In the news

What are we doing to our children’s brains – and ours?

            In the course of doing some research for a PowerPoint presentation titled How the computer affects your brain and your health, I learned some disturbing facts about the effects of screen time and social media. Numerous studies have observed that heavy use of both – and note that the average adolescent spends 8.5 hours a day looking at one kind of screen or another – leads to memory problems, short attention span, decreased self-control and more negative behaviors.

            A Canadian study of pre- and barely-adolescents, 9 to 13 years of age, evaluated six measures of cognitive performance, including reading recognition, picture vocabulary, explicit memory and overall cognitive skills. In every category but one (pattern comparison processing speed) the more time spent on social media the greater the decline in these skills. Even the group with the lowest level of social media exposure showed poor cognitive performance. The authors of the study consider this a “pressing public health concern” and believe that the time has come for public policy action to address the issue.

            I believe that there is more for us to consider. First, the age range studied here is younger than the mid-teens, where social media activity is far greater than the 0.3 to 3.0 hours per day of these younger children. It is not a stretch to say that a similarly designed study among older children would reveal even worse outcomes.

            Second, the detrimental effect of many hours of screen time and social media participation is not limited to the young. The aging process does not shield us from harm. I would argue that we could all benefit from finding better ways to engage our brains.

            A couple of years ago I weaned myself from reading the daily newspaper, having asked if reading it really increased my font of knowledge, and if I felt uplifted by the time I put the paper down. I’m sure you know the answer. I no longer own a television for the same reason. Unfortunately, I still have a “smart” phone – is that an oxymoron? —  on which I had felt compelled to learn what’s going on in the world at least once a day. I recently decided to check the news on Sunday morning – period. I feel more calm already, and my book queue is getting shorter.  

Lifestyle

Exercise, the heart, the brain and the immune system

            It has been known for decades that regular exercise is necessary to maintain muscle mass. What is not known as widely is that persons who do not exercise lose heart muscle, not just the muscle that powers your arms and legs. This has two significant consequences. The first is that as we get older the heart cannot keep up with demand. The result is that fatigue comes quickly; the larger problem is that when the blockage of a coronary artery occurs there is less heart muscle reserve, so when a heart attack occurs there is less chance of recovery. The second is that the loss of muscle can eventually lead to chronic heart failure, a serious and common problem among the elderly.

            In regard to the brain, regular exercise keeps its blood vessel supple, better able to deliver nutrients and to remove accumulated waste products. But regular aerobic exercise such as walking, cycling, swimming, etc., also increases the volume of both gray and white matter in the brains of older persons.

            A third benefit of exercise is that it improves the responsiveness of the immune system to vaccines and to infectious agents, counteracting the gradual decline that most elderly persons experience.

            If you think that you don’t have time to exercise, consider these facts.