Guarding Your Memory

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia music activity

JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTH ALERTS!

What is the single most important thing people can do to protect their brains and guard their memory? In this article from the Johns Hopkins Memory Bulletin, Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D and Sam Wang, Ph.D answer this important question.

Q. What is the single most important thing people can do to protect their brains and guard their memory?

Sam: The answer is simple and surprising. It's physical exercise, especially the kind that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat. It's not known exactly why exercise works, but the best idea is that it improves blood flow to the brain. It also stimulates the secretion of neurotrophins, which are signaling molecules that help neurons grow.

A recent meta-analysis of 18 studies reports that a physical exercise program -- even one started when people are in their 70s -- can significantly boost executive function. In this case, the effect size is quite large. To return to our example, if you are an average person out of a group of 20, which would rank you as number 10, exercise can improve your rank to number five -- a huge improvement.

Sandra: What's important to remember is that there have been actual intervention studies reporting that exercise programs can significantly improve executive function and the ability to plan and execute behaviors. A meta-analysis of 18 studies published in Psychological Science concluded that a variety of physical exercise programs improved executive function substantially. Another study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found evidence that exercise also protects cognitive ability.

Older people who had.....the rest tomorrow