A LITTLE BEYONCÉ, PERHAPS? | Looking to lower stress and raise your brainpower? It could be as easy as putting on your headphones. Men’s Health this month reports on an Italian study that looked for links between a variety of musical playlists and body performance. The result: Researchers found that a set of up-tempo tracks, followed by two minutes of silence, caused the greatest “increase in bloodflow to the brain and the largest drop in blood pressure.” We’ll leave it up to you to pick the tunes.|Men’s Health
FOOD FOR THOUGHT | Adhering to a so-called Mediterranean diet – lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and little poultry, meat and dairy products – appears to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. But it might also help the brain. A recent study followed followed 2,258 older people (average age: 77) with normal mental faculties, recording what they ate and periodically assessing their cognitive abilities. In a four-year period, 262 of them were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The more closely people followed a Mediterranean diet, the less likely they were to have Alzheimer’s. | The Washington Post
