Yet one more reason to exercise regularly: It staves off age-related cognitive decline.
Yes, it’s a graph. I apologize. Don’t stop reading! Notice how every line goes up when you compare the ‘Activity High’ column to the ‘Activity Low’ column. The results indicate that memory, speed-of-thought, and executive function are all preserved better in people who exercise, compared with those who don’t.
If you’re curious, the ‘WML’ stands for “white-matter lesions”. The white-matter is a brain tissue that often shows lesions (= spot defects) with vascular dementia. Patients with lots of white-matter lesions were compared in a different group (the dashed lines), than the patients with fewer white-matter lesions (the solid lines). Essentially this was a means to compare “apples with apples, and oranges with oranges”. The results are the same in both groups: exercise staves off cognitive decline, regardless of your vascular status.
At school I’m learning how exercise helps in many more ways than what is commonly thought.
Not only exercise keeps you prevent cognitive decline, it hugely reduces the incidence of diabetes, prevents cardiovascular disease & obesity, and it makes you feel GREAT, not only physically but psychologically!
If you think about it, many of the diseases that have reached epidemic levels in our society would be prevented if people decided to increase their physical activity. Exercise is definitely the way to go!
Comment by D — October 23, 2009 @ 8:21 am
Hey Diana!!! Nice to hear from you
!!
Comment by Jason Booy — October 23, 2009 @ 5:48 pm