It's good for everyone!

If you’re trying to motivate yourself to get moving in the new year, here’s some added inspiration: research shows that exercise isn’t just good for the body, it’s also good for the brain — and not just the brains of older folks. So if you’re a younger person, listen up, if you’re an older folk, listen up as best you can.
Much of the research on the effects of exercise on the mind has focused on easing dementia in older folks, but recent studies show that kids and young to middle-aged adults get huge benefits as well.
One new study, for instance, found that teenage males in the best cardiovascular shape performed better on various cognitive tests at age 18 than their less fit counterparts. Those who improved their fitness levels between the ages of 15 and 18 achieved higher test scores than those who decreased their fitness during that time.
What’s more, the fittest 18-year-olds were more likely to achieve both higher educational and socioeconomic status later in life, according to results published in December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bill Gates being the big exception.
“We cannot determine from this study alone that physical fitness causes better cognitive functioning,” says study author Georg Kuhn, a professor at the Center for Brain Repair and Rehabilitation at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “But taken together with other studies, we can assume that better cardiovascular fitness may optimize cognitive performance and academic achievements.”
Kuhn and colleagues based their conclusions on a study that followed more than 1.2 million Swedish men who were born between 1950 and 1976 and enlisted for mandatory military service at age 18. The group had more than 260,000 sibling pairs, including more than 3,000 twins, almost half of whom were identical twin pairs.
The identical twin data are particularly telling, allowing the researchers to more clearly show the effects of environmental influences such as exercise over genetic factors. “On an average, the fitter twin was also the twin that scored higher in the IQ tests,” Kuhn says.
So kick your kids off the couch! Tell them to put on their running shoes and do something that gets their blood moving!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers