Older minds need physical and mental activity

Exercising the body and mind may be the best way to keep an older brain sharp, suggests a new study.

“The best medicine is physical activity,” lead researcher Ralph Martins told Reuters Health.

“At the end of the day, the two together – physical activity and cognitive training – gave us an additional benefit,” said Martins, who directs the Center of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Care at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

Martins and his colleagues studied 172 people from ages 60 to 85 years, assigning them randomly into four groups.

One group walked three days a week for an hour and did 40 minutes of resistance training twice a week for 16 weeks. Another group did hour-long computer brain-training exercises five days a week, also for 16 weeks. A third group did both the physical exercise and the computer activities. A fourth group maintained their regular routines.

The researchers write in Translational Psychiatry that only the group that engaged in both physical activity and computerized brain training showed significantly improved verbal memory, which helps people remember words and language.

The researchers note that the study failed to show benefits for executive functions that control focus, attention to details and goal setting. They also didn’t find benefits for visual memory, processing speed or attention.

Martins said physical exercise had the most profound and constant effect.

Dr. David Merrill also sees physical activity as the most useful aid to maintaining memory and cognitive ability as people age, but the combination of physical and mental exercise may offer “synergistic” benefits.

“What’s good for the muscular-skeletal system is good for the cardiovascular system, and it’s also good for the brain,” said Merrill, who is a geriatric psychiatrist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Physical exercise sets the stage for the brain to be responsive to new information,” said Merrill, who was not involved with the new study. “You’re all ready to build new synapses, new connections.”

Both Martins and Merrill recommend that older people exercise regularly and stay intellectually involved. Both favor real-life challenges over computerized brain exercises.

Martins urges retirees to join service organizations, like the Rotary Club, and to dance for the physical exercise and mental acuity.

"Full retirement doesn’t make sense for graceful aging,” Merrill said. “People should try to keep working not only to maintain their self-identity but to challenge their brain.”

Merrill said the new research is the most recent of a handful of studies showing that a combination of interventions can help seniors remain mentally alert.

He advocates building up to more strenuous exercise than people did in the study.

“There’s lots of data that shows that being physically active is good for the brain,” he said. “It’s almost so intuitive that it defies logic that so few people are active physically.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that older adults perform moderate and vigorous aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

10 Ways to Revive Your Resolution to Exercise

The new year is already into its third month, and if you haven't yet lost weight, stopped smoking, eaten more vegetables, exercised regularly, or started to fulfill any other New Year's resolutions by now, chances are it's not going to happen.

Unless. Unless you can get over that mental hump that stops you from exercising — the most common resolution at the beginning of the year as people seek to lose weight and get in shape.

How to do it? I’ve come up with 10 ways to ensure you exercise, and while not all of them will work for everyone, at least one of these should spur you to get back on the path to exercising if you've fallen off.

1. Apps

There are enough health and fitness apps in the Apple Store that you could spend a year going through them. One of my favorites, which I discovered at MedicalInsurance.net, is My Fitness Pal. It helps keep track of what you eat and how much you exercise. I mostly use it to track my meals, and I sync it with the Fitbit app to track how much I exercise. There are plenty of other apps to track diet and exercise, and I'd recommend using free ones at first, such as a free pedometer, to see if you like it.

2. Pedometer

This is a fun way to measure how many steps you take in a day, and I like to track my progress after a walk or gym workout. I use a Fitbit pedometer, which keeps track of how many steps, miles, and stairs I've walked. It also tracks calories burned, which is an incentive to exercise, although too often the Fitbit and My Fitness Pal apps disagree on how many calories I've burned when they sync. From $60 to $100, the Fitbit can either be clipped to a pocket or worn around the wrist.

3. Get a Nudge

It could be a friend urging you on, a spouse encouraging you to go to the gym, or a strong conscience helping to ensure you exercise. An alarm reminder that you set up on your smartphone to tell you that it's time to get moving may be enough incentive. If those nudges don't work, another interesting option is a text message from Coach Alba, an adaptive technology that sends users text messages when they have "crucial moments," says Vince Han, founder and CEO of Coach Alba.

Targeted at people who have chronic weight loss problems, the $5 monthly service learns from users' texts when they're most likely to overeat, such as when watching TV or when stressed. It responds with alternatives, such as brushing their teeth or reminding them it's time for a workout. While mostly used to avoid temptations such as late-night snacking, Coach Alba could be used as a nudge to get exercising when food cravings hit.

4. Find Internal Motivation

External motivations such as a goal of losing 10 pounds or running a marathon can be great, but failing to meet them or even meeting them may not help you continue exercising after they've been met or you've given up. Internal motivations will last longer and are more likely to encourage you to exercise, says Ryan Hurst, program director at Gold Medal Bodies.

Instead of trying to impress other people with an external motivation, an internal motivation could be to become strong and healthy so that you can be there for your children and family as you age, Hurst suggests.



5. Schedule It

If a nudge from a friend or app isn't enough, schedule exercise like you would a meeting or doctor's appointment, recommends Kimberly Fowler, the author of a book on yoga. You don't miss a meeting with the boss, forget to pick your kid up at school, or miss dental appointments, so scheduling exercise should make it easier to achieve. Also tell your social networks so that, like the nudges suggestion above, other people will see it on your schedule and encourage you to do it.

6. Find Activities You Enjoy

Going to the gym day after day for the same workout probably won't encourage you to exercise enough, so find an exercise you enjoy, says Charla McMillian, a certified strength and conditioning specialist. It could be dancing, jumping, biking, swimming, or playing in the back yard with your children.

7. Determine Immediate Rewards

The long-term rewards of exercise are what too many people focus on — such as the vague phrase "get healthy" — and are less likely to get people motivated to exercise daily than immediate rewards such as improving their daily quality of life, says Michelle Segar, a healthy living motivation researcher at the University of Michigan. These can include reduced stress, being in a better mood, and feeling stronger. If you feel good after exercising, that's a good incentive to keep doing it.

8. Recruit Friends

Get a friend to join you, giving both of you motivation. "Working out is more fun with other people, and you're more likely to stick with working out if you're accountable to another person," says Chris Mosier, a certified personal trainer in New York City.

9. Exercise in the Morning

This is a way to get it out of the way so that it's not something you dread doing later or find the excuse to put off if you've had a rough day at work, Mosier says.

10. Prepare the Night Before

Set your workout clothes out the night before and leave them where you'll see them in the morning, Mosier says. That way, they'll be staring you in the face when you get up, and it will be easier to get dressed and get started.

If you can't get back to exercising yet, remember that it's only March and it's not too late to start fulfilling your resolutions. Let us know which work best for you.

source: wisebread.com