The Benefits of Physical Exercise

 

This post is taken from Nurturing the Older Brain and Mind by Greenwald and Parasurman.  They write in the summary of their chapter on physical exercise, “Of the various experiential and lifestyle factors in cognitive aging, which they have reviewed in their book, physical exercise is probably the one whose effects are best understood.  They reviewed literature on non-human in addition to human subjects.  They write, “There is strong evidence that aerobic exercise can reduce and in some cases eliminate cognitive deficits associated with healthy aging.”    Exercise benefits neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity.  Neurotrophins also are produced as a result of exercise and mediate  the beneficial effects of exercise. They also note that there is a growing understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie such benefits.  They note that the mechanisms appear to be centered on the dentate gyrus.   The dentate gyrus is important for the formation of new memories.

Although knowing the neural mechanisms of the benefits of exercise is good, many readers would like to know how much exercise is “enough.”  Unfortunately, there is little information on this topic.  All I can cite is a previous healthy memory blog post, “To Improve Your Memory, Build Your Hippocampus.”  In that study people benefited from walking briskly for 45 minutes three days a week for six months.  So there is evidence that that amount is sufficient.  So if you enjoy exercising, please do more, if you do not, try to do something of the order of 45 minutes a day for three days a week.  I have a hunch that any physical exercise one does is beneficial, but data regarding the minimum amount that is beneficial is woefully lacking.  It is good to do something you enjoy.  The feeling both doing and after a workout can be quite enjoyable.  Frankly, I find exercising easier than dieting and nutrition, to which we shall turn next.

© Douglas Griffith and healthymemory.wordpress.com, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Douglas Griffith and healthymemory.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Tags: cognitive aging, dentate gyrus, Greenwood, Hippocampus, Neurogenesis, neurotrophins, Parasuraman, Physical exercise, synaptic plasticity