It’s that time of year again… indulgent meals, drinks with friends and family, slipping exercise routines… all followed briskly by new year’s resolutions and a pledge to address all things health and wellbeing. My local gym is struggling under the New Year’s rush but they assure me it’ll all be over by February: “there’s always a rush in the new year but it soon drops off,” the coach says. I make a mental note to make sure I’m not the one that ‘drops off’…
It makes me wonder how Terry is getting on. Terry is one of the participants on the Oxford United in the Community’s Fit U’s programme, a free health programme for men and women aged 35-65, to lose weight, get fitter and lead a more active life. OUiTC are a Football on the Brain partner, and in October I joined Terry at one of his sessions with OUiTC health and wellbeing lead Rebekah Stapley.
We chatted about his experiences of the programme whilst walking around the Rose Hill Community Centre hall. Every now and again Rebekkah would call out ‘change direction’ or ‘do push-ups against the wall’. Terry was keen to tell me what he had learnt in the informal theory session about nutrition, and how much weight he had lost since joining the programme. He also spoke about the new social connections he had made. Three of the group have set up their own walking club as a result of meeting on the Fit Fans programme.
As we switched to ‘walking lunges’ I asked Terry if the sessions have covered anything on the brain. Most people know that physical activity is good for heart health, bone strength and weight management, but how many people realise that exercise is also good for the brain? Neuroscience research suggests that regular exercise improves our brains and our cognitive abilities. It increases heart rate and therefore blood flow to the brain and this increases the supply of oxygen. This promotes the growth and survival of brain cells and increases the number of blood vessels in the brain. There is also an increase in the release of chemicals, such as endorphins that increase feelings of pleasure and reduce anxiety. Scientists have also demonstrated increases in the volume of the hippocampus (responsible for memory) associated with aerobic exercise.
This is all very well for the young and fit players on the pitch, but what about Terry and his other Fit Fan friends who may be considering retiring from the game? Physical activity levels are known to decline later in life – see Figure 1 – but initiatives like Fit U’s aim to change that. Public health England advises that adults should have 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.
Scientists know that as the brain ages there is a decrease in the amount of white matter (Figure 2), decreased cognitive functioning and increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Scientists at the University of Oxford have been looking at whether or not physical exercise can reduce the risk of this cognitive decline and dementia. In a review of brain imaging studies, colleagues surmised that fitter adults have more grey matter, especially in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and a greater number of connections between areas.
It’s not just physical exercise that is important for brain health as we age. Sleep (or lack of) is also associated with changes in the brain. In their Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) study of 147 adults aged between 20 and 84 years, researchers found that poor sleep quality was associated with an increased rate of decline in brain volume over 3-5 years. The exact cause and effect of the relationship between brain health and sleep remains a question for researchers. However, reducing the amount of caffeine and alcohol intake close to bedtime, and exercising during the day, is all part of good sleep hygiene.
So, if you are setting goals, or reflecting on your personal health, as part of your New Year commitments, include consideration of the benefits of lifestyle factors on the health of your brain. If you have reached a stage of life where football is more about the watching than the playing, and getting together with friends to drink and eat rather than run around, why not follow Terry’s lead and join a Fit Fans group. Keep your brain active as well as your body!
Want to know more about the relationship between sleep and the brain? Keep an eye out for a future Football on the Brain blog post on the circadian clock.
Cover Image: Onur Binay via Unsplash