Estimating Brain Age With MRI Helps Stratify Dementia Risk

 Absolutely fucking useless! PREVENT THAT RISK, you blithering idiots!

Estimating Brain Age With MRI Helps Stratify Dementia Risk

In patients with subjective cognitive decline, a higher brain-predicted age difference on MRI was independently associated with an increased risk of progressing to dementia, offering prognostic value beyond standard visual assessments.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based measure of brain aging may help predict progression to dementia among patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), according to study findings published in Neurology.

Researchers examined whether brain-predicted age difference (brain-PAD), an MRI-derived measure comparing estimated brain age with chronological age, could provide additional prognostic information beyond standard MRI assessment among patients with SCD or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

The researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with SCD or MCI who had available Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and brain MRI data and at least 1 follow-up assessment within 10 years. They calculated brain age from baseline MRI using 2 pretrained approaches, BrainageR and cNeuro, and calculated brain-PAD by comparing estimated brain age with chronological age. Cox regression models assessed the association between brain-PAD and subsequent dementia while accounting for age, sex, MMSE score, visual MRI measures, and, when available, amyloid status.

MRI-derived brain-PAD predicts progression to dementia in memory clinic patients with SCD or MCI.

The analysis included a total of 799 patients, comprising 412 with SCD and 387 with MCI. Mean age was 63.3 years, 39.4% of participants were women, and the mean MMSE score was 27.4. Amyloid status was available for 679 patients, with amyloid positivity identified in 26.6% of the SCD group and 69.0% of the MCI group. Over a median follow-up period of 3.2 years, 235 patients (29.4%) progressed to dementia, including 39 with SCD and 196 with MCI.

The patients who progressed to dementia were older at baseline, had lower MMSE scores, and had greater abnormalities across visual measures of brain atrophy. Among patients with available amyloid data, 83.3% of those who developed dementia were amyloid-positive compared with 32.4% of nonconverters.

In the overall cohort, a higher BrainageR-derived brain-PAD was associated with increased risk for progression to dementia after adjustment for age, sex, and MMSE score (hazard ratio [HR], 1.06; 95% CI, 1.04-1.08; P <.001). The association remained significant after adjustment for visual MRI measures (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02-1.06; P =.003) and amyloid status (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06; P =.003).

The association differed by baseline cognitive status. Among patients with SCD, brain-PAD remained predictive after adjustment for visual MRI measures (HR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.04-1.15; P =.003). Adding brain-PAD improved model fit (χ2, 10.17; P =.003) and increased the C-index from 0.77 to 0.79. After amyloid adjustment, brain-PAD remained associated with progression (HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.02-1.15; P =.021), although the C-index remained 0.84 with or without brain-PAD.

Among patients with MCI, BrainageR-derived brain-PAD was not independently associated with dementia progression after adjustment for visual MRI findings (HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99-1.04; P =.351). Adding brain-PAD did not improve model discrimination. 

The researchers also identified a data-driven brain-PAD threshold of -2.6 years in the SCD group. At this cutoff, the negative predictive value was 0.99 at 2 years and 0.91 at 10 years, while positive predictive values ranged from 0.05 to 0.31. The authors noted that external validation is needed before clinical use.

Study limitations include the relatively young population, which may reduce generalizability to older patients.

“MRI-derived brain-PAD predicts progression to dementia in memory clinic patients with SCD or MCI,” the study authors concluded. They continued, “In particular, brain-PAD provided additional predictive value to visual rating scales in patients with SCD.”

Disclosures: This research was supported by Health~Holland, Stichting Alzheimer Nederland, Stichting Steun Alzheimercentrum Amsterdam, Houbolt Stichting, and the Noaber Foundation. Multiple study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.

Losing Muscle Could Also Increase Your Dementia Odds, Reveals New Study

 Since your doctors and staff are complete failures at 100% recovery have they even thought about preventing sarcopenia via these other methods?

And don't know about these either?

• NMES (38 posts to November 2013)
• 'Exercise-in-a-pill' (9 posts to May 2017)

NO? So, COMPLETELY FUCKING INCOMPETENT! And YOU haven't gotten them fired yet?

Losing Muscle Could Also Increase Your Dementia Odds, Reveals New Study

The lead researcher believes this "could be an important warning sign" for future assessments.

As we age, it’s normal to gradually lose some muscle. But when that loss becomes more significant and starts affecting your strength or ability to get around, it could be sarcopenia—an age-related decline in muscle mass, strength, and physical function.

Maintaining muscle is key to staying strong, mobile, and independent as you get older. And according to new research, there may be another reason to prioritize muscle health: Sarcopenia was linked to a higher risk of developing dementia.

What the study found

To better understand the link between muscle health, body weight, and dementia, an international team of researchers led by Curtin University in Australia analyzed 83 studies published between 2005 and 2026, including 14 that specifically examined sarcopenia.

In the studies examining sarcopenia, researchers assessed participants’ muscle health using measures like muscle mass, grip strength, and walking speed, then followed them over time to see who developed dementia. When the results were combined, people with sarcopenia had a 42% higher risk of developing dementia compared with those without the condition.

“Our findings suggest losing muscle could be an important warning sign for dementia risk,” says lead study author Dr. Uraiporn Booranasuksakul in a Curtin University press release.

Interestingly, the researchers also found a difference in the link between obesity and dementia depending on age. The study revealed that middle-aged people under 65 who were obese had a 9% higher risk of dementia, while obesity among those 65 and older was associated with a 17% lower risk of dementia.

They also looked at sarcopenic obesity—when someone has both low muscle mass or function and excess body fat—but found “no statistically significant link” between the condition and dementia.

What this means for healthy aging

Although the obesity findings were surprising, the researchers say it’s not a reason to gain weight as you age—it simply highlights that the link between aging, body weight, and dementia is layered.

“There is still a lot we don’t know about how changes in muscle and body fat interact over time,” corresponding author and professor Mario Siervo of Curtin’s School of Population Health adds in the press release.

While the study shows an association and does not prove that sarcopenia directly causes dementia, the findings offer another reason to prioritize muscle health as you get older. Staying physically active, incorporating strength training, and getting enough protein can all help preserve muscle mass and strength with age—and support your overall health along the way.

For daily wellness updates, subscribe to The Healthy newsletter and follow The Healthy on Facebook, Instagram, and Google. Keep reading:

• ‘It’s Never Too Late’ To Start This Dementia-Reducing Hobby, Researchers Say
• Eating at This Hour May Preserve Healthy Cognitive Function, Finds New Study
• Doing This Exercise Reduced Death by Heart Attack and Alzheimer’s in New Study

Brain Age Offers Clues to Aphasia Outcomes After Stroke

 Don't let your incompetent? doctor use this as an excuse for failing to get you recovered! Screaming at them might be required, referencing their incompetence!

Predicting failure to recover is the sign of PURE INCOMPETENCE!

Brain Age Offers Clues to Aphasia Outcomes After Stroke

Following stroke, patterns of accelerated brain aging in the intact hemisphere may help explain differences in chronic aphasia severity and predict response to language rehabilitation.

Using an online tool that compares brain scans with age-based reference data, researchers found that brain-aging patterns in the intact right hemisphere explained an additional 7% of the variation in aphasia severity beyond age, lesion volume, and lesion location.

In a smaller group of patients who received speech therapy paired with noninvasive brain stimulation, brain-age measures taken before treatment were also associated with language improvement 6 months later.

Nicholas Riccardi, PhD

“The most important takeaway for clinicians and people with aphasia, is that recent breakthroughs in neuroimaging will allow groundbreaking advances in understanding the mechanisms of recovery after stroke in the coming years, which will ultimately help people with aphasia and their families,” lead investigator Nicholas Riccardi, PhD, research assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience, University of South Carolina Floyd School of Medicine in Columbia, South Carolina, told Medscape Medical News.

Article Key Points

• Right-hemisphere brain age explained +7% aphasia severity variance beyond lesion factors.
• Older age, larger lesions, temporal lesions → lower WAB-R AQ scores.
• Medial prefrontal + cerebellar/ventral brain age linked to worse language function.
• Brain age added +7% variance in naming; medial prefrontal pattern predicted naming.
• Pre-treatment brain age predicted 6-month naming gain after speech therapy + tDCS.

Dive Deeper

Which brain-age patterns predict aphasia recovery after stroke?

How modifiable are contralesional brain-age signatures after stroke?

Does brain age outperform lesion metrics for aphasia prognosis?

The study was published online on September 28 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Assessing the Intact Brain 

Stroke size and location do not fully explain why some patients have more severe or persistent aphasia. 

Previous studies suggest that the health of brain tissue spared by the stroke may also affect language recovery. Brain-age estimates offer one way to assess this. 

Using structural MRI, researchers can estimate how old a person’s brain tissue appears compared with their actual age. Riccardi and colleagues focused on age-related patterns in the intact right hemisphere to examine whether these patterns were linked to aphasia severity and treatment response.

They analyzed 188 adults (mean age, 61 years; 67 women, 121 men) with chronic left hemisphere stroke. Participants were at least 6 months poststroke, with an average time since stroke of approximately 50 months.

Aphasia severity was assessed using the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised Aphasia Quotient (WAB-R AQ), which ranges from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better language function. Naming ability was assessed with the Philadelphia Naming Test (PNT) in 165 participants.

Because the left hemisphere contained stroke damage, the researchers focused their brain-age analyses on the right, contralesional hemisphere. They digitally filled in damaged areas by mirroring corresponding tissue from the intact right hemisphere, allowing the scans to be processed by the brain-age tool.

They used the volBrain BrainStructureAges pipeline to estimate brain age from routine MRI scans, then grouped the regional estimates into four broader brain-aging patterns in the right hemisphere: medial prefrontal, frontotemporoparietal, cerebellar/ventral, and dorsal.

Why Brain Age Matters 

Brain aging measures in the right hemisphere accounted for an additional 7% of the variance in language scores after adjusting for patients’ age, sex, and stroke size and location. When all of these factors were considered, they accounted for 46% of the variance in participants’ WAB-R AQ scores.

Older age, larger lesions, and a temporal lesion pattern were associated with lower WAB-R AQ scores. Higher brain-age estimates in the right hemisphere’s medial prefrontal and cerebellar/ventral areas were also tied to lower scores (beta = -.31; P < .001 and beta = -.18; P = .009, respectively).

In an analysis of 131 participants, brain aging measures accounted for an additional 7% of the variance in naming performance after adjustment for age and stroke characteristics. The medial prefrontal pattern was independently associated with naming ability (beta = -.30; P = .008).

The study could not determine whether the differences in brain age were related to the stroke or reflected preexisting differences in brain health.

The researchers also looked at whether regional brain-age estimates were associated with longer-term language improvement. The analysis included 34 participants who had received 3 weeks of speech therapy paired with anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation.

Mean PNT scores increased from 60.2 at baseline to 68.2 at 6 months. Age, lesion volume, and the medial prefrontal brain-age measure together explained 23% of the differences in naming-score change at 6 months. The medial prefrontal measure was associated with naming-score change (beta = -.47; P = .03).

Overall right-hemisphere gray-matter volume was not significantly associated with naming-score changes.

Brain Health and Recovery 

Recovery after stroke may depend not only on the area that had been directly damaged but also on the health of brain tissue that remains intact, Riccardi said.

“More and more, we are learning that overall brain health is extremely important for resilience and recovery after brain injury.”

This includes factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and other cardiometabolic risks that can affect brain health, he added. The current study did not examine these factors, but determining whether they can be modified to support brain health is a next step.

The researchers also want to better understand what underlies the brain aging signature associated with treatment response.

“We found a brain signature of people who will respond to this therapy, so now we need to better understand what causes this brain signature,” Riccardi said. If the signature is influenced by modifiable health or lifestyle factors, it could eventually have implications for treatment planning.

The findings will need to be replicated in other groups of people with aphasia and tested with different rehabilitation approaches, as the treatment subgroup received a specific combination of speech therapy and brain stimulation. Because the approach relies on routine MRI and a freely available online tool, it could be practical to study in other settings.

“This type of ‘ease of use’ is very important for approaches that could eventually make it into the clinic,” Riccardi said.

Disclosure information for study authors is available in the original study publication.

Scientists had people eat tomato paste every day. This is what their brain scans looked like after 3 months

 Didn't your competent? doctor already figure out your daily protocol needs of lycopene via tomatoes? And BDNF needs?

• lycopene (28 posts to October 2012)
• tomatoes (21 posts to October 2012)
• BDNF (216 posts to April 2011)

NO? Nothing was done! THEN PURE INCOMPETENCE!

Scientists had people eat tomato paste every day. This is what their brain scans looked like after 3 months

Researchers looked at everything from blood markers to attention for clues about how the brain might respond to consuming tomato paste regularly.

A small study found that healthy adults ages 40 to 55 performed better on measures of concentration and processing speed after consuming about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste daily for three months.

• Daily tomato paste consumption was associated with higher blood levels of lycopene and modestly higher levels of BDNF, a protein tied to how brain cells adapt.
• Researchers called the findings preliminary, noting that participants were healthy and mostly well-educated and that compounds in tomato paste besides lycopene may have contributed to the observed effects.

Science is giving you one more reason to enjoy an extra scoop of tomato sauce on your spaghetti tonight.

In May 2026, researchers from Barcelona published their study in Antioxidants, examining the effects of daily tomato paste consumption on the human brain.

To understand what tomato paste might do for us, the team enrolled 47 healthy adults between the ages of 40 and 55 (42 completed the study) and had each of them follow two diets for three months each, in random order, with a one-month break in between. On the tomato paste diet, volunteers kept their regular eating habits and added tomato paste, dosed by body weight, averaging about 35 grams a day, or roughly 2 tablespoons. On the control diet, they ate their usual foods but cut back on tomatoes and other lycopene-rich foods (lycopene is the compound that gives tomatoes their gorgeous red hue), such as watermelon, papaya, grapefruit and guava.

Related: I Tested 8 Ways to Store Tomatoes — This Simple Trick Kept Them Juicy and Mold-Free for Over a Week

 Related video: How eating an avocado every day can affect your heart, gut and cholesterol (Welltica+) 

Before and after each phase, the researchers collected blood samples from the entire group, performed brain scans on some participants, and measured attention with a pencil-and-paper test. Participants scanned rows of the letters “d” and “p,” each marked with tiny dashes, and marked only the d’s with exactly two dashes, at 20 seconds per line. After the tomato intervention, the team found that participants scored about seven points higher on concentration and eight points higher on processing speed than during the control months on a low-lycopene diet.

The team also looked for clues as to why this change may occur and found that blood levels of lycopene climbed during the tomato months, and so did a protein tied to how brain cells adapt, called BDNF, albeit modestly. Brain scans of 14 of the volunteers also suggested that after the tomato paste intervention, two networks (the frontoparietal and auditory networks) in the brain were less tightly linked to other regions while at rest, which the researchers suggested could mean a more efficient pattern of brain connectivity at rest, which could mean a more streamlined way of communicating.

The results are promising, but the team is quick to note that they are “preliminary.” Additionally, the study was conducted on healthy, mostly well-educated people, which may influence their memory and attention.

What is lycopene?

Lycopene belongs to a family of plant compounds called carotenoids and acts as an antioxidant that helps protect cells from oxidative damage. It is the natural pigment that gives tomatoes, watermelon, and several other fruits their red or pink color. Common food sources include:

• Tomatoes and tomato products, including tomato paste
• Watermelon
• Pink and red grapefruit
• Guava
• Papaya

Cooking and processing tomatoes can make their lycopene easier for the body to absorb. Lycopene is also fat-soluble, so eating tomato products with olive oil, cheese, avocado, or another fat source can help the body absorb it.

While lycopene seems like a likely suspect for these changes, the team also noted that the study used tomato paste, so they can’t rule out the possibility that other compounds may play a role. Still, it’s a start. As the researchers wrote in the paper, “These findings provide evidence that tomato consumption may support cognitive function and modulate brain connectivity in healthy middle-aged adults.”

Related: Check the Label Before Buying Canned Tomatoes — This Ingredient Can Ruin Your Sauce

While this study has caveats, ScienceAlert noted it’s not the only study to reach similar conclusions. A previous pilot study on older adults also found that eating a congee made with tomato powder for eight weeks improved cognitive function. So go ahead and try one of these tomato paste-rich recipes tonight, just in case.

Reviewed by

Lauren Manaker MS, RDN, LD, CLEC: Lauren is an award-winning registered dietitian and three-time book author, with more than 22 years in the field.

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Read the original article on Food & Wine

This Is What Science Says About Optimism & Your Health

 

 I'd rather be an optimist and die joyfully than be miserable and live longer. I make sure I don't engage with pessimists and whiners.  But I'm also helping prevent dementia by my consumption of coffee and social connections. Social connections are lubricated by happy persons, nobody wants to be around a whiner.

Pessimists May Live Longer  

The latest here, which I think completely nullifies the above link to pessimists:

This Is What Science Says About Optimism & Your Health

Optimism is more than a mindset — new studies suggest it may tangibly improve healthspan.

The glass-half-full people might be onto something after all. Optimism is more than a worldview. There’s mounting momentum behind the idea that an optimistic outlook may be a legitimate health factor. Most recently, a study published this year in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society contained a startling finding:

The more optimistic you are, the lower your likelihood of developing dementia in old age. Can you truly smile your way to sidestepping dementia? Maybe. But this paper is more than one point of data. The clinical case for optimism has been building for more than two decades.

What You Should Know About Optimism

Optimism is the belief that favorable outcomes are possible, that’s nothing new. It’s also not revelatory to suggest that your worldview can influence your behavior — what’s different here is the clinical backing. In fact, researchers have conducted long-term studies for decades to test the impact of optimism on real-world health outcomes.

The result? Consistent and clear: People who report higher scores on optimism scales tend to have better health outcomes across chronic disease, longevity, and mortality risk. 

Going Deeper on Optimism

Stenlund & colleagues looked at how optimism scores relate to developing dementia over a 14-year period.

• More than 9,000 participants were assessed eight times between 2006 and 2020.
• Every standard deviation increase in optimism was “associated with a lower hazard of developing dementia.”
• Make no mistake: This study doesn’t say that being more optimistic cures dementia. The authors emphasized how this finding might contribute to preventative care for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, which are particularly insidious once symptoms begin to escalate. 

While compelling, the Stenlund team’s findings aren’t the first of its kind. Several other papers have drawn links between looking on the bright side and actually living there:

• 2004: In a 9-year study of nearly 1,000 older adults, optimists had much lower all-cause mortality — and their cardiovascular mortality risk was especially low.
• 2009: Optimists have lower cardiovascular mortality risk.
• 2017: High optimism is associated with a lower risk of dying from heart disease and cancer.
• 2019: There’s a positive correlation between optimism and extended lifespan.
• 2022: Lifestyle factors are only part of the puzzle on optimism’s tangible effects.

The Takeaway

Optimism consistently bolsters your odds of a better quality of life — tangibly, not conceptually. Studies show optimists live longer, better, and suffer fewer chronic diseases. 

It may be tempting to look at the relationship from the other side: People with an optimistic outlook are more likely to engage in health-conscious behaviors, sure. But the 2022 paper splashes cold water on that being the only reason. 

Bottom Line

There’s more going on here, but you don’t have to wait for the lab coats to figure it out to start reaping the benefits. Worth remembering: these are observational studies, so they show optimism and better health traveling together, not proof that one causes the other. But adopting an optimistic outlook is something you can start working on today, whether on your own or by taking a mindset course.