Will Walking Make You Smart?

Diane Keaton's Personal Library

Feature Entry: Will Walking Make You Smart?

It is probably true that bloggers enjoy reading the blogs of others. One of my favorites is Psyblog.com.uk. Their recent entry was “7 Simple Ways to Improve Your Memory Without Any Training” The key word is simple because most memory enhancers required quite amount of mental energy. We will not bore by describing the seven ways but a few of their labels include:

Write about your problems
Look at a natural scene
Say words aloud
Meditate
Predict that you will remember
Use your hands or other gestures while trying to remember something
Move your body up when recalling a positive thought and down for a negative

Now here is a clincher for improving your memory. According to Psyblog,”Probably the best way of improving your overall cognitive health is exercise. Studies regularly find that increasing aerobic fitness is particularly good for executive function and working memory.

Randomized controlled trials in Neuromolecular Medicine have shown that exercise improves cognitive function across the board and is superior to computer programs designed for brain training, drugs, nutritional supplements and meditation. Walking and other aerobic forms of exercise have been found to be particularly good at enhancing executive control processes including planning, recall, and working memory.

Psyblog also said that “Exercise is also thought to encourage the growth of new brain cells. In the past scientists always thought that neurogenesis - growing new brain cells - was impossible in humans. New studies, though, have shown that we can grow new brain cells.”

How about just resting on the couch—not good. Sedentary living leads to cognitive deterioration. So, want to live longer with a higher quality of life, start a walking program.

Now what was I saying?

Moneywalker

The Onus Is On Walkers

May 10, 2011
Journal Entry: Weight = 171.0 pounds; Coinage = $1.91 (19 decas) 31 pennies, 1 nickel, 3 dimes, 5 quarters (two super finds defined as fifty cents or more in one location); Glass bottles = 4; Ground scores = 3.

Feature Entry: The Onus is on walkers (with apologies to Barry Pless, MD for stealing his title)On this afternoon’s walk, just in front of me, a pedestrian was screaming at a driver coming out of a drive-through of a Burger King. The driver ran over the pedestrian’s foot. The poor pedestrian was walking on a public sidewalk and the driver looking to dart into traffic never saw the poor fellow and ran over his foot. No serious damage was done so the screaming and naming calling was humorous.

Then just last week the Moneywalker saw this bumper sticker: “How is my walking?” At first I didn’t get it. Then when I saw the slogan was flanked by two mugs of beer I realized that it was satire poking fun at the ubiquitous signs on commercial carries that ask, “How is my Driving? Call 1-800-555-5555.”

Both episodes lead me to present the MoneyWalker’s guide to pedestrian safety. Good walkers are safe walkers. The list makes more sense if you remember that the driver of cars and trucks will always “blame the victim, the walker” if an accident happens. The list follows:

1. Prepare for the unexpected, only drivers have the right to assumptions.
2. Cars have the right of way at red lights and turning right on a red light even without stopping is their full privilege even if pedestrians are crossing the street.
3. Pedestrians must establish eye contact with drivers at intersections or when crossing the street; drivers need not be bothered.
4. Car drivers have the AT&T if not God given right to cell phone and text while driving.
5. Pedestrians must be mind readers; drivers are not required to think while driving.
6. Drivers have the right to drive with "declining eyesight, mobility, attention and reflexes"; pedestrians with the same maladies must stay home.
7. Drivers have a right to speed; pedestrians do not have the right to jay walk.
8. Pedestrians must hustle to cross the streets; cars are not expected to slow down.

The take away from this list is that drivers are equipped with a two thousand pound machine while pedestrians have only their fragile frame of delicate sinew and bones. It is not fair, but might makes right. Pedestrians cannot expect the law or common courtesy to provide protection. So, unless you are built like an elephant, you must utilize rely upon a super sensitive vigilance when walking the highways and byways of our cities, towns, and county lanes.

MoneyWalker

A Walker Faces Six Life-Style Health Tests

Photo by Walgreens

Feature Entry: A Walker Faces Six Life-Style Health Tests

In New Orleans, Walgreens drug stores dominate Rite Aid and CVS. On today’s walk, the MoneyWalker was greeted with a red and white motor van at the Walgreens across the street from his midcity home. Over the months, the Walgreen parking lot has provided countless coins. The sign read “Wellness Tour: Free screenings.”

It turns out, the van is part of a nationwide tour that features nine customized buses that travel across 48 states, visiting more than 3,000 communities. The 2011 tour is co-sponsored by the National Urban League. Find a tour near you by typing walgreens.com/tour.

The NUL/Walgreens Wellness Tour is delivering free health tests and health education to communities across the country with a special emphasis on diverse and underserved areas. Available free tests are worth over $100 per person, and no appointment is necessary. Tests include:

• Total Cholesterol Levels
• Blood Pressure
• Bone Density
• Glucose Levels
• Waist Circumference
• Body Mass Index

With the test being free, the MoneyWalker walked right in. After just a few minutes an agent reviewed the results. The MoneyWalker’s scores are on the left and his grade on the right.

• BP 115/79 mmHg Grade = Excellent
• Glucose 95 mg/dl Grade = Excellent
• Cholesterol 210 mg/dl Grade = Good
• Body Comp 29.0 % Grade = Good
• BMI 25.3 Grade = Good
• Waist 34” Grade = Excellent (but I inhaled)

Overall the MoneyWalker was proud of his results. Got to get that pesky BMI under control. What about you? Do you have the courage to take the tests; if so, what are you waiting for? Take the tests! They may save your life.

MoneyWalker