Brain Benefits of Physical Exercise:
- Exercise aids the survival and consolidation of brain cells particularly in the hippocampus, the area of the brain most important for memory. This leads to an increase in brain chemicals (including one known to be directly related to improving memory), and the growth of new blood vessels in the brain.
- The frontal and temporal lobes increase in size through exercise. These regions are involved in memory and in executive functioning, which regulates planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, task-switching, and initiation and monitoring of actions.
- Exercise likely helps prevent the small strokes in the white matter of the brain that have been linked to vascular dementia and to the worsening of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Measurement of the electrical activity of the brain indicates that becoming physically fit alters a person’s baseline brain activity, making a fit person better able to pay attention than a sedentary person, even when not exercising.
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Nordic Pole Walking
Benefits of Nordic Pole Walking
- More than 90% of body muscles engaged
- 125% more effective than regular walking
- Walking Poles improve stability, balance and walking gait
- Results in less impact on knee, hip and ankle joints
- Improves Body Posture
- Lowers high blood pressure
- Lowers high blood sugar (diabetes type 2)
- Helps to diminish back and neck pain
- Increases cardio by 25%
- Increases bone density
Risks of Falling
Debra Wayland RN, BScN, FMS.
Debb is retired from hospital sector nursing, most recently from the Emergency Room (ER) and Urgent Care setting. Unintentional falls are one of many categories of injuries seen daily in Canadian ER.
According to the statistics from Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) the numbers of patients presenting to Canadian Emergency Rooms categorized as unintentional falls for 2014-2015 registration year are staggering, (pun intended).
Total numbers of visits to Canadian ER in all age groups for unintentional falls are 5,654,732!
To put that into perspective, the total population of Canada as of April 1, 2015 is 35,749,600.
CIHI further defines ages for these falls as follows: (some age groups not listed for brevity)
0 – 4 years 410,194
5 – 9 years 211,742
10-14 years 203,330
20-24 years 443,375
55-59 years 328,669
60-64 years 283,286
65-69 years 261,389
70-74 years 225,819
The importance of maintaining Fundamental Movement Skills throughout life is paramount to maintaining and improving the overall health and well being of individuals. As we age participation in activity that maintains FMS can reduce risk of injury related to muscle atrophy and weakness, and hopefully reduces the number of ER visits!