We know exercise is good for us – the trouble is, it means stopping what you are doing, getting out of that comfy chair and putting one foot in front of the other!

And we all know of some fitness freak who died at a frighteningly early age. Look where exercise got him!

But an exciting new study has just demonstrated that we don’t have to exercise like crazy to have a fit and alert mind.
Moderate, everyday exercise will do it.

That’s great news!

New studies just published by Canadian researchers measured the brain function and exercise levels of a large group of elderly adults for two to five years. Most of the volunteers described their exercise as “walking around the block, cooking, gardening, cleaning and that sort of thing,” said Laura Middleton, associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

But the effects of this modest exercise on the brain were remarkable. The volunteers who took no exercise scored significantly worse over the years on tests of cognitive function but the most active group showed little decline.

About 90 percent of those with the greatest daily energy expenditure found that they could think and remember just about as well as when they began the study. And this ability remained year after year.

“Our results indicate that vigorous exercise isn’t necessary to protect your mind”, Dr. Middleton said. “I think that’s exciting.”

In another study in the same journal, women, mostly in their 70s, either with vascular disease (‘hardening of the arteries’) or were at risk of developing it, were surveyed for five years. The most active walked but the others took only moderate or no exercise.  Again there was “a decreasing rate of cognitive decline” among the active group much less that among the sedentary.

“Walking and other light activity had bought them, essentially, five years of better brainpower”said Jae H. Kang, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School

“If we can push out the onset of dementia by 5, 10 or more years, that changes the dynamics of aging,” said Dr. Eric Larson, vice president of research at Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “None of us wants to lose our minds,” he said.

More and more scientific research is linking activity and improved mental functioning.

“It is a wake-up call. We have to find ways to get everybody moving.”

And here’s even more evidence.

Light-duty weight training changes how well older women think and how blood flows within their brains. After 12 months of lifting weights twice a week,  M.R.I. scans showed that portions of the brain that control thinking were considerably more active.
Aging, Mobility and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of British Columbia

Teresa Liu-Ambrose, assistant professor, says

“Weight training appears to be a viable option, and if people enjoy it, and stick with it, then more of us might be able, potentially, to ameliorate mental decline well into late life”.

What does this mean for Boomers?

• You KNOW what it means!
• Even the smallest increase in your daily exercise can add years to your brain resilience.
• Sign up for Brain Tune below and find our more ways to keep your brain youthful.

Source: New York Times, July 27, 2011

What was that word again?

A family meal was in progress and there was lively discussion about the latest neighbourhood scandal. Forty-something, Ben J. had taken off with the 18 year-old babysitter. Hilarity prevailed as one after the other of us imagined what might become of the odd couple. Let’s face it, Ben wasn’t exactly slim! Then, because actually nor were most of us, a quotation from the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, started tugging at my brain. Something to do with being able to see ourselves as others see us. I knew it real well … how did it begin?

It was on the tip of my tongue. Do you know, try as I might, I couldn’t remember how that quotation began.

Why was this simple memory task so hard? Does it mean my brain is shot?

Well, there is good news and not so good news. What’s not so good is that the brain gradually gets older and having something you want to remember on the tip of the tongue (TOT’s for short) happens more to older people. But the good news is that they don’t mean that Alzheimer’s is the next step – and TOT’s can be almost eliminated if the brain, on a regular basis, is tuned up by exercise and being challenged to do difficult things.

Dr Allison Lamont PhD, specialist in age-related memory loss, explains what is happening when something is on the tip of the tongue, and you can’t recall it.

“People often think that words are stored in a unit in our head, and that we have a little place in our minds where we file everything we know about (for example) Robert Burns.”

“But information isn’t stored in our minds that way”, she explains, “there is a network operating across different parts of the brain that connects information, and you can sometimes lose access to one part and not the others. So you can remember that Robert Burns was Scottish, and see a picture of him in your mind’s eye, but on this occasion you were not able to recall the phrase you wanted because it’s not conveniently stored with the other facts you know.”

From the age of about 50 onwards, the connections in our information network weaken, causing occasional let downs in memory. This is especially true if we a particular connection hasn’t been activated for some time. The connection is still there, but it is weak and needs attention.

Lamont says that becoming fully engaged in life, using language and logic skills as much as possible, learning new things, socializing and being involved in lively conversations all help to keep brain connections firing. She is also enthusiastic about using brain-sharpening techniques that have proved to be successful in activating the brain. So committed is she to helping baby boomers push back the effects of ageing on the brain, she has written a book called Seven Second Memory. Plus six other powerful memory techniques to rewire the brain for a youthful mind. It’s worth a read and it is a great way to starting fighting back against tip of the tongue problems.

By the way, that quotation from Robert Burns? Well, my 92 year-old mother, who has challenged herself with mental arithmetic and memorizing poetry for the past forty years, rescued me at the dinner table. With only a moment’s hesitation she came up with this:

‘O,wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as others see us.’
(O would some power give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us.)
Robert Burns, Poem “To a Louse” – verse 8
Scottish national poet (1759 – 1796)

To find out more about your amazing memory, look up How To Improve Your Brain and What Causes Memory Loss?