Are Physical or Mental Exercises Better for Your Brain?

Various studies in recent years have looked at how physical exercise and mental exercise seem to prevent age-related problems, such as dementia. Medical scans have determined that brains can and do shrink with age and that brain cells lose connections. All of this leads to impairment in cognitive functioning.

The good news is: such shrinkage and impairments are not inevitable. More and more research has discovered that simple physical exercise, such as walking, on a regular basis may prevent such unfortunate happenings. The theory is that physical exercise encourages the heart to pump more blood to the brain, among other places, blood that carries oxygen which is so critical to functioning at the cellular level.

Yet researchers have also been saying that people can maintain healthy brains by engaging in mental/cognitive exercise, the so-called “brain games” that have become so popular. Even having an active social life can contribute to this mental health, supposedly.

Now a study has come out comparing the effects of physical activity with mental/social activity in terms of cerebral shrinkage. Reported by Time Health & Family online, this 3-year Scottish study looked at 638 people initially aged 70. They filled out detailed questionnaires looking at the physical exercise they participated in as well as their stimulating cognitive and social activities. Three years later the same subjects were given MRIs of their brains to check on their comparative sizes and amount of shrinkage, if any.

And the results? The brain scans showed larger brains and less white matter shrinkage in those who engaged in physical exercise than those who engaged more in social/mental activities. In fact, those engaging more in the social/mental dimension showed little if any benefits from them. This study also suggested that cognitive decline can even be slowed down through the process of regular physical exercise. Although this research is correlational – meaning that cause and effect cannot necessarily be determined – yet the fact that the physical exercise findings are in line with other similar studies cannot be ignored.

No matter how you look at it, regularly-performed physical activities such as walking and aerobics will certainly not hurt your brain and may even help it, more so than brain games. So go ahead and slip on your walking shoes. Your brain as well as your body will thank you!

                    Author hiking across Whitetop Mountain in SW Virginia.

Parents: Beware of Letting Your Kids Become Overweight!

Well, moms and dads and all you overweight kids, the results are in, and they are not good. A new study (“A Clinical Trial to Maintain Glycemic Control in Youth with Type 2 Diabetes”) following 699 youth and teens from 10 to 17 years of age was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. All of these subjects were either overweight or obese and had Type 2 diabetes as well. Although the study did not use a control group, which may have been difficult at best, nevertheless the results were pretty clear: Even through the medication regimen, a combination of medications regimen, and a group receiving medication plus a lifestyle change program, the researchers found significant (from 39% to almost 50%) failure in the subjects’ ability to manage their blood sugar levels.

Why do this study in the first place? Because Type 2 diabetes, which used to be called “adult-onset” diabetes, is accelerating faster than a race driver in the Indy 500. Since more and more young people are becoming butterballs, we have plenty of reasons to worry. So what does that mean for them? Dr. David M. Nathan, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Diabetes Center, spelled it out, “I fear that these children are going to become sick earlier in their lives than we’ve ever seen before.” And severe risks are entailed in the use of some diabetes medications for young people. Besides, what will that do to an already messed-up health system, not that we actually have a “system”?

Parents, you have only yourselves to look to to deal effectively with this problem. The super rich, especially those behind the pharmaceutical companies, don’t care. The more medications get sold, the richer they get. Is there no end to their greed? Don’t they ever have enough? Parents, if you really love your kids, you have to start using “tough love” if nothing else works to get them to eat right and to exercise well. If you’re not sure where to start, do a little research on the Internet, or the library, or your school system. Start by being a good role model. It’s not hard. You can do it. If you don’t, no one else will.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/30/type-2-diabetes-is-tougher-to-treat-in-kids-and-teens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fwellness+%28TIME%3A+Wellness%29#ixzz1tZ7UOC8O