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Reply: 2 Things You Need for a Younger Brain

This is actually the hottest area of neural research, and we continue to learn...

Posted by Henry S Lodge, MD

3 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:2 Things You Need for a Younger Brain This is actually the hottest area of neural research, and we continue to learn...

2 Things You Need for a Younger Brain

When I was in medical school, we were taught that you got all your brain cells by...

Posted by Henry S Lodge, MD

When I was in medical school, we were taught that you got all your brain cells by the time you were two years old. And by age 30, you start to lose them. Cognitive aging was simply the slow, steady loss of brain cells that occurred as you age. Well, it turns out this was wrong! Scientists around the world have demonstrated that your brain can continue to grow throughout your life -- growing new cells, forming new connections, and rewiring existing ones. But this only happens if you use it. An idle brain will wither and decay, which leads to the decline in cognitive function that we once accepted as being part of the normal aging process.

There are two great roads to rejuvenating your brain, and they might surprise you:
- Exercise. MRI studies show marked growth in new brain tissue after three months of regular exercise. This growth is not just in the parts of the brain that control movement. It's also evident in the areas responsible for memory, decision-making, and judgment.

- Social Connectedness. Your brain grows and thrives in direct proportion with the meaningful social connections you have -- meaning your engagement with friends, family, and your community. People who are lonely and depressed actually lose brain tissue overtime and show marked reductions in cognitive function. But people who stay connected with others and give back to their communities improve their chances of staying vibrant and sharp well into their later years.

There's a wonderful scientific study going on that's a great example of the power of staying connected. A program called Experience Corps is putting older people in schools as reading tutors for young kids. The kids are doing better, of course. But the tutors are doing better too -- a lot better! All markers of health are improving -- blood pressure and weight are going down, and mood and energy are going up. What's also interesting is that a wide range of blood tests that measure inflammation (linked to long-term risks of heart attack, stroke, and common cancers) also show improvement with social connection and emotional involvement!

Are you surprised at the control we can have over our brain health? Could this prompt you to make different lifestyle choices?View Thread

Posted byHenry S Lodge, MD

3 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:2 Things You Need for a Younger Brain When I was in medical school, we were taught that you got all your brain cells by...

Exercise Away the Years

We all grew up thinking of exercise as sweating in gym class, and then, as the...

Posted by Henry S Lodge, MD

We all grew up thinking of exercise as sweating in gym class, and then, as the world evolved, spandex. But exercise plays a much bigger role in your health than you may know. Turns out exercise controls health dials throughout your body. Not simply in your muscles, but in your arteries, heart, liver, lungs -- the list goes on.
When you push yourself hard enough to sweat you grow new cells -- better cells. And so you get functionally younger. There are 70-year-old men and women out there with the hearts, lungs, and muscles of 30-year-olds. And there's nothing special about them, except that they show up to exercise on a regular basis, and take it seriously when they do.

Chris Crowley, the co-author of Younger Next Year , first came to me as a patient at 65. He was heading into retirement, overweight and out of shape. After we talked about the life-changing power of exercise, he jumped into an exercise program with both feet, and more importantly, he stuck with it. Five years later, I took him into the lab and put him on the treadmill. At age 70, he scored among the fittest 10% of American men -- but in the 40-45 age range! Chris has kept up the hard work. And now, at 78, he bikes 50, sometimes 100 miles in the Rockies, travels, lectures, laughs, and loves his life.

Joy Johnson is another success story I know. Never much of an athlete in school, Joy started running later in life. At age 80, she won her category in the New York City Marathon. But she wasn't finished. She didn't like her time and felt she could do better. So she stepped up her training program. At 81, she won her category again and knocked almost an hour off her previous time.

Chris and Joy don't have any genetic advantages over you or anyone else. They just stepped up to the plate and made the decision to grow younger.

How much you exercise and what kinds of exercise you do are important. But what's most important is that you make the choice right now between settling for "normal" aging, or getting younger in the upcoming years.

What are your thoughts on exercise and aging? Do you currently exercise? Why or why not?View Thread

Posted byHenry S Lodge, MD

24 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Exercise Away the Years We all grew up thinking of exercise as sweating in gym class, and then, as the...

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