They will also spread misinformation about how and where to vote that will try to confuse or discourage voters on election day. So get registered, get to the polls and vote for those you think will help the Country, but vote!

Maria

You already know that staying physically and mentally active may help stave off dementia, but researchers have found yet another protective trick—having a purpose in life.

Now, I don’t mean having a goal that has a definite end point, such as telling yourself that you’ll run a marathon or write a novel.

For brain protection, having a purpose in life is a little bit different.

What are some examples of “purposes,” and how can you figure out what yours is if you don’t already have one?

WARDING OFF BRAIN FOG

I’m happy to say that figuring out your life’s purpose is not that hard to do. More on that in a minute, but first, let me show you what the study found.

Researchers analyzed 246 senior citizens who received annual cognitive testing for about 10 years. Each was asked questions to determine whether he or she had a strong purpose in life. When participants died, they underwent brain autopsies.

What the researchers found was that in participants who had a lot of plaques and tangles in their brains—abnormal structures in and around the brain’s nerve cells that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease—the rate of cognitive decline had been about 30% slower for people who had a strong purpose in life compared with those who had had a weaker purpose or no purpose at all.

Here’s what I hope these findings mean: The stronger your purpose in life, the less likely you’ll suffer cognitive decline as you age, even if your brain is affected by Alzheimer’s signs. I hope that’s true because it means that you can preserve your cognitive ability by making sure that you have a purpose.
Of course, it could be the other way around—it could be that some people have a biological problem that makes them less able to cope with brain plaques and tangles and, also, less able to feel that their lives have purpose.
GO FOR IT ANYWAY
When I called lead study author Patricia A. Boyle, PhD, a neuropsychologist in the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, she acknowledged that her study doesn’t prove whether purposefulness helps our brains work better or is simply a side effect of a brain that is already working better. Maybe research will determine that one day. But on the other hand, since having a sense of purpose seems to make people happier, she said, why not cultivate one?
Based on her work with the study subjects, Dr. Boyle defines a life purpose as “the sense that one’s life has meaning and direction—that one is intentional and motivated to engage in activities that one finds important and fulfilling.” In other words, it’s what gets you out of bed each day and makes you feel that life is worth living.
A purpose doesn’t have to be ambitious or complicated. In fact, many purposes are simple, said Dr. Boyle. It just can’t have a definite end point—it has to last throughout your life. For example, some purposes include spending time every day with loved ones…helping other people (for example through long-term volunteer work)…learning something new every day…or passing down a certain set of knowledge or skills to a younger generation. If you love running marathons or writing novels, as I mentioned earlier, make sure that your goal is to continue pursuing those goals through life—and not just run one marathon or write one novel.
It’s not so much what your purpose is, Dr. Boyle said—what’s critical is how it makes you feel. If it stirs you up inside and makes you feel passionate, energetic and excited, then you’ve found it!
Here’s a great example: A colleague of mine, Sarah Hiner, noticed a long time ago that the word “shine” appears in her e-mail address because her address uses her first initial and last name. You might call it a random coincidence, but she considers it a sign—and her purpose in life. What inspires her every day is the opportunity to help those around her “shine,” so she makes it her mission to spread positivity and bring out the best in others.
What’s your purpose in life? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Source: Patricia A. Boyle, PhD, neuropsychologist, Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, and associate professor, department of behavioral sciences, Rush University Medical Center, both in Chicago. Her study was published in Archives of General Psychiatry.

It’s been over 1 year since the damage occurred, but it’s just now being reported that samples from the basement of reactor number 1 revealed radiation levels that reached up to 10,300 millisievert (mSv) an hour, which is enough to make a person sick within minutes, and kill them shortly thereafter. To put this in perspective, the workers at this site reach their annual allowed radiation dose in 20 seconds.i

Needless to say, workers cannot go anywhere near the site, so robots must be used, and it’s estimated that complete demolition of the plant will take four decades and require new cleanup technologies to be completed.

Adding to the already precarious situation, another of the reactor buildings – which houses 1,331 spent and 204 unused nuclear fuel assemblies, each of which contains approximately 50-70 nuclear rodsii – is now tilting and the walls are bulging outward. If another earthquake occurs or the building collapses, large amounts of radiation could be released into the environment.

Obviously, the situation is still incredibly volatile, so it is a mystery why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only conducted accelerated sampling from March to June 2011.

When their tests reportedly showed that the radiation levels remained “well below any level of public health concern and were consistently declining,” they switched back to their routine radiation monitoring.iii

But according to a report from the Congressional Research Service, radiation-contaminated debris from Japan may take up to three years before it reaches the U.S. West Coast:iv

“Based on computer modeling of ocean currents, debris from the tsunami produced by the Tohoku earthquake was projected to spread eastward from Japan in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

Approximately two to three years after the event, the debris plume likely will reach the U.S. West Coast, dumping debris on California beaches and the beaches of British Columbia, Alaska, and Baja California.

Although much of the radioactive release from Fukushima Dai-ichi is believed to have occurred after the tsunami, there is the possibility that some of the tsunami debris might also be contaminated with radiation.”

They point out that although the ocean currents have a slow flow, there is still a threat posed because radioactive contaminants are incredibly persistent in the environment:

“Although these currents have the potential for bringing radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Dai- ichi nuclear accident to U.S. waters, their flow is slow, and no radiation above background levels has yet been detected in marine waters under U.S. jurisdiction.

Regardless of the slow flow, radioactive contaminants with long half-lives (e.g., cesium-137, with a half-life of about 30 years) could still pose concerns if transported over long distances by ocean currents.”

Strangely, in the report they make mention of managing arriving debris in order to return items of potential personal, symbolic and cultural value, but do not discuss the radiation implications…

Case in point, 15 bluefin tuna caught near San Diego, California in August 2011 were found to contain Fukushima-derived radiation, including caesium-137 and caesium-134, at levels 10 times higher than those detected in previous years. The researchers noted:v

“These findings indicate that Pacific bluefin tuna can rapidly transport radionuclides from a point source in Japan to distant ecoregions and demonstrate the importance of migratory animals as transport vectors of radionuclides.

Other large, highly migratory marine animals make extensive use of waters around Japan, and these animals may also be transport vectors of Fukushima-derived radionuclides to distant regions of the North and South Pacific Oceans.”

His nudge led us to call U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, among a handful of physicians in Congress and an opponent to the Democrats’ proposal.

Burgess told us it’s often true that the ins and outs of legislation aren’t widely known until after a measure passes into law; that held true, for instance, for the Republican-steered measure providing government aid toward prescription drugs for seniors.

Pelosi’s “right,” Burgess said, though “I don’t think that’s a good strategy (to declare as much). I wouldn’t recommend anyone actually broadcasting that.”

That was actually Politifact looking for answers for the statement.

You’re right, she said it, but like so many things in Congress,,it had a different meaning. Like any bill that passes into law, there is so much legalese the laws explode into pages and pages.

Try reading one sometime…It’ll make you go crosseyed.

The GOP is doing such a fine job of making themselves look bad Obama doesn’t have to do anything at all!