Page 11 - SENIORS ROCK MAGAZINE

Well, my dad spends time every for up 30 minutes—appears to with no signs of dementia and
day doing brain teasers called be neuroprotective”—meaning assessed their loneliness, memory
Crypto-quips—puzzles that require it protects your brain—“and will loss, and confusion levels every
deciphering complex letter codes. decrease your chances of getting year for four years. For every one
After he retired from work, he other diseases too,” says Kramer. point increase on their loneliness
took language classes, traveled measurement scale, the risk of
abroad, played bridge, performed But how does it work? According developing dementia increased 51
in an amateur theatre company, to Kramer, exercise enhances percent over that period. Even when
and volunteered regularly in the neuroplasticity—the brain’s patients had many social contacts,
local senior center. Despite painful ability to grow new neural and feeling lonely led to mental decline,
arthritis, he still dances two times a blood flow pathways in response suggesting that the quality of social
week with friends and takes regular to stimulation and learning. The interactions may be more important
walks. greater the brain’s reserve of neural than the quantity.
pathways, the better it can respond
If researchers are right, my father to strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, or “Our results are consistent with
has (inadvertently) followed some head traumas from falls, which all other studies which show that
of the best practices for battling become more likely as you age. negative emotions are related to
mental decline. New studies are the development of dementia and
pointing to ways one can slow, and Researchers need more information cognitive decline in old age,” says
in some cases reverse, the memory before they will more fully Wilson.
loss, distractibility, and other understand the relationship
cognitive deficits that often come between exercise and brain Interestingly, when Wilson’s group
with advancing age. Here are three function, says Kramer. For looked at the brain autopsies of
of the key findings for how to keep example, it isn’t clear yet if there subjects who died during their
your brain fit. is a ‘dose response,’ where more study, they found that some people
exercise equates to better cognitive who hadn’t reported feeling lonely
1. EXERCISE! health, or whether slacking off still showed plaques or tangles in
on an exercise program changes their brains—the physiological
You know how your doctor is the equation. Still, Kramer is hallmarks of Alzheimer’s—without
always telling you to get a moderate convinced that exercise is central to actually developing the symptoms
amount of exercise to stay healthy? maintaining brain health. of dementia, such as memory loss
Well now there’s evidence that and confusion. In other words,
exercise not only helps your heart 2. BE SOCIAL having positive social connections
and lungs, but it also might improve may have protected them from
your brain. Researchers have long known that Alzheimer’s dementia, even though
having social connections helps their brain’s physiology seemed
In a 2008 review of more than protect against the negative impacts to leave them vulnerable to it.
50 scientific studies, researchers of aging. But not until recently have Although researchers are still trying
Arthur Kramer and Kirk Erickson they been able to show a direct link to figure out this phenomenon,
found that regular aerobic exercise between social activity levels and Wilson thinks that having good
improved brain functioning for the brain. social connections over time may
healthy people and those with somehow build up overall brain
mild cognitive impairments. In In a 2007 study, Valerie Crooks, a functioning, so that one part of the
particular, those brain functions researcher with Kaiser Permanente, brain can take over if another part
associated with “executive assessed 2,200 women over a becomes damaged.
control”—such as multi-tasking, four-year period, looking for
planning, and problem solving— signs of mental decline while Joining a group, taking a class, or
were most affected by exercise. evaluating their degree of social scheduling regular visits and phone
Even moderate walking two-to- connection. Her study found that calls with friends and family can all
three times a week over a six month women who had a larger social help build these social connections.
period was enough to produce network and daily social contact The same goes for doing volunteer
positive results. In one study, had a substantially lower risk of work, which may carry added
brain imaging results revealed developing dementia, even when benefits: According to preliminary
that patients in the early stages she factored in age and hormone results from a recent study by Sei
of Alzheimer’s disease who were use. Lee at the University of California,
more aerobically fit had less brain San Francisco, presented this past
atrophy than those who were less In a similar study, Robert Wilson May at the annual meeting of the
fit. of Rush University’s Alzheimer’s American Geriatrics Society, people
Disease Center in Chicago found who volunteered lived longer, even
“Aerobic walking, riding a bike that people who felt lonely were after considering other factors,
or using a stationary bike, or more likely to develop dementia. like socioeconomic status, chronic
swimming—anything that sustains Wilson and his group followed health conditions, and cognititive
your heart rate at 65 percent of a group of 80-year-old patients function.
its maximum capacity or greater
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senior’s rock magazine