To get the most from your brain performance as you take physical exercise,  follow this simple advice:

Exercise within the boundaries of your fitness level. Work out a training program that suits you and never over-do it. From week to week gradually increase the length of your exercise sessions and along with improving your physical fitness, you will also begin to feel the benefits mentally.

Stay aerobic. Unless you are a serious athlete training for a specific race, there is little need to move outside your aerobic threshold when you exercise. Exercise at a comfortable pace and keep your breathing regular. While running or cycling you should be able to hold a conversation without feeling out of breath or panting. If you do feel out of breath, slow down.

Warm up and cool down. If you do need to do some high-intensity exercise make sure you warm up and cool down with some easy aerobic exercise before and after to get your brain back in gear.

Stay hydrated. Dehydration will stop your brain and body from functioning normally. If you don’t drink plenty of water during and after exercising, you may not feel any of the rewards, either physically or mentally. If anything, it will slow you down. Don’t risk it and always have water close at hand.

Keep goals. It is difficult to imagine running a marathon if you’ve never walked a mile. Stay focused and keep manageable goals that will take you just outside your comfort zone. When you reach one goal then make another. The mental strength needed to run a marathon will then develop naturally along with your physical fitness.

Have you ever experienced the benefits of physical exercise on your brain performance?

Source: www.healthfitness.com.au

Brain decline has a profound impact on the life and relationships of people who develop it. “Being socially active, being an intellectually engaged individual, having recreational time, enjoying a good diet, lacking stress – these are all things that tend to help in avoiding dementia,” says Dr. Lawrence Whalley, author of The Aging Brain and psychiatrist and professor of mental health with the School of Medicine at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen.

How Social Activity Affects Dementia Risk

Studies show that having a fulfilling social life can significantly reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. A study in the February 2007 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry found that lonely people are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life. The researchers tested 823 older people for loneliness and gave them a loneliness score of 1 (lowest) to 5. They found that for each point of increase in the loneliness score, the participants had a 51 percent increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Another study, published by The Lancet Neurology, found that social networks (e.g., having close friends, staying in contact with family members) may help protect against the damaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease.  For this study, researchers collected information about the social networks of 89 elderly people. They also tested the participants’ cognition 21 times each year. After the participants died, the researchers analyzed their brains and found that the larger a person’s social network, the less effect tangles and plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease had on his or her cognitive test scores.

SOURCES:  Humana, Inc.; JAMA/Archives journals;  The Lancet Neurology; Department of Health and Human Services;  National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; U.S Department of Health and Human Services

The 5th annual Games for Health Conference was held in Boston.  It was co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, from whom HAPPYneuron was a proud award recipient last year. I presented about enabling better tools for professionally guided Cognitive Remediation programs. The slides can be found here…..

The Alzheimer’s Association recently published an article on the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The first sign is occasional memory loss, like not being able to remember important dates or events, further signs are difficulties in planning or solving problems, completing everyday tasks, confusing time and place and not knowing how and why you arrived to a particular location. You can read about the different types of memory loss here and learn more about the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s disease here…

Now, according to a study published on April 3 in the journal Science, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health found more evidence that sleep resets the brain to allow more growth and learning the next day.  Read about their fascinating research here. So get a good night’s sleep - your brain will thank you for it.