Being multilingual can help your brain stay young, say Tel Aviv University researchers. A study by the Herczeg Institute for Aging examined the relationship between speaking several languages and elderly people’s mental states. A comparison of bilingual, trilingual and multilingual people in a cognitive function test found that the more languages a person spoke, the better their cognitive state for lucidity, memory and understanding.
Researcher Dr Gitit Kave said: “The more the brain is used, the more pathways are created between brain areas, increasing resistance to decay.”
The study was published in the Psychology and Aging journal.
At the same university, other researchers are replacing harmful substances in paint and medicine with water. Prof Arkadi Vigalok and student Neli Shapiro at the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences are trying to reduce the dangerous pollutants released when producing such substances.
Researchers found that mixing organic compounds (aldehydes) with water oxidated them without the need for harmful organic solvents.
The research was reported in the international edition of German magazine Angewandte Chemie.
Pregnant women should wear seatbelts, a University of Michigan professor says. In the first study of its kind, Prof Mark Pearlman and his research team analysed 57 car crashes involving pregnant women, studying crash severity, use of restraints and whether the foetuses lived. Those wearing proper belts had the highest rate of survival in their unborn children compared with unrestrained and improperly restrained women. Prof Pearlman, whose study was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, has begun a campaign called Safe Babi (Seatbelts Are For Everyone — Buckle All Babies In). “This study shows that seatbelts clearly protect the foetus,” he says.
Grape skins, red wine, peanuts and seeds could help fight against complications related to diabetes. Dr Matt Whiteman, of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, found that resveratrol — a compound found in those foods — could be used to block the damaging effect of glucose on the heart, blood vessels and other organs in diabetics.
Dr Whiteman wrote in Diabetics, Obesity and Metabolism: “It could well be the basis of effective diet-based therapies for the prevention of vascular damage caused by hyperglycaemia.”