Anxiety Archive

Exercise helps keep the brain healthy by improving memory and problem solving, and may even reduce the risk of dementia. Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone advocates regular exercise as a treatment for all people and explains more about the benefits for the brain.

Taking a class to explore a subject or learn a new skill may increase cognitive ability and slow mental aging.

 Image: Monkey Business Images/Thinkstock

Active aging involves more than moving your body. You also need to move your brain. "When you exercise, you engage your muscles to help improve overall health," says Dr. Ipsit Vahia, director of geriatric outpatient services for Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital. "The same concept applies to the brain. You need to exercise it with new challenges to keep it healthy."

A fun way to do this is to sharpen your No. 2 pencils and go back to school. "New brain cell growth can happen even late into adulthood," says Dr. Vahia. "The process of learning and acquiring new information and experiences, like through structured classes, can stimulate that process."

Research We’re Watching

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective in treating chronic back pain, but it requires regular visits with a psychotherapist and can be expensive. A team from the University of Washington designed a study to determine whether mindfulness stress reduction—a technique that can be learned and practiced on one's own—is as effective in relieving pain and restoring function as cognitive behavioral therapy or conventional treatment with drugs and physical therapy.

The researchers enrolled 342 people ages 50 to 70—two-thirds of whom were women—who'd had back pain for an average of more than seven years. They randomly assigned the participants to one of three equal groups: one group was taught to practice mindfulness stress reduction, the second received cognitive behavioral therapy, and the third received conventional treatment as needed.

People who do volunteer work may reap benefits beyond the satisfaction of helping others.

Doing volunteer work may give you a greater sense of purpose in life—a positive emotion that’s been linked to a lower risk of heart disease.
Image: monkeybusinessimages/Thinkstock

If you volunteer on a regular basis, perhaps you've experienced the emotional rewards of donating your time. What you might not realize, however, is that volunteering may offer some added advantages for your heart.

We often think of depression as making someone feel “down,” but it can sometimes show up as cognitive symptoms — for example, trouble with adapting to new information or thinking through a solution to a problem. Researchers recently determined that several common depression medications are not effective at relieving cognitive symptoms. But there are several things people with depression can try to help return themselves to their usual level of cognitive functioning.