Alternative Health Blog

The next time you choose to disregard walking as exercise, Dr. Gary Small has some research for you—and your brain.

Small is aging specialist at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. He says research undeniably shows that walking pumps more blood to not only the muscles by the brain. The brain needs that blood because it is packed with oxygen and nutrients, mostly the glucose that allows thoughts and cerebral directives to regular the body. One more benefit: The brain circulatory system grows as the blood feeds the connecting network of blood vessels. Your brain becomes a sort of stronger mesh.

All of this from walking, which might seem, well, monotonous and repetitious and just too much second nature to be so effective. But that is precisely one of the reasons why walking gets the job done for your brain. The action of doing the same movement over and over can strengthen the brain’s neurological circuitry, comparable to lifting weights three times a week to build muscles.

Small cited two recent studies. One Johns Hopkins University study reported that stroke patients who undergo a therapeutic walking program using safety treadmills improve because of the repetitive movements of putting one foot in fron of the other. Interestingly, the researchers expected most brain activity (measured by imaging techniques) to be isolated to the cortex, which is the hub for motor skills. But other areas were also activated, which surprised the scientists and has prompted to begin follow-up research.

Over six months, the patients increased walking speed by 50 percent  and aerobic lung capacity by 20 percent. Those are formidable improvements for any of us, yet particularly beneficial to stroke and heart patients, plus, say, a sedentary person looking to become more fit.

Small identifies a second study was conducted by Australian researchers who evaluated the brain power scores of adults who walked for exercise over six months. Those individuals in the walking group compared to non-exercisers scored better for memory and mental acuity. The improvement was about three to five percent better. It doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but the Aussie scientists pointed out that the individual walking programs were moderate, suggesting that more regular and/or more intense (not out of breath intensity but something beyond strolling).

That makes walking for exercise—and your brain—more than a footnote.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.