Hippopotamus, Hippocampus

Lizards grow new tails when theirs is lost due to pretators. Sea cucumbers, when cut into pieces, will grow into separate, new sea cucumbers. Sharks can grow new teeth. But we, as humans, cannot regrow body parts. However, we can grow new brain neurons in our hippocampus, which sits in the middle of the brain, and is the seat of memory and learning ability. According to neuroscientist Dr Majid Fotuhi, this is important because of the impact on Alzheimer’s.

Used to be, scientists believed that we were born with a finite amount of brain neurons. When they were destroyed, from drugs, alcohol, or a host of other parental obsessions about good behavior, they were gone forever, making us stupid, and forever doomed to low-paying jobs, and a life in the suburbs with unattractive spouses. But our parents, and science, was wrong.

One of the easiest ways to generate neurons in the hippocampus is exercise. Ah, that again. Does it never stop with the benefits of exercise? Nope! Exercise is a panacea, for a lot of reasons. In case you are thinking that you don’t have time for exercise, walking……is considered exercise. If nothing else, walk more. It won’t kill you, and think of walking as transportation. Really, do you need to drive 3 blocks to Trader Joe’s?

People who exercise have a bigger hippocampus. Should you care? Well, a bigger hippocampus reduces your risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 48%, according to Dr Fotuhi. Now are you paying attention? Some other ways to nourish the building blocks of the hippocampus is a diet including omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, olive oil), and nuts. Stress reduction, meditation, better sleep, and life-long learning also affect the size of the hippocampus. These increase memory and brain function, and decrease the risk of dementia. 

Ways that reduce the size of the hippocampus include stress, depression, obesity, diabetes, people who sit more than stand, a sedentary lifestyle, head injury, poor diet, and anxiety. You know all this, right? Do something, change something if it isn’t working. You help or hurt yourself by your behavior.

At the age of 90 (yes, he is still alive) Dick van Dyck shot a video with The Dustbowl Revival, a folk music band. They sang, he danced, spry and animated, not missing a step, full of energy. It should be the norm, not the anomaly, that he moves that well.   

There are things you can do, and the choice is always yours to do them or not. If I can help it, Alzheimer’s isn’t coming to my house. Turns out, I can. Help it.

That’s Aging Intelligently.