Circle of Wellness: Your Brain on Exercise

By Gabrielle deGroot Redford/Janet Kinosian

How breaking a sweat and doing yoga can make you smarter.

We all know that exercise is good for the body. Now, scientists are discovering it’s good for the brain as well. In recent years researchers have found that exercise improves memory, concentration, and abstract reasoning among older adults, and may even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. It works like this: aerobic exercise increases blood flow to the brain, which nourishes brain cells and allows them to function more effectively—“kind of like making sure your engine is all tuned up,” says Waneen Spirduso, Ed.D., a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Exercise and Its Mediating Effects on Cognition (Human Kinetics, 2007).

A recent study showed that exercise actually promotes the growth of new neurons (brain cells) in the hippocampus—the part of the brain that controls memory and learning. Scientists previously believed that once brain cells died, they were not replaced.

“You can get cognitive benefits with activity that is fairly simple, like walking for 20 minutes a day,” says Spirduso.—Gabrielle deGroot Redford

Source: aarpmagazine.org

"Exercise Your Mind" Courses Held at Seabury

Memory retention strategies

Presenter: Barbara S. Klau, MS

Goals of the course:

1. To educate participants about:
   • changes in the aging brain
   • factors that affect memory
   • memory retention techniques
2. To decrease the level of anxiety about memory changes
3. To give participants a greater sense of control and empowerment
4. To introduce a wide variety of mentally stimulating activities