The secret of eternal youth? Maybe

2:00pm Saturday 8th March 2008

Doctors and researchers previously emphasised the benefits of regular exercise for keeping joints and muscles strong and supple. Now the benefits are seen even more for your brain.

Research took off after a 1997 article in The Lancet. Some Swedish doctors had noticed that some patients in nursing homes stopped walking when their colleague started talking. They observed that 80-year-olds who could not walk and talk at the same time were far more likely to fall over than those who could do both. They were also much more cautious and slow when walking.

This has led to breakthroughs in understanding how exercise can stop the onset of dementia.

Parkinson's disease has been known for 200 years. Recognised symptoms include becoming slower physically, stiffer, and shakier. But also, the sufferer's mind changes: they can become depressive, forgetful and disorientated. But now researchers show the mind and the body to be closely linked and the one affects the other.

Prof. Bloem from Nijmegen University in the Netherlands has stated, "For a long time we thought that walking was an automatic process, and all you needed was a spinal cord. A headless chicken can still run, after all. But recently it's become clearer that higher cognitive processes, steered from the cerebral cortex, have a great impact on walking and exercise. And vice versa, exercise has an impact on the brain."

Researchers are now able to predict the onset of Alzheimers or Parkinsons by observing certain disorders when people are walking. The parts of the brain that help you walk and move are the last parts of the brain to develop after birth, and, it seems, are the first to start malfunctioning.

French physician, Yves Rolland, set up a study of 134 Alzheimer patients where half did an hour's exercise twice a week for a year; the other half continued as before. After the year, the group who exercised regularly were markedly better at getting out of bed, dressing themselves, walking around, and using the toilet.

Carl Cotman from the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia in Irvine, California has demonstrated that, similarly, regular exercise helps repair nerves and cells in the brain, and also cleanse waste out of your system.

Endurance exercise, like running or walking, seems to encourage the parts of the body related to growth. It also reduces inflammations which a well-functioning brain would sort out naturally.

Keeping fit, then, seems to help everything: memory, motor-skills, balance, self-confidence and your mood. Even if you can't run, exercising arms and limbs is useful.

In last year's New York Marathon, 188 people over 70 finished the race. The oldest woman, Margaret Davis, was 85, and she beat 6 hours!

Perhaps exercise is the elixir for eternal youth after all.

Editor's choice