Playing an instrument on a regular basis may help keep your mind sharp.
by Kevin Matthews for FYI Living

Want to keep your mind healthy and sharp throughout your life? Pick up an instrument. A new study found that musicians might have brains that function better than their peers well into old age. Bet you wish you stuck with those piano lessons after all.

Researchers tested the mental abilities of senior citizens and discovered that musicians performed better at a number of tests. In particular, musicians excelled at visual memory tasks. While musicians had similar verbal capabilities to non-musicians, the musicians’ ability to memorize new words was markedly better, too. Perhaps most importantly, the musicians’ IQ scores were higher overall than those who spent their lives listening to music rather than performing it.

Women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than men — but why?
by Dennis Thompson Jr. for Everyday Health

There are many theories as to what may cause Alzheimer’s disease but here’s one thing researchers know for sure: Women are diagnosed with various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, at greater rates than men.

In fact, the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report shows that 3.4 million of the 5.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s are female.

Why the Gender Discrepancy?

by Dementia Today:

Women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than men — but why?

There are many theories as to what may cause Alzheimer’s disease but here’s one thing researchers know for sure: Women are diagnosed with various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, at greater rates than men. In fact, the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report shows that 3.4 million of the 5.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s are female.

Why the Gender Discrepancy?

The current state of research seems to favor the simplest explanation for this phenomenon: Women just live longer. According to Malaz Boustani, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a center scientist with the Indiana University Center for Aging Research, “Alzheimer’s disease depends so much on time. Men tend to die earlier, and therefore they have less prevalence of Alzheimer’s. There is a mortality difference.”