Do you ever have trouble remembering where you put your keys… why you walked into a room… or the name of the good movie you just watched?
Those kinds of short-term memory lapses are common as we age. And they reflect a functional decline in the hippocampus.
This is an area of the brain responsible for forming and storing new memories. It’s also one of the first to deteriorate as we get older.
Fortunately, according to some exciting research by neuroscientists with the University of California, you can ward off decline in that critical part of your brain… and boost your memory… doing one of my top-recommended activities.
Better yet? All it takes is 10 minutes!
Light exercise linked to better memory
We know from previous research that exercise helps the brain create new cells. Specifically, it pumps oxygen to the brain and aids in the release of hormones, which together cultivate an ideal environment for new cell growth.1
But this process of building new brain cells takes a long time… a very long time.
The good news is, new research, which was published in prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy, found that exercise also has an almost immediate effect on your working memory. 2
For this investigation, neuroscientists asked 36 young, healthy adults to engage in some light exercise—such as 10 minutes of slow walking, yoga, or tai chi.
Immediately afterward, the participants took a standard cognitive test to assess their memory. They also underwent brain scans using high-tech magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after exercising. (Participants retook the test on another day without exercising, too.)
Well, it turns out, after just one session of light exercise, the participants performed much better on the memory assessment than on the day they didn’t exercise.
In the MRI scan, they also exhibited increased connectivity between the hippocampus and the cortical regions of the brain (the areas involved in memory recall).
Moreover, the neuroscientists found that the level of connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical regions predicted the degree of memory enhancement. In other words, the better the connectivity… the better the participants performed on the cognitive testing.
What a total bonus: Even without growing new brain cells, exercise gives you a huge, almost-immediate boost in working memory!
So, the next time you find yourself struggling to remember something… or perhaps something is right on the tip of your tongue… take it as a sign you need to stretch your legs and wake up your brain!
For additional, all-natural approaches to protecting and restoring memory (and strengthen focus), check out my Alzheimer’s Prevention and Treatment Plan. To learn more about this innovative, online learning tool, or to enroll today, call 1-866-747-9421 and ask for order code GOV3Y802.
References:
- “How Exercise Affects Your Brain.” Scientific American, 12/26/18. (scientificamerican.com/article/how-exercise-affects-your-brain/#:~:text=It%20increases%20heart%20rate%2C%20which,cortical%20areas%20of%20the%20brain.)
- “Rapid stimulation of human dentate gyrus function with acute mild exercise.” PNAS, 9/24/12; 115(41):10487-10492. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805668115