Free Articles at Neutron Marketing Article Publishing and Distribution » Health-and-fitness » Exercise » What You Can Do To Prevent Senility When You Get Old
Previous Article - How To Lose Weight Using A Workout Pass
Next Article - Body Building For Seniors

View PDF | Print View | Html Version
by: ChristianGoodman
Total views: 3
Word Count: 538

You know the meaning of 'old sayings'. They use that when a saying has been proven to be true and have been passed around for years. One such old saying is "You learn something new every day".

We are lucky that scientists are leading the way to learning something new every day. Case in point: our belief that once we age, our brain cells die and cannot be regenerated.

Scientists, wanting to learn something new, have come up with studies that show new brain cell growth in adults, particularly in the hippocampus area of the brain. This area is where learning happens and where we store memories. Another study proved that the number of brain cells can be the same when you are a teenager and when you reach old age.

The brain does shrink in size over time. After reaching full size at around age 20, it begins to shrink by about 1% every year. The decrease in size is not due to neuron (nerve cell) death, but rather to changes of the dendrites that branch out from the neurons and the synapses (the spaces between adjacent neurons) between them.

The changes in the dendrites and the decrease in their numbers is the primary reason for a reduction in brain function as we age. Dendrites serve to connect the neurons to each other, in much the same way as entrance ramps connect surface roads to the interstate. If interstate entrance ramps are destroyed or in extremely poor condition, can you see how much harder it would be to continue on the path to your destination?

The same thing happens when dendrites are destroyed or in poor condition. Nerve impulses have a similar difficulty continuing on their path and often meet a literal 'dead end'. The good news is our brain cells don't have to deteriorate just because we get older.

Disuse is often the cause of brain function and dendrites deterioration. Another old saying referring to this is, use it or lose it. This is true especially when it comes to our body. If neural pathways become inactive, their strength and function will gradually decrease until they can no longer function properly.

For example, do you know the biggest reason so many elderly people can't sit in the floor? Because at some point in their lives, they stopped sitting in the floor. In order to make a particular movement, the brain combines the electrical signals of many neurons and makes a muscle movement. If the movements required to lower oneself to the floor are never used, those pathways between neurons become too weak to carry the signal and the brain's memory of how to perform that movement is not able to be recovered.

We need to stay active mentally and physically to make new brain cells (called neurogenesis). It's interesting to note that stress can also prevent new brain cells from forming. So we need physical exercise to enhance it.

In order to stay mentally active, we need to make our minds continuously learn new things, and we need to exercise them by doing crossword puzzles and brain teasers. We decrease our chances of decreased brain function by keeping our minds and our bodies active.

Warm regards,

Christian Goodman

About the Author

Christian Goodman is a popular researcher and the creator of the alternative health Blog. His different programs has already helped thousands of people who have hypertension, weight loss problems, TMJ, vertigo, and other diseases.

---

Rating: Not yet rated

--Choose-- 0 1 2 3 4 5

No comments posted.

Add Comment

Enter the code shown