Mind & Body : Better Mental Fitness

"Understanding your body's natural rhythms and needs activates unbelievably powerful disease-fighting processes within you." Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Simple Steps To Better Mental Fitness

There is little doubt that aging is a state of mind as well as body. Research shows the mind-body connection - attitude and daily habits - have a tremendous impact on our state of health as we age.

In the past, we accepted memory loss and confusion as a normal and inevitable part of aging, but science is demonstrating that this may not be so. As we age, it may take us a little longer to remember things and some minor memory loss is normal (more than two-thirds of North Americans report some memory loss with age and very few of these have any type of brain disease), but with proper care a person's memory can remain relatively sharp and active during their entire lifetime.

A new Columbia University Medical Center study demonstrates exactly how exercise can improve our memories. Published in the mid-March edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a multidisciplinary scientific serial, the study explains how aerobic activity targets a region of our brain, known as dentate gyrus. This area of the brain plays a role in age-related memory decline that can begin as early as our mid 30s.

Researchers found mice that exercise induces that part of the brain to grow neurons and, through using magnetic resonance imaging scans, found the same thing happens with humans, says study author Dr. Scott Small, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center . The result - improvement in memory. Other researchers are finding the same results.

Positive Paybacks
In a presentation at the American College of Sports Medicine's (ACSM) annual Health and Fitness Summit & Exposition in March, fellow Michael Bracko said the psychological benefits of exercise are as important, if not more so, than the expected physical ones. Lots of people who exercise don't see the stark physical benefits, but they do feel better, lower their stress levels and even sleep better.

Another study published by ACSM last year linked kids' vigorous physical activity to better grades, while others have suggested that older, fit adults are less likely to experience dementia or suffer from Alzheimer's.

According to the research of Richard Smeyne, PhD at Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, with just two months of exercise there are more brain cells and that higher levels of exercise were significantly more beneficial than lower amounts, although any exercise was better than none. He also found that starting an exercise program early in life to be an effective way to lower the risk of developing Parkinson's disease later in life.

As little as three hours a week of brisk walking has been shown to halt, and even reverse, the brain shrinkage especially in the regions responsible for memory and higher cognition. The exercise increased the brain's volume of gray matter (actual neurons) and white matter (connections between neurons).

Increased blood flow to the brain triggers biochemical changes that spur the production of new brain neurons. Brain exercise then protects these fledgling neurons by bathing them in nerve growth factor and forming functional connections with neighboring neurons.

Dr. Kramer said noted that after only three months, the people who exercised had the brain volumes of people three years younger. It is the first time anyone has shown that exercise increases brain volume in the elderly. It suggests that aerobic exercise can stave off neural decline, and even roll back some normal age-related deterioration of brain structure .

Win-Win Scenario

And the benefits appear to work both ways. Researcher Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School , shows that our mind-set can affect the health benefits we get out of activity during our daily routines.

The study, published earlier this year in the psychology journal Psychological Science , looked at 84 housekeepers for seven hotels who, on average, cleaned 15 rooms a day and spent 20 to 30 minutes on each. Women in four hotels were told their regular work was enough exercise to meet the requirements for a healthy, active lifestyle, while the other women were told nothing.

A month later women in the informed group lost an average of two pounds, lowered their blood pressure by almost 10% and were significantly healthier in terms of their body-fat percentages, waist-to-hip ratios and body mass index. The changes were higher than any of those reported in the control group.

Langer says the ways people view their work or routines--failing to recognize it may be a source of physical activity--limits those potential positive health effects. Being mindful, for instance making an effort to actively notice new things around you gives you a feeling of being more fully alive which has a significant impact on your health.

Key Points

  • Exercise improves learning through increased blood supply and growth hormones.
  • Exercise is an anti-depressant by reducing stress and promoting neurogenesis.
  • Exercise protects the brain from damage and disease, as well as speeding the recovery.
  • Exercise benefits you the most when you start young.

Consuming More Niacin May Avoid Alzheimer's

Chicago 's Rush Institute for Healthy Aging found that niacin (vitamin B3) is linked to a reduced risk of age-related mental decline and that it could protect against Alzheimer's Disease. The researchers, whose report was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry , said severe niacin deficiency causes pellagra - characterized by dementia, diarrhea and dermatitis - but its role in Alzheimer's has not been thoroughly explored.

The study was conducted by asking several thousand elderly Chicagoans about the types and amounts of food they ate and by testing their mental abilities. The study concluded that a high level of total niacin intake seemed to protect against both Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline.

The association was stronger for niacin intake from foods than for niacin taken in vitamin supplements. Niacin is in many of the foods we eat every day such as dairy products, poultry, fish, lean meats, nuts and eggs.

 

 

 

 

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