Keep Your Brain Sharp With the New MIND Diet

As we age, “losing our marbles” has become an anticipated part of aging.

Forgetting where we parked the car or a conversation we had with a friend. Not being able to finish the crossword puzzle as we once could. But does cognitive decline have to be an inevitable part of aging? New research says maybe not.

A recent study found that a specific way of eating – nuts, fish and wine anyone -- may help slow aging in our brain. Fittingly called the MIND Diet, short for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, is modeled after the uber heart-healthy Mediterranean and DASH diets, and tweaked to boost specific nutrients important for our noggin.

The MIND Diet Takes Years Off the Brain
In the study of 960 older adults followed for nine years, the difference in cognitive ability was so stark that the brains of MIND diet followers seemed 7.5 years younger than those of people who didn’t follow the diet. Who wouldn’t love to shave years off of their life? The findings held even when researchers took into account how often participants worked out and their level of education -- both are related to cognitive decline.

The Best Natural Cough Remedies

What’s in a cough?
Generally speaking, coughing is perfectly normal. A cough can help to keep your throat clear from phlegm and other irritants. However, sustained coughing can also be symptomatic of a number of conditions, such as an allergy, a viral infection, or a bacterial infection.

Sometimes a cough isn’t due to anything related to your lungs. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) can also cause a cough.

You can treat coughs due to colds, allergies, and sinus infections with a number of over-the-counter medicines. Bacterial infections will require antibiotics. However, for those who prefer to avoid chemicals, we’ve listed a few home remedies that can help.

Ed Sheeran teams up with Beyoncé for 'Perfect' single release

Two of the biggest names in pop are teaming-up, so you'd better get excited. Fresh off her collaboration with Eminem on 'Walk on Water', Beyoncé is lending vocals to a remix of Ed Sheeran's 'Perfect'. Not only that, but the track is released tonight (November 30) at midnight GMT, when we imagine there will be a lot of fans glued to their computers.
Ed announced the news on Instagram, writing: "Got Beyoncé to duet with me on Perfect, comes out today at 7pm ET / 4pm PT / midnight GMT x." The two stars have collaborated before, performing an acoustic version of Bey's hit single 'Drunk in Love' together back in 2015.

Japan's Emperor Akihito to abdicate in April 2019

Japan's ageing Emperor Akihito will step down in April 2019, marking the end of an imperial era for Japan.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the abdication date shortly after a government and royal panel met to discuss the timing.
The 83-year-old emperor had said last year that his age and health would make it difficult to fulfil his duties.
The timing of his abdication, the first in more than two centuries, has been the subject of debate in Japan.
How abdication could usher in a calendar change
In pictures: Japan's Emperor Akihito
Japanese Emperor Akihito's 2016 address in full
The Imperial Household Council, made up of Mr Abe, lawmakers, and members of Japan's royal family, convened on Friday to set the date of the abdication.
Mr Abe later met reporters briefly to announce that they had decided the emperor would step down on 30 April 2019.
His abdication will mark the end of the Heisei era, and he would be immediately succeeded by his son Crown Prince Naruhito on 1 May, which would start a new imperial era.

How in 150 years, Meghan Markle's family went from cotton slaves to royalty via freedom in the U.S. Civil War... while her dad's ancestors included a maid at Windsor Castle

While Queen Victoria sat on the throne, Empress to a quarter of the world’s population, a woman named Mattie Turnipseed gave birth to a ‘mulatto’ — the ugly, official term to describe those of mixed race — baby girl in a corner of America’s Deep South.
In that moment, a remarkable chain of events was triggered.
Half the population of Georgia state, named after Victoria’s ancestor George II, were black.
Almost all of them had been slaves or were descendants of slaves, bought, sold, and passed on to lives of servitude and brutality.
It’s almost impossible to picture the colossal gulf separating the most powerful woman in the world from a young, uneducated ‘coloured’ woman without a vote — without much more, in fact, than the clothes on her back.
Yet this week, with the engagement of Prince Harry to actress Meghan Markle, a descendant of each of these women pledged themselves to the other.
Building on the work of U.S. experts Elizabeth Banas and Doug Nicol, genealogist Angela Aldam has worked with the Mail to create a comprehensive family tree to illustrate Meghan’s fascinating family history, from her African-American slave ancestry, to those on her father’s side who emigrated from England and Ireland.
Mattie Turnipseed, Meghan’s great-great-great-grandmother, grew up in or around Jonesboro, Georgia, after the American Civil War of 1861-65, which had laid waste to the area.

What Every Woman Should Know About Self Defense — From an Expert Who's Been There

If you're a woman, you've probably experienced a nervous, sinking feeling when walking alone at night, fearing what's lurking around a dark corner. There's also a good chance you've felt your heart rate speed uncontrollably when you thought you were being followed—or worse, perhaps you were followed and possibly even attacked.

Kelly Campbell, a third-degree black belt and director of instructor development for Krav Maga Worldwide, says these fears are common. "At some point, most women ask themselves the question, 'Would I be able to fight back if I were attacked?'" says Campbell. Here's the good news: Learning just a few simple self-defense moves can give you the skills and confidence you need to answer that question with a resounding "yes."

"When you have a sense of what you could do in the event that you were attacked and believe you could do something to help yourself, the likelihood that you'll actually do something increases," says Campbell. "I think more important than any specific technique is your mentality. Being willing to fight back is the most important thing."

Mariah Carey to get 'millions' in settlement with billionaire ex-fiance James Packer AND gets to keep ring

Mariah Carey will reportedly receive millions in her settlement with Australian billionaire ex James Packer.

The Honey diva and the wealthy businessman - who proposed just 10 months after meeting the superstar -split in October 2016 following a short engagement.

After their bitter break up, the pair reportedly battled for a year over a settlement.

According to The Blast, a number of months ago the former couple struck a deal, which saw Mariah walk away with a 'few million dollars' and also her enormous engagement ring, which was rumoured to be worth $8million.
The website reports that the cash, coupled with the ring, works out to between $5-$10million.

The rogue Twitter employee who briefly banned Trump's account explains how and why it happened

A man named Bahtiyar Duysak believes he was the Twitter employee who deactivated Trump's account for 11 minutes earlier this month.
He's not a US citizen and no longer lives in the US.
He describes the situation as "a mistake."

For 11 minutes earlier this month, President Trump's Twitter account was deactivated. And the world has been searching ever since for the so-called rogue employee who did the deed as a parting gesture on his last day of work.

Argentina: Former military officials convicted for crimes against humanity

Two former navy officers in Argentina have been sentenced to life for crimes against humanity committed between 1976 and 1983 under military rule.
Captains Alfredo Astiz and Jorge Eduardo Acosta were found guilty of involvement in the torture and murder of hundreds of political opponents.
They are among 54 people who faced trial for crimes committed at the Naval Mechanical School, or Esma.
Astiz, known as the "angel of death", has refused to apologise.
"The human rights organisations are groups of vengeance and persecution," he said during the trial. "I will never ask for forgiveness."
Both Astiz and Acosta, known as "the tiger", were already sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for other counts of torture, murder and forced disappearance.

Bosnian ex-general Slobodan Praljak drank poison after being convicted of war crimes in the Hague

In an ending befitting a Shakespeare tragedy, former Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak publicly killed himself by drinking poison, after being convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal.
Praljak and other generals led a genocidal campaign against Muslims in 1990s Yugoslavia, with the aim of creating an ethnically homogenous Bosnian Croat state. The Hague-based tribunal today upheld his conviction of 20 years imprisonment for war crimes. Days earlier, the same court had condemned Ratko Mladic, a Serbian general responsible for the Srebrenica massacre, which killed more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims.

Meek Mill's Judge ordered to decide on his application for bail without delay

The judge who sentenced Meek Mill to 2 to 4 years in prison for parole violations has been ordered to grant him a bail hearing for the 'harsh' sentencing.

The order was given on Monday, after his lawyers appealed to officials at Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, accusing Brinkley of holding up their appeal proceedings by failing to respond to any of their recent motions, while they also lodged an emergency order seeking bail for their famous client.

Mixed reactions at this year's Grammy nominations where no white male was nominated in any major category

This year's Grammy nominations caused a lot of outrage, snubs and happiness amongst Americans, because it was mainly dominated by black and Latino artists in the main categories of album, record and song of the year for the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Jay-Z, already the winner of 21 Grammy awards, led the nominations with eight, followed by Kendrick Lamar with seven, Bruno Mars with six, and Childish Gambino, Khalid and SZA, all have five nominations. The Spanish-language "Despacito," which set the record for the most streamed song ever, is nominated for both record and song of the year.

Some people said it was good that no white male was nominated in any major category, some said it is progress for blacks and latinos, while others said everything shouldn't be based on race, but by merit.

Read some of the reactions below:

Meet the nocebo effect, the placebo effect's evil twin that makes you feel pain

Some researchers think this is what’s fueling the gluten-free diet fad. People have developed a negative expectation that eating gluten will make them feel bad. And so it does, even though they may not have any biological gluten sensitivity.The placebo effect is one of the most mystifying phenomena in medicine. When we expect a pill to make us feel better, it does. If we see others get better while using a medicine, we will too.

Doctors even see a placebo response in patients who are told they are on a placebo. And the more invasive, expensive, and drastic the placebo intervention, the greater the healing effect. Fake surgeries — where doctors make some incisions but don’t actually change anything — make people feel better than placebo pills alone.
But the placebo effect has an evil twin: the nocebo. It can kick in when negative expectations steer our experience of symptoms and create side effects where none should occur.

Will He Cheat? Read The Red Flags You Can’t Ignore

Of course you trust your guy! He'd never cheat. Or would he? Men give off signals that they'll be unfaithful, relationship experts say. Find out the top 14 clues that your guy will cheat on you...
Recent studies reveal that 50%-60% of married men engage in extramarital sex at some time or another during their relationship (about 45%-55% of married women cheat).

And the women being cheated on? About 70% have no idea. Or maybe they just don’t want to know.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Men give off tons of hints that they’re inclined to cheat, relationship experts say.

Ex-priest to stand trial for 1960 murder of Texas beauty queen

A former Roman Catholic priest is due to stand trial this week on charges he beat, raped and strangled to death a Texas beauty queen nearly 60 years ago after hearing her last confession.

Lawyers for John Feit, 84, have denied his responsibility for the 1960 murder of Irene Garza, 25, in McAllen, Texas, and said in court filings that he was wrongly accused of “one of the most notorious and heavily publicized crimes in the history of the Rio Grande Valley.”