Page 29 - Seniors Today Magazine April 2024
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and taking a short walk can help trigger hippocampus, typically begins to shrink
ideas. A Stanford University study found in late adulthood, leading not only to
“creative output increased 60 percent when impaired memory but also an increased
participants were walking,” even on a risk of dementia. The research revealed that
treadmill facing a blank wall. aerobic exercise increases the size of the
hippocampus.
5. Walking may decrease brain-damaging
stress.
Repeated exposure to stressful situations
3. Walking may enhance your mood. impairs memory, attention and cognitive
When you walk, increased blood flow to the flexibility. Walking in nature has been
brain initiates a “cascade of changes,” says shown to be particularly effective at
Marie Pasinski, M.D., assistant professor reducing stress levels. The impact of
of neurology at Harvard Medical School. being outdoors may have to do with “optic
“A cocktail of feel-good neurotransmitters flow” — the perception that objects are
— serotonin, dopamine, endorphins — is moving past us as we walk, which quiets
released.” the circuits responsible for stress, says
Our bodies manufacture vitamin D Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist in the
when exposed to sunlight furthering Department of Neurobiology at Stanford
the production of serotonin, a hormone Medicine.
benefiting memory and mood. Even on a “Self-generated optic flow — by walking,
cloudy day, “exposure to light elevates the running or cycling — shifts the brain into
mood,” says John Ratey, M.D., associate a state of relaxation that’s not seen when
clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard you’re stationary,” he says. Scientists
Medical School. have seen walking reduce levels of
cortisol, which surges during fight-or-
4. Walking may reduce the risk of flight situations. Elevated cortisol levels
cognitive decline. may damage cognition and contribute to
Participants who walked more than Alzheimer’s disease, according to a 2019
4,000 steps per day had healthier brain review of studies in Frontiers in Aging
tissue in the area responsible for memory, Neuroscience.
learning and cognitive function than those Just a 20-minute walk has been shown to
who did not. That brain region, called the reduce stress and build the senior brain.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #58 | APRIL 2024 29
