We all love March Madness. The pageantry, the buzzer-beaters, the bracket-busting upsets; it is an event that touches every bit of our nation's fabric. This week, millions of Americans filled out a bracket, even if they know absolutely nothing about college basketball.
Some people pick based on mascot colors. Some pick based on the cuteness of the coach. But you still get out your pens and make your picks, and you still check the scores all day long. Analysts at The Hill recently estimated that the tournament causes a $12 billion drop in workplace productivity.
But what if I told you that the tournament is actually generating something far more valuable than any amount of money that it could ever cost?
March Madness is more than just a game
I can still remember being seven years old, sitting around the table and filling out brackets with my dad, my brother, and my grandparents. There was no money involved; it was just something we did together.
Both of my grandpas and my mamaw have since passed on, but that tradition is still alive. Now, my wife and I fill them out with our daughter, her papaws, and her brothers. Passing a highlighter to a first-grader and watching her learn the magic of the tournament brings the entire experience full circle. We even have a silly family title belt and a group chat where we talk junk all March long.
Basketball draws us closer. But according to medical professionals, that exact type of connection is doing more than just warming our hearts and making memories; it is actively protecting our brains.
The medical magic of the tournament
During a recent radio appearance, University of Kentucky President Eli Capiluto spoke about the ongoing search for a new Athletic Director. Nothing really new comes out of it on that front. He is still doing his "listening tour" and so on. He did say that he wanted the next AD to understand just how important the program is to the state.
But before he left the airwaves, he shared a profound conversation he had with three local clinicians working with Alzheimer patients.
Capiluto said that all three of the medical professionals told him the NCAA Tournament is a vital experience for their patients suffering from memory issues. The games rekindle something in their minds. The emotion and memory meet, and it allows them to access memories and thoughts they had previously been struggling to find.
That isn't just a heartwarming anecdote; it is backed by hard science. Three experts from the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, Dr. Greg Jicha, Dr. Elizabeth Rhodus, and Dr. Brooke Beech, recently detailed exactly why Kentucky basketball and March Madness are such powerful medical tools.
Here are some of the biggest revelations they uncovered during their study:
1. The neuroscience of nostalgia
Most people assume memory is purely logical; it is straightforward, and you remember, or you don't, but Dr. Jicha notes that memory and emotion are deeply intertwined in the brain.
"Many of my patients, even in the moderate stage of Alzheimer’s disease, come alive when discussing sports," Dr. Jicha explained. "Their memories of past games and players are as sharp as ever. Exercising your emotions through a close UK game may also be exercising your memory."
Because the emotion and memory centers are so close together, the intense feelings of a March upset, whether it brings elation or heartbreak, cause those memories to be encoded with incredible detail.
This means they can fire those memories back up whenever they feel that emotion again, even if it is just for a few moments.
2. Brackets are the ultimate brain workout
You have likely heard the phrase "use it or lose it" regarding brain health as you age. Dr. Beech says a more accurate phrase is "use it in new ways or lose it." So, try new things, it's good for you.
Filling out a bracket, analyzing matchups, and predicting outcomes flexes the brain's "executive functions," according to the researchers. These are all the thinking skills we hate using, like problem-solving and multitasking, which are highly vulnerable as humans age.
"Filling out a bracket really strengthens our ability to connect past, present, and future," Dr. Jicha added. "These tasks are critically dependent on frontal and parietal lobe areas of the brain that can be hit hard in diseases like Alzheimer’s. Exercising these areas through your sports engagement gets the right medicine to the right places in your brain."
3. The power of the "Four Pillars"
Dr. Rhodus points out that ultimate brain health relies on four pillars: physical activity, good nutrition, cognitive engagement, and social engagement.
March Madness provides a massive dose of those last two. And depending on how animated you get while watching, maybe even the first one. Can't say much about the nutrition part, though.
Whether it is talking trash in a family group chat, singing the school fight songs in new ways, or simply feeling the comfort of a yearly tradition everyone participates in, the tournament provides a safe, stimulating anchor for everyone.
Meaningful social interaction forces the brain to process at higher levels and helps keep the brain active.
Closing thoughts
When you break out your highlighter tomorrow to track your wins and cross out your agonizing losses, remember that you are doing more than just watching sports. You are participating in a tradition that connects generations, makes memories with those around you, and fights back against one of the most devastating diseases on the planet.
That is the true madness of March. And that is why we love it.