I love to knit and it keeps me alert and challenges me to make a piece of clothing that I’m proud of. So I was curious to find out if there are health benefits.
Here’s what I found: According to the Benson-Henry Institute at Mass General, knitting has been shown to help stave off mild cognitive impairment, the decline in the power of perception: thinking, reasoning, and remembering. International research involving over 3,000 knitters showed that the more often people knitted, the better their cognitive function.
And knitting benefits both sides of the brain: right for creativity, left for logic and maths. The repetition of the movements of knitting can elicit the ‘relaxation response’, corresponding to a lowering of breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure. Knitting benefits both sides of the brain: right for creativity, left for logic and maths.
The other things that I like about knitting are the social aspects. I like to go to the store, buy yarn and talk to the sales clerks. There are various knitting groups to join. I can take my knitting in my large purse and go anywhere. Lots of people ask me what I’m knitting. I can even knit in the park. I hope that more people take up knitting!
David Meyers is a family physician and he is dying of brain cancer. He learned how to knit and he says that’s what he does at the end of his life. It helps his mind. Such a nice story he wrote in the Huff Post.