Aerobic Exercise for a Bigger Better Brain

Aerobic Exercise for a Bigger Better Brain

How Aerobic Exercise Improves Brain Function and Memory

By Robin Westen - Posted February 2, 2011 12:00 AM

Source: Goodshoot/Thinkstock

Sure, aerobic exercises such as walking fast, spinning, even jumping rope are great for keeping us in terrific physical shape – but new research shows getting our heart pumping also keeps the aging brain from getting “flabby.”

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Illinois, Rice University and Ohio State demonstrated that a program of aerobic exercise, over the course of a year, increases the size of the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that is crucial to keeping the memory and understanding of spatial navigation in good shape, especially in adults ages 55 to 80. Without aerobic exercise the hippocampus is known to shrink in late adulthood, leading to memory impairment.

There’s nothing startling in these finding which back up earlier research that showed a connection between fitness level and brain function, but these results pump up the reason to get moving.

HOW THE STUDY WORKED

The researchers recruited 120 older people who didn't exercise regularly. Half were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise program, walking around a track three days a week for 40 minutes per session. The other half embarked on a stretching-and-weights program. Both groups were carefully coached and monitored. They provided blood samples, performed spatial memory exercises and were given MRIs at the beginning, halfway point and end of the research period.

Scientists found that the group doing aerobic exercise had increases in hippocampus volume: up 2.12 % in the left hippocampus and 1.97% in the right hippocampus. The stretching group, on the other hand, had decreased hippocampus volume: down 1.40% on the left and 1.43% on the right.

The participants also performed spatial memory exercises. Again, the aerobic exercise group had better function by the end of the year of exercise. Blood tests also showed an increase in the levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor, a chemical involved with learning and memory, among the walkers. Increases in hippocampal size were associated with increased amounts of brain-derived neurotropic factor.

WHAT IT MEANS

The findings lead to great news. They show that the loss of hippocampal size as we age is not inevitable and can even be reversed with moderate-intensity exercise. Does this mean a few laps around the track might be a particularly cost-effective way to treat a widespread health problem -- without the side effects of medication? Well, there’s a good chance it might.

Even better news, it’s never too late to get going.

MODERATE AEROBIC ACTIVITIES

•Walking briskly on a level surface
•Swimming
•Gardening, mowing, or raking the lawn
•Cycling on a stationary bicycle
•Bicycling outdoors on a level surface

CAUTION: If you’ve been inactive for a long time or have certain health risks, speak to your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

MORE STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES

•Climbing stairs or hills
•Shoveling snow
•Brisk bicycling up hills
•Running or walking quickly on an inclined treadmill
•Aerobics classes at gyms such as spinning

These exercises should feel somewhat difficult to you, but not painful. You can divide your exercise into sessions of no less than 10 minutes at a time, as long as they add up to a total of at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week. When you can safely and comfortably do 30 minutes of moderate cardio exercise at one time, you can add more time--or try more than one exercise during the same session.

NOTE: Doing less than 10 minutes at a time won't give you the desired cardiovascular and respiratory system benefits you are looking for.

REMINDER: Speak with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

Robin Westen is ThirdAge’s medical reporter. Check for her daily updates. She is the author of “Relationship Repair.”

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Bathroom Falls and Injuries: Data, Studies and Statistics

Feb 3rd, 2011

by admin.

We are in the business of making homes, assisted living facilities, and universities safer places to live. An important selling point for manufacturers and dealers of low threshold showers and walk-in tubs is that the bathroom poses dangers that causes falls and injuries. Wet slippery floors, high tub walls to step over, and confined spaces can make bathrooms dangerous for just about anyone, let alone the elderly and people with limited mobility. Our goal is to remove the barriers that can cause slips and falls.

Naturally, health and community organizations take fall risks and injuries very seriously. Through fall prevention programs, some very sobering statistics on falls have been revealed. Here is some data gathered from studies and surveys to consider:

Queensland (Australia) Injury Surveillance Unit:

www.qisu.org.au/

“Older people(65 and older) typically have greater difficulties with mobility, vision and balance making them more likely to fall or slip which accounted for 79% of bathroom injuries for this demographic,”

“Over a third of the elderly required hospital admission following a bathroom incident. It can be estimated that every year at least 10 older Queenslanders will die from falls in their bathrooms, demonstrating that prevention of these types of injuries will both save lives and improve quality of life.”

Home Safety Council:

www.homesafetycouncil.org

Survey respondents consider the bathroom to be the second most dangerous room in their home (behind the kitchen).

British Columbia Ministry of Health: Support for the Strategies & Actions for Independent Living (SAIL), Falls and Injury Independent Living Prevention Program in British Columbia

http://www.coag.uvic.ca/resources/publications/reports/Fall_Prevention_Training_SAIL.pdf

Of the 220 clients that started SAIL, 85 (39%) fell over 180 days of study for a total of 142 falls. 13% of the falls occurred in the bathroom

University of Michigan Health System: Bath falls common among older adults

http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=907

Researchers videotaped people ages 60 and older who demonstrated (while fully clothed) how they normally climbed in and out of the shower or tub. One-third of the 89 participants in the study had difficulty, such as plopping onto a tub seat or hitting the side of the tub or the shower threshold with their legs.

One of the major problem areas the researchers found involved sliding glass doors in showers. Three-quarters of participants who used shower stalls with sliding glass doors tried to utilize the door for stability or balance.

“This is extremely unsafe because shower doors were not designed to support a person’s weight,” Murphy says. “This problem could be easily remedied by educating older adults not to use the door as a support or possibly replacing it with a shower curtain, which was used only rarely by older adults in this study.”

While the majority of people using both tubs and shower stalls used safe environmental features such as grab bars, many used unsafe features in addition to the safe ones. Nineteen percent of participants using a tub were evaluated as using unsafe features, and more than 70 percent of those with shower stalls used unsafe features, such as the glass door, towel bar or a tub seat. One participant had a plastic lawn chair as a tub seat, a particularly dangerous improvisation given curved shape of the tub floor.

Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital

http://injuryresearch.net/page12103830.aspx

According to a recent study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, more than 43,000 children 18 years and younger in the United States are treated in hospital emergency departments annually for injuries occurring in a bathtub or shower. The number of injuries remained consistently high over the 18-year study period from 1990-2007

Pediatrics: Injuries Associated With Bathtubs and Showers Among Children in the United States

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2008-2489v1

There were an estimated 791,200 bathtub- and shower-related injuries among children 18 years of age who were treated in US emergency departments in 1990–2007, with an average of 43,600 cases per year or 5.9 injuries per 10,000 US children per year. The largest number of injuries involved children 2 years of age; children 4 years accounted for 54.3% of injuries.

Abir Mullick - State University of New York at Buffalo: Bathing for Older People with Disabilities

http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/idea/Publications/Bathing%20for%20Older%20People.htm

According to the National Safety Council, one person dies everyday from using bathtub/shower in the United States. Of the 24,000 accidental deaths of people over the age of 65 every year, many are bathing related (Burdman, 1986). The National Safety Council reported that 345 people of all ages died in bathtubs in 1989, 364 in 1988, and 348 in 1987.

After the swimming pool, the bathtub is the second major site of drowning in the home. Budnick and Ross (1985) studied bathtub-related drownings from 1979-1981. They concluded that those with least control over their environments – young and the elderly -have the greatest risk of drowning. Children less than 5 years old accounted for 25 percent, and those over the age of 75, 15.5 percent of the bathtub-related deaths. Drowning deaths, for those over the age of 60, were primarily due to having fallen in the tub.

On an average, 370 persons of all ages sustain injuries from bathtub/shower daily in the United States. The dangerous aspect of bathing is evident from the injury data reported by the Consumer Product Safety Commission: 117,230 bathtub/shower injuries in 1989; 136,616 in 1990; and 139,434 in 1991.Those between the ages of 25-64 accounted for 37 percent of all bathtub/shower injuries; the most vulnerable being those closer to the upper age limit. The elderly accounted for 17 percent of bathtub/shower injuries in 1989, 22 percent in 1990, and 20 percent in 1991.

Bathing is a difficult task for a large number of the America’s elderly. Another study by the NIDRR indicated that in 1987, “a total of 3.6 million persons (12 percent in the community of over 65) had difficulty with at least one Activity of Daily Living or mobility(walking) . . . ADL and mobility difficulties affecting the greatest number of elderly were bathing (2.5 million or 8.9 percent)” .

Go to bed early with your CPAP machines or get a few extra minutes at the gym?

As you know, most of the contestants on The Biggest Loser use sleep apnea equipment to treat their OSA. How do they balance sleep and exercise?

The Biggest Loser contestants are challenged daily to learn all the tools to maintain weight loss and a healthy lifestyle.

These include exercise, nutrition and yes, sleep. Which is the most important? It’s about finding a balance to do them all.

There is a wealth of information regarding exercise and nutrition and how important they are to being healthy. Our daily lives are inundated with messages to exercise and eat healthy and they even provide information on how to do that!

Maybe you have been exercising and eating right for months now. Even so, you still have been feeling run down and can’t seem to get those extra pounds off.

What’s missing? Healthy sleep.?

Whether you have apnea or not, sleep plays a very vital role in this health equation. It is just as important as exercise and nutrition for your health.

Most of us look at sleep as a nuisance. Some of us even brag about how little sleep we can get and still function.

The reality is, no matter how hard you exercise or how well you eat, without proper rest you will not be on your “A” game.

Sleep affects everything. Your mood, work performance, exercise, weight loss, and general health. Proper sleep allows our body to recover and is necessary for our bodies to function on a healthy level. Sleep is a very ACTIVE state of being. Your body works hard to regulate all the biological processes that prepare for and aid your body and mind so they can rest and recover from a hard day’s work.

When we don’t spend enough time in bed to get the sleep we need or when sleep time in bed is disrupted, the rest and recovery doesn’t happen properly.

People who have sleep apnea, have an even greater challenge when it comes to good sleep because their bodies wake them up several times every hour to breathe disrupting the rhythm of rest and recovery.

Those of you, who have obstructive sleep apnea that is untreated, can spend 8 hours in bed and only get 4 or less hours of sleep! Would you put your money in an investment where for every $8 you put in you only get $4 back? An estimated 18 million Americans have sleep apnea, including most of our TBL friends.

Untreated sleep apnea (or not using you sleep apnea devices) not only affects your day to day ability to function, but can lead to some serious health problems including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.

Sleep apnea gone undiagnosed can leads to a vicious cycle of unhealthy living. It starts with daytime sleepiness.

When we are tired we are less likely to make healthy choices such as exercising and eating right. Even if we do make it to the gym, our workouts are less efficient.

If we don’t get enough sleep, we are less motivated to take the time for healthy meals and tend to grab something quick and usually unhealthy. This leads to weight gain.

Our sleep is directly related to our appetite and metabolism as well. This provides further evidence that sleep and obesity are linked.

What does this all mean? What should The Biggest Loser contestants do – sleep or exercise?

No one knows what the perfect balance needs is. What we do know is that sleep, exercise, and nutrition are all critically important to the healthy lifestyle we all strive to attain.

As for our friends at the ranch, they are learning if one of these components is left out, all of the othersm may suffer. We look forward to talking to them and giving you more insight into how they balance it all as the season continues.

For now, get your rest and wear your CPAP !!

Senate First Month Purchase Option Letter

Click Here for full letter from the Senate

"Providers of mobility products are reliant on timely payment from Medicare to provide costly products, such as power wheelchairs to Medicare beneficiaries..."