Exercise is Good For Your Brain

I sincerely plan on living into a ripe old age.  I see myself as a spunky old woman, maybe a bit on the eccentric side, refusing to wear old woman clothes and sensible shoes.  However, my plan does not involve early bird specials, reruns of Walker Texas Ranger, or boring word searches.  Rather my vision for old age sees me karate chopping unruly great-grandchildren and hiking the Appalachian Trail. 

One of the reasons for my interest (sometimes it could be labeled “obsession”) with health and fitness is my desire to grow old and still be active.  I don’t want to hobble around with joint pain or shortness of breath.  I want to flamboyantly blast through the doors of my senior years dancing and bending and twisting with ease.

But what good would it all be if I wasn’t in my right mind?

My grandmother recently passed away after 83 years of her own spunkiness.  While it was a severe infection that actually caused her death, she spent most of her last years as a healthy old woman.  She had no problems with arthritis or diabetes or heart disease.  But most days she couldn’t even remember her name.  She didn’t recognize her own children and she couldn’t remember to eat. My grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease.

My grandmother’s death has forced me to consider my own mortality.  I’ve questioned my desire to live a long, long healthy life.  Would it be merciful to die an early death and save myself the loss of my intellect and personality?

Thankfully there is something that effectively reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s something I’m already doing.  It’s regular exercise.

That’s right.  Physical activity has benefits beyond heat health and a smoking body.  There is a mounting number of studies which suggests the more regular exercise that raises the heart rate inhibits Alzheimer's-like brain changes, slowing the development of key features of the disease.

Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Alzheimer's Research Center at the Mayo Clinic, said "Regular physical exercise is probably the best means we have of preventing Alzheimer's disease today, better than medications, better than intellectual activity, better than supplements and diet."

Add that to your list of reasons to get up of the couch and get moving.  If you’ve ever seen the effects of Alzheimer’s on a loved one, it’s enough to make want to run screaming in the opposite direction.  And that’s exactly what you should do.  Maybe minus the screaming part, it tends to freak out the neighbors.