[[ For everyone on the East Coast and New England area: PLEASE stay safe and listen to your local authorities. I've been through too many Hurricanes down here on the Gulf Coast where people act on their own judgement and get injured or killed, so please be careful. For everyone NOT affected by the storm currently, I hope you are staying warm and cozy and ACTIVE! ]]
I recently read an article that sparked something inside of me that I wanted to share with y'all. Now, everyone knows how important I think exercise is towards your health and wellness... but here is another great benefit of it: It can preserve your BRAIN really, really well!! Many of us have heard about how puzzles such as Sudoku or Crossword, etc can help the longevity of our brains, which are all true, but many of us have never thought about the good exercise does for it! Not a single soul on this planet wants to have to ever hear their diagnosis of Alzheimer's or Dementia. If you have never had a loved one with it then you are very, very lucky, as it is a very painful and sad disease to watch progress. A recent study published by the journal Neurology found that exercise/working out is MORE effective at protecting the brain than these cognitively-challenging puzzles or games that we often do.
What the study showed is that older adults (around age 70) who exercised fairly consistently showed less brain shrinkage on their fMRI and fewer white matter lesions. Both brain shrinkage and white matter lesions have been linked to Alzheimer's. This is great news!
We already know that exercising helps our heart, but what we forget is that our heart and brain (and rest of body) are all very closely connected, so DUH we should've known that exercise helps our noggins!! What better reason to get out there and exercise than to want to prevent debilitating and deadly neural diseases later in life. I would suggest that coupling it with your cognitive puzzles would probably help EVEN more. The research I read suggested that strength conditioning was found to be beneficial for the elder patients, which can include small weights, balancing exercises, floor exercises, etc. Cardio workouts is what is very food for our heart, and strength appears to be food not only for our muscular system, but also our brain. Sounds like a win-win-win situation to me!!
If you are on the track to a healthier life physically, you might as well be on the track to a healthier life mentally also. As I've said time and time again: all of this is what WELLNESS is comprised of. Take care of your body and your noggin and you will be rewarded later in life when you really need it!
So put on your jacket and lace up your tennis shoes and get to a gym or park and WORK OUT! Your brain will thank you later! I will be writing an article on Halloween Candy later today or tomorrow- so be on the lookout and remember that just because it is a holiday DOES NOT mean that it is a free-for-all of sugary, non-nutritious, fatty foods/candy. Your body doesn't forget what you put into it, ever.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEK* Sarah *
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