Walking to Save Your Brain

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

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities



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Kirk Erickson, PhD, at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and his colleagues reported these findings in the October 13 issue of the journal, Neurology.

Dr Erickson found the results quite astounding. He said that other studies have shown that exercise is related to brain function, but what amazed him was the fact that he and his colleagues found that walking as little
as one mile a day is related to brain volume nine years later, and dementia 13 years later.

According to these researchers, the volume of gray matter in your brain decreases in late adulthood and usually precedes cognitive impairment. It has been hypothesized that participation in physical exercise will protect brain tissue against deterioration. "This hypothesis has not been tested in longitudinal study", Dr. Erickson and colleagues wrote.

In the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study, 299 people free of dementia, whose mean age was 78 years were assessed for physical activity, which was measured by the number of blocks they walked in one week.

Nine years later after the physical activity assessment, MRI scans were used to measure brain size. Four years later, the participants were tested for cognitive impairment and dementia.

Those participating were classified into four groups depending on the number of blocks they walked. MRI scan measurements nine years later showed that gray matter volume in the highest quarter differed from the other three quarters significantly.

Those participants who walked at least six miles per week had more gray matter than people who walked less, but walking more than nine miles did not increase gray matter volume any more.

In the four year follow-up, 116 of the participants, or 40%, had developed cognitive impairment or dementia.

"Based on our results, we can conclude....read all of Walking to Save Your Brain

Top Ways to Stay Healthy

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

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities



Staying healthy delays dementia so from

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The thing to do for optimum health is something your grandparents probably did, but we, in our fast paced society, tend to overlook because we say that we are just too busy to do it.

The first thing you should do, at least one hour everyday, is exercise.

Daily exercise is key to preventing heart disease and stroke by making your heart muscle stronger. Exercising also lowers your blood pressure. In addition, daily exercise raises your high density lipoprotein levels (HDL). This is your good cholesterol. Your bad cholesterol, low density lipoprotein or LDL, is lowered. This in turn improves the blood flow to your heart thus increasing your heart's working capacity.

Exercising also strengthens and boosts your immune system. Some recent studies have suggested that exercising improves the functioning of your immune system. Exercise is a strong natural immune cell stimulator. This is really important for older men because their immune system progressively declines as they age. This can lead to a poor response to vaccinations and an increased risk of developing infectious diseases.

Luckily regular, moderate workouts, like jogging, walking or cycling, can, at least in part... Read all of Top ways to Stay Healthy

Study: Exercise, tea and vitamin D to ward off dementia

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

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY
Improved living and diet habits — including lots of physical activity, regular tea-drinking and sufficient vitamin D levels — could reduce the risk of brain decline, according to three studies presented Sunday.
"These are encouraging," says William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association. "These types of studies make people think, 'Well gosh, maybe I can do something about this disease.' "

The studies were presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Honolulu.

One of the studies is from the Framingham, Mass., cardiovascular risk study, in which researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, among others, tracked more than 1,200 elderly people over 20 years, 242 of whom developed dementia.

The researchers found that participants who had......more soon

Get 2 1/2 hours of exercise per week, U.S. says

Follow these guidelines or risk developing Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia later in life
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Adults should aim to get in 2 1/2 hours of exercise a week and children should run and play for at least an hour a day, according to new exercise guidelines issued by the U.S. government on Tuesday.

The guidelines, meant to be akin to the "Food Pyramid" nutritional advice, are based on studies that show clear health benefits from regular, moderate exercise.

"More than 59 percent of adults don't get enough physical activity and a quarter of adults aren't active.....read the whole article