Improving Our Cognitive Function At Any Age - 1134 Words

Improving our cognitive functions at any age seems to be a good idea. In a world where the ageing population will soon outnumber the young it is an event more important to find a way to protect and enchants them. Everywhere there more and more different products that promise to keep the mind young and sharp. They can be found everywhere from the Apple App store, where you can find apps that help you improve problem solving and decision making abilities to the pharmacy, where you can find tens of different dietary supplements that claim to improve memory. Unfortunately, not all of them really help, therefore, the question is there something that can really maintain or improve our cognitive functions for real. One of the many hypothesis is†¦show more content†¦Podewils et al. (2005) found that it is possible that physical activities decreases the risk of dementia and conserve cognitive function. The study calculated the leisure-time energy expenditure and an activity index reflecting number of different physical activities of 3, 375 men and women over the age of 65 that did not suffer from dementia that participated in Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study. After a mean follow-up of 5.4 years, 480 of the participants has developed dementia. After multivariate adjustment, the study found that individuals who participated in 4 or more activities had a lower risk of dementia the those who engaged in one or less. Laurin et al. (2001), Scarmeas et al. (2001) and Larson et al. (2006), also, found similar relationship between physical exercise and dementia in people age of 65 and older. They all found that regular physical activity reduce the risk of dementia and/or preserve cognitiv e functions. Up to this point we saw evidence that physical exercise can prevent the decline of cognitive functions in later life, but that does not mean that it improves them. There are some studies that could not find a relationship between exercise and cognitive functions in people over the age of 65. For example, Sturman et al. (2005) could not find evidence that physical activity alone protects against cognitive decline in this age group. They assed 4055 adults over the age of 64 on with questions