Here's
a Simple Way to Boost Your Memory
 If you want
to sharpen your memory, attention span, and learning ability, put on
your walking shoes and get going.
A
study of more than 18,000 women ages 70 to 81 from the Harvard School
of Public Health concluded that the more active we are, the better our
cognition, reports HealthDayNews.
The study: Led by
Jennifer Weuve, the Harvard team tested the women, who were all part of
the long-running Nurses' Health Study, for verbal memory, attention,
and other gauges of cognitive functioning. In addition, they were asked
about typical physical activities in which they participated, and the
researchers converted that information into what it would be in terms
of miles walked.
The results: HealthDayNews reports that
among the women who put in the highest of five levels of activity,
which would be the equivalent of six or more hours of weekly walking at
an easy pace, there was a 20 percent lower risk of cognitive
impairment, compared with women in the lowest level of activity, which
was the equivalent of walking less than two hours a week at an easy
pace. An easy pace is walking one mile in 20 to 30 minutes. If you walk
one mile in 16 to 20 minutes, then one and a half hours of weekly
walking will give you the full cognitive benefits.
How does walking give your brain a workout?
Weuve said there is evidence that better cardiovascular health is
related to better cognitive function. Physical activity also appears to
have a direct effect on the brain itself," she told HealthDayNews. "It
appears to promote the production of chemicals in the brain, called
nerve growth factors, that improve the brain cells' survival and
growth."
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
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