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Cognitive Vs Exercise

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Research shows that integrating exercise or meditation in one’s life can result in tremendous benefits both physically and mentally, including improving one’s cognitive abilities. Cognition can be defined as the capacity to perceive, retain, and apply information that has been learned through experience or observation (Michelon, 2006). It entails aspects such as memory, perception, visual and spatial processing, attention, motor skills, language, and executive function (Michelon, 2006). Meditation and exercise can boost an individual’s blood hormone levels, which can improve memory, and decrease one’s risk of developing dementia (Bergland, 2014). Learning can also be positively affected as physical exercise maximizes the mind’s capacity to take in information, particularly by increasing the individual’s motivation, attention span, …show more content…

Holistically, both activities can help fight diseases and decrease one’s risk of having health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and arthritis, among other conditions (Warburton, Nicole, Bredin, 2006). Additionally, both activities can increase an individual’s energy as it helps spread oxygen and nutrients to different areas in the body more efficiently and improve blood circulation. As one gets older, exercise and meditation can also help reduce the risks of disabilities and chronic conditions such as obesity and cystic fibrosis Warner (2006). Although exercise and meditation can aid an individual in a variety of ways, for the purpose of this essay, I will specify how both can improve older individual’s cognitive function by increasing their brain plasticity, executive function, attentional control, and decrease one’s risk of developing

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