Describing a detailed daily exercise program is beyond the scope of this book, but a few points are worth noting. Both aerobic and anaerobic exercises are good for the heart and brain. Aerobic exercise involves medium-level effort in which the heart rate usually does not rise by more than forty beats per minute.
For most people, this translates into a rise from 70 to approximately 110 beats per minute. More severe exertion raises your heart rate even further and takes you into the anaerobic range, when the body can no longer keep up with the intensity of the exercise by utilizing glucose and has to switch to a less efficient, anaerobic, energy-producing system. This is why we cannot
keep up anaerobic activity for long, and sprinting full tilt beyond one or two hundred yards or meters is virtually impossible. As you grow older, there is a good chance that you will choose to shift from mixed aerobic-anaerobic (tennis, running) to purely aerobic activity (walking, golf). Long, brisk walks are always a good form of aerobic exercise.
After a good round of physical exercise, you feel exhausted. At the same time, you feel energized, even a little high. This uplift is due to the release of brain endorphins, which are chemicals that attach themselves to opiate receptors, the same receptors that attract morphine and heroin. Endorphin release heightens attention and vigi- lance, so your cognitive radar becomes a little sharper. This effect is short-lived, but regular exercise can prolong this effect.
Studies in animals show that exercise increases the availability of substances in the brain called neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor, which stimulate the formation of new connections among nerve cells. Increased connections among nerve cells may indirectly protect against, or at least delay, degeneration of nerve cells during the aging process.
Regular physical exercise not only improves one’s general feeling of well-being and quality of life, but it also has preventive and therapeutic properties against most of the major maladies that affect us as we grow older: heart disease, arthritis, and memory loss.
Taken From: The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss
and Enhance Memory Power
