Admittedly, this study comes from the Pacific Northwest, the origin of grunge-rock and Starbucks coffee. We can't be sure that all these people aren't suffering from some kind of post-angst cognitive disorder, or a latent flannel shirt allergy! We also can't rule out suffering from some sort of post-tramautic stress after invading the world with high-priced coffee, equivalent to about $18.00 per gallon; slightly more than we're currently paying for gas. In fact, one of us (Evans) was raised in Seattle and may be showing some early symptomology.

However, with these potential confounds aside (unless Austin Powers was right, and during the time that Dr. Evil was cryogenically preserved his faithful cronies invested heavily in Starbucks), this study is an incredibly important step that illustrates the diversity of factors that can lead to dementia. Even more importantly, it suggests that you can substantially decrease your odds of developing dementia by attending to life-style factors that can protect against vascular disease.

The beauty is that we have a good idea of how to do this since blood vessels serve to supply active areas of the body with nutrients! So if your brain is active (which requires energy), and you're maintaining your overall vascular health by eating right and exercising, odds are that you will be greatly reducing your risk of developing dementia from small vessel disease. Now it should be noted that research is ongoing on this subject, but common sense would suggest that this will hold true.

Taken together this highlights some very important reasons as to why exercise and nutrition play such a crucial role in brain fitness. Attending to both of these lifestyle factors is necessary to maintain a healthy blood supply and the creation of new blood vessels, in order to feed new brain circuits established by learning and mental activity. If you neglect this aspect of brain fitness, you may literally limit your ability to benefit from neurogenesis and synaptogenesis induced by many of the 'brain-training' programs designed to keep your mind young.

Copyright (c) 2008 BrainFit For Life

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