{"id":6003,"date":"2018-05-21T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/?p=6003"},"modified":"2019-06-04T00:30:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T04:30:05","slug":"whats-the-matter-with-your-gray-matter-more-than-just-brain-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=6003","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s the Matter With Your Gray Matter? More Than Just Brain Strain."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-opt-id=1134499925  fetchpriority=\"high\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7361 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:300\/h:200\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/iStock-1068364620-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:300\/h:4000\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/iStock-1068364620.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:724\/h:483\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/iStock-1068364620.jpg 724w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s 50 shades of gray for the matter of your gray matter. As you age, little by little you start dropping threads. Then you have to retrace your steps, physically and mentally to force yourself to remember the things you forgot. This is as inevitable as it is normal.<\/p>\n<p>But as in any normal distribution bell curve, there is a range of age-related dysfunction: some people seem to start forgetful, others develop it over time, and others seem to just keep going like an EverReady Bunny.<\/p>\n<p>What makes the difference between those who lose it early, and those who lose it late? Probably 32 factors, only a few of which are even known at this point. Oh great, right? That said,\u00a0there are things we can do to tilt the needle away from this steep senility Slip-n-Slide. Most people would think I&#8217;m going to say brain exercises, crosswords, Sudoku, and other forms of brain strain.<\/p>\n<p>And those are fine, but something else you can do is far simpler. Here&#8217;s some data:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>exercise breaks promote attention and improve your ability to learn (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2211368116301929?via%3Dihub\">STUDY<\/a>),<\/p>\n<p>they can improve memory and executive function (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/26114906\">STUDY<\/a>),<\/p>\n<p>and &#8220;<em><span class=\"highlight\">exercise<\/span>\u00a0training may be a promising approach to improve [blood flow in the brain], as increases may contribute to the beneficial effects on\u00a0<span class=\"highlight\">cognitive<\/span>\u00a0functioning observed following increased physical activity levels<\/em>\u00a0(STUDY).<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line? Bend the curve in your favor! Hold back the decline as long as you can! And to do that, remember to active every day in every way. Otherwise, you&#8217;ll slip faster down that slope. And no one climbs back up a Slip-n-Slide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s 50 shades of gray for the matter of your gray matter. As you age, little by little you start dropping threads. Then you have to retrace your steps, physically &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[528,494,536],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activity","category-articles","category-health-notes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/exerciseMeditation.jpg?fit=275%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qv5g-1yP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2726,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2726","url_meta":{"origin":6003,"position":0},"title":"Exercise on the Brain","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Do it. Find something. Something that you can love that makes you move, and do that.Being active does a lot of things for your heart, and for your circulatory system. In essence, it keeps the pipes clean. Here is a great summary from Harvard if you want to read more.Your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2513,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2513","url_meta":{"origin":6003,"position":1},"title":"Brained By Obesity","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Need another reason to eat well? How about brain damage?? Obesity degrades your brain. Not only obesity, even overweight does it. What does this mean? Loosing your Gray Matter can't be a good thing, but the study below only looked at the volume of brain tissue -- not how well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2713,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2713","url_meta":{"origin":6003,"position":2},"title":"Neurobics","author":"Will Clower","date":"September 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"And-a one, and-a two, keep it up, sweat it out!This is the brain version of exercise routines. But in stead of trying to increase the aerobic capacity of your lungs, in stead of wearing sweat bands and following the spandex'd, bouncy leader at the front of the room, you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Brain\"","block_context":{"text":"Brain","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?tag=brain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12599,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=12599","url_meta":{"origin":6003,"position":3},"title":"The #1 Way To Spritz Yourself With Happy Brain Chemicals","author":"Will Clower","date":"November 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In my former life as a neuroscientist, I would stimulate specific areas of the brain to map the behaviors stored within its neuronal networks. Others have more extensively explored regions that control all aspects of behavior: movement, speech (speaking it, and understanding it), feelings, memories, even religious spirituality (link: for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/positive_happy_neurochemicals_of_the_brain.png?fit=1092%2C612&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/positive_happy_neurochemicals_of_the_brain.png?fit=1092%2C612&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/positive_happy_neurochemicals_of_the_brain.png?fit=1092%2C612&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/positive_happy_neurochemicals_of_the_brain.png?fit=1092%2C612&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/positive_happy_neurochemicals_of_the_brain.png?fit=1092%2C612&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2241,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2241","url_meta":{"origin":6003,"position":4},"title":"Got Brain Cells? Here is How To Grow New Ones","author":"Will Clower","date":"November 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was growing up as a wee neuroscientist, I was told that we could not grow any new brain cells.\u00a0So, when you go on a bender and wake up to feel like a jack-hammer is lodged in your head because of all the neurons you pummeled the night before,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_HAl9r2q_-j0\/TPOd8yoK_lI\/AAAAAAAACzA\/7WtYPA8j0fQ\/s320\/BrainPower.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5108,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=5108","url_meta":{"origin":6003,"position":5},"title":"Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise On The Brain: 30 Minutes Of Working Out Improves Memory, Thinking Skills","author":"Will Clower","date":"February 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We all know about the physical benefits of working out; we become leaner, fitter, and stronger. Our body isn't the only thing reaping gains from exercise; our brain also benefits from a sweat session. Researchers at the University of Auckland have found 30 minutes of aerobic exercise boosts brain activity,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Activity&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Activity","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=528"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6003"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7405,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6003\/revisions\/7405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}