Why exercise improves memory, and how much does it take to notice the effect? Good Life

We have all felt the anger that comes from not remembering where we have left our house keys, forgetting the name of a famous actor or standing in the supermarket without knowing what we have gone to buy. They are normal memory failures, which have more to do with stress or tiredness than with the ability to retain information. However, there is something that does resent mental abilities and for which there is little remedy: time. And that there is little remedy means that there are things that can be done: wearing sports shoes and moving not only serves to strengthen the muscles, the exercise It is a prime ally in preserving memory as we age, according to a number of recently confirmed scientific studies.

Two small investigations published this month have concluded that the secret is that physical activity favors blood flow throughout the body, including the brain. The first, carried out by experts from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary (Canada) and published in the journal Neurology, underlines how exercise confers its benefits; according to the researchers, it makes the flow increases in the areas responsible for lto memory, lverbal fluency and lto mental agility. Is any type of exercise worth it? According to these experiments, we have to prepare ourselves to accelerate the rhythm of the heart, since the physical activity that achieved these results was aerobic.

The research was carried out with a group of 206 adults with a mean age of 66 years, who did not have heart or memory problems and who did not practice exercise regularly. For six months, the scientists made them sweat as a group three days a week. At first only for 20 minutes in each session, but each time a little more until reaching 40 minutes per workout. They were also asked to do a weekly session on their own. At the end of the study period, all of them improved the mentioned mental capacities.

The second work, responsibility of experts from the Southwestern Medical Center of the University of Texas (United States) and published in the magazine Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, It had 30 participants of 60 years or more, who this time did have memory problems. Half had to do aerobic workouts over a 12-month period and the other half just had to rest and stretch, which does not have the effect of increasing blood flow to the brain. After the year, the 15 people who had put their muscles to work showed a 47% improvement in their memory compared to the start of the research. And all thanks to that increase in the amount of blood that reached the cingulate gyrus and the hippocampus, two regions of the brain that play a fundamental role in our ability to retain informationn.

It is not the first time that science has pointed in this direction. In 2015, a study by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada) revealed that taking a good run or a quick walk for 60 minutes, three times a week, improves the cognitive abilities of the elderly. Remember that if you also manage to reach 7,000 steps in each walk, you will get to sleep like a baby.

But cardio is not for everyone. If you are one of those who hates to put the potato at a thousand revolutions, do not worry, there are other options. Dust off the dumbbells you have in the back of the closet because weight exercise alsoandn favors our mind. Another study from the same Canadian university (eastern 2012) concluded that weight lifting exercises improve memory and mental alertness. And not everything is a matter of kilos, the speed at which we move also matters: the faster it is, the longer we live, says science.

You can follow Buenavida on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or subscribe here to the Newsletter.

– .