Does exercise and fitness help with cognitive health
Sekinah Walls
Mississippi College
Abstract
Older adults are experiencing the deterioration of physical functions and also suffering from declining brain and cognitive functions. Normal aging includes the degradation of cognitive processes, including memory, reasoning, and information processing speed. Older adults are at risk for osteoporosis and they are at high risk for falling. It is a huge problem when and older adults falls because the body does not heal as fast and easy like and young adult. Older adults need to be active and continue to be active to help increase the blood flow throughout their bodies and promote a healthy life physically and mentally. Living a healthy lifestyle helps cognitive skills for both young and old adults. Childhood obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes type 2, and certain cancers can possibly be prevented with exercise and fitness. Regular physical activity has been shown to be productive against the development of these diseases and many others. Not all children have adequate and effective brain development throughout childhood, therefore leading them to having health conditions that have undefined causes. Exercise and fitness is suggested to indirectly improve cognitive and brain health by reducing the risks for many disease processes. Exercise and fitness in the adolescence and adults will help with physical as well as cognitive and brain health
Statement of the Problem
Older adults are experiencing the deterioration of physical functions and also suffering from declining brain and cognitive functions. Normal aging includes the degradation of cognitive processes, including memory, reasoning, and information processing speed. Older adults are at risk for osteoporosis and they are at high risk for falling. Cognitive function and exercise and fitness is directly related to many issues older and young adults deal with. It is a huge problem when and older adults falls because the body does not heal as fast and easy like and young adult. Older adults need to be active and continue to be active to help increase the blood flow throughout their bodies and promote a healthy life physically and mentally. Cognitive health is an important factor in living an effective and productive lifestyle.
Purpose of the Study
This research purpose is to review studies and examine the cross sectional and experimental relationship between exercise and fitness and executive control function. Since the brain does not fully develop until one has reached their twenties, exercise and fitness maybe an important guiding principle to have for children early on and young adults. A proper and healthy exercise and fitness lifestyle affects the whole body, mind, and soul. This study is to see if exercise and fitness affects the cognitive functions positively. Medically thinking exercise and fitness is naturally good the body physically and cognitively, because it promotes good blood flow throughout the body. Having good flow throughout the body is necessary when relating it to cognitive functions. The body has to have proper blood flow in order to receive an adequate
amount of oxygen that the body requires to function properly and effectively. In this study I will review researches and based off of those and the results from the studies will determine and prove that exercise and fitness does have a positive effect on cognitive function.
Research Question/Hypothesis
What exercises and fitness regimens are recommended to help with cognitive function in both children, young adults, middle age adults, and older adults. Exercise and fitness helps the blood to flow better in the body. Therefore, people’s brains are getting well oxygenated and people are able to make smarter decisions more effectively. Does exercise and fitness have an effect of the cognitive function in older adults? What different cognitive functions are measured, implying that the cognition type plays a moderating role in the relationship between acute exercise and cognition? Whether the effects of acute exercise have general or specific effects on the different cognition types and whether fitness status moderates the magnitude of favorable acute exercise effects on these cognitive performances, particularly in older adults. This research study will investigate how cardiovascular fitness moderates two type of cognitive function assessed by the Stroop test, following an acute bout of moderate aerobic exercise in an older population. Acute exercise not only reduced the response times for both Stroop test conditions but also diminished the interface, suggesting that acute exercise led to both general and specific improvements in cognitive functions. How does exercise and fitness affect the cognitive functions?
Review of Literature
Klan and Hillman reviewed the brain development mental trajectory and evaluated observational and interventional studies examining relationship between physical activity and fitness with cognitive performance and brain health in childhood. The relationship between physical activity, fitness, and academic achievement has received attention in recent years due to increased prevalence of children who overweight and not active. Studies in humans suggest that physical activity may be protective against age related brain tissue loss and may be positively associated with brain health and cognitive functions in children. Further research is needed to determine to what extent genetics, motivation, personality characteristics, nutrition, and intellectual stimulation plays a role in mediating the fitness brain relationship observed in cross sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are needed to better examine the association between changes in fitness, physical activity, brain, and cognition. According to Klan and Hillman, evidence from MRI studies suggest that physical activity may influence the modulation of neural activity supporting executive control in pre-puberty children, but also suggests that further work is needed to better determine the differential patterns of activation across various cognitive tasks. Childhood physical activity and aerobic fitness helps brain function and cognition. Despite the fact that the brain achieves 95% of its maximum size by the age of six, the processes underling functional connectivity continues throughout life which is why physical activity helps brain function and cognition. The purpose of this research was to find out whether exercise and fitness has an effect on the cognitive function in older adults. The examination of whether the positive effects of acute exercise extend to older adults has been limited, with unclear findings. This study examined the effects of acute exercise on two types of cognitive process derived from the Stroop test, where the Stroop incongruent condition is believed to engage a greater amount of executive control than does the Stroop congruent condition, which reflects more basic information processing. A Stroop test is when you compare congruent conditions with incongruent conditions. Acute exercise not only reduced the response times for both Stroop conditions, but also diminished the interference, suggesting that acute exercise led to both general and specific improvements in cognitive functions.
Reference
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