Philip J. Goscienski, M.D.
July 2010
Contrary to the medical opinion that prevailed for most of last century, you can make your brain grow new cells throughout adult life. The idea that we're stuck with the brain cells that we had in the first grade — and that we're bound to lose a few due to poor lifestyle habits and normal aging — is no longer accepted in the scientific community. That has enormous implications for persons who have suffered brain injury but also for our aging population.
Neuroplasticity involves more than the ability of the brain to grow new cells. It can form new connections and enable some parts of the brain to take up new functions when other parts have been damaged by stroke or trauma or removed because of cancer.
Aside from the complex innovative methods that have improved the lives of stroke victims and others, simple mental and physical exercise can enrich the existence of the rest of us. Persons who exercise regularly with moderate intensity are able to grow new brain cells that aid in memory and intellectual function. Mental exercise enriches the connections between brain cells, postponing memory loss and slowing the advance of age-related dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Imaging studies of medical students during periods of intense study for examinations showed significant increases in the gray matter of certain parts of the brain over a period of only a few months. When elderly patients were given experimental training in order to combat what is called age-related cognitive decline their ability to perform certain mental tasks improved in only 8 to 10 weeks.
It pays to exercise your brain and no one is too old to begin. When you study a new language, do puzzles or play brain-teasing games such as Sudoku, or go back to the piano or guitar that you left behind in high school or college, you will multiply the connections between brain cells.
Physical exercise will add to these benefits by inducing new brain cells to develop, thus improving memory, cognitive skills and reaction time. The last benefit might improve the driving skills of older drivers.
Aerobic and resistance exercise make it easier to keep body weight within normal limits and postpone or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. That not only lowers the risk of Alzheimer's disease but it protects the brain from blood vessel damage, which is responsible for about one half of so-called age-related dementia.
Philip J. Goscienski, M.D. is the author of Health Secrets of the Stone Age, Better Life Publishers 2005. Contact him at drphil@stoneagedoc.com.