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Add a Daily Dose of Nuts and Chocolate
Nuts and seeds are good sources of the antioxidant vitamin E, which is associated with less cognitive decline as you age. Dark chocolate also has other powerful antioxidant properties. And it contains natural stimulants like caffeine, which can enhance focus and concentration.
Enjoy up to an ounce a day of nuts and dark chocolate to provide all the benefits you need without excess calories, fat, or sugar.
Add Avocados and Whole Grains
Every organ in the body depends on blood flow, especially the heart and brain. Eating a diet high in whole grains and fruits like avocados can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and lower bad cholesterol. This reduces your risk of plaque buildup and enhances blood flow, offering a simple, tasty way to fire up brain cells.
Whole grains, like popcorn and whole wheat, also contribute dietary fiber and vitamin E. Though avocados have fat, it's the good-for-you, monounsaturated fat that contributes to healthy blood flow.
Blueberries Are Super Nutritious
Research in animals shows that blueberries help protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Studies also show that diets rich in blueberries significantly improved both the learning capacity and motor skills of aging rats, making them mentally equivalent to much younger rats.
Benefits of a Healthy Diet
It may sound trite but it's true: If your diet lacks essential nutrients, it can decrease your ability to concentrate. Eating too much or too little can also interfere with your ability to focus. A heavy meal may make you feel lethargic, while too few calories can result in distracting hunger pangs.
Benefit your brain: Strive for a well-balanced diet full of a wide variety of healthy, wholesome foods.
Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements?
Store shelves groan with supplements claiming to boost health. Although many of the reports on the brain-boosting power of supplements like vitamins B, C, E, beta-carotene, and magnesium are promising, a supplement is only useful to people whose diets are lacking in that specific nutrient.
Researchers are cautiously optimistic about ginseng, ginkgo, and vitamin, mineral, and herb combinations and their impact on the brain.
Check with your doctor.
Get Ready for a Big Day
Want to power up your ability to concentrate? Start with a meal of 100% fruit juice, a whole grain bagel with salmon, and a cup of coffee. In addition to eating a well-balanced meal, experts also advise:
Get a good night's sleep.
Stay hydrated.
Exercise to help sharpen thinking.
Meditate to clear thinking and relax.
Source: http://www.webmd.com
Brain Foods That Help You Concentrate
Ginseng, Fish, Berries, or Caffeine?
Listen to the buzz about foods and dietary supplements and you'll believe they can do everything from sharpen focus and concentration, to enhance memory, attention span, and brain function.
But do they really work? There's no denying that as we age chronologically, our body ages right along with us. The good news is that you can increase your chances of maintaining a healthy brain -- if you add "smart" foods and beverages to your diet.
Caffeine Can Make You More Alert
There's no magic bullet to boost IQ or make you smarter -- but certain substances, like caffeine, can energize and help you focus and concentrate. Found in coffee, chocolate, energy drinks, and some medications, caffeine gives you that unmistakable wake-up buzz -- though the effects are short term. And more is often less: Overdo it on caffeine and it can make you jittery and uncomfortable.
Sugar Can Enhance Alertness
Sugar is your brain's preferred fuel source -- not table sugar, but glucose, which your body metabolizes from the sugars and carbohydrates you eat. That's why a glass of something sweet to drink can offer a short-term boost to memory, thinking processes, and mental ability.
Consume too much, however, and memory can be impaired -- along with the rest of you. Go easy on the sugar so it can enhance memory, without packing on the pounds.
Eat Breakfast to Fuel Your Brain
Tempted to skip breakfast? Studies have found that eating breakfast may improve short-term memory and attention. Students who eat breakfast tend to perform significantly better than those who don’t. Foods at the top of researchers' brain fuel list include high-fiber whole grains, dairy, and fruits. Just don't overeat; researchers also found high-calorie breakfasts appear to hinder concentration.
Fish Really is Brain Food
A protein source associated with a great brain boost is fish -- rich in omega 3 fatty acids, essential for brain function and development. These healthy fats have amazing brain power: higher dietary omega 3 fatty acids are linked to lower dementia and stroke risks; slower mental decline; and may play a vital role in enhancing memory, especially as we get older.
For brain and heart health, eat two servings of fish weekly.
Add a Daily Dose of Nuts and Chocolate
Nuts and seeds are good sources of the antioxidant vitamin E, which is associated with less cognitive decline as you age. Dark chocolate also has other powerful antioxidant properties. And it contains natural stimulants like caffeine, which can enhance focus and concentration.
Enjoy up to an ounce a day of nuts and dark chocolate to provide all the benefits you need without excess calories, fat, or sugar.
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Source: http://www.webmd.com
Listen to the buzz about foods and dietary supplements and you'll believe they can do everything from sharpen focus and concentration, to enhance memory, attention span, and brain function.
But do they really work? There's no denying that as we age chronologically, our body ages right along with us. The good news is that you can increase your chances of maintaining a healthy brain -- if you add "smart" foods and beverages to your diet.
Caffeine Can Make You More Alert
There's no magic bullet to boost IQ or make you smarter -- but certain substances, like caffeine, can energize and help you focus and concentrate. Found in coffee, chocolate, energy drinks, and some medications, caffeine gives you that unmistakable wake-up buzz -- though the effects are short term. And more is often less: Overdo it on caffeine and it can make you jittery and uncomfortable.
Sugar Can Enhance Alertness
Sugar is your brain's preferred fuel source -- not table sugar, but glucose, which your body metabolizes from the sugars and carbohydrates you eat. That's why a glass of something sweet to drink can offer a short-term boost to memory, thinking processes, and mental ability.
Consume too much, however, and memory can be impaired -- along with the rest of you. Go easy on the sugar so it can enhance memory, without packing on the pounds.
Eat Breakfast to Fuel Your Brain
Tempted to skip breakfast? Studies have found that eating breakfast may improve short-term memory and attention. Students who eat breakfast tend to perform significantly better than those who don’t. Foods at the top of researchers' brain fuel list include high-fiber whole grains, dairy, and fruits. Just don't overeat; researchers also found high-calorie breakfasts appear to hinder concentration.
Fish Really is Brain Food
A protein source associated with a great brain boost is fish -- rich in omega 3 fatty acids, essential for brain function and development. These healthy fats have amazing brain power: higher dietary omega 3 fatty acids are linked to lower dementia and stroke risks; slower mental decline; and may play a vital role in enhancing memory, especially as we get older.
For brain and heart health, eat two servings of fish weekly.
Add a Daily Dose of Nuts and Chocolate
Nuts and seeds are good sources of the antioxidant vitamin E, which is associated with less cognitive decline as you age. Dark chocolate also has other powerful antioxidant properties. And it contains natural stimulants like caffeine, which can enhance focus and concentration.
Enjoy up to an ounce a day of nuts and dark chocolate to provide all the benefits you need without excess calories, fat, or sugar.
Next
Source: http://www.webmd.com
Does Coffee Cut Breast Cancer Risk?
Study Suggests Heavy Coffee Drinking May Help Reduce Risk of Certain Cancers
By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News
Women who drink more than five cups of coffee a day may be reducing their risk of one type of breast cancer, new research suggests.
Previous research has produced conflicting results about coffee and breast cancer risk, says researcher Jingmei Li, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
In her new research, she found coffee drinking reduces overall breast cancer risk modestly -- by 20% -- when she considered age. "The 20% decrease in risk associated with drinking five or more cups of coffee a day was statistically significant only when adjusted for age," she tells WebMD.
When she took into account other factors, such as education level, drinking of alcohol, and hormone therapy use, she found a 57% reduction in risk for cancers known as estrogen-receptor negative cancers. This type of breast cancer is less likely to respond to hormone therapy than estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.
However, a U.S. expert warns that the new finding about reduction in risk for ER-negative breast cancer could be due to chance. The only solid message from this study and previous ones, says Shumin Zhang, MD, ScD, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, is this: "Drinking coffee doesn’t seem to increase the overall risk of breast cancer."
A Visual Guide to Breast Cancer
Coffee Drinking and Breast Cancer Risk
The researchers from Karolinska Institutet evaluated coffee drinking and breast cancer risk in 2,818 patients with breast cancer and 3,111 study participants who did not have breast cancer.
The breast cancer patients were classified by estrogen-receptor tumor subtypes.
Breast cancer cells are termed ER-negative if they don't have receptors for estrogen. They are ER-positive if they do. Receptors are proteins on the outside surfaces of cells that can attach to hormones found in the blood. When estrogen attaches, it can fuel the growth of breast cancer cells.
Participants were ages 50 to 74, all Swedish born and residents there between October 1993 and March 31, 1995.
The researchers collected information on coffee drinking habits. They also asked about education, family history of breast cancer, menstrual history, reproductive history, and habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and exercising.
Coffee drinkers were grouped into four categories:
* One cup or less a day
* More than one cup and up to three cups a day
* More than three cups and up to five cups a day
* Five or more cups a day
Those who had one cup or less a day served as the reference group.
Conflicting Research
''The results are biologically plausible," Li says. Coffee has compounds that may affect breast cancer of different ER subtypes in different ways, she tells WebMD.
For instance, she says, coffee has been shown to boost blood levels of the phytoestrogen enterolactone. It is linked in other studies with a decrease in ER-negative breast cancer risk, she says.
In her own research, Zhang has found that several cups of coffee daily, overall, do not seem to pose a risk for breast cancer.
However, in research published in 2008, she found coffee intake was linked with an increased risk of ER-negative cancers -- exactly the opposite of the new study.
Li's finding that heavy coffee drinking may reduce ER-negative breast cancer risk, she says, is interesting. However, she isn't convinced. "It is unclear if this observation was a chance finding."
Source: http://www.webmd.com
By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News
Women who drink more than five cups of coffee a day may be reducing their risk of one type of breast cancer, new research suggests.
Previous research has produced conflicting results about coffee and breast cancer risk, says researcher Jingmei Li, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
In her new research, she found coffee drinking reduces overall breast cancer risk modestly -- by 20% -- when she considered age. "The 20% decrease in risk associated with drinking five or more cups of coffee a day was statistically significant only when adjusted for age," she tells WebMD.
When she took into account other factors, such as education level, drinking of alcohol, and hormone therapy use, she found a 57% reduction in risk for cancers known as estrogen-receptor negative cancers. This type of breast cancer is less likely to respond to hormone therapy than estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.
However, a U.S. expert warns that the new finding about reduction in risk for ER-negative breast cancer could be due to chance. The only solid message from this study and previous ones, says Shumin Zhang, MD, ScD, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, is this: "Drinking coffee doesn’t seem to increase the overall risk of breast cancer."
A Visual Guide to Breast Cancer
Coffee Drinking and Breast Cancer Risk
The researchers from Karolinska Institutet evaluated coffee drinking and breast cancer risk in 2,818 patients with breast cancer and 3,111 study participants who did not have breast cancer.
The breast cancer patients were classified by estrogen-receptor tumor subtypes.
Breast cancer cells are termed ER-negative if they don't have receptors for estrogen. They are ER-positive if they do. Receptors are proteins on the outside surfaces of cells that can attach to hormones found in the blood. When estrogen attaches, it can fuel the growth of breast cancer cells.
Participants were ages 50 to 74, all Swedish born and residents there between October 1993 and March 31, 1995.
The researchers collected information on coffee drinking habits. They also asked about education, family history of breast cancer, menstrual history, reproductive history, and habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and exercising.
Coffee drinkers were grouped into four categories:
* One cup or less a day
* More than one cup and up to three cups a day
* More than three cups and up to five cups a day
* Five or more cups a day
Those who had one cup or less a day served as the reference group.
Conflicting Research
''The results are biologically plausible," Li says. Coffee has compounds that may affect breast cancer of different ER subtypes in different ways, she tells WebMD.
For instance, she says, coffee has been shown to boost blood levels of the phytoestrogen enterolactone. It is linked in other studies with a decrease in ER-negative breast cancer risk, she says.
In her own research, Zhang has found that several cups of coffee daily, overall, do not seem to pose a risk for breast cancer.
However, in research published in 2008, she found coffee intake was linked with an increased risk of ER-negative cancers -- exactly the opposite of the new study.
Li's finding that heavy coffee drinking may reduce ER-negative breast cancer risk, she says, is interesting. However, she isn't convinced. "It is unclear if this observation was a chance finding."
Source: http://www.webmd.com
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