Got topa dopa?
Categories: Diet, nutrition and exercise
Then boogie to the beat.
Patients who take Topamax, one of the medications recommended in My Way Out, sometimes complain of short term mental fuzz, especially while they’re dosing up. I well remember grasping for words during conference calls or pulling out the calculator for simple math. It passed eventually.
But here’s an easy fix in the meantime: simply add music to your workout.
According to Charles Emery of Ohio State University, music can give your exercise program a mental boost. Emery was lead author of a clinical study evaluating the effects of music and short-term exercise in coronary heart patients. He says patients got an emotional lift after working out, whether or not they did so to music. However, improvement in verbal skills was twice as high for those who who jammed to the beat.
“Exercise seems to cause positive changes in the nervous system, and these changes may have a direct effect on cognitive ability,” Emery said. “Listening to music may influence cognitive function through different pathways in the brain. The combination of music and exercise may stimulate and increase cognitive arousal while helping to organize cognitive output.”