Lift weights, improve your memory

October 1, 2014
Science Daily/Georgia Institute of Technology
Here’s another reason why it’s a good idea to hit the gym: it can improve memory. A new study shows that an intense workout of as little as 20 minutes can enhance episodic memory, also known as long-term memory for previous events, by about 10 percent in healthy young adults.

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The Georgia Tech research isn't the first to find that exercise can improve memory. But the study, which was just published in the journal Acta Psychologica, took a few new approaches. While many existing studies have demonstrated that months of aerobic exercises such as running can improve memory, the current study had participants lift weights just once two days before testing them. 

The Georgia Tech researchers also had participants study events just before the exercise rather than after workout. They did this because of extensive animal research suggesting that the period after learning (or consolidation) is when the arousal or stress.

"There were no significant differences in cognitive functioning and regional brain volumes during late life according to reported midlife alcohol consumption status," said lead author Brian Downer, UTMB Sealy Center on Aging postdoctoral fellow. "This may be due to the fact that adults who are able to continue consuming alcohol into old age are healthier, and therefore have higher cognition and larger regional brain volumes, than people who had to decrease their alcohol consumption due to unfavorable health outcomes."

Although the potential benefits of light to moderate alcohol consumption to cognitive learning and memory later in life have been consistently reported, extended periods of abusing alcohol, often defined as having five or more alcoholic beverages during a single drinking occasion is known to be harmful to the brain.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001102028.htm