GeekSugar

Liv Tyler Geeks Out With Brain Age For Nintendo DS

GeekSugar — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:10:03 PDT

In an upcoming commercial for Nintendo DS, Liv Tyler gets her game on with Brain Age 2, as she attempts one of the training activities - the piano player. Watching her play in game (in her pj's) as she hums the notes, makes this one geekalicious commercial! You can't help but want to get your DS out!

Brain Age 2 Released: Twice The Fun, Twice As Hard?

GeekSugar — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 03:30:56 PDT

Earlier this summer Nicole Kidman had signed on as Nintendo's television ad spokesperson in Europe for More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?, prompting a renewed interest in the series here in the U.S. Of course Brain Age, was already a bona fide hit with Nintendo DS fans around the globe, so everyone has been abuzz about the series' next US feature.

Yesterday, Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day was released for DS, and let me tell you, it does not disappoint. It may make you feel a little dumb, but it does not disappoint. Designed to give your brain a workout, Brain Age 2 featured 15 new activities - from playing simple songs on a piano keyboard to monitoring the photo finish of a footrace.

When you start a new game, you take a series of tests and get a score that tells you how "old" your brain is. That number is your "DS Brain Age," and the idea is that with daily practice your score will lower. Activities include serial subtraction, word scramble, change maker, calendar count, and my personal favorite, Rock, Paper, Scissors, where you speak the symbol that beats the one on the screen. I consider myself to have at least moderate mental accuracy and the game still made me scramble. It's great for anyone who likes Sodoku, puzzles, Pictionary and crossword puzzles - even if you're not a hardcore gamer.

View 3 Photos ›

What Is Precocious Puberty?

Tara Block — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:00:38 PDT

Most of us can recall how difficult and confusing puberty was, and especially the end of that transitory time: getting your first period. But can you imagine going through that awkward process in first grade? For a growing number of today's young girls, this is a reality. A recent New York Times piece explores "precocious puberty," a term being used for the growing percentage of girls entering puberty by age 7.

Typically, the stages of puberty for girls begin with breast growth, followed by pubic hair growth, and then ending with a first period. What researchers are finding is that breast growth is beginning earlier and earlier, but the first period average is staying pretty consistent at 12 years old. While possible factors for this precocious puberty include obesity, environmental toxins, and stress, it is interesting that the percentages vary so much by race. These early bloomers - or girls developing breasts by 7 - made up of 23 percent of black girls, 15 percent of Hispanic girls, 10 percent of white girls, and 2 percent of Asian girls. The cause of this disparity hasn't yet been fully explored. Is it genetics? Are there environmental issues to be taken into account?

Clearly, there's a lot more research to be done, as it seems like there are more questions than answers when it comes to what causes precocious puberty, its long-term effects, and whether it should be treated as a disorder. There are risks associated with early periods, such as depression, stunted growth, and breast cancer, but when it comes to psychological issues, it's a gray area. Is it easier for a young girl entering puberty to be treated as if there's something wrong with her, taking medications to halt puberty until she can better deal with it? Or is it better for her parents to treat it as "normal," and help her cope with the changes? And what happens when a 10-year-old girl has the brain of a fifth grader and the body of a high schooler?

Were you a late or early bloomer? Share your puberty stories - for better or worse - in the comments.

4 Surprising Things You Don't Know about Calories

Prevention — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:12:55 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Only 12 percent of Americans can estimate the calories they eat in a day! Find out why we're so clueless and get easy ways to stop calorie confusion.
By Mara Betsch, Prevention

You know what calories are, and you probably know that if you eat too many, you’ll gain weight. But do you know how many are in your favorite deli sandwich? Or how many calories you should really eat each day? Most Americans don’t. Only 12% can accurately estimate the number of calories they should consume in a day someone their age, height, weight, and physical activity, according to a 2010 survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation. So what is it about calories that keeps us baffled? Here are 8 reasons you’re confused about calories and the simple steps that will help you do the math.

8 Healthy Foods That Help Fight Disease

1. Portions Sizes Are Out of Control
You’ve all heard about the rapidly expanding serving sizes of restaurant and fast food portions, but just how bad are they? Portions sizes in restaurants may contain double or triple the calories of home-cooked meals, and studies show eating out is associated with a higher BMI. Unfortunately, those portions affect our waistlines. When there’s more food on the plate, people eat more-up to 30% more, according to an analysis of several studies.

Stop the confusion: Use this cheat sheet of portion sizes. We know it’s hard to look at your plate as decks of cards, tennis balls, and all the other, so start by measuring out your food servings at home and take a good look at what a half-cup of pasta looks like. Until the serving sizes are engrained in your brain, when dining out, aim to eat half of your meal, saving the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Comfort Food That’s Actually Good for You

2. Serving Sizes Are Deceiving
"There really aren’t standard serving sizes for packaged foods, which makes them confusing," explains Elisa Zied, RD, author Nutrition at Your Fingertips. She gives the example of cereal. A standard serving size of breakfast cereal is approximately 50 g, but depending on the cereal, that could mean a cup and a half of flakes or half a cup of heartier granola. Depending on the type of cereal you’re eating, just eyeing how much you put in the bowl, like most people do, can lead to inaccurate calorie counts.

Not only that, but larger-than-life snack foods may seem like single servings even though they often contain two to three servings per packet. Buy a 16-ounce bottled Coca-Cola, and the nutrition label reads 100 calories . . . for one of the two servings in the bottle. Drink the whole thing, as many people do, and you’re really getting 200 calories. Eat the whole bag of Austin Zoo Animal Crackers, commonly found in office vending machines, and you’re getting 230 calories, nearly two servings, instead of just one.

Keep reading to learn even more about calories!

The 5 Worst Habits That Damage Your Immune System

Prevention — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:19:31 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Kick these surprising habits to keep colds, flu and other bugs at bay.
By The Editors of Prevention.com

Staying healthy isn't just about using hand sanitizer and avoiding coughing co-workers. It turns out some pretty surprising daily habits - like how you fight with your husband or whether you stay up late for Letterman - can impact how well your body fends off colds, flu and other pesky bugs. Here's a list of science-backed tips to add to your stay-healthy arsenal today.

1. You Avoid the Water Cooler
Friendship may be Miracle-Gro for your immune system. Research shows that the fewer human connections we have at home, at work, and in the community, the likelier we are to get sick, flood our brains with anxiety-causing chemicals, and live shorter lives than our more sociable peers. In one study, researchers who monitored 276 people between the ages of 18 and 55 found that those who had six or more connections were four times better at fighting off the viruses that cause colds than those with fewer friends.

What to do: Don't let a jam-packed workday or hectic schedule get in the way of your friendships. Stop by a co-worker's office for a quick Monday morning catch-up, or e-mail/text your friends at night to stay in touch when you're too busy for phone calls.

7 Ways to Work Out at The Office

2. You Often Feel Tired
Scrimping on sleep has a powerfully detrimental effect on immunity. The perfect example: college students who get sick after pulling all-nighters cramming for exams. Poor sleep is associated with lower immune system function and reduced numbers of killer cells that fight germs. In fact, University of Chicago researchers found that men who had slept only four hours a night for one week produced half the amount of flu-fighting antibodies in their blood (jump-started by a flu shot) compared with those who slept 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 hours.

Keep reading to learn how to keep your immune system strong after the break.

Johnny Depp Talks Playing a Lizard, His Sex-Symbol Status, and Gets a Visit From Justin Bieber at the Rango Press Day

Lindsay Miller — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 08:25:50 PST

Johnny Depp got lots of laughs at the press conference for his new movie Rango in LA yesterday. The actor was joined by his costars, Abigail Breslin and Isla Fisher, as well as director Gore Verbinski at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Johnny plays the movie's title character, a pet lizard who is forced to save the day after a lie gets him in over his head. Johnny admitted that his own kids aren't all that interested in his career, and are far more into Family Guy and Justin Bieber. It turned out that Justin happened to be in the hotel, heard that Johnny mentioned him, and dropped by to say what a huge fan he is in the middle of the press conference! Johnny joked, "What am I going to tell my daughter?" Johnny, who was as gracious and funny as you might expect, also talked about tackling the challenge of playing a reptile and the reason he enjoys making movies for children. He said:

On why he enjoys making kids' movies: "I think kids, in general, as an audience, are the way forward because they’re not sort of sullied by intellectual expectation or this or that. It’s a very pure sort of response to the work, and the great luck that I had, for example before Pirates [of the Caribbean], I had a daughter. And for about four years, all I watched was cartoons. Just cartoons. And I realized at that point the parameters were far away from what we do in sort of normal, everyday movies. You can get away with a lot more. They accept a lot more and they buy it, because they’re free. So for me that was everything in terms of coming up with what Captain Jack would be. I trust kids far more than I do adults. Kids give you their honest opinion. They tell the truth."
On how his own children felt about Rango: "They actually call me the Lizard King, my children, they do. I force them to address me like that. [laughs] It was an odd sort of thing. 'Where you going daddy?' I gotta go to work. 'Well, what are you doing?' Well, I’m playing a lizard. You drop your kids off at school and give them a kiss, and now I gotta go be a lizard. The things I’ve done that my kids are sort of privy to - Willy Wonka - it doesn’t register. They’re far more interested in Family Guy or Justin Bieber. [Someone calls out, 'Are you a Belieber?'] Belieber? I’ve actually never heard that one, and that is my favorite. And you know what? Yes, I am a Belieber. And I shall remain so. "
On how he feels about his sex-symbol status: "Attention is a strange sort of being anyway. If someone appreciates your work, it’s always nice if someone appreciates your work. I’ve never quite understood the other bits, where somehow you’ve been voted some thing for a magazine, and it’s a complete mystery to me. I wake up and I have to look at that head when I brush my teeth every morning and it’s weird, and it’s unpleasant at times, so I don’t know about the attention."

To read the rest of Johnny's interview, just

On what Jack Sparrow has in common with Rango: "I don’t know, I’ve always had an affinity for lizards. I’ve always felt close to them. Feeling somewhat reptilian myself at times. Oddly, I think, Gore might even disagree, but I feel like when we were doing Pirates 1,2,3, at times, when Jack Sparrow had to run, it was this very specific run I wanted. I’d seen this footage of a lizard running across the water and it was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. So whenever we were in that situation, [I'd] get in touch with the lizard. So I actually think that Rango was somehow planted in Gore's brain from that lizard run. When he actually called me and said, "I want you to play a lizard,' I said, 'God, I’m halfway there.'
On his own experience with lying: "I actually tell lies for a living. That’s what acting is, really! I felt, having kids, that I had horrific guilt for many years playing along with the Santa Clause thing, waiting for that moment to arrive. Because you’re never going to bring it up them. They’re going to go…'Hey, you’ve been telling me a lie for my entire life. What are you prepared to do about it?' So yeah, I had horrific guilt and we’re now just on the outskirts of that, so I feel okay. These are lies that society tells you you have to keep these lies going, these myths. So I felt guilty about it. I still do.
On whether he likes making animated films vs. live action: "We’re lazy-at least I am. I’d rather just sit in front of the microphone and do the thing. However, the process that Gore created, this sort of atmosphere that was really, truly ludicrous, just ridiculous. It was like regional theater at its worst. And somehow...[it's] emotion capture. Certain gestures, body language, movements, something you might have done with your eyes…these animators took it and put in there. It was very strange. For Harry Dean Stanton to walk up to me one afternoon…he walks up to me and says, 'This is a weird gig, man.' And I went, 'Yeah.' He had just started and I said, 'Just wait.'"
On how he developed Rango's voice: "Early on, some of the talks that Gore and I had about the character-talk about two grown men, middle-aged men, discussing the possibility of one of them being a lizard. So it starts off on a really surreal note anyway. Finding the voice or finding the character-we talked about when, people in life, they have a tendency to exaggerate or lie…you always notice their voice goes high…that’s kind of where it came from. You imagined the character to be just really like a nervous wreck."

DrSugar Schools Us on High Blood Pressure

DrSugar — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:26:30 PDT

DrSugar is in the house! This week she's schooling us on hypertension.

A recent study from the University of North Carolina found that about one in five young adults, between the ages 24 and 32, has high blood pressure, referred to as hypertension in medical terminology. The concerning part about this rise is that many of those at risk are unaware of this health issue, making this statistic extremely scary since hypertension is a medical condition that can have serious consequences. To learn more about hypertension and its medical consequences and how you can prevent hypertension, keep reading!