We just received this quote of how a major health system is using our Brain Fitness Market Report:

“At Sutter Health Partners we recognize the importance of brain health and how much the health of the brain and the body are interdependent.  The market report helped us further target our coaching efforts to integrate brain fitness and upgrade our entire coaching platform.  It is easy to read and gives you the industry perspective in a thorough yet concise manner.  I highly recommend it!”

– Margaret Sabin, CEO of Sutter Health Partners and VP, New Product Development, at Sutter Health.

You may wonder, “what is the link between  wellness coaching and brain fitness”?

In practice, good health and wellness coaches provide excellent brain health advice, given that the areas they focus on (nutrition, physical exercise, stress management) do play an important role in maintaining our brains in top shape.

Additionally, pioneers  such as Sutter Health Partners are adding a Brain “lens” to their work. How?

First, by better understanding and explaining the brain benefits of what they already do, in order to provide additional motivation to stick with healthy behaviors. For example, most people will be able to recite multiple benefits of moderate cardiovascular exercise. But how many know  that it can also contribute to neurogenesis -the creation of new neurons – in adult brains?

Second, by starting to offer brain fitness guidelines to clients who want too go beyond crossword puzzles and sudoku.

I had a great training session with a number of Sutter Health coaches last week – let me summarize some of the main points we covered. Read the rest of this entry »

After many months of work (and we hope many new neurons and stronger synapses in our brains), we have just released our inaugural report on the emerging Brain Fitness Software Market, the first to define the brain fitness and training software market and analyze the size and trends of its four customer segments. We estimate the size of the US brain fitness software market at $225M in2007, up from $100m in 2005 (50% CAGR). The two segments that fueled the market growth: consumers (grew from $5m to $80m, 300% CAGR) and healthcare & insurance providers (grew from $36m to $65m, 35% CAGR).

Highlights from The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 report include:

1) 2007 was a seminal year for the US Brain Fitness software market, which reached $225 million in revenues – up from an estimated $100 million in 2005.

2) Over 20 companies are offering tools to assess and train cognitive skills to four customer segments: consumers; healthcare and insurance providers; K12 school systems; and Fortune 1000 companies, the military, and sports teams.

3) The Nintendo Brain Age/ Brain Training phenomenon has driven much of the growth. The consumer segment grew from a few million in 2005 to an estimated $80 million in 2007.

4) There is major confusion in the market, so education will be key. Users and buyers need help to navigate the maze of products and claims.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi!

I’m happy to announce that we have just launched the first Brain fitness channel on Youtube. Today, I just found an exciting movie clip which has made a lot of buzz the last couple of days. It’s made by a German research group and shows how apes use water-spitting as a problem solving tool.

Problem solving is considered the most complex of all intellectual functions. According to the study published in Biology Letters this Tuesday, oran-gutans are not just flexible strategists, they’re also speedy learners.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi! It’s Andreas, the Norwegian MD/PhD intern at SharpBrains.

Last week Alvaro wrote about how people with low stress levels are better able to tolerate age-related changes in the brain. The other side of the coin, as mentioned today in the Wall Street Journal, is that chronic stress is a risk factor of dementia and might be related to harmful stress hormones called glucocorticoids.

So why do we have glucocorticoids? Well, they are steroids produced to help us manage short-term periods of stress. However, long-term release may erode pathways (connetions) between brain cells and can potentially accelerate cognitive decline.

Why is this relevant to all of us? Because depression can be seen as a chronic state of brain stress, and explain why stress management is important. Studies now show that depression may actually damage brain structures responsible for memory. The findings from a study in Archives of General Psychiatry showed patients with a history of depression are more likely to suffer from cognitive problems later in life, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia. As the journalist writes, “In findings that highlight the importance of mood and stress to maintaining a healthy brain, researchers and psychiatrists say that a bout of depression may raise the risks of developing dementia later in life.”

In some cases, patients with untreated depression exhibit an 10% volume reduction of the brain’s memory center Read the rest of this entry »