Anyone who has had a family member suffer with Dementia, Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer disease will know all about the pain and stress that these diseases create. While we give so much attention to using exercise to improve how we look, improving the strength of our muscles and bone density, or even improving our overall cardiovascular health, we forget how important exercise is to our brain and cognitive function. I am certain many people do not realize just how important exercise is to maintaining a healthy brain and preventing the onset of debilitating diseases like dementia. Like most chronic diseases we tend to blame it on old age or genetics, and while these do play a part, it is our sedentary lifestyle and poor food choices that are mostly to blame for the rapid rise of these diseases. This means YOU have some control over this and can make a significant difference to the quality of your life as you age. In this article, I will show you how.
Why Exercise Is VITAL For Our Mental Health
There is tons of information about the physical benefits provided from exercise, but what is not fully explained and understood is the benefits of exercise to our mental health. It is fair to say we are becoming more aware of the need to address mental health problems, and several institutes like Beyond Blue and the Black Dog institute do a fantastic job of educating the community to better understand how to treat these serious conditions. It has long been known that physical activity helps with depression but even as countless number of studies and evidence supports this, there is inconsistency into what type of exercise is best, and how much is enough? These are some of the questions we explored in this article and the results were very surprising.