Exercise your brain power

“You can’t separate the mind and body,” Jack LaLanne once told USA Today. The Godfather of Modern Fitness, he lived to be 96 and learned early in life that exercise (combined with proper nutrition) could give your body and mind a significantly younger RealAge.

In his heyday, critics called LaLanne a nut and a charlatan, but it turns out he was right. A study in the journal Neurology reveals that sedentary folks 55 and older with cognitive impairment (difficulty concentrating, making decisions or remembering) can turn back the clock nine years in just six months by doing aerobic exercise (walking, cycling) for 35 minutes three times a week! Executive functioning – neurologically based skills involving mental control and self-regulation – was what showed notable improvement.

The very best cognitive improvements came to participants who followed that exercise routine and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet – a lowsodium, high-fiber nutritional plan with lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, low-fat dairy, 100 per cent whole grains and lean proteins.

While this wasn’t a big/major study, it echoes the findings of another study out of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center that suggested physical fitness is associated with stronger neuron fibers and better executive function in folks with mild cognitive impairment. Other research also has found that aerobic exercise increases the volume of the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory.

So, what’s not to embrace? Join an exercise group and have some fun.

As George Bernard Shaw said: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”