Is your memory starting to fail you on a regular basis?
Do you tend to avoid complex problems, unfamiliar words
or anything that makes you think outside your square?
When was the last time you actively set out to learn something
new? I sense a few of you are getting uneasy about now,
suspecting that I am going to start challenging you to
take up some fun new mathematics game, or encourage you
to start learning another language. Well, I'm not. Not
yet, anyway.
My advice for you today is a whole neural branch away
from scary brain exercises, and it comes with a terrific
bonus package of goodies. Well actually, the answer may
well be just as scary as maths and linguistics for many
of you - I'm talking about... exercise!
How would you like to be a whole lot smarter, with a significantly
improved potential for learning, a much faster brain reaction
time and a memory that is up to 30% better? What if I
threw in a bonus package of being happier, slimmer, better
muscled, and even sexier than your already sexy self and
a heck of a lot healthier? I had you at smarter didn't
I - who doesn't want to squeeze a bit more out of their
grey matter?
It just so happens that you can easily glean all of these
benefits, simply by getting regular exercise.
Most of the reasons we are encouraged to get out and get
active are well known these days, yet sadly they remain
widely ignored. Perhaps with a greater understanding of
the significant benefits that exercise confers to the
health, structure and function of our brains, we may yet
be able to get active and become smarter to boot.
We may even be able to kiss goodbye forever the nerdy
cliché of a striking intellect being teamed with
a scrawny and underdeveloped or obese body, as our brightest
and best start hitting the gym and getting buffed, all
in the name of solving their latest equation with their
exercise-enhanced brain power.
Even the minimal addition to a sedentary person's lifestyle
of three 30 minute walks a week has been shown to provide
a 15% increase to important cognitive functions such as
learning, concentration and abstract reasoning. Now that's
a heck of a benefit for such a minimal effort.
Researchers say the benefits may be even more significant
for the elderly, whose risk of dementia is known to double
every five years from the age of 65 years. It has long
been recognised that elderly folk who have stayed active
throughout their life tend to maintain better cognitive
function than their less active peers, but now the research
is showing just how good exercise can be for the brain
and that it is never too late to start actually growing
new neurons in old brains. Exercising at least three times
a week has been shown to reduce the development of dementia
and Alzheimer's disease in such individuals by 38%, according
to a recent study of 1740 fit and healthy people with
no initial cognitive problems. The researchers speculated
that less healthy individuals would have most likely gleaned
even greater benefits.
Yes, that's right, you read correctly - it is possible
to stimulate the growth of new brain cells in fully mature
individuals, and exercise just happens to be one of the
best ways of stimulating such growth.
Given that diseases of cognitive decline such as general
dementia and Alzheimer's are rapidly becoming one of Australia's
most wide reaching health problems, any approach that
can offer some relief should be taken on wholeheartedly.
The new neurons are only a part of the reason that exercise
helps our brains. The improved circulation provides a
better supply of nutrients and oxygen to your energy-hungry
brain and exercise seems to encourage another benefit
to the brain - less oxidation. Free radicals in the body
cause oxidative damage which is associated with all degenerative
conditions of the body, including Alzheimer's and dementia.
Such damage however, has been shown to be less in regular
exercisers. And still the benefits come, with exercisers
having less of a build up throughout their brains of the
beta-amyloid proteins that are associated with Alzheimer's.
The benefits are not just for the ageing either. In this
age of video games and junk food, kids are becoming far
less active and while their waists expand, their brains
may not. Studies have shown that simply getting kids to
exercise more days than not through the week can provide
a marked boost to their grades.
So, if you want a better brain, make daily exercise a
huge priority in your life and allow time for it every
day. And just to be sure, you might want to do some crosswords,
learn an instrument, learn another language, drink green
tea, eat oily fish, lecithin and blueberries, learn memory
tricks such as word association, pay attention, get enough
sleep, take your folate and load up on antioxidants -
just to be sure.
Good Health, Jeremy Hill. |
