Bloggin Noggin

Pets are good for your health. A 12 year study looking at nearly 3.5 million people  showed that owning a dog was related to a lower risk for heart disease, stroke and heart attack.

Eat better, manage stress, exercise, spend time outside, less time on screens- there are so many small changes we can make to help us feel better and look after our brains.

Can being active really make a difference in later life to the health of your brain? How much of a difference and HOW active do your really need to be to see the benefits?

Healthy Heart Happy Brain? Researchers have confirmed over recent years that looking after our heart health is important for our brain health. Avoiding high blood pressure, exercising and reducing stress are all factors that are important to reduce the risks of heart disease and it seems helps our brains too. But this week we saw some emerging research on this that suggests we are never too young to start looking after our brains A study looking at 189 people with the average age of 24 were followed for 30 years as part of a large research project  What they found that those people studied with better measurements for heart health at the beginning of the study ( such as non smokers, having a healthy weight and blood pressure ) were more likely to have better results on their tests of memory and thinking skills 30 years on.  This is a starting point for yet more research but what it does suggest that what we do and how we live in our younger years may make a difference to our brain health in later years.  Small changes do make a difference to how we feel and the health of our brains. And it seems the earlier we start making these small changes the more we we may benefit in later life.  What are some of the things that matter for heart and brain health- even in our 20’s?  Keeping active, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking and finding ways to manage our stress- small changes really do make a difference to how we feel and our brain health, at any and every age.  https://home.bt.com/news/science-news/heart-problems-in-your-20s-may-affect-brain-health-decades-later-11364433719196 Dr Clara Russell 

Walk faster for a healthier brain. Movement and exercise are 2 of our key building blocks to Brain Health at Noggin the Brain People. Keeping active is an essential part of looking after our brains and studies have shown time and time again how exercise can help reduce our risk of heart disease and dementia. But how much exercise? And what type do we need to be doing to get the most benefits? 

Where does the time go? Hasn’t this year gone quickly? How is it almost July? I blinked and its summer. Have your heard or said any of these in the last few days, chances are you have. Certainly the concept of time - its pace, never having enough, us having a lack of control over it - is something that we talk about often. But what is it that we really mean? Why does it ‘go so quickly’ and can we get more of it?

A report released by Common Sense Media in 2017 states that 8 to 12-year-olds spend an average of 4 hours and 36 minutes every day on screen media.

Having a relative with Multiple Sclerosis was one of the inspirations behind Noggin. MS is another one of these conditions with a funny name that affects both brain and body, often in many unseen ways. MS is often diagnosed in young people and with a massive range of symptoms affecting each person differently on any one day is a very challenging condition for doctors to treat and for people and their families to live with. 

Sleep and Memory is a big area for those researching risk factors of for dementia but what about on a day to day basis- how does sleep affect your memory of what you did today or yesterday?

At Noggin we believe the brain is amazing but undervalued. It controls everything we do. It is the operating system for our entire lives. And yet, be honest, how much thought do we really give to looking after it?