Dec 10, 2007 Issue
excerpt:
"With a reasonable amount of effort, you can improve your memory 30 to 40 percent," says Dr. Barry Gordon, founder of the memory clinic at Johns Hopkins. In the past year, research has shed new light in particular on the benefits of both mental and physical activity. It's been known for a while that aerobic exercise increases levels of a brain chemical called BDNF, which encourages neurons to form new synapses and strengthen existing ones. "I call BDNF brain fertilizer," says Carl Cotman, director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at UC Irvine. But in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this year, Small at Columbia showed that exercise in 11 volunteers did even more. Aerobic exercise—an hour a day, four days a week for three months—led to changes on brain scans that seemed to indicate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus. "My lab members are dusting off their sneakers," he says.
