Tag: Alzheimer’s

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

walking improves brain health

Posted on

Gentle Reader,

 

To my delight, my signature byline, Be Well, Do Well and Keep moving, points as much to brain health as managing arthritis. Recent studies show that walking improves brain health.

 

In August 2010, Live Science reported on a study involving a group of “Professional Couch-Potatoes.” This is what one researcher called the 69 adults, aged 59 – 80, who were sedentary before entering the study. I mean sedentary: they reported exercising no more than twice in the previous six months. The study compared this group of inactive people with thirty-two 18 – 35 year olds.

Couch potato
Couch potato

 

The result? Walking at one’s own pace for 40 minutes three times a week can enhance the connectivity of important brain circuits and combat declines in brain function associated with aging and increase performance on cognitive tasks.

The goal was not to study specific brain function, but to study connectivity. “Almost nothing in the brain gets done by one area; it’s more of a circuit,” study researcher Art Kramer, psychology professor at the University of Illinois, said in a statement. “These networks can become more or less connected. In general, as we get older, they become less connected, so we were interested in the effects of fitness on connectivity of brain networks that show the most dysfunction with age.”

Previous studies showed a loss of coordination in the DMN (Default Mode Network) when a person is least engaged with the outside world either passively observing something or simply daydreaming. This networking failure is a common symptom of aging and in extreme cases can be a marker of disease, study researcher Michelle Voss said.

DMNPeople with Alzheimer’s disease tend to have less activity in this network and they tend to have less connectivity, Voss said. Low connectivity means that the different parts of the circuit are not operating in sync. Like poorly trained athletes on a rowing team, the brain regions that make up the circuit lack coordination and so do not function at optimal efficiency or speed.

In a healthy, young brain, activity in the DMN quickly diminishes when a person engages in an activity that requires focus on the external environment. Older people, people with Alzheimer’s disease and those who are schizophrenic have more difficulty “down-regulating” the DMN so that other brain networks can come to the fore, Kramer said.

In this study by Kramer, Voss and their colleagues, they found that older adults who are more fit tend to have better connectivity in specific regions of the DMN than their sedentary peers. Those with more connectivity in the DMN also tend to be better at planning, prioritizing, strategizing and multi-tasking.

Just by walking three times a week for 40 minutes, DMN connectivity was significantly improved in the brains of the older walkers, but not in the stretching and toning group, the researchers report.

If you have friends or relatives who sit around with the remote, tell them about this study and see if they would be willing to get out and walk. It could make a big difference.

One Way to Ward Off Alzheimer’s: Take a Hikeold people walking

The study began with 299 dementia-free participants, ages 70 to 90, in 1989. Researchers measured how many blocks they walked per week and, at 9 and 13 years after the initial examination, scientists assessed them with high-resolution magnetic resonance imagining (MRI).

In a final evaluation,116 of these people were diagnosed with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, while 169 (excluding those deceased prior to the follow-up) remained free of these conditions.

No one has taken a snap shot of an elderly group and followed them over time prior to this study. The participants agreed to walk at least one mile per day. Erickson’s study found that walking at least one mile per day significantly enhanced the volume of several regions of the brain, including the frontal lobe, which is involved in reasoning and problem-solving.

The researchers also found people who walked that distance reduced their risk of cognitive impairment by about half. However, walking more than one mile every day did not further improve brain volume.

We don’t need to do much, but we do need to do something, every day. In my recent visit with the Sports Medicine doctor, she dissuaded me from getting a cortisone shot for my sciatic pain. She gave me some new stretches and said, “Walk 30 minutes every day without fail. It’s the best medicine.”

If my pain is acute, I leave home with walking sticks.

Walking sticks ease the pain.
Walking sticks ease the pain.

Before long, the pain eases up.  BTW, I also take several of Shaklee’s Pain Relieve Complex herbal tablets during the day, depending on how bad the pain is.

It looks as though this advice is helping my brain as well as my joints.

Join me!

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

206 933 1889

www.hihohealth.com  shopping for Shaklee

www.EmpoweredGrandma.com  for travel suggestions and reflections

 

 

 

 

Scientific resources

What is memory?

Posted on

Just what is Memory anyway?

 

We use the word “memory” without understanding what it is. Our memory is a complex system that can dictate our day-to-day behavior.

How's your memory?
How’s your memory?

Memory can be defined in several ways, including:

  • the process by which the brain stores and remembers information.
  • remembered from the past.
  • the remembering of a deceased person as “in memory of.”
  • the length of time a person or event is remembered.
  • the part of a computer where data is stored and retrieved.

 

3 stages of memory:  Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval.

 

During the encoding process, we absorb information. The storage phase is when our memory creates a permanent record of the information. The retrieval process is when we remember or retrieve the stored information.

 

During the retrieval process, our brain sorts through 3 memory “data banks”…sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory. Sensory memory identifies and holds information for just a few seconds. When we look at something for just a second and can still remember details, this is our sensory memory in action. Short term memory allows us to recall items for anywhere from a few seconds up to one minute without rehearsing.

 

Most people can remember chunks of information that have approximately 4 to 5 components. An example of this is the way in which most people learn to remember a phone number. You simply break it into chunks that include the area code, then the next 3 numbers and then the final numbers. Long term memory is capable of storing information for long… almost unlimited… periods of time. If you remember those same phone numbers years later, they’ve migrated from short term memory to long term memory. Information that is repeated ends up in long term memory, allowing us to retrieve it automatically.

 

Tips to maintain memory function

 

Here are a few ways to keep your memory sharp:

 

  • Get enough sleep.
  • Exercise regularly.
  • Have an active social life
  • Laugh… it activates the learning and creative centers of your brain.
  • Avoid stress… it destroys brain cells.
  • Exercise your brain… read, do crossword puzzles, keep a journal.

 

Keep Your Memory Sharp….with Shaklee supplements that can keep your brain functioning optimally:

 

  • B-Complex. For glucose oxidation, neuronal membrane functions, nerve impulse generation, the biosynthesis of several neurotransmitters, and the metabolism of fatty acids and amino acids in the brain.
  • Sustained Release Vita-C. is required for the enzymatic reaction that synthesizes the neurotransmitter norepinephrine from dopamine. Vitamin C may also be able to regenerate vitamin E, an important lipid-soluble antioxidant.
  • Vita-D . is known to be important for normal brain development and cognitive function in older adults.
  • Vitamin E has a key role in preventing oxidant-induced lipid destruction and is vital in maintaining the integrity of cell membranes.
  • Lecithinis a fatty compound found in all cells, but particularly in our nerves, glands and the brain. 40 % of our brain is lecithin. Lecithin dissolves cholesterol, and holds our cells together! It’s vital for the brain.
  • OsteoMatrix. Calcium ions are important intracellular signals that regulate a number of physiological processes, including neuronal gene expression, neuronal secretion of neurotransmitters into synapses, and synaptic plasticity.
  • Iron plus Vitamin C. is needed for development of oligodendro-cytes (the brain cells that produce myelin), and is a required cofactor for several en-zymes to synthesize neurotransmitters.
  • Zinc Complex. Zinc is present at high levels in the brain where it has catalytic, structural, and regulatory roles in cellular metabolism.
  • OmegaGuard. The nervous system has a great concentration of lipids (omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, phospholipids, triglycerides, and cholesterol). These lipids serve structural roles in cell membranes of the nervous system, and affect membrane fluidity, flexibility, permeability, and play important roles in vision and nervous system function.
  • Mental Acuity Plus is a Shaklee exclusive formula that contains ginkgo, bilberry, hawthorn, and B vitamins to enhance memory and decision making. It helps maintain normal metabolic activity in the brain and also lowers homocysteine levels. (Homocysteine is an amino acid and breakdown product of protein metabolism that, when present in high concentrations, has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Evidence suggests that people with elevated homocysteine levels have twice the normal risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.)