As a diabetic, you are probably aware that regular exercise is beneficial to your health... especially if you are following the Beating Diabetes diet.
Indeed, 30 minutes of exercise per day, such as brisk walking, swimming, cycling, dancing, or gardening, can actively assist you in controlling your diabetes.
The following are some of the benefits of this type of moderate exercise:
However, there is another benefit that is rarely mentioned: exercise can improve your brain's functioning and cognitive abilities.
Indeed, exercise is the most scientifically proven way to improve your brain's performance.
How physical activity benefits the brain
Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, providing it with the additional oxygen and nutrients it requires to function properly. This has a number of beneficial effects on the way your brain functions, including the following:
Enhancement of executive functions
Executive functions are higher-order cognitive abilities. They include impulse control, attention span, task and goal management, and working memory capacity, among other things... all of which are necessary for planning, organizing, and problem-solving.
A February 2013 study published in the US National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health) entitled Benefits of regular aerobic exercise for executive functioning in healthy populations discovered ample evidence that aerobic exercise helps healthy people optimize a variety of executive functions.
A meta-analysis (a systematic review of multiple studies) published in March 2003 in the same journal as Fitness effects on cognitive function of older adults examined the findings of 18 different studies on how regular exercise affects the brains of older adults. The studies' participants were all in good health but led sedentary lifestyles. Fitness training was found to have significant benefits for various aspects of cognition, with the greatest benefit for executive-control processes.
Increased concentration
Constant interruptions from flashing mobile phones, bleeping news feeds, and email messages, among others, have made concentrating on a single task increasingly difficult in the modern era. However, exercise can help us develop the ability to tune out distractions and focus on the task at hand.
Cardiovascular fitness, cortical plasticity, and aging demonstrated that physically fit older adults have greater control over their ability to focus their attention (as measured by a difficult cognitive task).
Enhanced cognitive adaptability
Cognitive flexibility refers to the mental capacity to shift between two distinct concepts and to think about multiple concepts concurrently. It is a metric used to assess executive function.
Aerobic exercise improves cognitive flexibility, as demonstrated by a study published in June 2009 in the United States National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health). Regular aerobic exercise significantly improves this enviable ability.
91 healthy adults were divided into three groups. Over a 10-week period, one group engaged in minimal aerobic exercise (two days per week), another in moderate aerobic exercise (three to four days per week), and the third in vigorous aerobic exercise (5-7 days a week).
After ten weeks, participants' memory, mental speed, reaction time, attention, and cognitive flexibility were assessed. The analysis of the data revealed unequivocally that increasing aerobic activity frequency improved cognitive performance, particularly cognitive flexibility.
Strengthened willpower
We rely on our willpower to accomplish personal and professional goals, avoid temptation, and maintain healthy habits. Exercise can help you develop more willpower.
In 2013, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a meta-analysis that examined several groups of people... children, adolescents, and adults up to the age of 35. The researchers discovered that brief bouts of exercise had a significant effect on various aspects of executive function, including willpower, across all age groups.
Improvements in long-term memory
Exercise is unlikely to improve short-term memory, that is, the information currently being processed in your head, or that the effect, if it occurs, will be transient.
Long-term memory is the process by which information is stored for an extended period of time, ranging from a few hours to several decades. Numerous studies have established a link between exercise and improved long-term memory.
Aerobic Exercise and Neurocognitive Performance: A Meta-Analytic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials, published in March 2010 in the US National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health), concluded that aerobic exercise training improves attention and processing speed, executive function, and long-term memory.
Another study, recently published in Current Biology, discovered that 35 minutes of interval cycling strengthens long-term memory. However, timing is critical.
Exercise four hours after learning significantly improves memory. However, those who exercise immediately after learning do not improve.
Another study, Effects of acute exercise on long-term memory, published in December 2011 in the United States National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health), divided participants into three groups. Each group was required to recall the maximum amount of information possible from two paragraphs.
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