Active Aging: The importance of exercising your mind as well as your body
There’s an absolute wealth of information and research now that shows that to age well, we all need to be physically active. Exercising regularly will amongst other things keep your muscles and bones strong, reduce the risk of serious health conditions, control your weight and help you sleep better.
It’s just as important though, to keep your mind as fit as your body. We know that lifting weights will build muscle, and also that muscles only grow when the challenge increases over time. Well your brain responds to training in the same way, and can continue to respond to training and grow and develop as we age.
The brain’s ability to grow and reorganise is called neuroplasticity, and we now know that adult brains can form new neural connections and continue to grow right through adult life. This neuroplasticity is especially important for people with conditions like Parkinson’s, where lost motor functions can be regained and symptoms like rigidity and stiffness can be reduced.
For all of us though, exercising the brain and building cognitive resilience (your brain’s ability to cope with the negative effects of stress, damage, disease and aging) can improve memory and thinking speeds, help to manage daily activities and slow or delay the onset of age related cognitive decline.
This can all sound a bit complicated but in reality it’s all quite easy. Ideally, to really stretch your brain the experts recommend learning a new language or playing a musical instrument, but for most of us this is probably a step too far! So what can we do every day to keep our brains sharp?
Brain Games
Doing the crossword, word puzzles or sudoku every day is a great starting point, along with games like bingo, chess or mah-jong. These activities can directly help your short and long term memory, and really improve your mental processing speeds. If you are good at these activities, try doing a harder crossword every now and again, or not using a dictionary for more of a challenge. Nowadays many activities are available to play free online, but there are also huge benefits to playing brain games like bingo, cards and quizzes in groups with friends. This can provide crucial social interaction that is proven to protect against cognitive decline.
Mix it Up
Many of us do a regular walk every day, especially if you have a dog. This repetition can mean your brain isn’t being challenged as much as it needs to be, it becomes easy to tune out and not pay attention to your surroundings, so try and vary things as much as possible. Reverse your regular route, add in some new loops, or go somewhere completely different once in a while. You can also apply this to shopping and cooking; vary the route you take around the supermarket, add in some new recipes to your favourites, or buy an ingredient you’ve never tried before and think about how to use it.
Multitasking
If you are out for a walk with a partner or friend, try to add in some mental challenges to the physical ones. Challenge each other to name countries that start with certain letters, list capital cities of the world, or an A to Z of football clubs, plants or animals. All of these mind games will keep you laughing and really get the neurons in your brain firing.
Exercise
It’s of no surprise that exercising helps your brain as well as your body. Complex activities like dancing, boxing and Tai Chi which combine movement with memory and coordination are proven to build brain plasticity. Exercise also boosts blood flow, which delivers more oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which in turn can reduce inflammation and stress, release endorphins, and lower the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline. Physical activity increases vital proteins that act as fertilizer for neurons, the specialist cells that act as information messengers in the brain.
Novelty pushes the brain to adapt and thrive, so by trying something new, different or challenging you can stay sharp, creative and resilient, and still winning games against people half your age!