Don't sacrifice or belittle your generation for the future generation!

-
Image
Our planet, Earth is an important abode for every living being including plants and animals. Earth belongs to everyone. Humans are the superior living beings, but they are also the ones destroying nature and earth with their excessive deeds and misdeeds.  Climate change and global warming are also the consequence of wrong human activities in excess. Industrial revolution of the 19th century paved the way for this downhill process of environmental deterioration. It has reached a stage where excessive temperatures are giving rise to glacier and ice cap melting, sea water level rising, ecosystem disruption, weather crisis, and high rates of infections and allergies.  Also, read Dementia and its risks and management  Effective steps need to be taken promptly and on a large scale to mitigate this climate crisis and in the meantime, measures to adapt to the rising temperatures also are required to be started.  However, in all this, some people make such vague statements th...
Post a Comment

Cocoa flavanols can improve brain function after a challenge and make a person do complex tasks faster and better!

-

Flavanols found in fruits and vegetables are known to be beneficial for vascular function. But now a new study from Birmingham has revealed that they can boost cognition and make people be able to do more complex jobs easily. Besides, the brain vascular function is better with them. The study was conducted using flavanols of cocoa origin.

THE STUDY ON FLAVANOLS AND BRAIN FUNCTION

This is the first study of its kind to determine the action of cocoa flavanols on brain function and cognition. Catarina Rendeiro, a researcher in nutritional sciences at the University of Birmingham led this research in collaboration with psychology professors, Monica Fabiani and Gabriele Gratton. The latter two were from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their study is published in the Scientific Reports journal. 

Cocoa flavanols [Source: Confectionery News]

Catarina said:

“Flavanols are small molecules found in many fruits and vegetables, and cocoa, too. They give fruits and vegetables their bright colours, and they are known to benefit vascular function. We wanted to know whether flavanols also benefit the brain vasculature and whether that could have a positive impact on cognitive function.”

THE STUDY DESIGN

The research team recruited 18 participants who were healthy adults and non-smokers. These adults had no heart, vascular, respiratory, or brain diseases. These were tested before the intake of cocoa and after the consumption. The trials were two; in one the recruits consumed flavanol-rich cocoa and in the second trial they had processed cocoa with very low levels of flavanols.

Cocoa flavanol [Source: Cocoa Flavanol Science]

It was a double-blind study in which neither the researchers nor the participants knew what they are consuming. After two hours of consumption, the study people were exposed to 5% of carbon-di-oxide. This was to challenge the brain vasculature. The normal response is raised blood flow to the brain. Gabriele said:

“This brings in more oxygen and also allows the brain to eliminate more carbon dioxide,”

THE FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

14 of the 18 participants felt that the drinking of flavanol-rich cocoa assisted them in improvement in brain function and the ability to meet the challenge. Their brains recovered faster from the vascular challenge of carbon-di-oxide. 



And their brains also performed better on complex tests after the dietary flavanols in the form of cocoa. Chocolate contains cocoa and this could mean that consumption of chocolate could help a person meet challenges better and do more complex tasks!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Color therapy-the ancient art of healing! Know the science behind it and its current status!

-
Image
  Color as a form of therapy is not a new concept. In it, electromagnetic waves in the form of the visible spectrum (that we interpret as colors) are used to cure various body illnesses. It is an ancient mode of therapy that is being reinvented. There are attempts to elucidate its scientific basis and explanation. This would help to explore and discover newer dimensions of this old remedy. Color therapy (Chromotherapy) Newton talked about solid matter and moving objects while Einstein found out that mass and energy are dual expressions of the same universal substance. It is the vibration rate of its molecules that determines its form. When slow, it is physical matter and when the vibrations are intense it is energy. Thus, light is an energy and when it interacts with matter, color is formed. Each color has its own wavelength, frequency, and energy level. And human eye is adapted to see only this energy that has a wavelength between 380-780 nm. This is therefore, the visible spe...
Read more

Small wounds on your dog-causes, symptoms and treatment explained!

-
Image
Most of the dogs that are kept as pets are extremely active and move in and out of the house. Only celebrity dogs or those whose owners are extremely wealthy lead a lavish life. The others due to their outdoor or sometimes even indoor activities might suffer some minor wounds. These should not be left unattended and need to be addressed immediately. These can be in the form of small cuts, scratches, or even bites. So how to take care of these small wounds on your dog pets?  Dogs and the causes of wounds Many times, your pet dogs might suffer some small wounds, cuts, and scratches. Dogs like children and play around with them. In the process, they might hurt themselves which is natural. This may be in the garden or lawns or while running around the trees or even while jumping.  Dogs and wounds [Source: Pinterest] The dog may also be playing around with another canine or cat in the house or outside and ends up getting a bite from them. At times, a dog walk through rough terrain ...
Read more

Loneliness is a growing epidemic especially during this coronavirus pandemic in the USA!

-
Image
  The coronavirus pandemic has increased social segregation and this has proven to be bad particularly for the elderly population. They are unable to catch up with their children and grandchildren and are finding themselves extremely lonely. They are the worst affected by the pandemic in terms of physical as well as emotional health. THE OLD AGE AND LONELINESS Old age is a time of loneliness for many people. Usually, people have lost their partners at that ripe age and depend on their children and grandchildren for support and to beat the loneliness. Though their younger family members used to occasionally visit the parents, now with the coronavirus pandemic this has become difficult due to the risk of the children carrying the infection to their aged parents and grandparents. So the visits have come down drastically and the contact remains only on phone or via digital technology. This though good does not suffice and cannot substitute the physical visits and the warmth that th...
Read more