Jan 17, 2007

Walking Enlarges Brain

For many years the medical lore has said brain cells start dying off in our mid-20s and we can never get them back. Well, if you didn't see Katie Couric's Evening News this week, you're in for a pleasant surprise.

According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his guest interviewee, Professor Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois in Urbana, not only can you arrest brain degeneration with age, you can reverse it. By walking. That's right. Simple, easy, pleasant walking. You don't have to do it with 5 pound weights in your hands. You don't have to jog. Take a walk. Every day, if you can, but anyway, as often as possible. Walk as briskly as you're comfortable doing.

Kramer said, in a taped interview which is available at CBS Web,

"We found in our study that walking will increase the volume of the brain, increase the efficiency of the brain and increase improvements in the number of cognitive functions such as memory and attention."

Kramer imaged brains of 60 people before and after a six-month daily walking regimen. He found a visible difference in important areas of brain tissue.

Do you get the ramifications? If these guys are right, you don't have to fear losing your mind or your memory, you need only fear a sedentary lifestyle, which is a crashing bore, anyway. A lot of good things have come from the University of Illinois over the years - silos, the transistor, and parts of the Internet, to name a few. Let's hope this is another. Get out there!

Foot note to today's news about seniors - Mohammed Ali (Casius Clay) turned 65 today. Happy birthday, Champ.

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