We spend a lot of time talking about healthy ageing at MedHP. We talk about keeping your heart healthy. Maintaining muscle. Staying strong. Protecting your bones and balance, and making sure you can continue doing the things you love as you get older. But there’s another rather important part of the body that deserves the same attention.
Your brain!
For most of us, preserving our cognitive function – our memory, concentration, decisionmaking and ability to remain independent, is one of the most important parts of ageing well.
And while there are no guarantees when it comes to dementia or cognitive decline, research suggests that up to 45% of dementia risk may be associated with potentially modifiable factors – things we can identify and importantly, do something about. Physical inactivity is one of them. Which brings us back to something we are passionate about at MedHP… Exercise!
Exercise isn’t just training your body
Most of us think about exercise in terms of what we can see or feel. Stronger muscles, better fitness, improved balance and a healthier heart. But there is plenty happening upstairs as well.
Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, helps maintain the health of the blood vessels supplying brain tissue and stimulates important growth factors, including BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF plays an important role in the growth, survival and adaptability of brain cells and the connections between them. Regular physical activity may also help protect against some of the loss of brain volume that naturally occurs as we age. Put all of that together and we’re helping create a brain that is healthier and more resilient as we get older
But importantly, the type of exercise we do matters too.
Cardiovascular exercise promotes blood flow to brain tissue and helps maintain a healthy cardiovascular system and blood vessels. Adding periods of higher-intensity exercise can also provide a powerful stimulus for BDNF and other processes involved in brain health.
Resistance exercise keeps our muscles strong and powerful, supports metabolic health and helps preserve the physical and functional independence that becomes increasingly important as we age.
Then there’s dual-task exercise – combining a physical task with a cognitive task at the same time. This might involve reacting to information on a screen while moving, remembering instructions, making decisions or coordinating different movements. This challenges areas such as executive function, attention and processing speed, while training our ability to concentrate on more than one thing at once – something we do constantly in everyday life.
In other words, good exercise for healthy ageing shouldn’t just give our muscles and heart a reason to work.
It should give our brain a reason to think, react, adapt and learn.
This growing understanding of the relationship between exercise, ageing and brain health is something we’ve been putting a lot of thought into at MedHP…
BrainyActiv Protect
BA Protect is a purpose-built exercise program designed to support brain health and help preserve cognitive function as we get older.
It brings together cardiovascular exercise, resistance exercise and brain-specific dual-task exercise, tailored to the individual and their needs.
Some of it will look and feel like exercise you’re already familiar with at MedHP. Other parts will be quite different.
Through gamified activities and dual-task exercises, we combine physical movement with challenges involving memory, reaction time, coordination, attention and decision-making.
The idea isn’t simply to make exercise more complicated. It’s about providing the right physical challenge while asking the brain to stay engaged and work alongside the body.
Who is BrainyActiv Protect For?
Importantly, you don’t need to have dementia or a cognitive diagnosis to benefit from thinking about your brain health.
BA Protect can support people with mild cognitive impairment, dementia and Parkinson’s disease, but it’s also for people who simply want to be proactive about maintaining their brain health as they get older.
It may also be particularly relevant for someone with a family history of dementia or someone who has started to notice changes in their memory or cognition.
As with everything we do at MedHP, the starting point is the individual. Exercise needs to be appropriate for your health, physical capacity and goals.
We’re looking after the whole picture.
We often talk about exercise as one of the most powerful things we can do to remain healthy, capable and independent as we get older. Our growing understanding of brain health gives us another very good reason to keep moving.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about BrainyActiv, cognitive ageing and some of the practical things we can all do to look after our brains.
For now, perhaps the important message is simply this:
Looking after your brain is part of looking after your health- and exercise is a very good place to start.
If you’d like to learn a little more about BrainyActiv in the meantime, you can have a look at our webpage: www.medhp.com.au/brainyactiv
Otherwise, stay tuned for plenty more over the coming weeks.
MedHP Clinic Updates
On Wednesday 13th of August, we had the pleasure of hosting our Allied Health Education Night at MedHP, bringing together members of our community for an evening focused on health, education and practical strategies for healthy ageing. The overwhelmingly positive feedback we received following the event highlighted just how much of a thirst for knowledge there is within our community, and it was fantastic to see so many people engaged, asking questions and eager to learn more about their health.
We were joined by:
- Sam Waley – Exercise Physiologist, MedHP: Exercise for Healthy Longevity & Brain Activity
- John Humphrey – Physiotherapist, Bluff Road Physio: Vertigo, Headaches, Falls & Balance
- Samantha Woodland – Podiatrist, Momentum Podiatry: Footwear, Foot Strength & Preventing Complications
A huge thank you to Sam, John and Samantha for sharing their expertise, and to everyone who attended and contributed to such a positive and engaging evening.
