and at one point during his illness was unable to walk. He required the use of a wheelchair. But, by participating in rehabilitation services, using new medications and relying on shear determination, he has gone on to be the only person ever to complete 50 marathons, one in all 50 states. Amazing and inspirational.

If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with MS and are experiencing cognitive problems such as forgetfulness, concentration difficulties or difficulty finding the word you want to say, neuropsychological testing might be helpful. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, visit Commonwealth Psychology Associates on the web or call them at 617-259-1895.

Read the article at:  Multiple sclerosis patient finishes 50th marathon | Reuters.

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Educational video about concussion and traumatic brain injury.

An informative site about concussions and traumatic brain injuries offers an educational video showing how the brain is injured during accidents.

Click here to watch this interesting video.

 

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ADHD diagnosis linked to substance abuse risk. ADHD treatment and counseling can help.

A recent study shows that those with ADHD are more likely to develop some form of substance abuse problem, including smoking cigarettes. Counseling about risks and treatment of ADHD are important interventions to prevent or address both ADHD and substance abuse issues.

Excerpts from report:

Analysis of data from two long-term studies of the impact of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the development of psychiatric disorders in young adults confirms that ADHD alone significantly increases the risk of cigarette smoking and substance abuse in both boys and girls. The report from a team of Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) and has been released online.

“Our study, which is one of the largest set of longitudinal studies of this issue to date, supports the association between ADHD and substance abuse found in several earlier studies and shows that the increased risk cannot be accounted for by coexisting factors such as other psychiatric disorders or family history of substance abuse,” says Timothy Wilens of the MGH Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit, who led the study. “Overall, study participants diagnosed with ADHD had a one-and-a-half-times greater risk of developing substance abuse than did control participants.”

“Anyone with ADHD needs to be counseled about the risk for substance abuse, particularly if they have any delinquency,” explains Wilens. “We still need to understand why some kids with ADHD develop substance abuse and others don’t, whether particular treatment approaches can prevent substance problems, and how best to treat young adults that have both ADHD and substance abuse.” Wilens is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

via ADHD linked to substance abuse risk | Harvard Gazette.

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