Today’s Brain Lesson: Amygdala, Hippocampus, and Exercise

Living in the most protected area of our brain, the amygdala is our fear and emotion center. That lizard brain wants to protect us when we feel threatened. A cheetah may be chasing us, or a ride at Disneyland, the State Fair, or Wild Water Waves may be too scary. Driving at night is fearful for some people, and approaching our car in an underground parking structure when no one else is around can be equally nerve wracking. It’s all fear, and the signals come from the amygdala, the nervous nelly of our body that lives in our brain.

The hippocampus, also in our brain, stores long term memory.  It is believed that Alzheimer’s begins in the hippocampus, then spreads outward to other parts of the brain. No one is sure how or why it starts.

Ok, brain lesson is over. And why should anyone care?

What we are beginning to see is that exercise lowers stress, which reduces fear, and impacts memory. That’s how all three are related: exercise, the amygdala, and the hippocampus.

We actively change our brain through our impulse signals to the amygdala and hippocampus, by exercising, which determines how we see, and react to, the world. And, of course, how we age. Exercise can literally save our life. Any exercise: walking, running, swimming, jumping; you get the picture.

You don’t have to like exercise, but then do you like dementia?

Think how smart you will sound when you throw words around like amygdala and hippocampus. Because exercise also makes you smarter. That certainly beats dementia.

Try walking 30 minutes a day, not leisurely. Actively. Like you want to get somewhere. How many times can you sit down and stand up in a minute? Take your bicycle out of the closet and go for a ride. Pretend you are a Rockette, and kick your legs in the air. Can you kick for 2 minutes? How about 4?

It isn’t hard to start moving, and then it isn’t hard to keep doing it. You just have to start.

It’s your life, and it’s you who are Aging Intelligently.