Lose Weight for Brain Gain

Two new studies – both published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (JACN, vol. 31, no. 2, 2012) show how healthy nutrition habits can boost brainpower.   Being overweight is a well-known risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia – with people who are overweight experiencing a 74% higher risk for developing

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Can Acai Make You Smarter?

Just a few days ago at the annual scientific meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, researchers from the Aging Research Center at Tufts University presented a new study showing that acai can slow the aging process and actually reverse the effects of again on the brain.     Previous studies of older humans and older

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Acai Purity and Safety

Earlier this morning, a colleague sent me a newspaper clipping with the headline, “Stop Use of Acai Berry Products.” The article outlined an increasingly common situation of nutritional products being contaminated (or intentionally spiked) with pharmaceutical drugs. In this case, the article indicated three different acai-containing products that were found to be contaminated with sibutramine

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Antidepressant Use Skyrocketing

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NCHA Data Brief #76, October 2011), use of antidepressant drugs has increased by 400% in the last two decades (since 1998).   This means that antidepressant drugs are the MOST frequently used medication among  adults (ages 14-44) – with nearly 1-in-4 of

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Why Aren’t We Eating Our Veggies?

Antioxidants Related to Heart Health A recent study published this month in the American Journal of Medicine (Oct 2012) found a strong relationship between antioxidants in the diet and risk for heart attack. The researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that women who had the highest levels of “total antioxidant capacity” from fruits,

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