6, May 2014

Smiling can help fight memory loss

Washington: A new study has revealed that humor and laughter can help lessen the damage that stress hormone cortisol has on memory and learning ability in the elderly.

According to the researchers at Loma Linda University, there was a significant decrease in cortisol concentrations among both groups who watched a funny video and showed greater improvement in all areas of the memory assessment when compared to controls.

Gurinder Singh Bains said that their findings offer potential clinical and rehabilitative benefits that can be applied to wellness programs for the elderlyand the cognitive components, such as learning ability and delayed recall, become more challenging as people age and are essential to older adults for an improved quality of life.

The researchers said that the less stress one has the better their memory, as humor reduces detrimental stress hormones like cortisol that decrease memory hippocampal neurons, lowers the blood pressure, and increases blood flow and mood state.

The study revealed that the act of laughter-or simply enjoying some humor-increases the release of endorphins and dopamine in the brain, which provides a sense of pleasure and reward and the positive and beneficial neurochemical changes, in turn, make the immune system function better. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/health

06.05.2014

Gardening offers much needed health benefits to younger adults

Washington: Researchers have said that gardening can not only enhance home and community landscapes and provide low-cost food sources, the level of physical activity required also offers a multitude of health benefits to young adults.

Studies have confirmed that engaging in gardening can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and increase psychological well-being.

Researchers from Konkuk University and Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea, published a study in HortTechnology that evaluated the intensity of gardening activities for adults in their 20s.

Study's lead author Ki-Cheol Son said that the exercise intensity of physical activity may differ between age groups and fitness levels, and there was not enough data on the metabolic equivalents of gardening tasks in different age groups to develop a garden exercise program for maintaining or improving health conditions.

Fifteen university students in their 20s participated in the study in South Korea. Each subject performed 10 common gardening tasks in a high tunnel and in a nearby grassy area with a vegetable garden and weeds.

The subjects visited the garden plot twice and performed five gardening tasks during each visit; each task lasted for 5 minutes and was followed by a 5-minute rest. Subject wore a portable telemetric calorimeter and respired into the facemask during the gardening tasks and resting periods so researchers could measure their oxygen uptake.

The subjects also wore a heart rate monitor to record heart rate data during the gardening tasks and resting periods via radiotelemetry.

The research team evaluated the data and determined that all 10 gardening tasks were "moderate- to high-intensity" physical activities for the research subjects. Planting transplants, mixing growing medium, watering, harvesting, sowing, hoeing, mulching, raking, and weeding were all classified as "moderate intensity", while digging was a found to be a "high-intensity" activity and was the most intense task in study. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/health

06.05.2014

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