RESEARCHERS IN FINLAND MAKE DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN EXERCISE AND MEMORY SKILLS
Exercise is obviously important, but we seem to keep learning about the actual connections to different aspects of our health. And now Finnish researchers have connected more dots, finding that lethargy is directly connected to poor, or poorer, memory. In other words, a lack of exercise such as pervasive sitting down (being a couch potato) and not doing your basic daily exercise will make you more forgetful which is part of everyone’s basic biology. We already knew that older, active people tend to have better cognitive skills, including memory. But this further hammers home the nail in the memory coffin that exercise is the key to a better life. Hopefully, I can remember that after writing this while sitting down.
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ATHLETES SHOW FAR SUPERIOR COGNITIVE/MEMORY SKILLS COMPARED TO THE LETHARGIC, SEDENTARY
The Finnish researchers used older studies that supplied already available data to see a comparison of people’s memory skills who had different habits of physical activity, or exercise. And not surprisingly, athletes at the top of the active chart had better working memory than everyone else. But especially more than lethargic, or sedentary people. The study was done at the University of Jyväskylä, and further strengthens earlier findings of other studies that merely suggested there being a connection between exercise, cognition and working memory. Working memory, of course, is the mode of cognition that enables us to process small bits of information at the same time to perform tasks.
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IF WE CAN REMEMBER, WE SHOULD ALL BE SURE TO GET A LITTLE EXERCISE EVERY DAY
For a while scientists have assumed that athletes, who have to make split-decisions all the time in their sports, have better working memory. But this study goes a good ways in confirming that assumption: exercise helps with both cognition and working memory. Athletes showed a distinct advantage over most people, but a decisive advantage over people who regularly sit and don’t exercise. So if you’ve decided that playing pickup basketball isn’t a good idea anymore, maybe reconsider. Or be sure to hit the elliptical or rowing machine 20 minutes every day.
You can read more about the research in the current edition of the journal Memory.
