Can A Purpose-Driven Life Help Protect the Aging Brain?

I bet your psychiatrist in the hospital doesn't know about this.  But nothing on coffee or fish oil for protection.
http://dana.org/News/Can_A_Purpose-Driven_Life_Help_Protect_the_Aging_Brain_/

Experimental Alzheimer's drugs have been racking up one clinical trial failure after another in recent years. At the same time, evidence has building in favor of low-cost pharma-free strategies, at least as preventives. Getting regular exercise, avoiding obesity and diabetes, sticking to a healthy, perhaps Mediterranean or intermittent-fasting diet, and staying active socially and intellectually-all these now seem promising as Alzheimer's risk reducers and/or delayers of cognitive aging in general.
Another approach that has been attracting a surprising amount of scientific attention lately is "having a higher purpose in life." Also known as "eudaimonic well being," it isn't really a strategy per se. One can't just take it up as easily as one can take up jogging or yoga. But it is a psychological factor that seems linked to major health benefits, including protection against cognitive decline.
"Purpose in life seems to protect against the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other, milder forms of cognitive impairment, and appears to help older people maintain cognition even when they have some of the hallmark changes of Alzheimer's in their brains," says Patricia A. Boyle, a researcher at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Scientists naturally would like to know how that works-and how to extend the same benefits to everyone, not just those who are fortunate enough to have a sense of purpose.
- See more at: http://dana.org/News/Can_A_Purpose-Driven_Life_Help_Protect_the_Aging_Brain_/#sthash.XYFNBU9I.dpuf  Experimental Alzheimer's drugs have been racking up one clinical trial failure after another in recent years. At the same time, evidence has building in favor of low-cost pharma-free strategies, at least as preventives. Getting regular exercise, avoiding obesity and diabetes, sticking to a healthy, perhaps Mediterranean or intermittent-fasting diet, and staying active socially and intellectually-all these now seem promising as Alzheimer's risk reducers and/or delayers of cognitive aging in general.

Another approach that has been attracting a surprising amount of scientific attention lately is "having a higher purpose in life." Also known as "eudaimonic well being," it isn't really a strategy per se. One can't just take it up as easily as one can take up jogging or yoga. But it is a psychological factor that seems linked to major health benefits, including protection against cognitive decline.

"Purpose in life seems to protect against the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other, milder forms of cognitive impairment, and appears to help older people maintain cognition even when they have some of the hallmark changes of Alzheimer's in their brains," says Patricia A. Boyle, a researcher at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Scientists naturally would like to know how that works-and how to extend the same benefits to everyone, not just those who are fortunate enough to have a sense of purpose.


- See more at: http://dana.org/News/Can_A_Purpose-Driven_Life_Help_Protect_the_Aging_Brain_/#sthash.XYFNBU9I.dpuf