Mind & Mood Archive

Learning a new dance step involves exercise, socialization, and a challenge, all of which can help boost thinking skills.
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Challenging your brain, staying physically active, and being socially engaged may help keep our thinking skills sharp.

Image: Thinkstock

Plan now to help prevent overeating, trips to the hospital, and depression.

The winter holidays are supposed to be a joyous time, filled with celebration. But they come with health risks, such as loneliness and depression, overeating, weight gain, falls in icy weather, foodborne illness, and heart problems. Here are ways to protect yourself while enjoying the season.

Medical science is making good progress in unraveling the biological underpinnings of depression. Someday, these discoveries may lead to lab tests that can help identify or confirm depression and other mood disorders.

Right now, doctors and therapists rely on the symptoms reported by their patients, along with clinical expertise and experience, to diagnose depression and determine a course of treatment.

Sometimes, though, additional information can help distinguish depression from other problems. That's why your doctor might recommend any of the following tests:

A recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that seniors got no mental boost from taking daily omega-3 fatty acid supplements and antioxidant vitamins for four years. On the other hand, that doesn't mean eating a nutritious diet throughout life doesn't promote healthy aging.

The clinical trial involved more than 3,500 people, average age 73. Researchers were primarily testing the ability of daily nutritional supplements to prevent vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which damages the light-sensing retina in the back of the eye. Participants also had tests of their mental function every other year in addition to annual eye exams.

Some intriguing research suggests that positive psychology can help you weather the routine ups and downs of life and also build resilience for times of greater difficulty.

Here are three ways to capture the benefits of positive psychology.

Reports at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in July 2015 verified that women are at higher risk than men for developing Alzheimer's, and also progress more rapidly from mild cognitive impairment to out-right dementia than men do. But not all the news was bad. A study reported at the meeting indicates that physical exercise can halt, and even reverse, the decline in people with mild cognitive impairment.

In that study, conducted by researchers at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, 65 previously sedentary women and men with mild cognitive impairment exercised at peak capacity for at least 45 minutes four times a week for six months. At the beginning and end of the study, researchers tested participants' cognitive skills and examined their blood and cerebrospinal fluid for levels of tau protein—a principal component of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. They found that the participants scored significantly higher on the cognitive tests at the end of the study than they had at the beginning. Their tau protein levels had declined substantially as well.

We know that moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, can both improve thinking skills and slow their decline in older age. Now a trio of studies presented at the July 2015 Alzheimer's Association International Conference suggest that aerobic exercise may even be able to help protect your brain from Alzheimer's and other dementias, and improve your quality of life if you have the disease. One study of 200 adults with Alzheimer's showed that those who engaged in three hour-long exercise sessions a week for 16 weeks had less anxiety, irritability, and depression and better mental speed and attention compared with those who didn't exercise. A study of 65 sedentary older adults with mild cognitive impairment showed that those who took part in 45 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week for six months not only had better attention and planning skills, but also better blood flow to the brain and a reduction in dangerous proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease, compared with those who only did stretching exercises. A study of 71 older adults with cognitive impairment due to vascular disease found that those who did an hour of aerobic exercise three times per week for six months improved their thinking skills, memory, and attention compared with those who did not exercise. Although the studies were presented at a scientific meeting, it's only after publication of the full details that scientists can adequately judge a work. Nevertheless, the studies are in line with past research showing that regular exercise may help protect the brain.

With aging, the body and mind change—but it's not all bad.

Aging brings physical changes and a greater risk of health problems—no one needs to tell you that. The mind changes too, and we grumble about things like increased forgetfulness. But the aging mind bestows some gifts, too.

There are many different ways to find comfort when grieving. Some people find that spirituality or organized religion is a source of great solace. Specific rituals and rites — whether sitting shiva, setting up an altar inside your home, or gathering at the cemetery once a year — can draw people together and encourage them to share their grief. Attending religious services can link you with a well-defined community primed to offer help of all sorts. And a kind word, a willing listener, a shared meal, and any number of large and small acts of assistance help keep people afloat and ease their distress after a death.

Religious or spiritual beliefs may also help by lending larger meaning to a loved one's life and death. For some, the belief that a loved one is enjoying the spiritual riches of heaven or preparing for the next turn of the wheel through reincarnation can be comforting. Believing your loved one helps guide you in this world or that you will be reunited in another place after your own death can help you continue to feel connected with the person.

Ask the doctor

Q. Recently, I felt very agitated and out of control, crying and angry about things I could ordinarily handle with ease. I was starting fights with my husband and others over relatively insignificant issues. I had been taking synthetic thyroid hormone for several decades and had very low levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone in my blood. I've stopped taking the hormone and feel better, but I feel bad about the way I snapped at my friends and family. Could thyroid hormone have been to blame for my behavior?

A. It could very well have been responsible. Low thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels mean that thyroid hormone levels are increasing. Anxiety, agitation, and restlessness are all signs of hyperthyroidism—an overactive thyroid gland or, in your case, too much thyroid hormone medication. You can let your husband and friends know that your irritability was probably caused by too high a dose of your prescription and not a permanent change in your disposition.