Proper diet and regular exercise improve memory and learning. Write an
article in about 150 words on the topic 'Exercise enhances Memory”.
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There are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. Big ones include reducing the odds of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Maybe you want to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, prevent depression, or just look better. Here’s another one, which especially applies to those of us (including me) experiencing the brain fog that comes with age: exercise changes the brain in ways that protect memory and thinking skills.
In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results.
The finding comes at a critical time. Researchers say one new case of dementia is detected every four seconds globally. They estimate that by the year 2050, more than 115 million people will have dementia worldwide.
Exercise and the brain
Exercise helps memory and thinking through both direct and indirect means. The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells.
Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety. Problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment.
Many studies have suggested that the parts of the brain that control thinking and memory (the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex) have greater volume in people who exercise versus people who don’t. “Even more exciting is the finding that engaging in a program of regular exercise of moderate intensity over six months or a year is associated with an increase in the volume of selected brain regions,” says Dr. Scott McGinnis, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Put it to the test
So what should you do? Start exercising! We don’t know exactly which exercise is best. Almost all of the research has looked at walking, including the latest study. “It’s likely that other forms of aerobic exercise that get your heart pumping might yield similar benefits,” says Dr. McGinnis.
How much exercise is required to improve memory? These study participants walked briskly for one hour, twice a week. That’s 120 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week. Standard recommendations advise half an hour of moderate physical activity most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week. If that seems daunting, start with a few minutes a day, and increase the amount you exercise by five or 10 minutes every week until you reach your goal.
If you don’t want to walk, consider other moderate-intensity exercises, such as swimming, stair climbing, tennis, squash, or dancing. Don’t forget that household activities can count as well, such as intense floor mopping, raking leaves, or anything that gets your heart pumping so much that you break out in a light sweat.
Don’t have the discipline to do it on your own? Try any or all of these ideas:
Join a class or work out with a friend who’ll hold you accountable.
Track your progress, which encourages you to reach a goal.
If you’re able, hire a personal trainer. (Paying an expert is good motivation.)
Whatever exercise and motivators you choose, commit to establishing exercise as a habit, almost like taking a prescription medication. After all, they say that exercise is medicine, and that can go on the top of anyone’s list of reasons to work out.
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Walking or cycling regularly for between six months to a year can improve memory and problem solving skills in the elderly by between 15 and 20 per cent, according to researchers.
They have shown that such exercise can also increase the size of crucial parts of the brain. The scientists have also discovered that children who are fit also tend to be better at multitasking and performing difficult mental tasks than unfit friends.
Professor Art Kramer, director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, who led the research, said their findings could have major implications for improving children's performance at school.
He said it could also be used to help the elderly combat memory loss in old age.
He said: "It is a sad fact of ageing that our brain function decreases as we get older.
Increasingly people are also living more sedentary lifestyles. While we know that exercise can have positive effects on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, we have found it can bring about improvements in cognition, brain function and brain structure.
"It is aerobic exercise that is important so by starting off doing just 15 minutes a day and working up to 45 minutes to an hour of continuous working we can see some real improvements in cognition after six months to a year.
"We have been able to do a lot of neuroimaging work alongside our studies in the elderly and show that brain networks and structures also change with exercise.
"Children also seem to benefit and we have"Children also seem to benefit and we have found that aerobically fit children exhibit superior cognitive control to lower fit children."
Professor Kramer, who presented his findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Vancouver, is currently carrying out larger clinical trails on exercise in children and the elderly.
He has found that aerobic exercise can improve memory, attention, and the ability to multi-task in otherwise healthy elderly people.
Work published earlier this year by his team showed that the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in memory, of elderly people who exercised regularly for more than six months increased by two per cent, effectively reversing brain ageing by one to two years.
In research that is due to be published later this year, he also found that fitter children are better at crossing the street when distracted by music or holding a conversation on a hands-free mobile phone compared to those who were less fit.
He found that while the fit children could cross a road in a virtual reality simulation with ease when distracted, the less fit children tended walk at the same speed as the fitter children but misjudged the speed and distance of the computer generated vehicles.
Professor Kramer added: "The low fitness kids were just as good at crossing the street when it was the only thing they were doing. If they were listening to music or talking on the headset, they performed badly. They often ended up with the screen going red to show they had been hit.
"One way to look at it is that the high fit kids think more efficiently and so are better at multitasking."
Other research presented at the AAAS meeting also showed that reducing the number of calories eaten could help to protect against brain disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
Dr Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist from the National Institute of Ageing in Baltimore found that restricting people diets to just 500 calories every other day increased production of proteins that are known to protect neurons from damage.
He said: "There is considerable evidence from that reducing calorie intake is not only good for your heart, but it's good for your brain."
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