In a study, it was revealed that middle-aged participants who did poorly on the balance test were three times more likely to die earlier than their peers who performed well. The balance test asks people to balance on one leg twice, first with their eyes open and then with eyes closed; the shorter they lasted, the higher their chance of an early death. This is because balancing is a good indication of brain health, and balancing without sight is incredibly taxing on the brain. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
