Brain Drain.

Brain implant.

News Items will be off-line over the long holiday weekend. This means that it will not be distributed Saturday or Sunday or Monday. It resumes distribution on Tuesday, at the usual time. Laure’s Weekend Movie Pick returns next Friday. Political News Items has two pieces nearing completion that will probably be distributed over the weekend. You can subscribe to Political Items by clicking here.

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1. News you can use! A clinical trial of more than 3,500 people over age 60 who were randomized to take either a daily multivitamin supplement or a placebo for three years shows that taking a multivitamin can improve memory in older adults. That conclusion was based on cognitive tests performed at the end of each year in the study, which showed the performance of people taking the multivitamin declined less than those taking placebo. In a statement, the researchers who led the study at Columbia University in New York City and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said that this could be a simple, inexpensive way to help older adults slow down memory decline. (Source: sciencedirect.com via proto.life)

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2. More news you can use! Antioxidants and dietary compounds found in fruits and vegetables are believed to lower the risk of developing frailty and other age-related conditions in older adults. In particular, a dietary flavonol known as quercetin, is being actively pursued in longevity research. Now new research emerging from data collected in the 75-year-old U.S. Framingham Heart Study suggests that quercetin, which is found in apple peels, broccoli, berries, and kale, could help prevent the development of frailty in older adults. Following 1,701 older people for 12 years, the study found that for every 10mg higher intake of daily flavonols (about the amount in one apple), the odds of frailty were reduced by 35 percent. (Source: proto.life, sciencedirect.com)