Regular readers know that I feel strongly about the positive link between exercise and brain health. Similarly, I had a post yesterday on the benefits of Omega-3’s and brain health. Now comes Neuroscience News with a report that further cerebral benefits may be gleaned by meditation – giving us a three-pronged attack against cognitive declines. Hear! Hear!

New brain research findings suggest long-term meditation may lead to less age-related gray matter atrophy in the human brain.

Since 1970, life expectancy around the world has risen dramatically, with people living more than 10 years longer. That’s the good news.

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Brain scans of meditators and non-meditators. Areas of the brain affected by aging (in red) are fewer and less widespread in people who meditate, bottom row, than in people who don’t meditate. Negative correlations between local gray matter and age. Displayed are maximum intensity projections superimposed onto the SPM…

A landmark study led by University of Sydney has found that people become more active, sleep better and reduce their sitting time when they retire.

Published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine, the study followed the lifestyle behaviors of 25,000 older Australians including physical activity, diet, sedentary behavior, alcohol use and sleep patterns.

“Our research revealed that retirement was associated with positive lifestyle changes,” said lead researcher Dr Melody Ding, Senior Research Fellow at the University’s School of Public Health.

“Compared with people who were still working, retirees had increased physically activity levels, reduced sitting time, were less likely to smoke, and had healthier sleep patterns.

“A major life change like retirement creates a great window of opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes – it’s a chance to get rid of bad routines and engineer new, healthier behaviors.” she said.

The data revealed that retirees:
•    Increased physical activity…

Yesterday I posted an item headed “Health and Fitness Ideas.” I concluded it with the statement, “I wish more people would focus on living a healthy life than just dropping some unwanted pounds. The first way is positive and long lasting. The second is superficial and most of the time doesn’t result in permanent weight loss.

I think this news story from Harvard follows right on from that post. I recommend that you take their Healthy Heart Score test at the link provided below.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and a healthy lifestyle is key to prevention. But the prevalence of healthy behaviors among U.S. adults is low. Current prevention strategies focus mainly on controlling CVD risk factors such as diabetes and hypertension with medication—as opposed to preventing them in the first place.

Now, new research from Harvard T.H. Chan School…

The saying goes there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. But men should also add loss of muscle mass to the list.

Age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia, is a natural part of aging. After age 30, you begin to lose as much as 3% to 5% per decade. Most men will lose about 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes.

Less muscle means greater weakness and less mobility, both of which may increase your risk of falls and fractures. A 2015 report from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research found that people with sarcopenia had 2.3 times the risk of having a low-trauma fracture from a fall, such as a broken hip, collarbone, leg, arm, or wrist.

But just because you lose muscle mass does not mean it is gone forever. “Older men can indeed increase muscle mass lost as a consequence of aging,” says Dr. Thomas W…