Even though I am still very young 🙂 (after all I only turned 38 last month), I have always been interesting in finding ways to ensure I keep my brain working in order to remain young and alert. This fits my personal belief that a person is as old or should I say as young as they believe to be.
So I was more than interested in reading Jill Suttie’s article on Greater Good,
How to Keep Your Brain Young (Even as You Grow Old), in which she offers three research-based tips for cognitive fitness.
Namely, exercise, be social and stimulate your brain.
Exercising has long been known to be useful for our heart and muscles, hence the number of cardio-vascular exercises widely available, but apparently it is also good for our brain.
In a 2008 review of more than 50 scientific studies, researchers Arthur Kramer and Kirk Erickson found that regular aerobic exercise improved brain functioning for healthy people and those with mild cognitive impairments. In particular, those brain functions associated with “executive control”—such as multi-tasking, planning, and problem solving—were most affected by exercise. Even moderate walking two-to-three times a week over a six month period was enough to produce positive results. In one study, brain imaging results revealed that patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease who were more aerobically fit had less brain atrophy than those who were less fit…..
It is also interesting to note that walking which is barely associated with exercising in the younger generation, is considered a good enough exercise for the brain.
Being social as already highlighted on this website is a great way of living longer, especially through social networks. However, it also has a direct impact on our brain.
In a 2007 study, Valerie Crooks, a researcher with Kaiser Permanente, assessed 2,200 women over a four-year period, looking for signs of mental decline while evaluating their degree of social connection. Her study found that women who had a larger social network and daily social contact had a substantially lower risk of developing dementia, even when she factored in age and hormone use.
I guess this is just another reason for our lovely elderly to keep on chatting, gossiping, and enjoying their hobbies… Another reason to look forward to all the activities we will keep on practicing once we decide to retire. Or next time your elderly relative starts another conversation, keep in mind no only do they enjoy talking to you, it is also good for their health, hence for you to enjoy their company even longer.
Finally, stimulating our brain whether this is through the use of video games designed around brain fitness, such as the latest games on nintendo or websites such as Lumosity (I will post shortly an article about this website I have now been using for 3 months), or just some everyday mentally-stimulating activities such as solving crosswords or sudoku, or just reading books or newspapers.
Robert Wilson monitored more than 700 elderly participants for five years and found that those who reportedly engaged in everyday mentally-stimulating activities—like reading the paper, visiting a library, or playing checkers or chess—were less likely to have cognitive impairment, and were less than half as likely to develop the dementia symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Even when researchers considered the participants’ past levels of education and socio-economic status, being mentally engaged later in life still seemed critical to reducing the risk of dementia.
So whatever you decide to do, remember that to remain young and healthy, you do need to exercise but you might also enjoy a busy social life and some mentally stimulating situations 😉