|
Walking Groups
Trail Walking
Group
Wednesdays, 9:00 a.m.
Go to our web page for more information. For
the latest or for directions, call Elaine McGrath,
296-4343.
Fashion Square Walking Group
Mondays, 9:28-10:30
a.m.
Join our new group of walkers who want to socialize and get moving in a
climate-controlled atmosphere. Join up at 9:28 a.m.
in the mall entrance
between Belk and Penny’s in
front of the Lenscrafter’s doors. We do not
have a
group leader yet but Jane and Betsy will be there.
Ivy Creek Walking Group
Thursdays, 9:00 a.m.
If you enjoy a brisk walk, stimulating conversation and the wonders of
nature, join us! We walk the trails for
approximately one hour. Water
bottles and shoes with
traction are recommended. The group meets in the
Ivy
Creek Natural Area parking lot. For more information contact, Nora
Loukides at 293-7157.
Northside Walking
Fridays, 10:00 a.m. NEW TIME (weather
permitting)
Socialize, exercise, and enjoy nature for an hour while walking the
Rivanna Trail . Please note: beginning July, the
group will meet in Penn
Park at Shelter #2. (Other
trails can be added for variety based upon
interest.) For information, call Chuck St. Clair at
978-2057.
| Walking
Improved
Memory |
 |
|
|
|
Studies of
senior citizens who walk regularly
showed significant
improvement in
memory skills compared to sedentary
elderly people. |
|
Walking
also improved their learning
ability, concentration, and
abstract reasoning. Stroke risk
was cut by 57% in people
who
walked as little as 20 minutes a day.
[Prevention, October 1996]
| | |
| Women Who
Walk
Remember |
|
|
|
|
When the
cognitive abilities of elderly
women were compared,
those who
walked regularly were less likely to
experience age-related memory loss
and other declines in
mental
function.
University
of California at San Francisco
researchers measured the
brain
function of nearly 6,000 women during an
eight-year period. The results
were correlated with the
women's
normal activity level, including their routine
walking and stair-climbing.
"In the
higher-energy groups, we saw much
less cognitive
decline," said
neurologist Kristine Yaffe, MD. Of the
women who walked the least (a
half-mile per week), 24%
had
significant declines in their test scores, compared
to only 17% of the most active
women (17 miles per
week). |
|
It wasn't a
matter of all or nothing. "We also
found that for every
extra mile
walked per week there was a 13% less chance
of cognitive decline," said Yaffe,
who is Chief of
Geriatric
Psychiatry at the San Francisco Veterans
Administration Medical Center. "So
you don't need to be
running
marathons. The exciting thing is there was a
'dose' relationship which showed
that even a little is
good but
more is better."
"In the
higher-energy groups, we saw much
less cognitive
decline" – a
protective effect amounting to as much as
40% – according to Yaffe. "This is
an important
intervention that all
of us can do and it could have
huge implications in preventing
cognitive
decline."
[Archives of Internal Medicine, July 23,
2001]
| | |
from The Franklin
Institute Online
|
