A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that strength training can improve executive functions. Executive functions are important because they are a mental ability that helps us make decisions and do several things at once (like driving). Executive functions get worse as we get older, so finding a way to maintain or improve them may be a way to keep your brain fit as you get older. This study evaluated the effects of resistance training compared to balance and tone training on older women’s abilities on several cognitive measures. The researchers evaluated whether weight training (generally thought to improve muscular strength) or balance training (thought to improve balance, but also such things as walking ability and risk of falls) also had an effect on participants’ mental functioning.

Compared to the balance and toning group, the strength training group showed small but significant gains in their performance on the Stroop Test. The Stroop measures a person’s ability to deal with conflicting stimuli – someone’s tendency to read a word (a habit) compared to their ability to resist the habit and say the color of the type used to print the word. Performance on this measure is often interpreted as an aspect of executive functions, a group of mental abilities that includes such things as coordinating two mental activities at once (think about driving).

The study only included older women (average age about 70 years), so it’s not clear how strength training would affect younger persons’ or men’s functioning. On the other hand, the study adds to the growing body of research that shows that strength training may be important for  maintaining your brain fitness.

Reference:

Liu-Ambrose T et al. Resistance training and executive functions. Archives of Internal Medicine, 170, 170-178.

The mice who ran performed much better on several tasks that required that they tell the difference between two visual patterns.The effect of running was very clear in adult mice. In mice who were very old, though, running didn’t make much difference, and they didn’t get much boost from the exercise.

John Grohol at PsychCentral also posted about the article, noting that some newspaper accounts barely mentioned the fact that the study was done with mice. He even points out that it was done with a specific variety of mice, and suggests that the relevance of the study may be limited. It’s true that it is very hard to know whether studies about mice really mean much for humans, since findings in animals often don’t generalize to humans.

As Grohol notes, the research is pretty clear that exercise can improve cognitive functioning in people as well as animals.But I’m not as concerned as he is that the results of this study will only apply to one strain of mice. Animal research has its problems when we apply it to human research, but in this case studies in humans have consistently shown similar results to those in animals. It may still be true that the reasons for changes in cognitive function in humans and animals may be different, but that means we would have to come up with two separate mechanisms for change. That’s actually making the situation more, rather than less, complex.

Dr Grohol makes an excellent point about human and animal research. Too often, we jump from preliminary findings to the real world. In areas in which animal and human studies generally agree,though, animals studies can extend and help find new directions for research at considerably less cost than similar studies in humans.

Reference:

Creer DJ et al. Running enhances spatial pattern separation in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online first January 19,2010 doi:10.1073/pnas.0911725107

A recent study in the Archives of Neurology shows that muscle strength is related to risk for Alzheimer’s disease. In a group of persons with an average age of 80 years, those with the greatest muscle strength had the lowest chance of developing Alzheimer’s over up to six years. About one in five of the people with the lowest muscle strength (the lowest 10%) developed Alzheimer’s disease over the study follow up, while fewer than one in ten of those with the greatest strength (the highest 10%) developed Alzheimer’s in the same time – about half the risk.

Does this mean that weight training will keep you from getting Alzheimer’s or other memory problems? It’s not clear. Endurance training has been shown to increase brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor (BDNF), a substance that facilitates the growth of new nerve cells in the brain. This increase in BDNF may be part of the reason why exercise improves cognition. But a recent study of weight training with middle-aged men and women didn’t show any change in BDNF with weight training.

Given the association of mood, cognition, and loss of muscle tissue in frailty (see another blog post about frailty here), though, maintaining muscle mass through weight training may be an important way to maintain and improve physical and cognitive functioning.

References:

Boyle PA, et al. (2009). Association of muscle strength with the risk of Alzheimer disease and rate of cognitive decline in community-dwelling older persons. Archives of Neurology, 66, 1339-1344.

Levinger I, et al. (2008). BDNF, metabolic risk factors, and resistance training in middle-aged individuals. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 40, 535-541.

I’ve lost count of how many web sites and blog posts I’ve read in the last week about New Year’s resolutions . Lots of blogs and books and talk shows  repeat the reasonably good advice we’ve all seen many times:

• Write down your goals
• Get a partner
• Tell other’s about your goal
• And so on . . .

Nothing is wrong with those recommendations, but I think there’s a more important point that runs through all of the expert recommendations.

To be successful in changing your behavior, you have to focus on your goal, every day.

This might not sound as difficult as it is really is. Focus is probably the single most important thing you can do to achieve your brain fitness goals.

Why? Here’s an example. Your goal is to lose weight. You’re at work, and your friends ask you to go to lunch. You arrive at a restaurant, and everyone is ordering lunch.

This is a critical moment. You have to choose between something that works for how you want to eat, or what you want to eat. Your friends are talking, maybe there are other distractions, and you maybe you’re feeling a little stressed about a meeting you had this morning.

Your challenge: Order the right meal, and eat the right amount of it. How do you cut through the mental noise? You have to focus on your current goal, and screen out the distractions.

Looking at people who are successful at changing, the thing that most stands out for me is the fact that they can truly focus on their specific goal, and not get distracted by all the things that pull them away from achieving their goal.

For most people, this kind of focus only happens when something really big happens in their lives. Someone who drank two bottles of vodka every day, for example, couldn’t stop drinking. One day, he had a stroke that left him paralyzed for several days. He quit drinking.

Other people can’t quit smoking, and then they have their first child. Faced with smoking or taking care of their baby, they quit. Another person couldn’t lose weight. Then he realized that even trying to keep up with his toddler left him out of breath. He lost 100 pounds.

So I think the challenge isn’t to follow some expert’s recommendations. The key to behavior change isn’t waiting until you have a stroke, or a new baby, or the realization that you can’t keep up with a two year old. Those event give you the momentary motivation to focus for a while. And that shows us what’s really important.

The key to change is being able to maintain your focus on your goal, even when you are distracted. All the recommendations I’ve seen are really mostly focused on techniques to maintain your focus.

Plan how to keep your goal in mind by thinking through all the distractions.

Plan for how you are going to fail to focus, and visualize doing something else.

Think about when you’ll want a cigarette (after a meal, with friends at work, if you go out for drinks), and rehearse what you’ll do differently. Think about when you’ll over eat (in front of the TV, by buying chips at the grocery, eating the donuts around the coffee pot) and think about how you’ll walk away or make a different choice.

One of the best ways to focus is to set aside a little time every day to think about the challenges you’ll face during the day. Think about the critical moments you’ll confront during the day, and create a strategy for coping with them. By rehearsing a strategy to cope with them, you’ll be ready to do something different each time the problem arises.

That’s the most important way to make the changes that will help you with brain fitness in 2010.

A number of studies have shown that exercise improves cognitive function in persons over 50. It’s not clear why, exactly, but there are several possibilities. I’ve always been a fan of the idea that getting oxygen in your brain can help it work better. Some studies have shown that exercise stimulates the body’s production of a substance called brain-derived neurotropic growth factor (BDNF). Increases in BDNF may help brain make new connections among nerve cells and may help the existing nerve cells work better.

The new study in the BMJ followed more than 2,000 Swedish men for about 35 years. They were 50 years of age and older in 1970, and then followed at intervals. The men who exercised more frequently were more likely to be alive in 2006 than were those who reported a sedentary lifestyle. This was still true after controlling for things such as weight, diabetes, and smoking. Read more about the study in my health aging blog by clicking here. The full study report is available on the BMJ site. Click here to read it.

Remember to check with you doctor before you begin any exercise program. The American Heart Association, though, has published guidelines for exercise for everyone, including persons 65 years of age or older. Most people can exercise safely, but if you have a chronic health condition you should discuss the type of exercise and its frequency with your doctor.