Make Your Brain 5 Years Younger By Doing This One Hour A Week
When older adults forget someone’s name or a telephone number or have trouble finding the right word to say, some explain their forgetfulness by saying, “I’m having a senior moment.”
Sometimes, older adults blame their memory lapses or slower cognitive responses on aging. It’s a fact backed by science that cognitive abilities, such as thinking, being able to multitask, and remembering information, begin to decline after age 30 or 40. The decline becomes steeper at 60.
The rate at which cognitive decline occurs varies significantly among individuals, just as physical decline varies from person to person. For example, some 60-year-olds exercise multiple times a week while others of the same age are physically worn out just by climbing stairs.
Although no one can turn back the hands of time when it comes to physical age, studies show that the effects of those years on the brain can be reversed. However, achieving this goal takes a willingness to work up a sweat at least one hour a week and take lifelong learning courses.
Intense Aerobic Exercise Supports The Brain
A study by a team of Canadian doctors found that one or two hours a week of demanding aerobic exercise made the brains of older adults five years younger. Walking, running, bicycling, swimming, jogging, and even mowing the lawn are examples of aerobic exercise.
The research team discovered this by recruiting 206 adults who, before starting the six-month program, exercised a maximum of four days a week at a moderate intensity for less than 30 minutes or no more than two days a week at high intensity for less than 20 minutes a day. The average age of the participants was 66, and they did not have any previous issues with heart or memory health.
At the start of the study, participants were given thinking and memory tests and an ultrasound to measure blood flow in the brain. Physical testing was repeated at three months, and thinking and physical testing were repeated at the end of the six-month program.
The participants joined a supervised aerobic exercise program that met three times a week. They increased their workout from an average of 20 minutes daily to at least 40 minutes as they progressed through the program. In addition, participants were encouraged to exercise on their own once a week.
After exercising for six months, the participants improved by 5.7 percent on tests of executive function (which includes self-control, making plans, and focusing attention). Verbal fluency (which tests how quickly one can retrieve information as well as the right word at the right time) increased by 2.4 percent.
Marc Poulin, the study’s author, was impressed with the results, which were published in the journal Neurology.
“This change in verbal fluency is what you’d expect to see in someone five years younger,” Poulin said in a statement.
In addition, the ultrasound showed the exercise increased the blood flow to the participants’ brain. Poulin said the blood flow increase was linked to several modest but significant improvements in aspects of thinking that usually decline during the aging process.
“Our study showed that six months’ worth of vigorous exercise may pump blood to regions of the brain that specifically improve your verbal skills as well as memory and mental sharpness,” Poulin said. “At a time when these results would be expected to be decreasing due to normal aging, to have these types of increases is exciting.”
Poulin said the study’s findings are important, especially for older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s and other dementias and brain diseases.
Turning Back the Brain 30 years
If one hour of aerobics has the potential to make the brain five years younger, going back to school and learning new things can reduce brain age by 30 years, according to a study published in the Aging and Mental Health journal.
A team of researchers from the University of California (UC) Riverside, the University of the Pacific, and Johns Hopkins University conducted a study to determine whether learning real-world skills could result in long-term improvements in cognition in older adults.
Not only did the team find proof of this, but Rachel Wu, the study’s lead researcher and an associate professor of psychology at UC Riverside, said they were amazed at the increase in the participants’ cognitive abilities after a one-year follow-up with them.
Cognitive skills, such as thinking, memory recall, and attention, may decline during normal aging, but Wu compares this to a “summer slide,” similar to what school children experience in the summer when their academic progress backslides during their summer vacation.
According to Wu, adults can experience a “summer slide” after their formal education and job training ends, and they “experience years, if not decades, of reduced or nonexistent learning opportunities.”
So, the research team provided an “encouraging learning environment” for 33 adults between 58 and 86 years old. Before participants started classes, the team tested their cognitive abilities, such as attention, short-term memory, and inhibition. Participants were also tested halfway through the classes and after three months of classes.
Participants were assigned three classes that met each week. The classes were assigned based on how little the participants knew about the subject. Each class lasted for two hours. The courses included singing, drawing, iPad use, photography, Spanish-language learning, and music composition. The participants were also given the option of taking two additional classes, which totaled five classes altogether, Wu said. For instance, if a participant was interested in drawing but was not assigned to this class because they had some experience in drawing, they could still sit in the drawing class as long as they took the other three classes. Along with the classes, researchers discussed learning barriers, motivation, and successful aging issues.
The team was astounded by the results after the classes ended.
The three-month program “enhanced participants’ memory and attention so drastically that their abilities came to resemble those of adults 30 years younger at the program’s end. And amazingly, they continued to improve long after the classes were over,” Wu and psychologist Jessica A. Church, reported in an article for Scientific American.
The psychologists said the team is still investigating why the participants’ cognitive abilities continued to increase after the program ended. One possibility is that the study encouraged the participants to continue learning and practicing new skills in daily life, the researchers said.
The positive takeaway from these studies is that adults can avoid significant cognitive decline as they age. Doing enjoyable activities for just an hour or so each week can help older adults keep their brains younger for a long time.
Source Links:
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/neuroscience-do-this-1-hour-week-make-brain-5-years-younger.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200513171130.htm
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/to-stay-sharp-as-you-age-learn-new-skills/
