What’s The Best Prescription For An Aging Brain? Exercise!

Isn’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.

Since I’m the owner of a St. Louis home care agency that works primarily with elderly clients, I am acutely aware of what happens to our minds and bodies as the years go by. I also keep on top of all the research. I doubt many of the people would still be sitting in their cars at the drive through if they read the research I have and saw the things I see each and every day.

There is not much of a debate any longer. Staying active and exercising is the best and most protective medicine that we can give our brains as we get older. Recently, there have been a few studies where the subjects have shown improvement in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) when they exercised on a regular basis. What is so important about this is that of those that have MCI, about 15% are expected to develop Alzheimer’s. So when research shows that older adults who remain active experience almost a 40% reduction in getting MCI, it’s important to take note. What this research teaches us is the importance of focusing on prevention when it comes to neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and to fight them sooner rather than later.

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%.

Need more convincing? How about a 2008 study published in Neurology where researchers measured the midsections of 6500 middle aged adults in the 1960′s and 70′s and followed up with them 36 years later. The ones who had the most abdominal fat in their 40′s were three times more likely to develop dementia in their later years than those who had the least fat around the middle.

Even as a normal brain ages, loss of neuronal connections, blockages of blood supply and decrease in nerve-signaling chemicals all factor in to decline of brain function. For a long time we thought it was impossible to grow new brain cells. Turns out this is not true. Studies by Fred Gage, Ph.D. and colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have shown the more physical exercise you get, the more brain cells you grow, the longer they live and the better they connect with other cells. Brisk walking for just 40 minutes four times/week increases the blood flow to areas of the brain that are able to grow new brain cells. He has concluded that movement is so vital to brain health that a lot of the cognitive decline we conclude is inevitable due to the aging process is really due to being couch potatoes.

So the next time you go to pick up your prescription at Walgreen’s I hope that you are inspired by this research to park at the very last spot in the parking lot away from the door and walk in to pick up your medication. And, maybe if you keep up the exercise mindset, you may not even need that prescription one day!

Theanna Zika founded St Louis 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 senior resources for seniors and their families in the St Louis Metro area.

categories: aging,Alzheimer’s,Parkinson’s,exercise,fitness,seniors,health,family,science,social issues