The other day I was holding my baby a.k. the youngest [see above], looking around the room in panic, saying, “WHERE’S THE BABY?!”  [really happened]

So you have forgotten where you put your car keys. You just can’t remember the name of a friend you have known for ages. You are looking for your sunglasses and finally find them — on your face. The most dramatic example I ever saw happened at Preservation Hall in New Orleans with a jazz group. The aging leader of his group tried to introduce the jazz players. He couldn’t remember the name of his own brother. All of us have these kinds of experiences as we age. – Judith Kleinfeld, Anchorage Daily News August 3, 2007

Over the last decade, several studies with animals have shown that exercise can help maintain the health of brain cells and can even lead to the generation of new cells in certain regions of the brain. So says John Fauber of  the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel this month, July 27, 2008.

University of Kansas researchers also looked at areas of the brain that are more often affected by Alzheimer’s, including the hippocampus and the temporal and parietal cortices. Again, they found that a higher level of fitness was associated with less atrophy.  Evidence suggests that exercise and improved fitness in cognitively normal individuals is associated with a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Little is known, however, about fitness in individuals with early Alzheimer’s disease and whether fitness influences Alzheimer’s disease progression.  Learn more about The Alzheimer’s Disease Exercise Program Trial (ADEPT) here.

I’m always listening to music. Whether it be calm, loud or anything in between, it always sends out a message. No matter how vague or in your face, there is most likely a deep(er) message. But, you’re never going to get the full message with listening to the song once. You may get a message, but its probably not the one the composer is attempting to send out. It’s interesting, once you look at the lyrics to a beloved song.

Sure the tune is catchy, but what is the writer really trying to get out in the open?

Now, whats this got to do with health? Everything, my dear reader. Music exercises the brain in a healthy, constructive way. It allows us to reach out with our creative side and actually do “relaxed thinking.”

I know there are countless others who would say, “There is no such thing as “relaxed thinking.” But, in truth, we would all be nothing without relaxed thinking. So the next time you pop in your Enya CD, sit down, shut out other sounds (for best results, do this when dinner is not in the oven), take a seat in your favorite chair, and let the sound fill you up. Listen to the lyrics, what do they mean to you?