{"id":4488,"date":"2015-07-08T09:22:19","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T13:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=4488"},"modified":"2015-06-30T15:24:12","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T19:24:12","slug":"the-new-best-workout-for-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/the-new-best-workout-for-your-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Best Workout For Your Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"summer<\/a>Every time you solve the daily crossword puzzle or get cozy with a copy of your favorite paperback, you are giving your brain a refreshing workout. New research reveals that participating in these types of brain-stimulating activities throughout your life can help keep your mind functioning smoothly as you get older.Chicago researchers studied the cognitive abilities of a group of 294 adults in their late 70s and 80s by surveying them on the amount of information-seeking activities they engaged in during their early childhood, adult, and late-life years. They checked in with them regularly for about six years prior to their deaths, after which they examined their brains at autopsy for common brain lesions and signs of dementia.<\/p>\n

Those who participated in creative or intellectual pastimes more frequently over the course of their lifetime had about a 32% slower late-life cognitive decline rate than those who partook in these brainy enterprises less often, according to the study published in\u00a0the journal\u00a0Neurology<\/em>. Mental activeness in youth years was particularly linked with late-life memory preservation.<\/p>\n

Pastimes like reading, writing, and many others make the brain more efficient by changing its structure to continue functioning properly in spite of age-related neuropathologies, explains Robert S. Wilson, PhD, professor of neuropsychology at Rush University Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s healthy to take a look at your lifestyle and decide whether it\u2019s as cognitively active as you can make it,\u201d Dr. Wilson says. \u201cThe metaphor we use is a hobby. In order to change brain structure and function, it needs to be sustained, and for it to be sustained, it\u2019s probably got to be enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading and writing are the prototype activities that were studied and found to have significant brain benefits over the years, but any hobby\u2014photography, quilting, acting, or anything creative\u2014that keeps your mind churning achieves similar positive effects<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every time you solve the daily crossword puzzle or get cozy with a copy of your favorite paperback, you are giving your brain a refreshing workout. New research reveals that participating in these types of brain-stimulating activities throughout your life … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9fc-1ao","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4488"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4494,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488\/revisions\/4494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}