Category: Longevity & Health

Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia have found that glancing for forty seconds out of the office window at a green and grassy rooftop, boosts mental concentration in subjects engaged in relatively boring mental tasks.

A total of 150 students were recruited to undertake such a task in a city office block. The students had to watch a computer screen as a series of numbers flashed up, and for each number press the corresponding key on the keyboard, unless it was the number three. The students were given a 40-second break in the middle of the task, where they were permitted to look at a rooftop scene. Half of the students were randomly assigned to view a green flowering meadow rooftop. For the other half, the view was of a bare concrete roof.

The results revealed that after their microbreak, the students who glanced at the grassy rooftop made significantly fewer mistakes and showed better concentration in the second half of the task, compared with those who viewed the concrete rooftop.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Kate Lee, says it shows that just looking at an image of nature for under a minute can help us perform tasks more effectively. “We know that green roofs are great for the environment, but now we can say that they boost attention too.” Dr Lee emphasizes the importance of microbreaks – short and informal breaks that happen spontaneously throughout the day: “It’s something that a lot of us do naturally when we’re stressed or mentally fatigued. There’s a reason you look out the window and seek nature; it can help you concentrate on your work and to maintain performance across the workday.”

In 2014, the University of Exeter Medical School recommended more green spaces in towns and cities as they can bring lasting benefit to public health. Following the health of 1000 people for 5 years, the Exeter researchers found not only that moving to a greener area improved participants’ mental health, but also that the benefit lasted long afterwards.

(Journal of Environmental Psychology, June 2015. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494415000328 and http://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/news/title_349054_en.html)

If you are sufficiently interested in health and longevity to be perusing this section of my website, then you will agree we cannot leave out the subject of happiness, so below, I have expanded on some useful suggestions contained in my article Stress and Anxiety.

Many people would like to feel happier: it should not be too much to ask. Our principal life circumstances such as location, job, family situation etc, will to an extent be a given. Similarly, our outlook and attitudes are partly shaped by genetics and upbringing. Beyond this however, we have the capacity to influence our happiness by choices we make, and by how we react to life’s events. Try these six simple suggestions to increase your happiness.

1) Connect Happy people have stronger social relationships. Invest a little time in friends, family and colleagues. Take a few moments to chat with the postman or the sales assistant in a shop you go to regularly. Look for opportunities to connect with people who share your interests or who value or inspire you.

2) Be Active Physical activity has a positive impact on stress, depression and anxiety. Take up some exercise: walk to the station, take a lunchtime stroll, join a dance class etc. This is all especially important if your working day is spent indoors at a desk. If possible, exercise outdoors: nature has been shown to have benefits all of its own. (Scroll down to Extra Benefits of Exercising in Nature, from 25 June 2011 below.) A walk and a talk out in the beautiful Devon countryside ticks several boxes at once.

3) Be Curious Notice that there is beauty, interest and novelty all around. Look out for the lambs in the fields as you drive by. Look up at the hidden gems of architecture high above familiar streets. Giving yourself time to enjoy each moment not only increases your awareness of these pleasures in life, but it also steers the mind away from unhelpful, repetitive thought loops. Again, nature pops up here because engaging with it contributes to the ability to be present in each moment. Beware of the hours passing unnoticed if you instead engage for too long with your computer or smartphone.

4) Continue Learning Learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument, or master a new hobby. Some learning presents opportunities for working with others, such as in a class or self-directed group, so here you have an additional possibility for more connection.

5) Give Look out for opportunities to give something to your fellow humans: you could express appreciation, do someone a favour, or even just give a smile. (The latter may amount to more than you think: see suggestion 6 below!) Counteract any tendency to dwell on things that are wrong, by reflecting on things you are instead grateful for.

6) Smile Smiling improves our mood. It is an example of positive body language, which affects the brain and hence how we feel. Spend time with smiley people and you will naturally mirror their expressions. We are familiar with the idea of body language reflecting our inner attitudes and reactions to situations. Less well known is that this relationship works the other way around too: the right body language can persuade the brain we are in a more elevated mood.

Research at the Institute for Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh, USA has examined whether supplements can benefit levels of iron and haemoglobin in blood donors. Donors in the US are allowed to give one pint of blood every 8 weeks (12-16 weeks in the UK), but about 25-35% of regular donors develop iron deficiency, and nearly 7% have to delay their donation due to low haemoglobin levels.

The researchers followed 215 blood donors, aged 18 to 79, at four blood centres. Participants had previously donated blood, but not within the last four months. Their levels of ferritin (a protein that stores iron and can be used as an indirect measure of iron levels) were measured, then they donated blood. Based on their original ferritin levels, participants were placed in one of two groups: higher and lower ferritin. Half of each group took an iron supplement daily for the next 168 days.

Those taking supplements more quickly returned to 80% of pre-donation haemoglobin levels in both the lower ferritin (32 days versus 23 weeks) and higher ferritin groups (31 days versus 11 weeks). Similarly, donors taking supplements recovered iron more rapidly. Overall, the median time for iron to reach pre-donation levels was 11 weeks among those taking supplements and 24 weeks in the no-supplement group.

“This study highlights the importance of maintaining iron levels after blood donation and shows that supplemental iron effectively restores hemoglobin, even in donors with higher iron levels,” say the study authors.

(Oral Iron Supplementation After Blood Donation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 10 February 2015. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2108889).

For current advice on blood donation in the UK, visit NHS Blood & Transplant.

Researchers at Florida State University in the US have found that daily consumption of blueberries for only eight weeks, resulted in significant reductions of blood pressure in post-menopausal women. Although hypertension is associated with aging in both sexes, the increased incidence particularly of raised systolic blood pressure in women after menopause, exceeds that in men.

Forty-eight women were recruited to participate in an eight-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Investigators found that daily incorporation of 22g of freeze-dried blueberry powder, equating to one cup of fresh blueberries, into the diet of postmenopausal women with hypertension, improved blood pressure and arterial stiffness potentially through enhanced nitric oxide-mediated vasodilation. At the conclusion of the study, mean systolic blood pressure was lower by 5.1% and mean diastolic blood pressure was lower by 6.3% in the subjects in the blueberry group, with no corresponding lowering in the placebo group.

Among all fruit, blueberries are one of the richest sources of phenolic compounds, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, and stilbenes, which are known to have biological activity and high antioxidant capacity. They are a promising food with respect to vascular health.

(Daily Blueberry Consumption Improves Blood Pressure and Arterial Stiffness in Postmenopausal Women with Pre- and Stage 1-Hypertension: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, published on-line 7 January 2015.)

Research from Brigham And Women’s Hospital in Boston, USA, suggests that servings of two or more fish per week are associated with a lower risk of hearing loss in women. Data on over 65 000 women followed over the period 1991 to 2009, showed that compared to women who rarely consumed fish, those women who had two or more servings per week, were 20% less likely to experience hearing loss. Higher intake of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) showed a similar association.

Dr Sharon Curhan, who led the study, said,“Although a decline in hearing is often considered an inevitable aspect of aging, the identification of several potentially modifiable risk factors has provided new insight into possibilities for prevention or delay of acquired hearing loss. Consumption of any type of fish (tuna, dark fish, light fish, or shellfish) tended to be associated with lower risk. These findings suggest that diet may be important in the prevention of acquired hearing loss.”

(Fish and fatty acid consumption and the risk of hearing loss in women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Online 10 September 2014.)