How exactly can you build a better brain? Researchers are still debating the potential power of brain training, but there is one proven technique that neuroscientists recognize as a powerful booster of brain health – exercise. Regular physical activity has been shown to prevent brain shrinkage as people age and improve cognitive functioning both now and throughout life. Exercise can even make you smarter.
Walking Can Improve Brain Function
Here’s one more reason to avoid being a couch potato – a recent study found that walking at a moderate pace for 40 minutes three times a week can improve connectivity in the brain. This moderate physical activity can also help increase performance on cognitive tasks and battle age-related mental declines.The higher the connectivity, the better the performance on some of these cognitive tasks, especially the ones we call executive control tasks — things like planning, scheduling, dealing with ambiguity, working memory and multitasking.
Heart Health Impacts Brain Aging
Here’s one more excellent reason to keep your heart healthy – researchers have found that brains appear older in people whose hearts pumped less blood. According to the new study having a low cardiac index, or the amount of blood pumped in relation to body size, was linked to lower brain volume as seen with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Brains age just like our bodies. Researchers have found that being physically fit during middle age can actually minimize some of the damaging effects that the aging process has on the brain.
Exercise Keeps Your Brain from Shrinking as You Age
In one study, researchers revealed that people who had been in poor physical fitness during their 40s exhibited greater shrinkage in brain volume during later adulthood.
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