Posted on 01/01/2006 10:03:02 AM PST by ddtorquee
Anything that keeps your mind and body active - reading, writing, gardening, or even an introspective pursuit like prayer - can help to prevent the development of Alzheimer's Disease, a collaborative study between Israeli and American researchers has found.
At the same time, the researchers discovered that passive activities like watching TV, can actually encourage the development of the disease.
The comprehensive research project was carried out by the Technion Israel's Institute of Science & Technology, in cooperation with researchers from Boston University and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and with the support of the US National Institute of Health (NIH).
...According to Dr. Rivka Inzelberg, a senior lecturer at the Technion's Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, and the head of the research team in Israel, the likelihood of developing the disease is influenced by hereditary factors, as well as other factors such as smoking and passive smoke inhalation, high fat consumption and very little physical activity which contribute to the disease's development and severity.
"Our objective was to locate risk factors that affect the probabilities of contracting Alzheimer's disease, including genetics and environmental factors," Inzelberg told ISRAEL21c.
"The connection between leisure time activities and damage to brain capabilities has already been explored in a number of research projects. It is known that active intellectual activities can delay the development of Alzheimer's."
(Excerpt) Read more at israel21c.org ...
Clarification....I meant "oh baloney" to the article....not to you....
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
"...just realize you won't live forever..."
I understand your meaning, but while not in the current mortal coil I'm currently encased in, I plan on living "Forever, and Ever Amen!" :)
This article is good advice for the afterlife, even if not for this one.
"Heaven is beneath our feet as well as over our heads."
-Henry David Thoreau
This article isn't about living forever but being pro active to living better
No but I would like to be in the best health I can be in for the time I am here.
Getting a little sun and fresh air while doing gentle exercise is good for you and I can see where it would help promote a healthy brain.
All your senses are involved when you garden and stimulation is key.
How do these people get all the way through an expensive study without asking each other, “Hey, you think people developing Alzheimer’s might have just gave up activities in favor of watching TV?”
Sounds sensible but is probably speculative bunk. Ronald Reagan was President -- certainly a mentally stimulating job -- and even after he left office I'd be surprised if he just sat around watching the tube.
What was striking in Reagan in his declining years, and I've noted in most people with the dementias, is the lack of head movement and the resulting atrophy of the neck muscles -- indicative of decreasing circulation to an area, in this case, the head, face and brain.
In people of older years in declining health, that seems to be the major marker. So it is that area that needs to be addressed in exercise over every other. The major beneficiary of exercise should be head and brain function -- over every other consideration. The heart is automatic (autonomic); the head (brain) are voluntary movements that don't just benefit because the heart is beating automatically.
Voluntary muscles direct the flow of blood and nervous impulses to an area. Simply being "mentally" active is not enough; there has to be actual, concurrent physical movement of the brain too. One of the great problems of medicine is this thinking that one thing in the body is not related to everything else in the body -- or that the physical and the mental are entirely different systems of operation.
The brain has to integrate "physical" exercise -- and the muscles have to integrate "mental" exercise as essential components of total health. The integrity of health is only as good as its weakest link. It is that fragmented, compartmentalized view of human functioning that is a large part of the problem in aging that they are helpless to address with that conventional view.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.