What is Cognitive Function and why is it important?
It is your social and everyday behavior. Well in deeper terms it’s your ability to perceive and react, process and understand, store and retrieve information, make decisions and produce appropriate responses.
It’s important to us because throughout our lives our cognitive functions our constantly developing and as we age some of these functions tend to decline as neurons start to die and the mechanism that replace these neurons die as well.
Factors the benefit that decline of our Cognitive Functions.
- Aging: The most common decline. With the average brain shrinking by approximately five per cent per decade after the age of 40.
- Brain Damage
- APOE-e4: A specific gene that is linked to Alzheimer’s
- Substance use and abuse such as smoking and alcohol
- Lack of Physical Exercise
- Self Isolation: Which could lead to Dementia
- Malnutrition
- Medication Side effects: Many medications interfere with proper brain function. Sedatives, tranquilizers, and anticholinergic medications are the most common.
- Depressions, Stress, and Anxiety
Exercise and how it helps with your Cognitive Function
Exercise helps improve the brains memory and thinking skills indirectly and directly. Directly by reducing inflammation and releasing chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells. Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety. Problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment.
Exercise also helps the brain create new neurons in the hippocampus which is a key structure to learning and memory.
Studies on Exercise and the benefits it has on our Cognitive Function.
A study was conducted on older adults on the meta-analysis on physical activity and risk of neurodegenerative disease that involved 16 prospective studies of 163,797 participants without dementia. Among participants who were physically active, there was a 28% reduction in risk of dementia and a 45% reduction in Alzheimer’s disease. A later meta-analytic review of 21 longitudinal studies of 89,205 adults over the age of 40 also found that higher levels of physical activity was associated with reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
Another study at the University of British Columbia found that aerobic exercise that gets your heart pumping and body sweating which appears to boost the size of the hippocampus.
A study was found that 20 minutes of yoga improves the accuracy and speed on memory test.
Exercise is shown to improve your mood and reduce stress and other risk factors that contribute to cognitive decline.
Simple exercises that you can do.
The CDC recommends that adults should workout at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise every week.
- Walking/Running
- Swimming
- Cleaning out your house
- Dancing
- Anything that get’s you heart pumping will count as an Exercise!!
References
“Use It or Lose It: Preventing Cognitive Decline.” Winchester Hospital, http://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id=30032.
Godman, Heidi. “Regular Exercise Changes the Brain to Improve Memory, Thinking Skills.” Harvard Health Blog, 26 June 2020, http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110.
Kernisan, Leslie, et al. “Cognitive Impairment in Aging: 10 Causes & What the Doctor Should Check.” Better Health While Aging, 16 Dec. 2019, betterhealthwhileaging.net/cognitive-impairment-causes-and-how-to-evaluate/.
“What Is Cognition & Cognitive Behaviour – Cambridge Cognition.” What Is Cognition & Cognitive Behaviour – Cambridge Cognition | Cambridge Cognition, 19 Aug. 2015, http://www.cambridgecognition.com/blog/entry/what-is-cognition.
“How Exercise Improves Cognitive Function and Overall Brain Health.” Sunwarrior, sunwarrior.com/blogs/health-hub/improve-cognitive-function-exercise.
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