Of course none of us really wants to be either of those things.  We want to be brilliant and stunningly beautiful.  And rich.  And happy.  And living on an island with a cabana boy named Juan who fulfills our every desire…

Maybe that part is just me.

We have all been lead to believe that we should want it all and that we can get it all and if we don’t want and have it all, there is something wrong with us.  However, I now have some scientific proof that the choice between brains and beauty is more real than you may have thought!

In late April, the Wall Street Journal published an article, entitled “A Case for those Extra 10 Pounds”, that said that, while the recommendations are to control calories and make healthy diet choices, it seems that there is actually some benefit that comes from being 10-15 pounds overweight.  A little extra weight can lead to a lower risk of osteoporosis and even make you look younger.

Bring on the ice cream!

Just as I was really settling into my celebration of the joys of science, a new study came out that says that extra fat is linked to smaller brain volume, and potentially linked to Alzheimer’s Disease.  Lucky for me and my desire to continue to eat ice cream, it is unclear whether smaller brains lead to extra fat or vice versa.  I am pulling for the first one.  The idea of fat causing my brain to shrink is disturbing in more ways than one.

So extra fat causes Alzheimer’s, and too little fat causes osteoporosis.  A little extra fat will keep my face unlined and youthfully full, but may cause me to eventually forget my name. Am I willing to give up the ice cream to reduce the risk of dementia?

Is it wrong that I am not sure which way to go on this?

A New York Times review of the new book The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain caught my eye a week or so ago, and the author, Barbara Straunch, had some interesting insights to share relative to what middle-aged brains are actually good at, and how to keep our brains functioning well into the future.

• Our brains are still growing and developing far into adulthood.  Although we do have some compromises in short term memory (Where are my keys anyway? And what is your name?), the middle-aged brain is actually better in many ways than at any other point in our lives.

• Logic, creativity and social skills are all at a high point during those middle years.  Although you might not remember the name of the person to whom you are speaking, you will be an excellent judge of his character.

• We do not, as previously thought, actually lose brain cells as we age.

• Exercise and diet recommendations that benefit your heart are also likely to benefit the health of your brain.  Exercise in particular can actually help strengthen and grow your brain.  So get out there and start moving!

• Although there are benefits to making your brain work hard, crossword puzzles and learning a foreign language hold no particular magic powers in terms of maintaining the health of your brain.  Partaking in vigorous debates on subjects of interest can be just as helpful, so unless you just love the Sunday Times crossword puzzle, you can stop doing it!

• Meeting and engaging with people is healthy for your brain, and your mood!

It is so refreshing to hear that middle age is not necessarily the beginning of a slow slide into senility.  Staying engaged and active in life, both in terms of intellectual pursuits and social involvement, seems to be key to keeping your gray matter from graying.

I am hopeful that by maintaining an active life filled with fulfilling relationships, creative pursuits and lively conversation, I can remain one less consumer of Long Term Care services in New York!

We always intuited that  exercise enhanced our psychological states, but now  scientists are learning how exercise, a physiological activity,  directly affects mood and anxiety- that  exercise remodels the brain, making it more resistant to stress.

Exercise alters the activity of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, and appears to dampen the effects of oxidative stress. In an experiment led by researchers at the University of Houston and reported at the Society for Neuroscience meeting,” rats whose oxidative-stress levels had been artificially increased with injections of certain chemicals were extremely anxious when faced with unfamiliar terrain during laboratory testing. But rats that had exercised, even if they had received the oxidizing chemical, were relatively nonchalant under stress. When placed in the unfamiliar space, they didn’t run for dark corners and hide, like the unexercised rats. They insouciantly explored.”

“It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms,” says Michael Hopkins, a graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth. “It’s pretty amazing, really, that you can get this translation from the realm of purely physical stresses to the realm of psychological stressors.”

Alas, these stress-reducing changes on the brain  influenced  by exercise  don’t happen overnight.  In the University of Colorado experiments, for instance, rats that ran for only three weeks did not show much reduction in stress-induced anxiety, but those that ran for at least six weeks did. “Something happened between three and six weeks,” says Benjamin Greenwood, a research associate in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado, who helped conduct the experiments. Dr. Greenwood added that it was “not clear how that translates” into an exercise prescription for humans. We may require more weeks of working out, or maybe less. And no one has yet studied how intense the exercise needs to be. But the lesson, Dr. Greenwood says, is “don’t quit.” Keep running or cycling or swimming. (Animal experiments have focused exclusively on aerobic, endurance-type activities.) You may not feel a magical reduction of stress after your first jog, if you haven’t been exercising. But the molecular biochemical changes will begin, Dr. Greenwood says. And eventually, he says, they become “profound.”

Utilizing MRI’s of the brain, they studied 20 healthy, thin people who went without breakfast that day. When those people were exposed to an array of food photos, both high and low fat, their brains become more active at the sight of the high-calorie options than when they saw low calorie foods. When this test was repeated on another day 90 minutes after they ate breakfast, there was no significant difference in their brain’s reaction to different caloric foods

Corresponding to the MRI findings, were ratings of appealing food pictures. After skipping breakfast, participants found calorie laden food choices to be much more tempting.  After eating, however, the group did not show a strong preference for the high-calorie foods.

According to Tony Goldstone, MD, PhD, a consultant endocrinologist with the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London, “Our results support the advice for eating a healthy breakfast as part of the dietary prevention and treatment of obesity, When people skip meals, especially breakfast, changes in brain activity in response to food may hinder weight loss and even promote weight gain.”

Relax actively. That’s the advice of researchers to the retired and the elderly. Not only is it beneficial for your heart, it’s beneficial for your mind.

This news is the conclusion of numerous studies concerning how exercise affects the brain. Exercise causes a chain of reactions that release chemicals into the bloodstream, while regular aerobic workouts build up the presence of these chemicals. The results are startling. Far from the usual shrinking that accompanies aging, the brain begins to grow.

Children have flourishing brains that branch out new neurons with an exuberant frequency. The adult brain begins trimming back unused neurons, and some also die on their own. Until these recent studies, scientists believed that these dead neurons could never regrow. Now they know differently.

In a study by Columbia University’s Scott Small and the Salk Institute’s Fred Gage, subjects asked to exercise regularly seemed to sprout new neurons; the more fit they became the more neurons they grew. The neurons appeared in the section of the brain dedicated to learning and memory, one of the first sections to age. “It’s not just a matter of slowing down the aging process,” explained Arthur Kramer, of the University of Illinois. “It’s a matter of reversing it.”

Exercise does more than just grow a bigger brain. A research group at the University of Washington found that people who exercise three or more times a week have a 30% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Nor did the exercise have to be an intense aerobic workout. Lead researcher Dr. Eric Larson said that a 15-minute walk three times a week was enough to reduce the risk. A similar study found that five to six hours of vigorous physical activity each week led to a 40% decrease in risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease.

Scientists don’t know why this happens, and they haven’t yet zeroed in on the best exercises. But until they figure it out, one thing remains clear: being a couch potato is bad for the brain. So move!