Believe it or not, there actually may be some benefits of feeling stress. A new study from the University of Southern California has found that stress can encourage people to stick to good habits, such as eating well and exercising.  When people were stressed and tired, they were more likely to stick with positive habits than to self-destruct.

The researchers used five experiments to investigate the effects of stress and tiredness on the body, and their findings ran counter to the notion that stress tends to lead to hedonism or indulgence.  While overeating, smoking and spending sprees are often associated with stress reduction, this study found that people who were under stress or who were tired fell back on existing habits, including the good ones.  In a study of students facing stressful final exams, for instance, the subjects did not have enough energy to do something that they were not used to.  Those who regularly went to the gym were more likely to go and exercise when stressed.

These findings, combined with a previous study that showed that exercise may help people deal with anxiety and stress, could be turned into useful advice for people undergoing stressful times.  As the authors of the study note, habits persist beyond self-control – so make sure you have good habits in place.

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Sourced from: Medical News Today, Stress Can Encourage Good Habits Too

Eating yogurt containing probiotic bacteria may affect the way your brain functions, according to new research from UCLA.  The study found that among healthy women who regularly ate yogurt containing the beneficial bacteria, brain function was altered, both in a resting state and in response to emotion-recognition tasks.  Researchers have known that the brain sends signals to the gut–which is how emotions can affect gastrointestinal symptoms–but this study focused on how the gut may communicate with the brain.

This study involved 36 women between the ages of 18 and 55, who were then divided into three groups – those who ate yogurt with probiotics twice a day for four weeks, those who ate a yogurt-like product with no probiotics, and those who ate no such products at all.  The researchers used functional MRI scans before and after the four-week study, and found that the women who ate the probiotics showed different reactions in the brain sections devoted to emotion, cognition and sensory-related activity than those women who did not eat the bacterial yogurt.

This study strengthens the belief that eating a healthy, well-balanced diet is an important aspect of brain functionality.  Changing the bacterial environment in the gut appears to affect the way the brain functions, opening the door for future research that could lead to dietary or drug treatments to improve brain function.

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Sourced from: Science Daily, Changing Gut Bacteria Through Diet Affects Brain Function

Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health say they have found that a cancer drug may be effective in reversing the memory problems associated with Alzheimer’s disease.  The drug bexarotene (Tagretin) - approved by the FDA for cutaneous T cell lymphoma – was found to improve cognitive deficits in mice, according to the researchers.

The study, published in the journal Science, examined previously published outcomes on bexarotene. The researchers said they found that the drug does notably improve cognitive deficits in mice expressing gene mutations associated with Alzheimer’s, though they could not verify its effect on amyloid plaques.

The study raised hopes that the drug can elevate memory and rapidly clear amyloid plaques from the brain, which are known to damage neurons and cause memory deficits.  Since the study was published, however, several scientists have responded to point out other research has not shown that amyloid plaques can are cleared through the use of bexarotene.

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Sourced from: Medical News Today, Anti-Cancer Drug Reverses Alzheimer’s Disease In Mice