I liked the thought I recently found on one of the „health and healthy life“ addresses. It goes something like this: If the importance of doing exercise were known fifty years ago, it would become a blockbuster!
As one steps into the age of 50 plus or 60 plus it is quite common to have firsthand experience of memory lapses. We find ourselves flustered trying to recall a name during a conversation. We forget where we parked the car. We can’t recall items on the short grocery list we left back at home.
While memory lapses can occur at any age, they happen more often as we get older. Since we read a lot about all sort of diseases, there is that fear they’re early signs of Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia. For the most part, however, our fleeting memory difficulties are from normal age-related changes in the brain. Our recall slows and it’s a bit harder to learn new things quickly.
Many studies have shown that staying physically active and exercising regularly in middle age and beyond can help delay and perhaps even prevent decline in brain function. Since most of these studies have been primarily observational, they can’t show associations and don’t prove cause and effect.
So there is no scientific proof that exercise itself is the direct reason for staying mentally sharp. At least not yet.
New studies suggest how exercise helps the brain
More recent studies show positive brain changes related to greater amounts of daily physical activity and higher fitness levels.
Last month, a small but interesting study looked at oxygen related changes and nerve processing in the brain. These features have been shown to correlate with better memory and brain function as people age.
The researchers identified 100 relatively healthy men and women ages 60 to 80 with varying levels of reported physical activity. For one week, the study participants wore an accelerometer to measure their amount of physical activity. Each of them also had their oxygen consumption measured during a maximal exercise test. Oxygen consumption during peak exercise is a standard way to assess cardiorespiratory fitness.
As expected, the people with higher fitness levels were the same ones that were more physically active during the week. They were also the same people who showed more positive oxygen related changes and MRI findings consistent with faster nerve processing in the brain.
One hour of activity per day for better brain health
We don’t have an exact exercise prescription to guide how long and hard we should exercise. Based on the results of this study and many others, even low intensity activity for an hour a day appears to be much better for brain health than sitting on the couch.
You don’t have to engage in high-performance athletics to preserve and protect your brain. Just be more active during the day:
- Get up and move around every hour while awake
- Walk more, use the car less
- Take the stairs rather than the elevator
- Do gardening or yard work
More ways to help your brain stay young
Staying physically active with time scheduled daily for dedicated exercise is just one way path to better brain function. Here’s what else you can do:
- Get enough sleep
- Find out if any of your medications cause memory problems
- Don’t smoke
- Limit alcohol intake
- Reduce stress
- Treat high blood pressure
We wish to add the following: when cooler and darker period of the year comes, get yourself a treat with short but sweet active holidays, somewhere in the winter sun.
Source: Harvard Medical School publication, September 2015
