Over 60? Walking for just five minutes a day does this cool thing to your brain, according to new research
Five minutes of exercise doesn't sound like a lot, but according to new research, if you choose the right kind of exercise, you can boost your brain health, especially in adults over 60.
The study, published in Age and Aging found that, rather than long exercise sessions, short bursts that raise your heart rate can help enhance cognitive performance. One exercise in particular was found to be most effective: brisk walking.
Researchers analyzed data from 585 adults between the ages of 65 and 80, all of whom participated in the longitudinal IGNITE trial.
The scientists examined the participants' sleep habits, physical activity levels, and sedentary behavior over 24 hours and compared this with their cognitive performance.
The results showed that people who did more physical activity had better brain health, and that a less active lifestyle could be linked to a decline in cognitive functions. Yet when they looked into the data further, they found that doing just five minutes of exercise that raised participants' heart rates, such as a brisk walk, swimming, or jogging, was linked to better cognition.
When participants completed more moderate-to-vigorous exercise, they had better processing speed (how fast your brain thinks), executive function (how well you focus and multitask,) and working memory (your ability to store information for short periods).
According to the results of the study, 'moving from one minute of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day to [around] six minutes per day had the largest predicted differences in the domains of executive function/attentional control, processing speed, and working memory.'
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
Any time you raise your heart rate, you increase the rate of blood flow to the brain in the body. Exercise and movement are proven to be good for brain health.
When we talk about brisk walking, we mean walking at a speed that raises your heart rate. You should be breathing heavier, but you should be able to maintain the pace for the entire five minutes. You could always mix this brisk walk in with a warm-up and cool-down at a more leisurely pace to make a longer walking workout.
There are several health benefits to walking — it can boost your cardiovascular fitness, help you build or maintain muscle, lose weight, and as this study found, help your cognitive function.
When it comes to walking with good form, think about keeping your torso upright by engaging your core, sucking your belly button into your spine. If you're just getting started, you'll need a comfortable pair of sneakers. It can also be helpful to strap one of the best fitness trackers to your wrist to help keep track of your progress.
Remember, any movement is better than none, so why not add just five minutes of walking to your day to reap the rewards.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Lake County nursing home won't sign union contract as state and local officials raise staffing concerns
Thrive of Lake County and Ignite Medical Resorts is facing criticism from local and state officials over its refusal to sign a previously negotiated union contract due to the included staffing requirements. Over 20 local officials, including two state senators, five state representatives and numerous members of the Lake County Board signed a letter urging the company to honor the contract and raised concerns over its staffing ratios. The nursing home was formerly known as Winchester House and located along Milwaukee Avenue when it was owned by Lake County. In 2015, it was sold to Thrive, and in 2020 was moved to its current location in Mundelein. In 2022, Thrive partnered with Ignite to manage the three Thrive locations in Illinois. The letter calls for the company to honor the collective bargaining agreement negotiated with AFSCME Local 2452 last year. As a formerly county-run nursing home, the company has a 'special responsibility to make resident care a top priority,' it said. Officials threw their weight behind the employees, arguing they were advocating for both themselves and the facility's residents. One of the union's main priorities is maintaining the contract's safe-staffing ratios, the letter said, and Thrive management had previously agreed to the contract, with union employees voting 'overwhelmingly to ratify it.' But Ignite's upper management did 'an about-face,' refusing to sign the contract, 'supposedly because of the inclusion of the safe-staffing provisions,' the letter said. This refusal is against the law according to the letter, and was 'especially concerning' given the company's 'demonstrated track record' of 'lower staffing, worse care and higher patient-mortality rates among nursing homes with private equity and real estate investment trust investors, like Thrive and Ignite.' The officials said they 'strongly object to this flagrant violation of the integrity of the collective bargaining process. We cannot stand idly by when it seems all too possible that corners are being cut to increase corporate profits while diminishing quality of care.' Robert Simandl, representing Thrive, said the company had 'met its legal obligations' to the union, and described the situation as an 'impasse in negotiations.' 'When there is not a meeting of the minds on all of the terms for a contract, it can become a reality,' Simandl said. Ignite was 'always' looking out for 'what is best for our residents — that is our charge,' Simandl said. Illinois staffing rules give long-term care provider employers 'flexibility to meet the needs of the residents,' he said. 'Adjusting staffing based on acuity of the resident is an absolute requirement for making sure the resident receives the best care for their situation,' Simandl said. 'Static staffing has been rejected under the State guidelines as our legislators recognize the need for facilities to be nimble.' According to Thrive is rated below average for health inspections, quality measures and staffing, and it has faced two federal fines in the last three years. Its total number of nurse staff hours per resident per day, 2 hours and 40 minutes, is more than an hour below the national average according to the website. According to Simandl, Thrive has increased its staffing in the last year, and they 'closely monitor the needs of our residents and will continue to meet the staffing requirements of law.' 'We have good people who take their responsibilities very seriously. This includes not only the represented staff but also the administrative people at the facility,' he said. 'We will continue to fulfill our legal obligations to our employees, the State, and our residents,' Simandl said. Maribel Novelo is a certified nurse assistant at Thrive of Lake County and has worked in the industry since she was 18. She said she loves her job and the connection she builds with the people she cares for. 'They become your family,' Novelo said. 'They become more like your grandma. You see your mom in them.' She described the powerful feeling of seeing so many local officials standing by the workers. 'I felt so good, I'm glad someone is on our side,' Novelo said. 'I really admire them now. I don't feel scared, I don't feel lonely, because I see that they're going to be there working with me.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
One Woman's Grueling Ordeal With Menopause and Medical Gaslighting
Menopause can have a profound effect on a woman's body. It's not simply the end of menstruation — it impacts the metabolic system, the cardiovascular system, and mental health. It's estimated that about 35 percent of menopausal women experience depression, but often clinicians don't make the connection between menopause and mood disorders. That's what happened to Marian Adams. At 52, she suddenly didn't feel like herself. It took 10 doctors, 22 medications, and even a round of electroconvulsive therapy before a physician checked her hormone levels and was able to guide her toward recovery. In this compelling essay — one of several pieces included in Midlife Private Parts: Revealing Essays that Will Change the Way You Think About Age, out June 24 — Adams talks about her experience with medical gaslighting and her long journey to get the care she needed. Fingers locked tightly, my husband holds my bony hand as we ride the hospital elevator. Knots tighten in my stomach with each passing floor. Stark fluorescent lights and chalk-white walls greet us on the eleventh floor, along with a stone-faced security guard who enters a passcode, opening a huge steel door. Two white coats and a nurse look up from the long table. The nurse approaches me. 'Raise your arms,' she says. With shiny sharp scissors in hand, she cuts the drawstring of my yoga pants, then the laces from my running shoes. Welcome to my nightmare. I am in the psych ward. It's 2016, and I'm 52 years old. Since the age of 40, I had been the poster child for healthy living. Each morning began with a long run, weightlifting, or Vinyasa yoga. Invigorated and clear-headed, I dove into the tasks and challenges of the day. Each evening, I prepared the night's Mediterranean dish for my beloved husband and three children. It truly was a wonderful life. One of the highlights during these years was our family tradition of attending the annual Army/Navy football game. The anticipation was as much fun as the game, packing fleece blankets and roast beef on rye, pulling out the Navy hats, sweatshirts, and thermals. This Navy-loving clan would be there, rain, snow, or sunshine. But in 2015, I felt as if someone else was watching the game. While I had always marveled at the Blue Angels soaring through the clouds and became giddy as Navy Seals parachuted onto the field, this time, there seemed to be a veil between me and the action. I could not feel the excitement, did not belt out the National Anthem as I did every year before. When my husband bounced back and forth between our seats and those a few rows away where our children sat, I felt paranoid, believing he didn't want to sit beside me. Caught up in the thrill of the game, no one noticed how frightened I was. What was happening to me? A few days later, while paying for my chocolate almond protein shake, the owner of our local health food store noticed my low energy, the sadness in my eyes, and said, 'You're not yourself today.' I wasn't. When my sister-in-law dropped by the house the following month, she seemed concerned by my gaunt appearance and the absence of my smile. I overheard her tell my husband, 'My God, she's a shell of herself.' I was. Then, one Friday afternoon at the hair salon, I suddenly began to weep uncontrollably. Fleeing to the ladies' room, I called a friend, begging for a lifeline. She didn't know what to do. I had tried so hard to be strong and pretend everything was fine but could no longer keep up the façade — for myself or those around me. There was something seriously wrong. Probably the most debilitating aspect of my freefall was my inability to sleep. When my husband's alarm went off at 5 a.m., as it had every weekday of our married life, I found myself, tortuously, still wide awake since the night before. Desperate, I began attending the weekday 8 a.m. mass at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, where I had been baptized 52 years before. On my knees, I'd light a candle for myself and beg the dear Lord, 'Please help me.' And then my hair, which I've always loved, began to fall out. It was time to see a doctor. I had no idea it would be the first of many. A friend recommended a psychiatrist, who, after a lengthy discussion and questionnaire, told me my serotonin must be very low and that I had a 'mood disorder.' Depression. She pumped me full of prescriptions. After trying 10 different sleep and mood medications with no relief, I went to my long-time internist, doctor No. 2. Down 21 pounds from my last checkup, missing patches of hair on my head, I wept as I told him I couldn't sleep; I couldn't function. 'A lot of people think they don't sleep, but they really do,' he responded. 'Besides, you can't be that bad. You're dressed nicely and wearing your pearls.' He never examined me. No scale, no blood pressure, no urine sample, no stethoscope, no blood test, no EKG. Nothing. But he did hand my husband a card for the best psychiatrist in New York City, the doctor I went to next, who recommended electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), assuring me that 75 percent of patients with severe depression 'get their lives back.' 'I think you'll really like the unit,' doctor No. 3 added. And so there I was, an inpatient in the psych unit of a top Manhattan hospital. Every other day, I was instructed to undress, step into a sumo wrestler–size plastic diaper, and wrap myself in a hospital gown. Then, seated in a wheelchair, I was lined up with the other five patients waiting for the same treatment. The room was always freezing. Just before they put me under anesthesia for the first time, I turned to one of the masked doctors. 'Can you please pull the blanket over my foot?' He responded matter-of-factly, 'It needs to be exposed so that we can see when it starts shaking; that signals that the seizure we are inducing in your brain has been triggered.' After more than two weeks of 'treatment,' I returned home. Nothing had changed. Next stop, my gynecologist, doctor No. 4. He took one look at me and said, 'I'm worried about you,' and suggested I see his partner, doctor No. 5, to check my hormone balances. When I requested that she do so, she rolled her eyes and spoke to me through her assistant, in the third person. 'Tell her to order Cortisol Manager, magnesium glycinate, and Methyl-Guard Plus,' pricey supplements from her new website. She would not test my hormones. I was beginning to feel hopeless but continued my search for an answer. Doctor No. 6 referred me to a neurologist, doctor No. 7, who ordered a brain MRI and a spinal tap and sent me home with an apparatus of metal discs I had to keep wrapped on my head for seventy-two hours. Verdict? No neurological issues. Doctor No. 8 was an Ayurvedic doctor, whose examination consisted of asking me questions and looking at my tongue. Doctor No. 9, a local female 'concierge' internist, was full of condescending speculation. 'Maybe it's not depression; maybe you're sad because you don't have any small children to care for anymore. You know, no reason to get up in the morning. Perhaps you should get a job.' I couldn't get myself into the shower in the morning, and this woman wanted me to 'get a job'! Next, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist prescribed 36 rounds of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Five days a week for seven weeks, I sat in a chair with a helmet apparatus sending constant loud clicking pulses to my brain. He also suggested I take up swimming. Swimming! If I got into a pool in my state, I'd likely drown. On what felt like my thousandth trip to Walgreens, this time to pick up gabapentin — the same medication my vet once prescribed for my ailing dog — I stared down what appeared to be an impossibly long aisle. I felt like a dead woman walking as I made my way to the pharmacy at the back of the store. I'll never forget the two female pharmacists, who'd known me when I was 'myself.' They spotted me and glanced at each other, and then back at me with disbelief and pity, as if they were saying, 'MyGod, I can't believe she's here again.' By this point, I had been prescribed and taken over 22 different medications, including Saphris, Lexapro, Seroquel, sertraline, lamotrigine, escitalopram, clonazepam, aripiprazole, Latuda, gabapentin, Pristiq, nortriptyline, lithium carbonate, bupropion, mirtazapine, zolpidem, tranylcypromine, midodrine, and minivelle. None of them worked. On the contrary, many, especially in combination, exacerbated my symptoms. I had lost focus, the ability to concentrate. My mobility was impacted. My family took my car keys away. At the lowest of lows, I began lying to my husband. 'Did you walk today?' he'd ask, hoping to see even the tiniest bit of light. 'Yep, mm-hmm. I walked while you were out biking,' I'd say. I didn't want to disappoint him. Almost three years since that Army/Navy game, I sat propped up on the sectional at a family gathering. My beautiful mother positioned me at the buffet, where, tongs in hand, I robotically served melon and prosciutto. I overheard a relative raving about a nutritionist he started seeing and asked for her number. Maybe she could tell me what to eat to feel a little better. The last thing I thought I needed was another doctor. But I was wrong. I needed the right doctor. The 'nutritionist' I saw was actually an internist/endocrinologist. Dr. Carolina Sierra was doctor No. 10. And she saved my life. Two days later, Dr. Sierra shared the results of my blood work. 'Marian,' she said, 'the reason none of your past treatments or medications helped you is because they target a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that is not what caused your symptoms.' 'You haven't slept in three years because you have no progesterone,' she went on. 'You can't stop crying and don't feel like yourself because you have no estrogen, and no testosterone, which women need too. Your thyroid is a disaster. You have no vitamin D or vitamin B, and you did have the Epstein-Barr virus at one point.' Then, with the most sincere compassion, she said, 'All together, you fell off a cliff.' After nearly three years of misery, existing haggardly on the sidelines of my life, I was finally properly diagnosed. At 52, along with a malfunctioning thyroid and several vitamin deficiencies, I was also in menopause, a word that not one of these doctors over a three-year period had ever mentioned. Appropriate, targeted medications and supplements swiftly brought both my mind and body into balance and highly functioning again. Thyroid medication brought me back to a healthy weight, gave me blessed energy, and restored my lustrous locks. Compounded bioidentical hormone cream balanced my estrogen so that I could regain the joy I used to naturally feel. Replacing lost progesterone granted me dreamy, restorative sleep, and testosterone levels normalized. Prescription-strength vitamin D and daily vitamin B12 further restored my energy and mental clarity. I felt as if I rose from the dead. My vibrancy, humor, and health now regained, I sometimes wonder about the precious time lost with my children, husband, and exquisite, dear mother. But I don't stay there long. Rather, I turn my attention to using my experience to help other women avoid unnecessary, preventable suffering. How much could I have avoided had any of my first ten doctors been properly trained and took seriously the changes and debilitating symptoms that many women suffer when they experience menopause? By sharing my nightmare, I am turning anger into action. Above all, I tell my story to empower women. Equipped with the right questions to ask, women will be prepared to effectively advocate for their health. 'It's all in your head'? Maybe not. Excerpted from Midlife Private Parts: Revealing Essays that Will Change the Way You Think About Age, edited by Dina Alvarez and Dina Aronson. The post One Woman's Grueling Ordeal With Menopause and Medical Gaslighting appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Tom's Guide
7 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Over 60? Walking for just five minutes a day does this cool thing to your brain, according to new research
Five minutes of exercise doesn't sound like a lot, but according to new research, if you choose the right kind of exercise, you can boost your brain health, especially in adults over 60. The study, published in Age and Aging found that, rather than long exercise sessions, short bursts that raise your heart rate can help enhance cognitive performance. One exercise in particular was found to be most effective: brisk walking. Researchers analyzed data from 585 adults between the ages of 65 and 80, all of whom participated in the longitudinal IGNITE trial. The scientists examined the participants' sleep habits, physical activity levels, and sedentary behavior over 24 hours and compared this with their cognitive performance. The results showed that people who did more physical activity had better brain health, and that a less active lifestyle could be linked to a decline in cognitive functions. Yet when they looked into the data further, they found that doing just five minutes of exercise that raised participants' heart rates, such as a brisk walk, swimming, or jogging, was linked to better cognition. When participants completed more moderate-to-vigorous exercise, they had better processing speed (how fast your brain thinks), executive function (how well you focus and multitask,) and working memory (your ability to store information for short periods). According to the results of the study, 'moving from one minute of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day to [around] six minutes per day had the largest predicted differences in the domains of executive function/attentional control, processing speed, and working memory.' Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Any time you raise your heart rate, you increase the rate of blood flow to the brain in the body. Exercise and movement are proven to be good for brain health. When we talk about brisk walking, we mean walking at a speed that raises your heart rate. You should be breathing heavier, but you should be able to maintain the pace for the entire five minutes. You could always mix this brisk walk in with a warm-up and cool-down at a more leisurely pace to make a longer walking workout. There are several health benefits to walking — it can boost your cardiovascular fitness, help you build or maintain muscle, lose weight, and as this study found, help your cognitive function. When it comes to walking with good form, think about keeping your torso upright by engaging your core, sucking your belly button into your spine. If you're just getting started, you'll need a comfortable pair of sneakers. It can also be helpful to strap one of the best fitness trackers to your wrist to help keep track of your progress. Remember, any movement is better than none, so why not add just five minutes of walking to your day to reap the rewards.
