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When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in
The head bone connected to the neck bone, The neck bone connected to the back bone, The back bone connected to the thigh bone . . . Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun, Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun. . . remember that song? Its a basic principle. Your body systems are all connected up. So it should be no surprise that the health of your brain is connected to the health of your body and a new study revealed just how much.Weve known for some time that fit people feel better, and more recently discovered that they may also think better. Canadian researchers took this to the test by looking at how the physical fitness level 50 - 90 year old women predicted their cognitive abilities. Their research will be published in the March 2009 edition of the journal, Neurobiology of Aging.The research team recruited 42 healthy post-menopausal women who were free of chronic illness and medication. They then evaluated their level of physical fitness using a standard exercise test and compared fitness levels to cerebral blood flow (blood supply to the brain) and a battery of cognitive performance tests.Not surprisingly, women who reported getting regular exercise were more fit than women who were sedentary. But lets explore for a minute what fitness actually means to these women. First, fitness significantly predicted the cerbrovascular health of these women, which is a fancy way to say that fit women had a better blood supply to their brains.What does that mean? Basically, it means their brains can perform better and they proved it by doing better on all kinds of cognitive tests, including cognitive speed, perception, verbal ability and executive function. Even if you dont know what all of these test measure, understand that the physically active women out-performed the sedentary women on every cognitive test the researchers through at them.We all know that exercise helps our heart and arteries work better. For some people, that is motivation enough. However, only about 1-3 adults get any regular exercise so maybe we need a bigger motivator. Understanding that physical fitness will also make your brain work better might be the driver that many people need. While nobody wants diabetes and heart disease, people may work a little harder to stave off cognitive decline and Alzheimers disease and thats what makes studies like this important.Your brain uses up to 20% of the oxygen that you breathe. How does it get from your lungs to those brain circuits that remember where you put your keys? Answer: your blood supply and your neurovascular system. This new study shows that the more fit you are the more efficiently you will get blood to your brain and the smarter you will be.Studies like this may not provide us with earth shattering revelations. The results are not surprising, but they give us evidence that how we choose to live effects how we think and feel. And evidence leads to recommendations, which lead to policy changes, which hopefully, someday will lead to health care systems that promote and reward you to stay fit. So next time youre struggling with whether or not to get off the couch and go for a walk, think about your brain - while you still can.Reference:Brown et al. Neurobiology of Aging (2009) In Press
BrainFit,Bust,The,head,bone,co