Boosting Brain Function with Aerobic Exercise

Boosting brain function with aerobic exercise was the word according to an article in February 22^nd's Health and Wellness section of the Wall Street Journal. The article written by Ann Lukits proposes that just a fair amount of exercise has the ability to reverse shrinkage of the brain that occurs naturally with age by one or two years in older adults. An improvement in memory function was also part of the results that were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hippocampus

The hippocampus, a portion of the brain that manages memory has been shown to lose from 1% to 2% of it's size yearly. The results of that include dementia as well as a loss of good brain function.

After learning of these findings, I was able to make an assessment of some of the seniors I've had contact with throughout my life. After some thought, I can clearly see that those seniors I've been familiar with that were inactive and sedentary seemed to have more incidence of dementia and forgetfulness. My own mother included in that group of inactive seniors, had little to no exercise in her life and had a good case of dementia going for years before her death.

Aerobic Exercise

Confirmation of aerobic exercise as a low cost avenue in assisting to prevent a shrinking hippocampus and therefore dementia is increasing. This evidence points to the improvement of nuerocognitive decline as shown by MRI testing on 120 Americans that ranged in age from late 50's to their early 80's. Sixty people from that group went walking for 40 minutes weekly while striving for target heart rates. The other sixty people did yoga and exercises aimed at toning.

They found that the hippocampus in those that walked actually had a 2% increase in size after one year. It was also found that both groups had improved spatial memory both before and after this study. It was concluded by researchers from the study that those in the walking group had and increase in hippocampus volume that was directly related to the aerobic exercise.

Source:

Wall Street Journal February 22^nd Health and Wellness Section