Do you want to improve memory or reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease? If yes, then start practicing yoga exercises as it is the simple solution to improve your brain function.

A new research suggests that doing yoga and meditation regularly could be a simple, safe and low-cost solution to improving brain fitness.

Researchers during the study found that practising a three-month course of Kundalini yoga and Kirtan Kriya meditation can help minimise the cognitive and emotional problems that often leads to developing of memory loss diseases like Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

Kirtan Kriya has been practiced for hundreds of years in India as a way to prevent cognitive decline in older adults. It involves chanting, hand movements and visualisation of light.

The findings showed that yoga and meditation was even more effective than the memory enhancement exercises that have been considered the gold standard for managing mild cognitive impairment.

"Memory training was comparable to yoga with meditation in terms of improving memory, but yoga provided a broader benefit than memory training because it also helped with mood, anxiety and coping skills," said the study's senior author Helen Lavretsky, professor at University of California, Los Angeles, US.

The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The study of 25 participants, all over the age of 55, measured changes not just in behaviour but also in brain activity.

Eleven participants received one hour a week of memory enhancement training and spent 20 minutes a day performing memory exercises -- verbal and visual association and other practical strategies for improving memory, based on research-backed techniques.

The other 14 participants took a one-hour class once a week in Kundalini yoga and practiced 20 Kirtan Kriya meditation at home for 20 minutes each day.

After 12 weeks, the researchers saw similar improvements among participants in both groups in verbal memory skills -- which come into play for remembering names and lists of words.

But those who had practiced yoga and meditation had better improvements than the other participants in visual-spatial memory skills, which come into play for recalling locations and navigating while walking or driving.

"Historically and anecdotally, yoga has been thought to be beneficial in ageing well, but this is the scientific demonstration of that benefit," lead author of the study Harris Eyre, doctoral candidate at University of Adelaide in Australia, said.

"We're converting historical wisdom into the high level of evidence required for doctors to recommend therapy to their patients," Eyre noted.

Do you perceive yourself to be a foodie? If yes, chances are that you may end up influencing the amount of your intake as well as decrease the risk of becoming obese, often attributed to an addiction to food, finds new research.

According to researchers, when the study participants were told that they were great food addicts, they tend to consume fewer calories than those who were told they had low or average score.

Further, they also reported greater concern about their eating behaviour, which in turn, reduced the amount of time they spent tasting the foods.

"Our research found that participants who believed themselves to be 'food addicts' reduced the amount of time they were exposed to unhealthy foods and ate less as a result," according to Helen Ruddock, doctoral student at the University of Liverpool in Britain.

"This appears to be because the perception of being a food addict made them concerned about their eating behaviour," Ruddock added.

The team examined the impact of changing participants' personal food addiction beliefs on eating behaviour, in two separate studies.

Women completed a series of computer tasks about food. On completion, they were given bogus feedback on their performance which indicated that they had high low, or average levels of food addiction.

Their intake of unhealthy foods (chocolate and crisps) was then measured in a taste test.

"Our study is first to show that personal beliefs about food addiction can influence how much we eat. Further work with a larger sample group and over a longer time period is now needed," Ruddock said.

Insulin when taken in conjunction with metformin -- a cheap and common drug that helps control blood sugar levels -- has the potential to reduce mortality risk and heart attacks in people with Type 2 diabetes, a new study has found.

"In this research we found that there was a considerable reduction in deaths and heart problems when this cheap and common drug was used in conjunction with insulin," said lead author Craig Currie, professor at Cardiff University in Britain.

Increased dosage of insulin has been previously known to raise the risk of cancer, heart attacks and mortality.

But the findings have shown that metformin can attenuate the risks associated with insulin.

However, according to researchers, there was no difference in the risk of cancer between people treated with insulin as a single therapy or in combination with metformin.

The retrospective research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, looked at people with Type 2 diabetes who were treated with insulin with or without metformin from the year 2000 onwards.

12,020 people were identified from a general practice data source, and the research team tracked them for three-and-a-half years on average, from the time they were first prescribed insulin.

"While this research indicates the potential of using these treatments together, further studies are needed to determine the risks and benefits of insulin in Type 2 diabetes and the possible benefits associated with the administration of metformin alongside insulin," Currie concluded.

Who doesn't like to eat this tiny and juicy fruit? Well, everyone loves to eat this juicy fruit as it is good for health.

One should always include grapes in their daily diet as it provides many health benefits and a recent study has revealed that the fruit contains polyphenols that help counter the negative effects of high fat diet.

According to two laboratory studies conducted at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, grape polyphenols helped offset some of the adverse health consequences of consuming a high fat diet rich in saturated fat.

In the first study, researchers have found that consuming a high butter-fat diet enriched with 3 percent grapes for 11 weeks had a lower percentage of overall body fat and reduced subcutaneous fat deposits.

These reductions in body fat were positively associated with changes in intestinal microbes and health; e.g., increases in some beneficial bacteria, decreases in some less desirable bacterial strains, increases in microbial diversity, and improved gut barrier function.

In the second study which ran for 16 weeks, the researchers used an even higher fat diet with multiple types of saturated fat, including lard, beef tallow, shortening, and butter similar to some Western-type diets.

They investigated the impact of the high fat diet enriched with extracts of either the polyphenol fraction of grapes or the non-polyphenol portion of grapes, as well as the high fat diet plus 5 percent whole grapes. All the high fat experimental diets were matched for sugar type and amount.

The results showed that the high-fat diet combined with grape polyphenols reduced the percentage of body fat, subcutaneous and visceral fat depots, markers of inflammation in the liver and fat depots, and improved glucose tolerance and intestinal barrier function.

While the 5 percent whole grape diet did not improve the metabolic profile in this second study, it did improve markers of intestinal health; e.g., increased microbial diversity and decreased abundance of several deleterious bacteria in the intestinal tract.

"These two studies suggest that grapes and grape polyphenols may help offset a number of the adverse effects of consuming a high fat diet and trigger improvements in intestinal or systemic health," said lead investigator Michael McIntosh. "This is an exciting area of health that merits further study."

The study is published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

Children who live with a smoker or have exposure to tobacco smoke inside the home become frequently ill and are more likely to have pediatric health care visits, including sick care, say researchers.

"Our findings indicate that tobacco smoke exposure has a significant impact on demand for health care services," said lead study author Ashley Merianos from University of Cincinnati.

The team analysed 2011-2012 data from the National Survey on Children's Health and looked at newborn to 17-years-old children, living with smokers compared with those who not exposed to tobacco smoke at home.

The results revealed a total of 24 percent of the children lived with smokers.

Children who live with smokers end up in the doctor's office or hospital more often than those not exposed to tobacco smoke.

"Pediatric emergency departments could serve as effective outlets for health messages to inform caregivers about the dangers of smoking around children and help decrease these potentially preventable tobacco smoke exposure-related visits and associated costs," Merianos added.

The study was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 meeting in Baltimore recently.