Monday, August 07, 2023

Serve’s up: How ping-pong can help us all live healthier and happier lives



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As a physical activity, ping-pong has few equals.

Studies have shown that it is one of the best sports for the brain, and not simply because your chances of suffering a head injury from a 2.7 gram plastic ball are essentially nil. Rather, since playing ping-pong requires all sorts of rapid-fire decision-making and processing of different types of information, it stimulates very disparate parts of the brain and increases blood flow as a whole. In this way, it helps develop new neural pathways which can slow down, possibly reverse, dementia and definitely help alleviate depression. Intensely played, it can also make you sweat and wonder, the next day, why you are so sore. “Chess on steroids” it has been called.
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Opinion: Serve’s up: How ping-pong can help us all live healthier and happier lives - The Globe and Mail