Older people who are physically active may be protecting themselves from the effects of small areas of brain damage that can affect their movement abilities.
Many older people have small areas of damage in their brains seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as white matter hyperintensities. Higher levels of this damage have been linked to more problems with movement, such as difficulty walking. But this new study found that people who were the most physically active did not have a drop-off in their movement abilities, even when they had high levels of brain damage.
Physical activity may create a ‘reserve’ that protects motor abilities against the effects of age-related brain damage.
The study involved 167 people with an average age of 80. MRI scans were used to determine the volume of white matter hyperintensities in the brain. Compared to those at the 50th percent in activity level measured using the movement monitors, those in the top 10 percent had activity equal to walking at 2.5 mph for an additional 1.5 hours each day.
For the people in the top 10 percent, having greater amounts of brain damage did not change their scores on the movement tests. But for those at the 50th percent activity level, having greater amounts of brain damage was associated with significantly lower scores on the movement tests.
The results remained the same after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect the relationship, such as body mass index (BMI), depression and vascular disease.
– Neurology
Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Exercise increases function despite old age brain decline”:
Do you grasp the power of what this research has shown? It has proven that function and movement rule over structure. What does that mean? Let us state it another way if you keep using it you will not lose it even if they say you lost it on the MRI! Another way to state this is: If you focus on your mission, the purpose God has brought you into this physical realm for and keep going forward in the purpose you cannot be stopped unless you take your eyes off of the mission and put them back on YOU!
There was a similar finding discovered years ago when a high IQ college student developed a regular headache and was sent for a CT scan and to their amazement his brain was not there. 95% of the brain mass or cortex had been replaced with fluid. So the question remains “how can he have such a high IQ with almost no brain?” or as in this present study shown these senior who had brain damage had no loss of function as long as they kept moving?
What is the answer?
God’s ways are not man’s ways. God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts.
We are spirit beings made in the image of God who happen to have 2 pounds of dirt attached to that spirit. We are NOT human beings who just happen to have a spirit.
When God puts a purpose or vision in your heart, in your spirit, go for it and always remember you don’t need a brain or a mind to achieve it all you need is a heart filled with the Spirit of God and you cannot be stopped that is unless you look at the MRI and believe that is YOU.
