Ines’ Ageless Lifestyle Tips 352 – Avoid Brain Shrinkage: Say No to Junk Food

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Summary

• Avoid Brain Shrinkage: Say No to Junk Food

• A Cup of Strawberries a Day Keeps Dementia Away

• Stay Strong with Ginger

• How to Hygge. The Scandinavians’ Key to Happiness

• Innovative Health News

  • Phantom touch in VR

  • Reversing aging by more than half with nanoparticles

  • Playing games with your thoughts alone

Avoid Brain Shrinkage: Say No to Junk Food …

… The chances are that your brain shrinks about 70% quicker than that of the Tsimanes, a South American tribe as research has shown for Europeans and Americans.

Seeing that we’ll be living a large part of our lives in the virtual world in the future, our brain will be our most important asset, even more so than now.

That means protecting your brain.

And one way is to avoid ultra-processed foods (junk food) as it has fewer nutrients but higher energy density due to fats and sugars.

A recent study reveals that consuming ultra-processed foods (UPF) is related to brain shrinkage especially in the reward center, potentially changing the food you want to eat (more junk food?).

Junk food was also linked to inflammation and depression (study).

While this study doesn’t say anything about causality, eating a healthy diet is very likely contributing to a sharper mind and a brighter future.

A Cup of Strawberries a Day Keeps Dementia Away …

… Being overweight and aging are both linked to inflammation and cognitive decline.

Researchers recently run a study with 30 overweight and insulin resistant patients between 50-65 years old who complained about mild cognitive decline. They gave them whole-fruit strawberry powder. Subjectively, the participants enjoyed less memory interference (so less memories interfered with the retrieval of other memories) and fewer depressive symptoms (study).

The researchers say that the main reason are the anthocyanins in strawberries, which are known to have antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-obesity effects (study). But it could also be some of the other compounds, e.g. flavonols like fisetin (natural senolytic) and quercetin (anti-inflammatory).

So, enjoy your strawberries … fresh or as high-quality powder … especially if you have higher inflammation.

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Stay Strong with Ginger …

… You know that as we age, we lose precious muscle strength. This decline in muscle can lead to frailty, increasing the risk of injuries and mortality.

But there might be some help: Recent research suggests that ginger might support you in reducing that muscle loss. By tackling oxidative stress, ginger could promote muscle health (study).

Even though the study was only done in a petri dish, why not add ginger to your wellness routine? It has plenty of other benefits too.

How to Hygge. The Scandinavians’ Key to Happiness …

… As winter is closing in and we see freezing temperatures across many European countries, let’s talk about Hygge in this short abstract from Jeunessima Magazine 18 …

What is Hygge?

Let us start with the way it is pronounced: “hoo-ga”.

Hygge is more of a feeling than a definition, a bit like the French joie-de-vivre.[IO1] 

Signe Johansen, author of the ultra-popular who wrote a book on the topic says that Hygge is all the things that contribute to a sense of good will.

It is the essence of happiness. It is an art form the Danes have developed after a history of cold, dark, and hard winters foraging for food and twiddling their thumbs by mid-afternoon candlelight.

While some are busy reducing hygge to candles and woolly jumpers however, Signe says that way of thinking “is reductive and banal”. No, Signe’s hygge, the real hygge is “a pan-Nordic phenomenon … it is about coziness, warmth”, and a stress-free mindset. It is about cherishing yourself while enjoying community. And crucially, it is not prescriptive.

Innovative Health News …

Phantom touch in VR

This is fascinating research: People who touched their hands in Virtual Reality felt that as a mostly tingling sensation in their ‘real-life’ body. This is another step closer to developing impactful Virtual Therapeutics

Reversing aging by more than half with nanoparticles

Using extracellular nanoparticles from pigs, the compound E5, reversed the epigenetic age of rats tissue by 67.4% and the GlycanAge by 50% … so if this would be translated to an 80-year old human, it means (s)he would have a biological age of only 26 to 40 years. Amazing! I can’t wait for human trials.

Playing games with your thoughts alone

Putting 8 electrodes on participants’ heads and connecting this EEG system via Bluetooth to the game computer, allowed them to play a simple game by just thinking about the moves. Sure, it was still slow and you probably don’t want to get electrodes attached to your head each time you want to do something on your computer, but in the future you’re likely to move things in VR just with your thoughts.

Quote of the Week …

Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you – Mary Lou Retton