Originally published July 15 2005
Physical exercise keeps your brain in shape
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Research shows regular exercise may help prevent the development of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease and that physical activity promotes the manufacture of nerve cells connected with the brain's synapses, which are responsible for memory and other intellectual functions.
Climbing stairs, going for a walk and riding a bicycle are beneficial not only to the heart and general circulation; they also keep the brain young, according to a new study conducted at Germany's Sports College in Cologne.
The researchers looked into brain activity in older people, concluding that even people in their seventies could show improvement as a result of gentle physical exercise.
"It is never too late to start exercising," Wildor Hollmann, a professor in sports medicine and a former president of the German Olympic committee in Frankfurt.
These are the contact points between the nerve cells and are responsible for a range of intellectual activities, among others for the memory and for carrying out ideas in the mind.
It is precisely these abilities that start to decline as early as middle age, at which stage people start to have difficulty getting their heads around new situations and solving new problems.
Studies in the United States have shown that increased physical activity in middle age can help to prevent or delay the onset of diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of senile dementia, in which there is a marked decline in brain function and memory.
"We believe that anyone can get Alzheimer's," says Wolf Dieter Oswald, director of the Institute of Psychogerontology at the University of Erlangen in Nuremberg.
Oswald believes that the best results here are shown by combining physical activity with memory exercises, as a result of long-term research project he participated in more than a decade ago.
"It's amazing how simply going for a walk for an hour twice a week can improve cognitive ability in older people," he says.
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