I recently watched the West Wing fourth season episode titled The Long Goodby, originally aired in January 2003. I just loved that TV series, by the way, and am re-watching it on my Kindle via Amazon instant video. This touching episode was unusual in that it was set mostly outside of Washington DC, and dealt almost completely with C.J. Cregg's father and his worsening Alzheimer's disease. This kind of "loss of cognitive functioning" is something I think most of us worry about. Even if we don't "get" Alheimer's disease, older adults tend to lose at least some brain volume and show some degree of memory loss as they age. That's scary.
But I just read a good-news article that gives me a reason to feel less concerned about these kinds of potential changes. It reports a study showing, with concrete physiological reasons, that aerobic exercise really is good for brain function. It looks like exercise not only helps maintain cognition, but can actually improve it, even in seniors. The important and encouraging takeaway from the article:
The hippocampus, according to Wikipedia, in case you didn't know (I didn't) is a critically important part of our brains. It's two parts reside in each of your brain's two halves and together they are very involved in memory function, especially conversion of short-term memory into long-term memory, and also in spatial memory and function. The hippocampus tends to decrease in volume as people age, and is the first part of the brain to show shrinkage and impaired function in early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
This one-year study demonstrated that seniors who participated in moderate (high-intensity workouts not required) aerobic exercise, just three times a week, not only retained hippocampal volume, but on average increased it. The control group only did stretching exercises, and instead showed decrease in hippocampal size.
Now, I already walk quite a bit, several times a week at least, just to get to the store and to my volunteer tutoring appointments. But I'm often carrying a heavy book bag or towing a load of groceries. I'm not sure how "brisk" my walking usually is.. not very, I'm afraid. I'm thinking that I need to add in some more truly aerobic exercise - faster walking, or even the aerobic video DVDs I have accumulated but rarely use.
Last summer I was gung-ho on Weight Watchers, and in an attempt to accumulate "activity points," and thus be able to eat a bit more, I went out for a 30-45 minute brisk walk every morning. It became part of my routine, a habit. I took Petey for his walk later in the day - he likes to stop and sniff everything too much to make him a good companion for even moderately aerobic walking. When the cold weather hit in the fall, I gradually stopped the morning walks and my exercise was once again limited to just my "utility walking," I guess you could call it, and short, slow walks with the dog.
Monday I wrote about my current early-morning routine. After reading this article, I think I'm going to add exercise to it. After a quick shower, I'll pull on some sweats, a t-shirt or sweatshirt (depending on the weather), cushiony socks, walking shoes, and of course my MP3 player, and get in a nice walk before the rest of my day starts.
But I just read a good-news article that gives me a reason to feel less concerned about these kinds of potential changes. It reports a study showing, with concrete physiological reasons, that aerobic exercise really is good for brain function. It looks like exercise not only helps maintain cognition, but can actually improve it, even in seniors. The important and encouraging takeaway from the article:
"These theoretically important findings indicate that aerobic exercise training is effective in reversing hippocampal volume loss in late adulthood, which is accompanied by improved memory function."The article is titled Exercise Training Increases Size of Hippocampus and Improves Memory. It reports specifically on the effects of exercise on the brains of older people (average age well over 60), and makes it clear that if you aren't getting regular aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, you're passing up an opportunity to keep your brain working well and to stave off deterioration and even dementia.
This one-year study demonstrated that seniors who participated in moderate (high-intensity workouts not required) aerobic exercise, just three times a week, not only retained hippocampal volume, but on average increased it. The control group only did stretching exercises, and instead showed decrease in hippocampal size.
Now, I already walk quite a bit, several times a week at least, just to get to the store and to my volunteer tutoring appointments. But I'm often carrying a heavy book bag or towing a load of groceries. I'm not sure how "brisk" my walking usually is.. not very, I'm afraid. I'm thinking that I need to add in some more truly aerobic exercise - faster walking, or even the aerobic video DVDs I have accumulated but rarely use.
Last summer I was gung-ho on Weight Watchers, and in an attempt to accumulate "activity points," and thus be able to eat a bit more, I went out for a 30-45 minute brisk walk every morning. It became part of my routine, a habit. I took Petey for his walk later in the day - he likes to stop and sniff everything too much to make him a good companion for even moderately aerobic walking. When the cold weather hit in the fall, I gradually stopped the morning walks and my exercise was once again limited to just my "utility walking," I guess you could call it, and short, slow walks with the dog.
Monday I wrote about my current early-morning routine. After reading this article, I think I'm going to add exercise to it. After a quick shower, I'll pull on some sweats, a t-shirt or sweatshirt (depending on the weather), cushiony socks, walking shoes, and of course my MP3 player, and get in a nice walk before the rest of my day starts.
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