Exercise: The Best Medicine For Your Aging Brain
Monday, May 24th, 2010Isn’t it ironic? You’re in your car waiting to pull through the drive through window at your local Walgreens and what are you there to get? Weight loss medicine? Pills for high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Yes, there are some percentage of people who have an injury or are handicapped and walking into the pharmacy to pick up their medication is difficult. However, a large percentage of people who are waiting in the drive through line are just being lazy.
I own a home care agency in St. Louis that primarily provides care for the elderly. And in this capacity, every day I see what happens to both our bodies and our minds as we get older. It’s also part of my job to stay on top of the latest research on aging. If the people sitting in their cars at the drive through see what I see each day and know what I know, they probably wouldn’t be sitting in that car!
The debate is all but over. The number 1 most important thing we can do for our brains as we age is to be active and exercise. There have been a few studies that have come out recently that have shown the subjects who got regular exercise showed improvement in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Why is this noteworthy? Because the data shows about 15% of those with MCI are likely to develop Alzheimer’s. That’s why when the data shows that older adults who stay active have almost a 40% reduction in getting MCI, it’s important to pay attention. It’s become quite evident that we have to focus on prevention when it comes to neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and take action against them as early as possible.
Long term exposure to physical and mental stressors results in something called oxidative stress. This oxidative stress increases the brain’s vulnerability to diseases such as-you guessed it-Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Parkinson’s is another brain disease resulting from oxidative stress.
You can protect your brain from the effects of oxidative stress, however, by regularly performing aerobic exercise. Besides the aerobic training, strength training is important also. For a recent study, researchers followed 1000 subjects, age 54 to 100, who were dementia free. The researchers followed these subjects for 4 years and assessed the strength of the subjects in nine major muscle groups. The results were incredible. Those who ranked in the top 10% for strength were 61% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those in the bottom 10%.
Do you need more convincing about the importance of exercise? Well, in a 2008 study published in the journal Neurology, researchers measured the midsections of 6,500 adults in middle age during the 1960s and 1970s and then followed up with them 36 years later. The people who had the largest midsections in their 40s were three times more likely to have developed dementia when compared to those with the least amount of fat around the middle.
During normal aging, brain function declines due to the loss of neuronal connections, blockages of blood supply and a decrease in nerve-signaling chemicals. For many years, it was commonly believed that the aging brain was incapable of growing new brain cells. But that belief was wrong. Through studies conducted by Fred Gage, PhD and his colleagues at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, it’s been shown that more exercise results in more growth of brain cells, a longer life for brain cells and the better able the brain cells are to connect with other cells. By simply walking briskly for 40 minutes four times per week, you can increase the blood flow to the areas in your brain that are responsible for growing new brain cells. The conclusion from these studies is that exercise and movement is so critical to the health of the brain, that much of the brain’s decline we attribute to the aging process is actually because we don’t get enough exercise.
Hopefully this will give you reason to pause the next time you start to pull into the Walgreen’s drive thru. Next time I challenge you to park at the far end of the lot and walk in to get your medicine. Who knows, if you keep up that mindset, one day you may not even need that prescription!
Theanna Zika founded St Louis, MO senior home care company, Heavenly Helpers, in 2004. She shares tips, strategies and advice about caring for seniors that she has learned over the years on the blog at her company’s website. The site also features a helpful list of St Louis, MO senior resources for seniors and their families in the St Louis, MO Metro area.