Smoking, alcohol and lack of exercise: Unhealthy habits left clear traces in the brain. On the basis of our thinking organ can even be an indicator of whether someone maintains the relationship with family and friends. The report, scientists from the Jülich research centre in the journal Nature Communications.

"Sports, social contacts, and alcohol act according to our results directly on the brain’s structure, aus", Nora Bittner reported by the jülich Institute of neuroscience and medicine. The grey brain matter, a major component of the Central nervous system was received, in the case of people with rain social contacts, better than those who used less friendships. Also, physically active people show a lower loss of volume of the brain. "A high alcohol consumption was, however, a brain removal and the loss of nerve cells einher", so Bittner.

Smoking affects less the brain structure, but rather the function of the brain. It showed that some brain regions in smokers can already be run in the idle state. Thus, it may be it may be harder to activate additional capacity in the brain that are needed to solve complex problems.

A healthy life-style and social contacts contribute, therefore, to remain even in old age mentally fit. The researchers found that genes play a minor role: "More important than the pure assessment of the actual Verhalten&quot is;, Bittner says. For the study, MRI images of the brains, as well as extensive data on the life situation of the 248 women and 301 men aged 55 to 85 years were evaluated.

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