Exercise, longevity and healthy brains:

Two years ago Dave competed in the Quarantine BackYard Ultra Marathon. This marathon was established to allow families who were separated by Covid 19 to join together in a virtual running event. Dave participated in Kamloops, BC while his son and grandson ran in Boulder, Colorado. Dave was 90 years-old and had a pace-maker; he freely admitted he would not “run” the full marathon, but he “ran” as long and as far as he could. He inspired the other residents of his long-term care home.
Pons Van Dijk, Huijfs and Lodder (2013) found that improvement in cognitive speed, attention and executive functioning occur with physical activity when they trained seniors in Taekwondo. A friend of mine who is an MD told me once if he could prescribe one thing to make everyone live longer, it would be “exercise, exercise, exercise”.
Dave was on the right track, pun intended, with his marathon training. He is still, today, living proof that exercise ensures successful brain function (Cotman, Berchtold and Christie 2007) as he is the smartest 92 year-old I know.
How do you keep your brain sharp? Pickleball? Walking the dog? Swimming? Comment at heidiredlcounselling.ca.