When we’re young, exercise can enable us to run a race after an all-nighter or snowboard on a diet of Doritos. But as we age, fitness has a much more far-reaching impact, boosting our energy levels, preventing injuries and keeping us mentally sharp.
Aging causes muscles to lose mass, bone density to thin and joints to stiffen — affecting our balance, coordination and strength. At the same time, hormonal shifts and persistent low-level inflammation can set the stage for chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
And the changes start earlier than you might think. Muscles begin to shrink in our 30s and continue their downward spiral in midlife, with up to 25 percent of their peak mass gone by the time we’re 60.
But there’s hope: Exercise can stall muscle loss, cognitive decline and fatigue. “It’s never too late to start exercising, and it’s never too early,” Chhanda Dutta, a gerontologist at the National Institute on Aging, said.
You can’t just start dead-lifting 150 pounds at the gym, though. Start slow, experiment and gradually amp up the intensity.
Experts suggest trying exercises that target one or more of four categories of fitness, all of which deteriorate with age: flexibility, balance, endurance and strength. Preserving function across these domains can stave off injury and disability, keeping you active and independent longer.
There is no magic-bullet, full-body exercise to forestall aging, said Dr. Brian Feeley, the chief of sports medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Here are five movements, targeting different areas of the body, to try.
Strengthen the lower body: Squats and stairs.
During exercise, “injuries happen when you’re fatigued, and your muscles can’t react as quickly,” Dr. Feeley said. Squats help prevent this fatigue by strengthening the large muscles in your lower body while moving multiple joints at once, which improves overall endurance as well as balance and coordination.
Dr. Feeley suggests doing three sets of 10 to 15 squats four times a week. To further challenge your balance, do them with one foot or both feet on a pillow. Or to focus on strength, squat while holding free weights — close to your chest to start or extended in front of you to work your core more.
If you loathe squats, but still want to strengthen the same muscle groups, try climbing stairs, which is adaptable to different fitness levels, said Dr. Maria Fiatarone Singh, a geriatrician at the University of Sydney. Start by walking up and down the stairs, and graduate to sprinting or wearing ankle weights.
For added difficulty, hop up the stairs on one foot or two feet — holding onto the handrail if necessary for safety. “Hopping is a power movement for your hip and knee extensors,” similar to the power training of box-jumping exercises, Dr. Fiatarone Singh said. If you are pressed for time, turn it into a high-intensity exercise, with four four-minute bouts of high-intensity effort, resting three minutes between bouts, four times a week.
Can’t spare even that much time? “Even four minutes, four days a week significantly improves aerobic capacity,” Dr. Fiatarone Singh said.
Get your heart rate up: Take a Nordic walk.
As a cross-country skiing enthusiast, Dr. Michael Schaefer, a rehabilitation physician at University Hospitals in Cleveland, loves Nordic walking — an exercise using ergonomic poles that uses the same movements. No snow required.
“Nordic walking is unparalleled as an aerobic exercise because you’re not just using the major muscle groups of your legs and hips, but your core, shoulders and arms too,” Dr. Schaefer said. The regimen lowers blood pressure and improves the body’s use of oxygen. And when you traverse hills or uneven ground, you’re strengthening your ankles and challenging your vestibular system — a sensory system housed in the inner ear that enhances balance and coordination.
“Start with 15 to 20 minutes three times a week and work up to one hour,” Dr. Schaefer advised.
The basic movement — walking, using poles to propel your movement — can take some getting used to, but online videos or your local Nordic walking group can get you started. The key is to swing your arms as if they’re clock pendulums, keeping the elbows relatively straight and planting your pole behind you and pushing off as your opposing leg strides forward.
Gillian Stewart, the program director for Nordic Walking UK, recommended buying Nordic walking poles, since they’re angled to the position they take during the exercise. In a pinch, Dr. Schaefer said, “regular walking poles would work,” but not ski poles.
Train your upper body: Try hanging around.
If Katy Bowman, a kinesiologist, had her way, everyone’s New Year’s resolution would include a trip across the monkey bars. “It’s such a primal movement, and uses all these parts of our upper body” that otherwise don’t get used very often, said Ms. Bowman, the author of “Rethink Your Position.”
Hangingfrom a horizontal bar enhances grip strength and shoulder mobility, strengthens the core and stretches the upper body — from the chest to the spine to the forearms.
As with any exercise, it’s best to progress slowly — start by hanging on a bar with your feet supported on a box or chair so that muscles unused to carrying a load can become accustomed to bearing some tension. From there, proceed to an active hang, in which your shoulders blades are retracted and pulled down (as if you’re about to start a pull-up), your core and arms are engaged, and your hands are about shoulder-width apart.
Add a slight swing front to back or right to left to work the core and spine even more. Or mix up your grip — hands facing away from or toward you, or one of each — to emphasize different muscles. An underhand grip, for example, loads the biceps more than an overhand grip, which works the lats.
And you don’t need fancy equipment to hang. Ms. Bowman suggested creating a hanging station in your home with a “$20 doorway chin-up bar that doesn’t take up much of a footprint.” Since she’s installed one, she said, she’s noticed a “radical” increase in her upper body and grip strength — which is linked to a decrease in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. A little goes a long way too: Begin with 20-second hangs, twice a day, working up to a full minute.
“Frequent, shorter hangs distributed throughout the day are your best bet for making progress,” Ms. Bowman said. Once you feel comfortable with one-minute hangs she recommended eight to 10 of them, with an hour’s rest in between. These breaks also give the skin on your hands some time to adapt.
Strengthen your core and hips: Use a slider.
If you work at an office or a desk, all of that sitting can do a number on your hip flexors, the muscles that help you bend your knees toward your waist and stabilize your spine. And hunching over a desk shortens the muscles in the chest while lengthening those in the back, contributing to text neck, which is muscle strain and weakness of the lower neck, shoulders and upper back.
To counteract this, Nicole Sciacca, a mobility specialist in Los Angeles, pairs mountain climbers with sliders — small disks on which you rest your hands or feet that slide freely on the floor (or, you can use paper plates). Training on an unstable surface increases the intensity of an exercise, forcing you to engage your core — especially the diaphragm, transverse abdominis and pelvic floor — to maintain position.
“It’s great because it asks everything along the front side of the body that’s been sleeping at a desk or in a car to get stronger,” Ms. Sciacca said.
If you’re new to working your upper body and core, Ms. Sciacca suggests holding a simple plank for 30 seconds. Once that’s comfortable, position your feet on the sliders, assume the same position, and work to keep yourself stable.
To progress, move one foot in under your body until your knee reaches your chest. Slide that foot back out while your other foot comes in. Continue alternating your feet for up to three rounds of eight reps, keeping the core strong and the back straight. Or try a timed effort of 60 seconds when you’re ready for more. Variations include bringing your knees in and then out at the same time or sweeping your legs out in a jumping-jack motion.
Improve your flexibility: Foam roll.
Tala Khalaf, a physical therapist at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., thinks of fascia — a system of connective tissue that wraps around our muscles and organs — as the Cinderella of orthopedic medicine. For years, this tissue, which is studded with sensory nerves and can look like a sheath around the outside of muscles or found within them, toiled away in obscurity, ignored and minimized.
Dr. Khalaf, who is also a faculty member at Stanford’s Orthopedic Physical Therapy Clinical Residency Program, said one solution was foam rolling, which massages out the fascial kinks and improves flexibility. Best of all, the basic moves are simple and time-efficient. Typical areas to roll include the calves, thigh and back. Experiment to see which exercises provide the most relief.
A Workout Schedule to Get You Started
Now, weave all the threads together — with the aim of least five days a week of exercise. Dr. Feeley recommended mixing and matching exercises that hit the four dimensions of fitness, but notes that its components can be rearranged, depending on what you like and want to improve.
A consensus is building among experts that both strength training and cardio are important for longevity. Regular physical activity has many known health benefits, one of which is that it might help you live longer. But what’s still being determined are the types and duration of exercise that offer the most protection.
In a new study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that while doing either aerobic exercise or strength training was associated with a lower risk of dying during the study’s time frame, regularly doing both — one to three hours a week of aerobic exercise and one to two weekly strength training sessions — was associated with an even lower mortality risk.
Switching from a sedentary lifestyle to a workout schedule is comparable to “smoking versus not smoking,” said Carver Coleman, a data scientist and one of the authors of the study.The paper is the latest evidence in a trend showing the importance of strength training in longevity and overall health.
“The study is exciting because it does support having a mix of both aerobic and strength training,” said Dr. Kenneth Koncilja, a gerontologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved in the study. “That is definitely something I talk with my patients about all the time.”
Cardio plus strength training offers the most protection.
For the study, researchers used National Health Interview Survey data, which followed 416,420 American adults recruited between 1997 and 2014. Participants filled out questionnaires detailing the types of physical activity they had been doing, which included specifying how much moderate or vigorous exercise, along with how many sessions of muscle-strengthening exercises they did in a week.
After adjusting for factors such as age, gender, income, education, marital status and whether they had chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer, researchers found that people who engaged in one hour of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity a week had a 15 percent lower mortality risk. Mortality risk was 27 percent lower for those who did three hours a week.
But those who also took part in one to two strength-training sessions per week had an even lower mortality risk — a full 40 percent lower than those who didn’t exercise at all. This was roughly the difference between a nonsmoker and someone with a half-a-pack-a-day habit.
The link between strength training and longevity isn’t well understood.
Experts say it has been difficult to study longevity and strength training because so few people do it regularly. Even in the recent study, just 24 percent of participants did regular strength training (as opposed to 63 percent who said they did aerobic workouts). “Even with huge cohorts like we had here, the numbers are still relatively small,” said Arden Pope, an economist at Brigham Young University and one of the authors of the paper.
However, research is starting to catch up. In a recent meta-analysis, published February, also in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers were able to quantify the effect of strength training on longevity outside of aerobic activity.
They found the largest reduction was associated with 30 to 60 minutes of strength training a week, with a 10 to 20 percent drop in the risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, as Haruki Momma, a sports scientist at Tohoku University and one of the authors of the study, points out, there needs to be more research done to find the optimal amount of strength training.
Regular strength training is important for healthy aging.
Even though more research is needed, experts generally agree that regular strength training can have important benefits for healthy aging, including maintaining a high quality of life.
“You will function at a much higher level, for longer, if you have good muscle strength,” said Dr. Bruce Moseley, an orthopedic surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine.
Muscle strength is required for a number of daily activities, such as getting out of a chair, opening a jar of pickles, carrying groceries into the house or doing yardwork. However, “we progressively lose muscle mass as we age,” said Monica Ciolino, a physical therapist at Washington University at St. Louis.
This muscle loss usually starts in a person’s 30s and progresses with age. However, “we can absolutely fend off the negative effects” with regular strength training, Dr. Ciolino said. And it’s never too late to start. Research shows even septuagenarians with mobility issues can benefit from a regular strength-training program.
Dr. Moseley suggests aiming for a consistent strength-training schedule and easing into it to avoid overuse injuries.
“Keep it at a light and easy level at first,” he said. “Once your body starts getting adjusted, then you can start increasing.”
If you are still uncertain about certain exercises, he recommends seeking out expert advice through an exercise class or consulting with a personal trainer. The important thing, he said, is to get to started and to make it a habit. Not only can this help you live longer, it will improve your quality of life.
“When I ask people, ‘What does successful aging mean to you?’ people say they want to be independent, they want to maintain their function and quality of life, they want to do the things that they want to do,” Dr. Koncilja said. “It’s not necessarily just living as long as possible.”
Choose an activity and make sure it’s something you actually like or, if like is too strong of a word, at least feel comfortable doing, which will help keep you motivated.1 This can be anything that involves some kind of continuous, rhythmic movement that gets your heart rate up.
Ideas include home cardio exercises and workouts, walking, running, cycling, home workout videos or online fitness videos, cardio machines such as a treadmill, stationary bike, rowing machine, or elliptical trainer, exergames, organized or casual sports,Hate cardio? Anything that gets you moving can count: Walking around your house, dancing in your basement, strolling the mall, etc. Make it your own.
Choose the Days and Times You’ll Exercise
General guidelines suggest moderate cardio for 30-60 minutes most days of the week, but start with a) What you actually have time for and b) What you can actually handle. If you’re not sure, start with a basic program that’s 3-4 days a week.
Figure out how much time you’ll exercise. Again, this is based on how much time you actually have (not how much time you think you should have) and what you can handle. One reason we fail to stick to exercise is that we don’t work with our schedules as they actually are.2 If you really only have 10 minutes a day, then that’s what you use for your workouts.
Schedule and Prepare for Your Workouts
Put your workouts in your calendar just as you would any appointment. Treat it like something you would never miss such as a doctor’s appointment or a massage. Plan ahead and start to prepare for your workout well in advance. If you workout in the morning, gather your things the night before. If you like to workout in the evening, or after work, be sure to prep in the morning. You should have everything you need – Clothes, shoes, water, snack, heart rate monitor, phone, etc. ready and waiting before your workout. If it’s not, you’ll have one more reason to skip your workout.
Start Where You Are and Check-In Weekly
If you can’t do 30 minutes, do 5 or 10 or whatever you can do, and progress by adding a few minutes to each workout until you can go continuously for 30 minutes. Make notes of any difficulties you’re having and deal with them right away. If you’re finding it hard to fit in workouts, think of ways to do short bouts of exercise throughout the day.
Strive to work at a moderate intensity, in the low-middle end of your target heart rate zone. Don’t worry too much about working hard during the first few weeks, but do try to work at a level that feels like actual exercise.
Signs of Overtraining
Overtraining is a common problem with new exercisers.3 You may tend to do the amount of exercise you believe you need to lose weight or improve fitness and forget your body isn’t necessarily ready for that amount.
Pay attention to these warning signs of overdoing it such as loss of motivation to train, feeling more sore than usual, a higher resting heart rate, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and mood changes.
How to Prevent Overtraining
If you begin to experience signs of overtraining, back off of your workouts. At the very least, cut down on the time and/or intensity or give yourself a few days off completely.3 Backing off on frequency and intensity in a structured way is called a deload. Deloads are an important part of any workout program.
When you’re ready to return to your regular training, ease back into it, but keep things a little lighter than before. Pay attention to how your body feels before, during, and after your workouts. If you feel drained for the rest of the day, that may be a sign you need to lighten up on the intensity.
Another option when you are feeling overtrained is to try something different. Try yoga or just simple stretching as a way to relax, reduce the stress on your body and heal. Rest and recovery are key to success and this includes getting the proper amount of sleep and consuming enough calories to support your training.
A Word From Verywell
Starting a new cardio program can be exciting, and planning ahead can surely help you be consistent and successful. Choosing enjoyable, sustainable forms of activity and tracking your progress can help ensure you stay motivated toward your goals. Remember to go easy on yourself. It takes time and practice to build endurance for cardio workouts. Listen to your body and pay attention to what it needs.
To walk is to be human. We’re the only species that gets around by standing up and putting one foot in front of the other. In the 6 million years humans have been bipedal, our ability to walk upright has allowed humankind to travel great distances and survive changing climates, environments and landscapes.
But walking is more than just transportation — it also happens to be really good for us. Countless scientific studies have found that this simple act of moving our feet can provide a number of health benefits and help people live longer. In fact, a walking routine — if done properly — might be the only aerobic exercise people need.
Many people have taken up strolls around the neighborhood and in nature to pass the time during the pandemic — and there are many reasons to keep it up, says Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney.
“Regular walking has all the standard benefits of aerobic exercise, such as improvements in the heart and circulatory systems, better blood glucose control, normalization of blood pressure and reduction of anxiety and depression,” Stamatakis says.
The beauty of walking is that it’s free, it doesn’t require a lot of special equipment and can be done almost anywhere. Most people can maintain a walking practice throughout their lifetime. Yet, in the age of CrossFit and high-intensity cardio, walking is perhaps an under-appreciated way to get the heart pumping and muscles working. It also happens to be one of the most studied forms of exercise there is.
Do You Really Need to Walk 10,000 Steps a Day?
In general, walking is good exercise because it puts our large muscle groups to work, and has a positive effect on most bodily systems, Stamatakis says.
But for the sake of efficiency — how much walking should one aim for? Public health experts have drilled into us the idea that we need 10,000 steps a day — or about five miles. But contrary to popular belief, this recommendation doesn’t come from science. Instead, it stems from a 1960s advertising campaign to promote a pedometer in Japan.
Perhaps because it’s a round number and easy to remember, it stuck. Countries like the U.S. began to include it in broader public health recommendations. Today, it’s often a default step count to reach on walking apps on smartphones and fitness trackers.
Since the 1960s, researchers have studied the 10,000-steps-a day standard and have turned up mixed results. Although clocking 10,000 steps or more a day is certainly a healthy and worthwhile goal — it’s not a one-size-fits-all fitness recommendation.
“Several studies have consistently shown that significant health benefits accrue well below 10,000 steps per day,” Stamatakis says.
For instance, a recent Harvard study involving more than 16,000 older women found that those who got at least 4,400 steps a day greatly reduced their risk of dying prematurely when compared with less active women. The study also noted that the longevity benefits continued up to 7,500 steps but leveled off after that number. Put simply, 7,500 is also an ideal daily goal with comparable benefits to 10,000 steps.
But picking up the pace might be a good idea. As with any exercise, the physical benefits one gains from walking depends on three things: duration, intensity and frequency. Put simply: walk often, walk fast and walk long. The goal is to walk fast enough to raise your heart rate — even if just for a short burst.
“Any pace is OK, but the faster the walking pace the better,” Stamatakis says. “It’s ideal for 3,000 to 3,500 [of those steps] to be completed at a brisk or fast pace.”
Walk Faster, Live Longer
In a recent review study involving around 50,000 walkers, Stamatakis and his colleagues linked faster walking speeds to a reduced risk of dying from almost everything except cancer. How much you walk, rather than how fast you walk, might be more important for reducing cancer mortality, the review noted.
Similar boosts to longevity have been found in other studies. Recent work published in Mayo Clinic Proceedingsanalyzed the life expectancy of nearly 475,000 men and women who self-reported as slow or brisk walkers. The faster walkers — around a speed of 3 miles per hour (or, a 20-minute mile) — could expect to live roughly 15 to 20 years longer than slower walkers, or those who clocked 2 mph (a 30-minute mile.)
Participants who considered themselves brisk walkers had an average life expectancy of nearly 87 years for men and 88 years for women. Increases in lifespan were observed across all weight groups the study included.
What’s considered a quick pace is relative to an individual’s fitness level, but it generally falls somewhere between 3 and 5 mph. A cadence of 100 steps per minute or greater is a commonly accepted threshold for turning a walk into a moderately intense exercise.
While we know walking is good for the body, research is also beginning to reveal how it impacts brain function. Particularly, walking might be an effective way to slow or decrease the cognitive declines that come with growing older.
A study of older, sedentary adults found that walking for six months improved executive functioning, or the ability to plan and organize. Studies also have found that that walking and other aerobic exercises can increase the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in memory and learning.
At least one study illustrates that daily walks make little difference in weight management. Weight gain is common among first-year college students. Researchers wanted to determine if walking could ward off the pounds. Their study, published in the Journal of Obesity, monitored 120 freshman women over six months. Over the course of 24 weeks, the students walked either 10,000, 12,500 or 15,000 steps a day, six days a week. Researchers tracked their caloric intake and weight — and found that step count didn’t seem to influence the number on the scale. Even students who walked the most still gained around the same amount of weight.
Often, when someone increases physical activity, some of the body’s normal physiological responses kick in to make up for the calories burned. One might start getting hungry more often and may eat more, without realizing it.
Even if with a tight control on daily caloric intake, it takes a lot of walking to accumulate a meaningful deficit. To put this in perspective, a 155-pound person would burn roughly 500 calories walking for 90 minutes at a rate of 4.5 mph.
However, walking does seem to influence a person’s body composition. Where a person carries fat might be a more important indicator of disease risk than body mass index. Avid walkers tend to have smaller waist circumferences. Waist measurements that are more than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men have been linked with a higher risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
So a walk in the park maybe won’t make you “ripped” — but it sure beats sitting.
But scientists are still trying to unravel how and why swimming, in particular, produces these brain-enhancing effects.
As a neurobiologist trained in brain physiology, a fitness enthusiast and a mom, I spend hours at the local pool during the summer. It’s not unusual to see children gleefully splashing and swimming while their parents sunbathe at a distance – and I’ve been one of those parents observing from the poolside plenty of times. But if more adults recognized the cognitive and mental health benefits of swimming, they might be more inclined to jump in the pool alongside their kids.
Until the 1960s, scientists believed that the number of neurons and synaptic connections in the human brain were finite and that, once damaged, these brain cells could not be replaced. But that idea was debunked as researchers began to see ample evidence for the birth of neurons, or neurogenesis, in adult brains of humans and other animals.
Research shows that one of the key ways these changes occur in response to exercise is through increased levels of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor. The neural plasticity, or ability of the brain to change, that this protein stimulates has been shown to boost cognitive function, including learning and memory.
In studies in fish, scientists have observed changes in genes responsible for increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels as well as enhanced development of the dendritic spines – protrusions on the dendrites, or elongated portions of nerve cells – after eight weeks of exercise compared with controls. This complements studies in mammals where brain-derived neurotrophic factor is known to increase neuronal spine density. These changes have been shown to contribute to improved memory, mood and enhanced cognition in mammals. The greater spine density helps neurons build new connections and send more signals to other nerve cells. With the repetition of signals, connections can become stronger.
But what’s special about swimming?
Researchers don’t yet know what swimming’s secret sauce might be. But they’re getting closer to understanding it.
Most of the research to understand how swimming affects the brain has been done in rats. Rats are a good lab model because of their genetic and anatomic similarity to humans.
In one study in rats, swimming was shown to stimulate brain pathways that suppress inflammation in the hippocampus and inhibit apoptosis, or cell death. The study also showed that swimming can help support neuron survival and reduce the cognitive impacts of aging. Although researchers do not yet have a way to visualize apoptosis and neuronal survival in people, they do observe similar cognitive outcomes.
One of the more enticing questions is how, specifically, swimming enhances short- and long-term memory. To pinpoint how long the beneficial effects may last, researchers trained rats to swim for 60 minutes daily for five days per week. The team then tested the rats’ memory by having them swim through a radial arm water maze containing six arms, including one with a hidden platform.
Rats got six attempts to swim freely and find the hidden platform. After just seven days of swim training, researchers saw improvements in both short- and long-term memories, based on a reduction in the errors rats made each day. The researchers suggested that this boost in cognitive function could provide a basis for using swimming as a way to repair learning and memory damage caused by neuropsychiatric diseases in humans.
Although the leap from studies in rats to humans is substantial, research in people is producing similar results that suggest a clear cognitive benefit from swimming across all ages. For instance, in one study looking at the impact of swimming on mental acuity in the elderly, researchers concluded that swimmers had improved mental speed and attention compared with nonswimmers. However, this study is limited in its research design, since participants were not randomized and thus those who were swimmers prior to the study may have had an unfair edge.
Another study compared cognition between land-based athletes and swimmers in the young adult age range. While water immersion itself did not make a difference, the researchers found that 20 minutes of moderate-intensity breaststroke swimming improved cognitive function in both groups.
Kids get a boost from swimming too
The brain-enhancing benefits from swimming appear to also boost learning in children.
Another research group recently looked at the link between physical activity and how children learn new vocabulary words. Researchers taught children age 6-12 the names of unfamiliar objects. Then they tested their accuracy at recognizing those words after doing three activities: coloring (resting activity), swimming (aerobic activity) and a CrossFit-like exercise (anaerobic activity) for three minutes.
They found that children’s accuracy was much higher for words learned following swimming compared with coloring and CrossFit, which resulted in the same level of recall. This shows a clear cognitive benefit from swimming versus anaerobic exercise, though the study does not compare swimming with other aerobic exercises. These findings imply that swimming for even short periods of time is highly beneficial to young, developing brains.
The details of the time or laps required, the style of swim and what cognitive adaptations and pathways are activated by swimming are still being worked out. But neuroscientists are getting much closer to putting all the clues together.
For centuries, people have been in search of a fountain of youth. Swimming just might be the closest we can get.
You might think that the impact of aging on the brain is something you can’t do much about. After all, isn’t it an inevitability? To an extent, as we may not be able to rewind the clock and change our levels of higher education or intelligence (both factors that delay the onset of symptoms of aging).
But adopting specific lifestyle behaviors–whether you’re in your thirties or late forties–can have a tangible effect on how well you age. Even in your fifties and beyond, activities like learning a new language or musical instrument, taking part in aerobic exercise, and developing meaningful social relationships can do wonders for your brain. There’s no question that when we compromise on looking after ourselves, our aging minds pick up the tab.
The Aging Process and Cognitive Decline
Over time, there is a build-up of toxins such as tau proteins and beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that correlate to the aging process and associated cognitive decline. Although this is a natural part of growing older, many factors can exacerbate it. Stress, neurotoxins such as alcohol and lack of (quality and quantity) sleep can speed up the process.
Neuroplasticity–the function that allows the brain to change and develop in our lifetime–has three mechanisms: synaptic connection, myelination, and neurogenesis. The key to resilient aging is improving neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons. Neurogenesis happens far more in babies and children than adults.
A 2018 study by researchers at Columbia University shows that in adults, this type of neuroplastic activity occurs in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that lays down memories. This makes sense as we respond to and store new experiences every day, and cement them during sleep. The more we can experience new things, activities, people, places, and emotions, the more likely we are to encourage neurogenesis.
With all this in mind, we can come up with a three-point plan to encourage “resilient aging” by activating neurogenesis in the brain:
1. Get your heart rate up
Aerobic exercise such as running or brisk walking has a potentially massive impact on neurogenesis. A 2016 rat study found that endurance exercise was most effective in increasing neurogenesis. It wins out over HIIT sessions and resistance training, although doing a variety of exercise also has its benefits.
Aim to do aerobic exercise for 150 minutes per week, and choose the gym, the park, or natural landscape over busy roads to avoid compromising brain-derived neurotrophic factor production (BDNF), a growth factor that encourages neurogenesis that aerobic exercise can boost. However, exercising in polluted areas decreases production.
If exercising alone isn’t your thing, consider taking up a team sport or one with a social element like table tennis. Exposure to social interaction can also increase the neurogenesis, and in many instances, doing so lets you practice your hand-eye coordination, which research has suggested leads to structural changes in the brain that may relate to a range of cognitive benefit. This combination of coordination and socializing has been shown to increase brain thickness in the parts of the cortex related to social/emotional welfare, which is crucial as we age.
2. Change your eating patterns
Evidence shows that calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, and time-restricted eating encourage neurogenesis in humans. In rodent studies, intermittent fasting has been found to improve cognitive function and brain structure, and reduce symptoms of metabolic disorders such as diabetes.
Reducing refined sugar will help reduce oxidative damage to brain cells, too, and we know that increased oxidative damage has been linked with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Twenty-four hour water-only fasts have also been proven to increase longevity and encourage neurogenesis.
Try any of the following, after checking with your doctor:
24-hour water-only fast once a month
Reducing your calorie intake by 50%-60% on two non-consecutive days of the week for two to three months or on an ongoing basis
Reducing calories by 20% every day for two weeks. You can do this three to four times a year
Eating only between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., or 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. as a general rule
3. Prioritize sleep
Sleep helps promote the brain’s neural “cleaning” glymphatic system, which flushes out the build-up of age-related toxins in the brain (the tau proteins and beta amyloid plaques mentioned above). When people are sleep-deprived, we see evidence of memory deficits, and if you miss a whole night of sleep, research proves that it impacts IQ. Aim for seven to nine hours, and nap if it suits you. Our need to sleep decreases as we age.
Of course, there are individual exceptions, but having consistent sleep times and making sure you’re getting sufficient quality and length of sleep supports brain resilience over time. So how do you know if you’re getting enough? If you naturally wake up at the same time on weekends that you have to during the week, you probably are.
If you need to lie-in or take long naps, you’re probably not. Try practicing mindfulness or yoga nidra before bed at night, a guided breath-based meditation that has been shown in studies to improve sleep quality. There are plenty of recordings online if you want to experience it.
Pick any of the above that work for you and build it up until it becomes a habit, then move onto the next one and so on. You might find that by the end of the year, you’ll feel even healthier, more energized, and motivated than you do now, even as you turn another year older.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a neurocognitive disorder which involves cognitive impairments beyond those expected based on an individual’s age and education but which are not significant enough to interfere with instrumental activities of daily living. MCI may occur as a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease. It includes both memory and non-memory impairments.Mild cognitive impairment has been relisted as mild neurocognitive disorder in DSM-5, and in ICD-11.
The cause of the disorder remains unclear, as well as its prevention and treatment. MCI can present with a variety of symptoms, but is divided generally into two types.
Amnestic MCI (aMCI) is mild cognitive impairment with memory loss as the predominant symptom; aMCI is frequently seen as a prodromal stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Studies suggest that these individuals tend to progress to probable Alzheimer’s disease at a rate of approximately 10% to 15% per year.[needs update]It is possible that being diagnosed with cognitive decline may serve as an indicator of aMCI.
Nonamnestic MCI (naMCI) is mild cognitive impairment in which impairments in domains other than memory (for example, language, visuospatial, executive) are more prominent. It may be further divided as nonamnestic single- or multiple-domain MCI, and these individuals are believed to be more likely to convert to other dementias (for example, dementia with Lewy bodies).
Nicholas Sansone for The New York Times
