Memory giving you problems? Forgetting why you walked into a room?
Here’s what to do about it
Ever have a problem finding the right word? Can’t remember what you went into a room for? Struggle with people’s names more than you used to? All examples most of us in middle age will be all too familiar with. Neuro-degeneration or mild cognitive decline is part and parcel of getting older. It sucks and it is scary when your brain feels like it is giving up on you.
The good news is the a significant part of the solution is exercise. Good news because it is simple and effectively free.
Exercise has many benefits for your brain’s health. Follow the mantra “what’s good for your heart & body is good for your brain”. Regular physical activity will help with forming new neurons, primarily in the Hippocampus, an area of the brain crucial to learning, memory and cognitive flexibility. Exercise also helps alleviate feelings of despair and anxiety often associated with neuro decline. The long term protective benefits of exercise happen by lowering inflammation, reduced oxidative stress and the build up of amyloid plaques which are a feature of Alzheimers disease.
From a paper in Experimental Gerontology”
“Physical activity slows the progression of neurodegenerative illnesses….. Exercise can help you sleep better, which improves your cognitive performance. Exercise reduces chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, which helps to promote brain health and cognitive performance.” – Link to original source: https://buff.ly/3ACZ2Vm
Exercise helps release Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), long known as miracle grow for your brain. The link between exercise, BDNF release, neural development and improvements in learning have been long understood in kids. Now the benefits are being tested for and found in healthy adults staving off neuro-degeneration and adults experiencing decline by helping to reverse it.
**Action steps:**
Rather than planning to start a workout plan an Olympian would blanch at and then failing, hating yourself and ending up in a worse place than you are now. Start small.
A walk, a jog around the park, do 10 mins of yoga in your living room. Dig out your dumbbells from the garage and do some curls. Start, then build consistency, only once you have a solid habit, think about optimising for duration, intensity or whatever else.
If you already have a fitness practice, look at how you could increase the frequency. Grow 3 times a week into four or five. If you're smart you'll mix up what you do.
If you’re already training 5 times a week, look at how you could hit a more balanced scorecard of training.
A gold standard week might look like:
One long slow zone 2 effort
A medium duration high intensity session
One sprint session
A couple of strength sessions
A couple of stretch and balance sessions as recovery.
If you had one or two really hard efforts in that week and the others were more gentle, that would suit most working adults.
Photo by <a href="https://buff.ly/4dEfHXt">David Matos</a> on <a href="https://buff.ly/3AJAPNi">Unsplash</a>