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Improve Brain Health, Memory by Exercising

exercising, exercise, seniors, memory, brain, Bon Secours In Motion, physical therapy programsExercising may be a way to keep your brain 10 years younger, a new study suggests. Researchers say exercising may offer a protective effect from the normal aging process that occurs in the brain.
They found that people who didn’t exercise or were only lightly exercising experienced a decline equal to 10 more years of aging as compared to people who reported moderate to intense exercise, according to a population-based observational study published in the March online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“The number of people over the age of 65 in the United States is on the rise, meaning the public health burden of thinking and memory problems will likely grow,” said study author Clinton B. Wright, MD, MS, of the University of Miami in Miami, Fla., and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Our study showed that for older people, getting regular exercise may be protective, helping them keep their cognitive abilities longer.”

The study also underscores the importance of taking care of joint pain caused by arthritis and any mobility problems so that people can continue exercising as they age, despite any injuries.

For the study, researchers followed more than 875 people for about seven years, giving them memory and thinking tests, a brain MRI and tracking their exercise habits.

Exercising Smart for Brain Health

Here’s what they found: 90 percent reported light exercise or no exercise. Light exercise could include activities such as walking and yoga. The remaining 10 percent reported moderate to high intensity exercise, which could include activities such as running, aerobics, or calisthenics.

When looking at people who had no signs of memory and thinking problems at the start of the study, researchers found that those who didn’t exercise or only did light activities showed a greater decline over five years compared to those with high activity levels.  They were tested on how fast they could perform simple tasks and how many words they could remember from a list. The difference was equal to that of 10 years of aging.

The difference also remained after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect brain health, such as smoking, alcohol use, high blood pressure and body mass index.

“Physical activity is an attractive option to reduce the burden of cognitive impairment in public health because it is low cost and doesn’t interfere with medications,” said Wright. “Our results suggest that moderate to intense exercise may help older people delay aging of the brain, but more research from randomized clinical trials comparing exercise programs to more sedentary activity is needed to confirm these results.”

Source: American Academy of Neurology

+ Is pain keeping you from exercising or being as active as you want? Learn about the many physical therapy programs at Bon Secours In Motion to help you recover your strength and mobility.