Workout with Dr. Rick

Fitness: Exercise can increase brain activity, too
DJ Reese
Fitness columnist

There’s so much for the average person to do in any given day, it can be mind-boggling.

How well does your brain work? An area of concern is being able to retain mental acuity. Trendy approaches include playing computer brain games to keep neurons firing. However, a new study suggests that playing these brain-training games will only improve your ability for such gaming.

Adrian M. Owen and Adam Hampshire of the UK Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit led the study that was published in the journal Nature. The online study of more than 11,000 people found no significant cognitive improvements after a six-week period. Perhaps it’s time to log off from Facebook so you can get with a proven program that enhances intelligence.

It’s official — the same cardiovascular activities that give you a healthy body will help to keep you smart, too.

According to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, regular exercise boosts cognitive learning skills and improves blood circulation to the brain. These new findings were the result of studying the effects of activity with monkeys.

A group of middle-aged female monkeys were trained to run on human-sized treadmills for an hour, five days a week, for a period of five months at 80 percent of their maximum aerobic capacity. The monkeys who exercised learned twice as fast as the control group.

For some reason, something kicked in for me when I read the study, which appears in the journal Neuroscience. Those middle-aged female monkeys getting all these great benefits got me going. This sounded so good to me that I decided to conduct my own mini-study.

I stopped writing and did 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at 75 percent of my maximum capacity. I felt unfocused when I began, yet after a few minutes of increased blood flowing to my brain, I felt much more in touch. I actually started out somewhat reluctantly, if you know what I mean. That changed quickly. Before I knew it, I was in my zone, the time flew by, and I returned to the keyboard with new clarity.

If you are interested in keeping your wits sharp, I suggest that you get some regular aerobic activity and find out for yourself how much better you can feel after moderate to vigorous exercise. If you’re starting out, do a minimum of 20 minutes of cardiovascular activity at moderate intensity every other day. To find your heart rate zone, go to www.mayoclinic.com/health/target-heart- rate/SM00083 for a super-easy-to-use heart-rate calculator.

Basically, it comes down to this: Human bodies are designed to move through life and continue to learn new information. It’s what we do. Death is characterized by lack of movement, so take a break from gaming to exercise for body and mind. You’ll be so glad you did.