Tag Archives: Brain

Health, Medical, Research, Science

A glass of water can help the brain to work up to 14 per cent faster…

RESEARCH

Researchers suggest that drinking a glass of water can make your brain work faster and could be freeing up parts of the brain.

Scientists say that drinking water can sharpen your mind. If you’re struggling to come up with answers to everyday problems, then a glass of water could be the best solution. The effect is particularly marked if a person is thirsty.

According to new research delivered by scientists at the University of East London, the original energy drink – quenching your thirst with a glass of water – could help your brain work by as much as 14 per cent faster. Scientists believe that once thirst is relieved, the brain is left to focus on the task in hand.

Researchers first carried out an experiment on 34 men and women who completed a number of mental tests twice – once after a breakfast of just a cereal bar and again after a cereal bar was washed down with a bottle of water.

None of those who had taken the tests had eaten or drunk anything overnight and all were asked how thirsty they were at the start of the experiment.

The participants who said they weren’t thirsty were equally quick at the test of reaction time with or without water.

But those who said they were thirsty sped up after having consumed water, making them up to 14 per cent quicker than before.

The findings have been reported in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

The researchers suggest the water helped by freeing up the parts of the brain that were busy ‘telling’ the body it was thirsty. They said:

… These results are consistent with water consumption freeing up ‘attentional resources’ that were otherwise occupied with processing the sensations of thirst.

Dr Caroline Edmonds, one of the researchers at the University of East London, said it is not going to hurt you to have a drink of water when you are working hard. She points out that tea and coffee will also help to hydrate you.

Dr Edmonds has previously shown that children who have a drink of water ahead of sitting tests fare up to a third better.

But the effects of drinking water are not always positive. In Dr Edmonds’ latest study, the volunteers to the experiments did worse at a particularly complex mental manipulation test after drinking the water. The reasons for this remain unclear.

Separate studies have found that failing to drink enough water can make the brain’s grey matter shrink, making it harder to concentrate and think.

Scientists in Britain scanned the brains of teenagers after an hour-and-a-half of cycling.

Some exercised in three layers of sweat-induced clothing including a bin liner worn next to the skin, a hooded chemical warfare suit and a track suit. Others observed were much more lightly clad in shorts and T-shirts.

Those who were heavily wrapped up lost around 2lb in sweat – and their brain tissue had shrunk away from their skulls. Just 90-minutes of steady sweating can shrink the brain as much as a year of ageing.

But after a glass of water or two the brain quickly returns to normal.

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Medical, Research

Dementia risk raised after general anaesthetic for over 65s…

According to a study, having a general anaesthetic in later life could raise the risk of developing dementia by a third.

Brain changes caused by the anaesthetic could lead to Alzheimer’s within a few years in some patients, warn researchers.

It has long been known that having a general anaesthetic may result in poor brain functioning straight after an operation, especially in the elderly.

In most cases the side-effect is temporary, although many relatives complain their loved ones were ‘never quite the same’ after a major operation.

There has already been debate whether there is a link with dementia in the long term. Last year research on mice suggested cognitive function could be impaired in ways similar to changes caused by Alzheimer’s.

The latest study, though, found a 35 per cent higher risk of dementia in older people having surgery under general anaesthetic compared to local anaesthetic.

Extra cases of dementia emerged among patients up to eight years later, according to the study by the French Institute of Health and Medical Research and the University of Bordeaux.

Scientists in the UK say there is rarely an alternative to general anaesthetic if older patients need major surgery, but they do accept that more research could help identify those at risk.

Researchers’ analysed medical data of French people aged 65 and over living in three cities. They were interviewed at the start of the study and subsequently two, four, seven and ten years after.

Each examination included a complete assessment of cognitive functioning and systematic screening for dementia.

After two years, researchers started asking 7,008 participants whether they had undergone a general or local anaesthetic since the last follow-up. The data was adjusted to take account of factors such as socioeconomic status and other medical conditions which might raise the risk of dementia.

Altogether 19 per cent had undergone a general anaesthetic and 14 per cent had been treated under a local anaesthetic.

A total of 632 people – nine per cent – developed dementia over the eight subsequent years of the study, most of whom were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

The research was presented on 31 May, 2013, at Euroanaesthesia, the annual congress of the European Society of Anaesthesiology in Barcelona.

The researchers said the change in the brain that causes cognitive dysfunction after major surgery is the same as the one that causes dementia – when clumps of a protein stick to brain cells, affecting memory, mood and behaviour.

Several studies have suggested that some anaesthetic drugs could promote inflammation of brain tissue in a way that is characteristic of dementia.

Another theory is that insufficient oxygen to the brain may have an effect in vulnerable patients.

Alzheimer’s Research UK, a charity, said that we need to await the full peer-reviewed publication before fully interpreting the results.

Research into the impact of anaesthetics on dementia is challenging. Dementia is caused by several brain diseases, many of which arise from a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.

Understanding these risk factors is vital, but research into dementia remains poorly funded compared to other diseases. We need to see sustained funding to unravel the full complexity of a condition that is often described as ‘devastating’.

Dementia Signs

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