A new study finds that dietary cocoa flavanols — naturally occurring bioactive molecules in cocoa — can improve the speed of a memory task in healthy older adults.
Nutrition Bar Improves Metabolic Biomarkers Linked to Cardiovascular Disease, Cognitive Decline and Anti-Oxidant Defenses
May 14, 2012 | by
Scientists at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) Nutrition & Metabolism Center recently announced that they have developed a low-calorie, high-fiber, fruit-based vitamin and mineral nutrition bar called the CHORI-bar, which improves biomarkers linked to risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and associated decline in antioxidant defenses.
Cognitive Function and Obesity: Does Your BMI Link to Your IQ?
March 13, 2012 | by
In addition to the well-known impact on risk for disorders such as diabetes and reduced life-expectancy, the effects of obesity may extend to psychological function. The so-called obesity epidemic may be causing decline in cognitive function through direct and indirect impacts on brain functioning. An expanding waistline thus appears to link to decreasing ability to learn and remember.
Memory Enhancement Achieved in Rats
March 17, 2011 | by
Memories are fragile; initially forming and then retrieving them are both dependent on new protein synthesis in the brain, and both processes are vulnerable to disruption. A number of agents are known that can impair memory and these can certainly be useful — for example, in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Enhancing memory, however, has proven more difficult. Yet as noted in The New York Times last week [1], two different research groups have recently reported enhancing memory in rats [2-3]. Of note is the fact that they did so utilizing independent molecular pathways.
