Tag: exercise

New Year’s Resolutions for Preventing Dementia

It’s never too late to do something good for your brain. With a new year beginning and lots to cram in, you may experience a level of productivity you haven’t had the past year. So why quit just when you hit your stride? Continue the momentum and add some things on your list to start in just a few short weeks:

1. Take a class: You can renew an old interest or take up a new interest altogether. Many programs are available for all the people who are wanting to do new things in the new year – take advantage of what’s available and try your hand at something you’ve wanted to do for awhile. Or, just go on a whim and see what you like. Your brain will thank you for it.

2. Beat the winter blues: There isn’t a whole lot you can do to make the sun shine in the winter – unless you want to get a sun lamp and try to trick your body into believing it’s exposed to the “sun” (and spend extra money) – but you can achieve the same effect by exercising. Physical exercise can activate hormones that keep depression at bay, and a happy brain is a healthy brain.

3. Read more: Can’t go outside because it’s too cold? Can’t exercise also because it’s cold? Then stimulate your brain by actively engaging it. Reading will make the brain work harder to process information because of the imagination involved. Watching television programs just puts your brain in the passenger seat because all the images are there without the brain having to do anything. Try reading your favourite book to dig up fond memories or read something entirely different and new to create new pathways for your brain. If you fall asleep, then at least your brain had a good workout before sleeping, and the sleep will be rewarding in its own way.

 

Twins Prove Exercise Helps Prevent Dementia

In a Finnish study, identical twins were compared against each other in the consequences of active vs. inactive lifestyles. As some people would expect, the more active twin had fewer health problems with increasing age. As some would be surprised, both twins had similar diets, which would suggest nutrition alone is not the turning factor of good health.

However, while nutrition is for the most part similar, the fact that the twins are so different in terms of their metabolic profile suggests that exercise is the key that unlocks their genetic “destiny”. It makes sense that if they’re eating roughly the same things (and the main difference is one exercises and the other doesn’t), how that food is processed through the bodies will be different in on than in the other. Therefore, it should be no surprise if the inactive twin has problems with insulin production or resistance, cholesterol levels, and higher body fat.

What may be surprising is that the brains end up being different also. The more active twin has substantial increased areas of grey matter, especially in areas that control motor skills and coordination. What’s interesting is that upon dementia onset, it’s not just memory that’s affected – many times it is physical abilities (such as fine motor skills and coordination) that suffer.

In other words, if only one aspect of life can be changed to prevent dementia, it might as well be exercise because there is a direct link to the prevention of deterioration in physical abilities. It’s possible that that direct link is the development of muscle memory – that is to say, we are often only concerned with mental memory (and afraid of losing it), when perhaps we should also be considering other forms of memory.

Become Involved in Research

Perhaps the real tragedy in dementia is that it is regarded as a natural part of aging. Therefore, it does not receive the attention of medical researchers and research funds the way “more important” diseases such a cancers receive. This is a shame because many more people suffer from types of preventable and treatable dementia or dementia-seeming symptoms than the big scary diseases that strike unexpectedly. It’s simply a misunderstanding when old age is involved, as if it can neglected because it’s a “natural” part of aging.

Consider donating money to organizations that study the causes of dementia or otherwise understanding how dementia works. Another popular way to raise funds is to participate in community athletic events, asking for sponsorships to raise awareness for dementia research. Hosting cultural events or activities is also a fun way to raise funds that can go towards research.

Other ways of being involved in research is volunteering as test subjects in clinical trials. This is available for all parts of dementia-related issues, whether as patients, carers, former carers, or relatives of patients. There is an infinite number of ways to be involved in research, and it is well worth the effort to take advantage of such opportunities because the sooner dementia is defeated, the more likely it may not be an issue to be dealt with personally.

The One Exercise to Avoid

It’s true that exercise will always lower the risk of dementia. But for one type of person, a particular kind of exercise may actually increase the risk of dementia. Anyone suffering from hypertension must avoid high-impact sports, largely because the intense physical activity will put more strain on the blood vessels. The issue with high blood pressure isn’t just that the number are too high, it’s what the numbers indicate – and they indicate the blood vein walls take a pounding each time the heart pumps blood throughout the body, especially the brain.

The blood veins in the brain are so delicate that even without hypertension, people take care not to endure physical trauma to their heads. With hypertension, that physical trauma is silently taking place inside the head. 

The obvious types of high-impact sports include intense cardiovascular workouts, but one that escapes people’s attentions is isometrics. Isometrics are any activity that require muscles to be “strained”, acting against other muscles or a fixed object. In other words, weightlifting is a form of isometrics. So are non-weightlifting forms such as flexing muscles. This may be disappointing news for people who want to form contoured muscles, but if they have high blood pressure and are continuing to do isometrics – all that work may actually be shortening their quality of life. After all, it’s a shame to achieve something if one can’t remember it.

Take care of the hypertension first with diet and gentler forms of exercise. Then move on to isometrics.

Stress Distress

There are plenty of recommended habits we have to intentionally work at to increase brain function, but there is one major natural habit that very quickly and powerfully decreases cognitive abilities. Everyone experiences stress, and while some stressors can be a “good” form of stress (because they act as motivators), harmful stress can cause a chain reaction of terrifying damage to the brain.

When we overload our capacity (otherwise known as burnout), or even come close, our adrenal glands suffer. The adrenal glands are responsible for releasing hormones that help us respond to stress. Our “fight or flight” instinct and our abilities to assess problematic situations come from these hormones.  In other words, having acute stressful moments is something we can handle “just fine” because the adrenal glands are there to help us, but constantly facing stress means the adrenal glands are also ceaselessly engaged with no opportunity for relief.

One of the most famous of these adrenal gland hormones is cortisol, the so-called “stress hormone” that can wreak havoc on our bodies. Cortisol is what’s responsible for the ring of fat around the belly (the stressed body thinks it needs to preserve fat cells, in case there is a disaster and the body has to go without food for an unknown period of time). Cortisol also turns the brain into a toxic wastedump, severely impairing brain function.  The more we let stress rule our lives, the more we’re killing our brains and setting ourselves up for dementia.

Yoga: Can It Prevent Dementia?

Any type of exercise is a good prevention method for dementia. Simply the increased bloodflow in the body will carry much-needed oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which nourishes the brain and keeps deterioration at bay. Having said that, not everybody is suited for running marathons or high-impact aerobic activity. Even for those who want to be able to exercise at that level, there is a way to approach the goal without subjecting the body to a punishing regimen.

Yoga is a very practical approach to the physical activity portion of dementia prevention. The low-impact exercise is very suitable for those who are older or in not-great shape, or both. Prolonged yoga practice will eventually build the muscles that help with other exercises that require stamina and endurance. It’s the perfect gateway exercise for higher-impact sports.

An underestimated benefit to yoga is the breathwork that maximizes the stretching. The mistake that many people make with breathing is that it is so automatic and often shallow, the oxygen is not actually reaching the deeper muscle tissue – including brain tissue. This prolonged (lifetime, really) duration of depriving the brain is what eventually contributes to degeneration.

Another benefit is the mental concentration that goes with properly forming and sustaining the yoga poses. Other forms of exercise (jogging, running, swimming) can often become mindless activity. Do them anyway because they are delivering blood throughout the body, but yoga trains the mind to focus and be aware of the changes going on in the body. It’s the ultimate mind-body connection that can be the saviour to preventing mental health.

Reading Walking Club

Nearly 50% of diagnosed dementia could have been avoided by modifying seven lifestyle habits.  In other words, half the number of people who have some form of dementia could have avoided all the headache (pun intended) had they been more careful about keeping tabs on those risk factors.

“But there are so many!” one might say. Seven separate habits to keep track of, above work and family commitments, seems like a lot. No wonder those risk factors fall through the cracks.

There is good news. There is a way to combine certain habits so that there aren’t separate amounts of effort being expended to keeping the brain healthy. Ever hear of a reading walking club? 

Take a normal reading club, and instead of meeting over biscuits while lounging about on sofas, agree on a walking course and discuss the book while walking about. This means that the bookreading stimulates the mind, the walking takes care of the physical activity (which could also positively affect any weight issues), and the discussions takes care of the socialization aspect of dementia prevention. An added bonus is that it makes the exercise fun for anyone who dreads physical activity because of the perception that it means solitary time – the conversation and social company will make the time go faster. For those who want to keep track of how much they walk (and to see if there any improvements), get a pedometer and compare progress made with each meeting session.

Can you think of any other ways to combine those seven habits? Chances are, by coming up with a combination, you will have already taken care of the cognitive activity requirement!