Summer is finally here and kids are out of school wondering what to do with themselves. Hopefully, whatever they choose will have something to do with exercise. For kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. Examples of summertime activities could include a neighborhood basketball game, bicycling, roller blading, swimming, tennis, walking, jogging or running.
The percentage of overweight and obese kids has more than doubled over the past 30 years. One of the big reasons is kids are sitting around more than they used to. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average child is watching about 3 hours of television a day and the average kid spends 5 ½ hours on all screen media combined (TV, videos, DVD’s, computer time outside of school and video games).
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 years watch no TV and that screen time should be limited to no more than 1 to 2 hours a day for kids 2 years and older.
Fighting obesity is not the only reason to get today’s children moving. A new study from the University of Illinois used an MRI on 49 child subjects to look at differences in the brain between kids who are fit and kids who aren’t. The children they tested were 9 and 10 years-olds.
The study focused on the hippocampus, a structure tucked deep in the brain, because it is known to be important in learning and memory. Previous studies in animals and adults have shown that exercise can increase the size of the hippocampus which is associated with enhancing memory, learning and increasing molecules that are involved in the plasticity of the brain.
The researchers measured how efficiently the kids used oxygen while running on a treadmill. (This is the ‘gold standard’ measure of fitness.) The physically fit children were “much more efficient than the less fit children at utilizing oxygen.”
After analyzing the MRI’s, they also found the physically fit children tended to have about 12% bigger hippocampal volume relative to total brain size than their out of shape peers. This led to better test results on relational memory, the ability to remember and integrate various types of information.
The researchers concluded that interventions to increase childhood physical activity could have an important effect on brain development.
“If you get some lousy genes from your parents, you can’t really fix that, and it’s not easy to do something about your economic status, but here’s something that we CAN do something about.” After all, our children are our future.
Mary Ann Carlson is owner of The Pilates Studio. You can reach her at 541-890-7703