[Buddha-l] Yoga or walking: Which increases the hippocampus and memory as one ages?

[Dan Lusthaus]

Time to take a stroll, it seems.

Remember Buddha walked most of his life (except during the rainy season).

Dan

from NYTimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/health/research/08fitness.html?_r=1
http://tinyurl.com/678j2n7

Vital Signs
Fitness: A Walk to Remember? Study Says Yes
By PAULA SPAN
Published: February 7, 2011

In healthy adults, the hippocampus - a part of the brain important to the 
formation of memories - begins to atrophy around 55 or 60. Now psychologists 
are suggesting that the hippocampus can be modestly expanded, and memory 
improved, by nothing more than regular walking.
Well

In a study published on Jan. 31 in The Proceedings of the National Academy 
of Sciences, researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and 
women (average age mid-60s) to one of two exercise groups. One group walked 
around a track three times a week, building up to 40 minutes at a stretch; 
the other did a variety of less aerobic exercises, including yoga and 
resistance training with bands.

After a year, brain scans showed that among the walkers, the hippocampus had 
increased in volume by about 2 percent on average; in the others, it had 
declined by about 1.4 percent. Since such a decline is normal in older 
adults, "a 2 percent increase is fairly significant," said the lead author, 
Kirk Erickson, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Both groups 
also improved on a test of spatial memory, but the walkers improved more.

While it is hard to generalize from this study to other populations, the 
researchers were delighted to learn that the hippocampus might expand with 
exercise. "And not that much exercise," Dr. Erickson pointed out.

People don't even have to join a gym, he noted. They just need shoes.
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The actual study
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/01/25/1015950108