Senescence otherwise known as chronological ageing is in many ways associated with diseases like cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, metabolic syndrome as well as increased conditions of chronic diseases. Because of the long life expectancy, diseases associated with ageing have gradually increased in the recent years. Many researches done on ageing and exercise suggest that lifestyle greatly impacts on how people age. It is largely argued that physical activity helps in protecting the body against the deleterious effects of aged people’s health as well as the cognition functions. Physical activity can be defined as an activity which involves the movement of the body and use of skeletal muscles. Exercise falls under the category of physical activity which is structured, well planned, purpose motivated and meant to improve physical fitness or specific physical skills such as professional gymnastics. It has been proven that exercise and other physical activities help in lowering the health risks that come with advancing age.
Problem Statement
Many studies show that there are brain diseases that are associated with the aged. However, there are scanty and limited research on the specific causes of these diseases and how exercises affect the brain of the aged.
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Research Questions:
What is the impact of exercise on the brain of the aged?
How does exercise enhance the cognitive function on the brain of the aged?
Research Objectives
The goal of this research was to identify the effect of exercise during old age.
The specific objectives were:
To review lifestyle conditions associated with ageing
To determine the effects of exercise on the brain function of the aged.
Literature Review
According to Kim et al., 2010, many ageing individuals develop the geriatric syndrome. This means that the ageing individuals develop complications such as urinary incontinence, hearing and visual problems, delirium, falls, dementia all of which are examples of the geriatric syndrome. These complications are usually characterized by having multiple causes and affecting different body parts. With these complications, one is limited in doing physical exercises. Shephard 1997 suggests that physical inactivity in most instances leads to frailty. Frailty refers to increased vulnerability and a complex state of health that is caused by impairment in several body systems. It is widely associated with hospitalization, disability falls and sometimes death (Kim et al., 2010). Even so, it is worth noting that frailty should not be a reason for not doing exercises.
On the contrary, it should be a reason why ageing individuals should prescribe physical exercises. Research done by Lovering & Brooks (2014) shows that frailty can be prevented by physical exercises in by the old age (Lovering & Brooks, 2014). In a more recent study on frailty and the aged, it was found that individuals who are aged and regularly do exercises were less likely to develop frailty as opposed to the sedentary individuals. The biological mechanisms that help in enhancement of cognition through the physical activity and training exercises remain to be elucidated. For most parts, many researches support the notion that exercises greatly impact on the functions of the brain either directly or indirectly. The physical activity helps in enhancing cognition indirectly -through improving health conditions such as sleep and stress and reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart diseases that affect neurocognitive functions.
Research Methodology
The source of data for this study was gathered from secondary data sources including books from neurosurgery, case reports; peer-reviewed articles from journals, and internet sources. The study focused on the following;
The reviews focused on reports on health conditions reported on the old, lifestyle challenges reported on the aged as well as the associated diseases affecting the aged. Furthermore, reviews done on previous reports on interventions aimed at prevention, treatment and management of diseases of the aged.
Findings
A total of fifty peer-reviewed articles were reviewed. In most of these articles, it was found that physical activity has an indirect positive impact on cognition through the effects of the factors that interfere with the neurocognitive functions. In various case studies, it was found that exercises help in enhancing mental resources as it reduces depression.
Discussion
The evidence of the effect of exercise on the brains of humans began with a similar study on animals. These studies indicate that the neurobiological mechanisms that are exercise related occur at two levels, the molecular and the supramolecular. At the supramolecular level, exercises are found to induce a physiological process that enables growth of blood vessels from the vessels that preexisted (Ahlskog et al., 2011). Exercises have also been associated with neurogenesis in elderly animals. Although the significance of this impact is not so clear, there is evidence that the neurons that are newly formed can integrate into a network that eventually becomes functional. The molecular mechanism through which physical activity induces synaptogenesis, angiogenesis as well as synaptogenesis has continued to receive attention in the recent past. Also, the evidence which mostly came from animal studies showed that changes brought about by exercises in molecular growth derived neurotrophic factor which also plays a significant role in neuroprotection and neuroplasticity and also increases the growth of insulin (Kim et al., 2010).
In humans, different studies using functional and structural brain imaging or the measure of brain activity indicate that the exercises induce permanent changes as well as transient at the functional and structural level of an ageing brain (McCARTER, 1995). Further studies show that cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with the reduced loss of the white and grey matter in the temporal, prefrontal and frontal regions of aged adults. In another study, physical activity helps in building spatial performance of memory of the aged (Shephard, 1997). This study further suggests that aerobic fitness is largely associated with the structure of the brain which translates into a cognitive function in the aged.
The evidence is showing that exercise is beneficial because it improves the cardiovascular functions and ability to do participate in big tasks. Additionally, these exercises improve mental resources by reducing depression chronic stress, anxiety, and instead improve self-efficacy. Physical activity also leads to improved diet and sleep which in turn leads to a more healthy brain.
Conclusion
An increasing number of studies suggest people and most especially the ageing should adopt physical exercises in their lifestyle to deal with the negative effects that come with ageing both in mind and body (Lovering& Brooks, 2014). These studies further suggest that physical activity has greater clinical significance in the body of the older adults. Therefore, resistance training and endurance training should be considered seriously to help improve the cognitive functions of the ageing adults. Coordinative exercise also helps in improving the cognitive functions of this particular group. Normally, physical exercise differs regarding the duration and intensity while physical activity differs concerning variety and the type of the activity. Future studies should be able to illustrate the impact of different forms of exercises as well as the relationship that controls the positive effects of exercises on the functions of the brain.
References
Ahlskog, J. E., Geda, Y. E., Graff-Radford, N. R., & Petersen, R. C. (2011, September). Physical exercise as a preventive or disease-modifying treatment of dementia and brain aging. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 86, No. 9, pp. 876-884). Elsevier.
Kim, S. E., Ko, I. G., Kim, B. K., Shin, M. S., Cho, S., Kim, C. J., ... & Jee, Y. S. (2010). Treadmill exercise prevents aging-induced failure of memory through an increase in neurogenesis and suppression of apoptosis in rat hippocampus. Experimental gerontology , 45 (5), 357-365.
Lovering, R. M., & Brooks, S. V. (2014). Eccentric exercise in aging and diseased skeletal muscle: good or bad?. Journal of applied Physiology , 116 (11), 1439-1445.
McCARTER, R. J. (1995). Exercise and aging. Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics , 15 , 187-228.
Shephard, R. J. (1997). Aging, physical activity, and health . Human Kinetics Publishers.
