anti-aging exercise

The importance of physical activity for mental health

Try the following exercise: stand on one foot, and when you feel balanced, close your eyes and slowly count to 30. lo – the neurons that control the proprioceptive and kinesthetic systems [which control body awareness and balance] no longer work,” says Michael Colgan, a leading researcher in the field of aging.

In fact, according to the specialist, brain decline begins very early, at age 25, and although the picture seems alarmist, "through specific physical exercises it is possible to regenerate the lost cells".

The process of forming new neurons is called neurogenesis. "In the last ten years, numerous studies have shown that this process occurs in the human brain", says Michael Colgan, a biochemist and nutrition physiologist who says that he is "working with cases of mild brain damage to try to rebuild their brains, through a specific programme, which includes a diet, physical exercise and learning software'.

It is not just the brain that benefits from physical exercise, as Michael Colgan says “three million years ago we developed as active creatures and about 100 years ago we became sedentary, but our genetic code has not changed. So when we become inactive more than a thousand systems start to fail. If you don't exercise daily, your heart and other parts of your cardiovascular system begin to die.

The only way to keep the heart healthy is to do exercises that increase the heart and respiratory rate and get the blood to circulate faster, as that is its function», warns the specialist.