Is physical fitness important to your brain fitness?

By Caroline Latham | February 26, 2007 |

Here is ques­tion 18 of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions.Question:Is phys­i­cal fit­ness important?Key Points: Exer­cise improves learn­ing through increased blood sup­ply and growth hormones.Exercise is an anti-depres­sant by reduc­ing stress and pro­mot­ing neurogenesis.Exercise pro­tects the brain from dam­age and dis­ease, as well speed­ing the recovery.Answer:Yes. Accord­ing to Fred Gage, PhD, of the Salk Insti­tute for Bio­log­i­cal Stud­ies, “We now know that exer­cise helps gen­er­ate new brain cells, even in the aging brain.”According to the research of Richard Smeyne, PhD at Saint Jude Children’s Research Hos­pi­tal in Mem­phis, with just two months of exer­cise there are more brain cells and that high­er lev­els of exer­cise were sig­nif­i­cant­ly more ben­e­fi­cial than low­er amounts, although any exer­cise was bet­ter than none.

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I don’t want to ever retire. What can I do to remain sharp?

By Caroline Latham | February 12, 2007

Ques­tion 15 of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions. I don’t want to ever retire. What can I do to remain sharp? Pro­vide your brain with reg­u­lar men­tal stim­u­la­tion that is nov­el and challenging.Maintain your social net­work for both stim­u­la­tion and stress reduction.Work out, eat well, stim­u­late your brain, and reduce chron­ic stress.Any good brain fit­ness pro­gram must pro­vide you a vari­ety of new chal­lenges over time. Stress reduc­tion is anoth­er major con­cern. Main­tain­ing your exer­cise rou­tine and social net­works will help a lot in this regard. Make social appoint­ments to go for a walk with a friend or fam­i­ly member.

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