To much alcohol? Sport Regularly? Socially integrated? The brain tells it!
The life style of a Person affects in any way both positive and negative effects on the entire body, is probably as good as any people are aware of. A German research team showed well in the context of a study on how surprisingly clear for a healthy or unhealthy Lifestyle in the brain. In addition, our mind betrays the body, how strongly we are involved in our social environment.
Researchers from the Forschungszentrum Jülich have found out how the life of a Person in the brain. In the case of 248 women and 301 men aged 55 to 85 years, the Team was able to track the life-style on the basis of nuclear spin recordings and statements on alcohol consumption, Smoking status, social Integration and physical activity. The study was recently published in the renowned scientific journal “Nature Communications”.
Show me your brain and I’ll tell you who you are
According to the researchers, this is the most comprehensive work in order to provide information to the life style of a Person is reflected in the brain. “In previous studies was usually lit only by a single aspect,” says Professor Svenja Caspers, in a press release of the study results. “Our data set allows, however, to consider all four aspects at the same time in each individual subjects and also effects reveal that only come into being through the Interplay of various factors”, says the expert.
Sport and social contacts – a cure for the brain
“Sport, social contacts, and alcohol act according to our results directly on the brain’s structure, aus“, Nora adds Bittner. So the gray matter in particular brain’s regions in people with a rain, the social environment better than individuals with few social contacts. Also Sport active long-term positive effect on the brain and lead to a slower loss of volume compared with people with a lack of exercise.
Alcohol and Smoking cause damage to the brain sustained
A high consumption of alcohol have any effect, however, harmful to the brain structure. He is associated with a recognizable brain removal and the loss of nerve cells, stress the researchers. This was in the old is partly responsible for a lower intellectual efficiency, and flexibility. Don’t influence Smoking, however, the brain structure directly, but to change the functions of the brain. “It showed that the so-called functional connectivity, i.e. the targeted cooperation of brain regions in the resting brain in smokers is higher than in the case of Nichtrauchern“, Bittner explains.
Smoking the brain to age faster
“We assume that the cognitive Reserve in smokers is low, since the regions concerned are already in a state of rest to full speed and, thus, no power buffers and more free ist“, according to the expert. This leads to the conclusion that smokers are less brain capacity available, which are needed for example to compensate for aging processes.
The man is a herd animal
“Our research results show impressively, that generally valid statements regarding a healthy lifestyle also anatomically and functionally in the brain widerspiegeln“, Professor Caspers says. Particularly surprising for the researchers was that an intense or light social life as distinct traces in the brain. This will give rise to further studies, for example, to find out whether the Sport in groups has a particularly positive effect on mental performance. (vb)