Mental Exercise Influence The Brain's Health

Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2015) state that there is research showing how brain plasticity can be enhanced through aerobic exercise (p.51). It is important that adults be active in their lives. A 30-minute walk or some type of physical activity will benefit them as the age. The text mentions a study done by Erickson and his colleagues in 2009 where they studied the effect of aerobic exercise on the hippocampus. They found that due to aerobic exercise it produced greater volume in the hippocampus. This is significant because the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for memory, emotions, and spatial functioning. The body does not only need physical activities to produce healthier cognitive functioning but also nutrients. The text identifies three nutrient biomarker patterns that are significant on the aging brain. These nutrients are vitamin B, C,D, and E, omega-3, and trans fat. the foods that belong to these nutrients are beneficial to the brain. Older adults should make an effort to include these nutrients into their diets. positive impacts these nutrients make are better cognitive functioning and greater brain

This is quite an impressive quality that the human brain undergoes and in order to make perfect use of this quality, the scientist is trying to make connections and find out if there are any environmental factors that can enhance neuroplasticity. One of the factors is ‘Exercise’ and in this paper, we are going to investigate the impact that exercise may have on neuroplasticity. We have been able to find that

Your brain is an organ that needs to be used in order to maintain its peak efficiency. Just like any other organ in the body, the brain will decline with age and lack of use. Similar to a computer, your brain is the command center for your entire body. The brain has over one hundred billion nerve cells that are interconnected to one another. Mentally stimulating your brain on a consistent basis will protect you from losing vital cognitive abilities. You should think of exercising your brain like physically exercising the rest of your body. Most age related memory loss is brought about by lack of mental activity and stimulation of the brain. The brain is continually growing new neurons so it is always possible to improve your brain function. There are various techniques that you can use to improve your brain function and prevent cognitive decline. You can improve your brain and improve your sense of alertness and well-being.

Blakemore (1988) defines memory as the ability to retain information from past experiences. According to a study done by Brown-Peterson, the average person’s short-term memory is 60% accurate (Gross et al., 2015). According to a research experiment, conducted by Stroth et al. (2011), a possible way of increasing memory is through aerobic exercise. Stroth et al. (2011), concluded that aerobic exercise improves the visual memory by 25%. According to a study done Leavitt et al. (2014), aerobic exercise can increase the volume of the hippocampus, which has been linked to memory formation and short-term memory, by 16.5 %. Previous studies have revealed that there is a causal relationship between aerobic exercise and memory; however, previous studies have not looked into ways that improve short-term memory (Holt et al., 2015). This study tests the hypothesis, that aerobic exercise has a positive correlation with short-term memory, and that 30 minutes of aerobic exercise can increase the accuracy of a person’s short-term memory by 10-20 %.

Whichever strategy you decide to use, always remember to commit yourself fully to the program. The exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous, taking a 30 to 40 minutes walk in a park on a regular basis may just be sufficient to ward off mental wear and tear. Remember, keeping the brain healthy also helps slow cognitive decline as we grow older. Andrew Knight New Canaan believes great health and invigorated frame of mind can be achieved by taking a disciplined approach to physical fitness.

Exercise is a most definite critical allaction to a well-being lifestyle. Doing such physical procedures keeps one highly appeased as it gives a feel of a vigor state on the outside body. Nevertheless, exercise does not only benefit the outside appearance and health. In fact, exercise has many positive benefits on the human brain as well. Physical activity can be advantageous and profitable to the brain by stimulating the brain’s growth, conflicting depression and anxiety, retaining memory, and lastly concentration improvement.

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that through the normal ageing process alterations to the brain in structure and function are directly related to cognitive changes (Glisky, 2007). With an increasing ageing population strategies for prevention of disease and age related cognitive decline are necessary to improve quality of life and reduce the associated healthcare costs (Australian Government Productivity Commission [AGPC], 2013). Physical exercise is known to be crucial in maintaining physiological health; it can also be used as a means of neuroprotection and assist in modifiable risk factors for improved brain health and subsequent cognitive function. This review will critically analyse current research into the effects of exercise

The articles by Erikson et al., Gatz, Korol et al., and Draganski et al. explore the concept of increased physical activity and/or mental activity having effects on the cognitive function and development or deterioration of the brain as we age. Although I agree that physical exercise is critical in increasing cognitive function because of the health benefits it provides, as well as the increased blood flow and circulation throughout the body, I ultimately believe that a healthy brain is not achieved solely by physical exercise or mental exercise, but both. I think there is a link between physical and mental exercise, and that the combination of these two activities creates higher cognitive functioning of the mind as well as the body. The mind and body come together and meet to make an overall healthy individual.

To determine whether or not brain training can successfully assist in successful aging, one must define what successful aging is. Successful aging can be defined as “low probability of disease and disease-related disability, high cognitive and physical functional capacity, and active engagement with life” (Rowe & Kahn, 1997). These elements are all interrelated and provide an individual with choice and independence in their later stages of life. A crucial element for successful aging is high cognitive capacity, however it is a known fact that cognitive decline is a normal part of aging (Ball, 2004). From early adulthood, individuals start showing signs of decline in important cognitive domains such as reasoning, processing speed and short term memory. These cognitive domains underpin a high cognitive capacity and heavily impact the daily activities of an aging population. Regular tasks such as driving, doing the groceries,banking, handling medication and cooking require a substantial level of cognitive functioning and without it, an aging population becomes dependent on the society around it to support them.

People who exercise more frequently are creating more neurons inside of their brain and increasing their cognitive functions. When someone doesn’t exercise their body, they aren’t challenging it enough to stimulate their brain. This needed stimulation is basically exercising their brain, along with their body. It increases their potential to be smarter. A study was done to a group of older people who had some impairment to their cognitive memory. They were split into three random groups and assigned different types of exercise. One group had resistance training, another had aerobic training, and the last had balance and tone training. By the end of the study it showed that the people that were in both the resistance and aerobic exercise groups had “increased spatial memory” (Friedman). Exercise is so critical to your brain because just like how you would use protein to increase your physical strength, when you exercise your body releases a protein in your brain called brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This is what causes the brain to increase the growth and formation of neurons and increasing the potential of the memory

For a long time, it was suspected that exercise improved brain functioning and many different kind studies were done over the years to confirm this. Data from the studies, all associate physical activity with brain functioning and indicate that the two factors are positively correlated. The majority of these studies have looked into the impact of physical activity on brain cognition in hopes of finding methods of treatment for neurological cognitive disorders.

The review article by Jackson et al. discusses how engaging in physical activity, cognitive activity, and following a healthy diet can promote brain health. These lifestyle factors contribute to increasing reserve - the capacity of the brain to maintain function in the face of acute injury, degenerative impairment etc. Studies in both humans and animal models have demonstrated that physical activity has direct effects on brain health. For example, physical exercise in rodents increases neurogenesis in hippocampal dentate gyrus and induces angiogenesis in the cortex and other brain regions. Consistent with the studies using rodents, higher cardiorespiratory fitness levels in adults were linked to better performance in hippocampal mediated tasks

Exercise can affect a student’s academic performance because of some certain effects on the brain.

The first thing that is assumed about the use of the brain is the myth that “Humans only use 10%” of their brain. This myth was stamped into millions of minds ever since it was since in the 1970’s. This myth has been widely use to explain that humans essentially use 10% of their brain , and the smartest people in the today’s world ,such as scientists and psychologists, use the highest percentage of their brain. Whereas it is estimated that the smartest people use about 15-18% of their brain. As there is no scientific evidence to prove that most humans use only 10% of their brain, there is still mystery to why more are not attempting to use their brain power to its maximum potential. As we get older, we tend to forget to take care of our brain. The older we get, the less “plastic” our brain gets which causes many individuals to react “slow” or “late” in school , and in life. As we get older, most individuals forget that we still have a task that should be done every day. That task is learning. If we become stagnant in learning, we develop a neuroplasticity deficiency, where our brains will slowly or stop rerouting neural pathways for our brain. This will then cause severe brain illnesses such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Exercise and the functioning of the brain have long been studied and correlated together in multiple studies. Whether these two ideas are directly correlated is still being determined because it is a fairly new idea in exercise psychology. Many of the studies being done are the first of their kind in trying to prove that exercise does in fact have an impact on the brain functions.