Thebrain 10 update#

Thebrain 10 update#

See the Serious Insights TheBrain 11 update here. Pricing and feature comparisons can be found here. Skerrett is editor of the Harvard Heart Letter.TheBrain 10 rethinks its object architecture. How do you feel about working long hours? Does it invigorate you or grind you down? What do you do to stay sharp? The break you take may recharge you, and just might be good for your work as well. Not quit your job, though that may be an alluring change. Interpersonal relationships can help preserve mental and physical health.Дo something different. ItвЂ™s also a good way to exert more control over your work life.Д¬onnect with family and friends.

Sitting quietly for 10 minutes a day, or using the relaxation response, can help offset stress, which can take a toll on the brain. ItвЂ™s as good for the mind as it is for the body.Д®ase your stress response. Four ways to keep your brain sharp are:Д®xercise. Shrinking your work week may not be an option. If work is grinding you down, interfering with sleep, and forcing you to push aside fun, paying attention now to your mental, physical, and emotional health may help keep your mind sharp as you get older.ДЄs companies try to survive the economic downturn, dwindling workforces make it difficult to spread the work, delegate, or take a vacation. If you find working long hours rewarding and generally invigorating, and it isnвЂ™t getting in the way of your relationships, then it is probably good for your brain. Working too much can take a toll on the body and brain in two main ways - by boosting stress and by getting in the way of exercise, healthy eating, and other good habits. The effect is small, and probably preventable. LetвЂ™s assume that there is something about overwork that can cause later problems for the brain. The researchers offer another possible explanation, that people with poorer thinking skills take longer to do their work, and so need to work longer. That would translate into lower scores on the tests of cognitive function used in the study. ItвЂ™s possible that the results reflect fewer outside interests among people who work long hours. And the results show an association between overwork and cognitive function, not cause and effect. There was wide variation in test scores in each group - some in the long working hours group did terrifically well on the tests, while some in the 40 hours or fewer group did poorly.

The study provides a cautionary note about overwork, not proof positive that itвЂ™s bad for the brain. The results were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. These connections persisted even after the investigators accounted for education, occupation, disease, stress, sleep, and other factors that might influence cognitive decline. They also showed a larger decline in fluid intelligence from the first set of tests to the second. Fluid intelligence is often affected by aging, disease, or injury, while crystallized intelligence tends to increase through the 60s and 70s, and may not begin to decline until the 80s.Д¬ompared with the participants who reported working 40 or fewer hours a week, those who worked more than 55 hours a week had lower scores on the vocabulary tests at the start and the follow-up assessments. The tests evaluated verbal memory and skills, fluid intelligence (associated with short-term memory, abstract thinking, creativity, and problem solving), and crystallized intelligence (learning accumulated over the life span in education, work, and cultural experiences). Between 19, and again between 20, 2,214 of the volunteers completed tests designed to measure cognitive function. Overwork may hasten the aging-related decline in memory and thinking skills, according to a long-term study of British civil servants.Д«ack in 1985, researchers started the Whitehall II study to investigate the influence of work, social class, psychosocial factors, and life style on the development of chronic diseases among thousands of men and women working in 20 London-based civil services offices. The long hours you work each week may be good for your companyвЂ™s bottom line, but not so good for your brain.