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(MCT) While food makers are getting more creative about the health claims they make on the front of their prod- ucts _ olive oil that cures cancer and green tea that cures Alzheimer's disease _ a new survey finds that American shoppers are get- ting savvier about reading the old-school nutrition information printed on the back of food packages. For the first time, more than half of shoppers (54 percent) told interviewers for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2008 Health and Diet Survey that they "often" read the nutri- tion label when they consid- er buying a product. Two- thirds of those label readers said they look for informa- tion about calories, fat, salt and vitamins. But only 46 percent of the 2,584 adults surveyed said they used the nutrition label to assess the calorie content of packaged foods, and 34 percent said they rarely or never do. Declarations that prod- ucts are "low fat," "high fiber" or "cholesterol-free" sway only 38 percent of consumers, and 27 percent said they routinely ignore them. That might explain why marketers have been making ever-more-ambi- tious claims about the heal- ing powers of their foods and beverages. If so, there's evidence that the strategy has backfired: 56 percent of those surveyed said they doubted the accuracy of some or all of those claims. Another surely unintend- ed consequence: On Wednesday, the FDA revealed that it has sent warning letters to 17 food makers accused of printing false or misleading nutrition information on product packages. In the letters, Roberta Wagner, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutri- tion, informs the compa- nies, "Failure to promptly correct these violations may result in regulatory actions without further notice, such as seizure and/or injunc- tion." DALLAS (MCT) — By the time Scott Hayner of Highland Park, Texas, was 7, he had had one skull frac- ture and three major con- cussions from falling off horses. Nobody connected those accidents to the difficulties he had in school as he acted out, stopped talking for three months and cried daily for two years. As an adult, he seemed to be a thriving, successful stockbroker, until traumatic brain injury from a 1999 soccer accident led to seizures and sidelined his ability to talk to people and stay on task, it seemed, for good. Two realizations have turned his life around at 42. First, he realized that brain injuries were behind the troubles he had had all his life. And second, he read about brain plasticity — the concept that the brain can heal and learn at all ages. "It was a relief," says Hayner, who credits his 2008 training at the Univer- sity of Texas at Dallas' Cen- ter for BrainHealth for help- ing to restore abilities that he thought were long gone. "It helped me regain my self-esteem and self-confi- dence. It gave me hope." Neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to adapt and change through life, is gain- ing increased traction in medical circles. Dr. Norman Doidge, author of the best-selling "The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science" (Penguin, $16), refers to neuroplastic- ity as "the most important change in our understand- ing of the brain in four hun- dred years." "For the longest time our best and brightest neurosci- entists thought of the brain as like a machine, with parts, each performing a single mental function in a single location," he wrote in an e-mail from the Univer- sity of Toronto (he also teaches at Columbia Uni- versity). "We thought its cir- cuits were genetically hard- wired, and formed, and finalized in childhood." This meant that doctors assumed they could do little to help those with mental limitations or brain damage, he says — because machines don't grow new parts. The new thinking changes that: "It means that many disorders that we thought can't be treated have to be revisited." Dr. Jeremy Denning, a neurosurgeon on the Baylor Plano medical staff, has seen that in his own prac- tice. "The brain has the amaz- ing ability to reorganize itself by forming new con- nections between brain cells," Denning says. "I have one patient I operated on a year ago who almost died from a hemispheric brain stroke and actually recovered from coma to hemiplegia (paralysis) to actually walking out of the hospital in four to five weeks. There are numerous studies looking at the changes that occur at the molecular level at the site of neuron connections. It is a very complex phenomenon, and we are still in the infan- cy of completely under- standing it." LIFELONG ADAPTABILITY Dr. Sandra Chapman believes in lifelong plastici- ty. As founder of the Center for BrainHealth, she has set several studies in motion to explore how that concept can help those with brain damage and everyone else, including those with aging brains, middle-schoolers who need a brain boost and autistic children who need help rewiring the brain to improve their social cogni- tion. People such as Hayner have been able to benefit from some of these studies, although BrainHealth is pri- marily a research institute. "Our brain is one of the most modifiable parts of our whole body," Chapman says. That means that just as physical exercise keeps the body healthy, the right kind of learning will make it more likely for our brains to keep up with our ever- expanding life span, she notes. Even while using the lat- est high-tech scanning devices to monitor results in her studies, when it comes to brain health Chapman puts her greatest emphasis on a brain fitness exam that she refers to as a "neck-up checkup." It's done one-on- one with an interviewer using puzzles, paper, pen, pencil and just a few com- puter questions. A "brain physical" at the center costs $600. Based on the results, experts recom- mend a simple, individual- ized strategy usually focus- ing on three key areas: • Strategic attention: the skill to block out distrac- tions and focus on what's important. Exercises might include taking stock of your environment, identifying what distracts you and elim- inating or limiting those things, and creating daily priority lists. • Integrated reasoning: the ability to find the mes- sage or theme in what you are watching, reading or doing. Exercises might include making a point of reflecting on the meaning of a book after you've read it or a movie after you've seen it and writing down your interpretation. • Innovation: the vision to identify patterns and come up with new ideas, fresh perspectives and mul- tiple solutions to problems. Exercises might include thinking of multiple solu- tions to problems as they come up, talking to other people to get a different per- spective and taking time to step away from a problem to give yourself an opportu- nity for creative thoughts. Hayner says his sessions — he attended for two months and completed take- home exercises — proved invaluable. "I have been on so many drugs and medications, and they got me nowhere," he says. "Adults with TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) tend to become over- whelmed, and when some- one becomes overwhelmed, it spirals into fear and chaos, and we have a tendency to shut down. "Today as long as I stick to what I was taught here about filtering information and innovative thinking and what's important and what's not important and apply that to my real life, things don't confuse and baffle me ... I can make a decision on the important things that have to be done each day." Although Chapman maintains it's never too late — or early — to learn, she does point out that some physiological changes in the brain come with age. The frontal lobes, which control critical thinking, judgment, reasoning and problem-solving, accelerate from ages 16 to 25 and may begin to decline after age 30, particularly if efforts to keep the brain fit haven't been made. Memory and processing abilities may slow as people get older, too, she says. At the same time, the brain, like the body, can stay fit in core areas as the years go by, she maintains. It's possible that the connec- tions that the brain makes may become even more profound with age: "People in their 80s and 90s can do incredible things," Chapman says. "They may do them a little bit slower, but they can do them at a much deeper level." 4A – Daily News – Monday, March 8, 2010 Largest Selection In Tri-County • Herbal Medicines • Edibles (Foods) • Clones 1317 Solano St. (530) 824-4811 www.tehamaherbalcollective.vpweb.com Corning Calif. Professional Personal Convenient • Premium Digital Hearing Aids for every budget • FREE hearing evaluations • Service/Repair, all makes and models • Batteries & accessories • Preferred provider for most insurance plans: Including PERS, Carpenters, Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, etc. • Low monthly payment plan available • Trial Period/ Satisfaction Guaranteed Ask about our Open Fit Technology Discreet and Comfortable Red Bluff Community Center 1500 So. Jackson Wed., March 10, 2010 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Limited Appointments CALL 1-800-488-9906 Performed for proper amplification selection only. Vitality health&fitness Brains grow, change and can heal MCT photo Scott Hayner, left, displays his arrangement of different shaped cards while participating in a brain fitness exam with research clinician Molly Keebler at the University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health. The test required Hayner to find similarities among six different cards and group them in two groups of three. Nutrition quiz: Vitamin E (MCT) Have you given much thought to vitamin E? Didn't think so. Not to worry: Despite the average person's indifference, this potent antioxidant continues its valiant struggle against those harmful free radicals. Take our true-false quiz on vitamin E. 1. Deficiencies in vitamin E can cause sensory neu- ropathy, a loss of feeling in the hands and feet. 2. Deficiencies in vitamin E are rare. 3. The recommended daily allowance of vitamin E is 15 mg, but you need less if you exercise vigorously or have sun exposure. 4. Eating 1 ounce of sunflower seeds will meet the daily requirement. 5. Studies have shown that skin creams fortified with vitamin E are ineffective in improving skin appearance. Sources: "All About E," a Linus Pauling Institute Research Report; University of Florida Extension. ANSWERS: 1: true; 2: true; 3: false (you need more vitamin E if you exercise to extremes or are exposed to the sun or smoke); 4: true; 5: false More shoppers rely on nutrition labels