An exciting new study is the first to analyse the effects exercise has on age related changes to the brain linked to memory loss in elderly people, finding that moderately intense aerobic exercise might slow (even reverse) memory loss common in old age.
Imagine that...
not only does exercise help your body stay healthy...
but your mind will be sharper too.
A number of earlier studies have shown exercise to be one of the few things that might improve our cognitive function as we get older; this latest work is the first to actually measure brain size.
Moderately intense activity appears to increase the hippocampus, the area of the brain used to form memories.
As we age, the hippocampus shrinks a little bit each year, bringing on memory impairment.
According to the research, a year of moderate exercise can increase the volume mass of the hippocampus by 2%, which reverses age related shrinkage by a year or two.
For the work, researchers randomly placed 120 healthy, though sedentary adults (55-80 years old) to one of two groups with trained leaders.
One group of subjects walked around the track building up to 40 minutes, three times a week.
The companion group did stretching and toning exercises that included weight training and yoga.
Brain scans were taken when the study started and again 12 months later.
Both groups showed improvements on a test of spatial memory.
This is the kind of memory that helps you remember directions or where you left your keys.
The difference between the groups was visible on the MRI scans, the hippocampus was nearly 2% bigger than when the subjects started.
In fact, the right side of the hippocampus grew in volume by 2.
12% and the left by 1.
97% for those doing the aerobic exercise.
Those same regions got smaller (by 1.
40% on the right and 1.
43% on the left) in subjects who did the stretching routines.
And while the numbers might not look like much, in this area of the brain, changes like this are considered significant.
The team also found brain health markers, for example brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) increased in size along with the growth in the hippocampus.
Doctors think of the shrinking of the hippocampus with aging as inevitable, but according to researchers this study has proven that even a small amount of regular exercise for over the course of 12 months can positively effect the size of an important area of the brain.
The brain can still be changed.
Just imagine...
a moderate exercise (low tech, low cost) like walking could actually help older people turn back the brain health clock...
by as much as two full years.
We know that even late in life, the hippocampus keeps growing new neurons, and these latest research findings help to prove the theory that exercise can promote neurogenesis.
For a healthy older person, this is truly fantastic news.
We're learning that aging isn't a one-way street that's going the wrong way, but rather a time when changes, and improvements, can still be made to reduce the impact of memory loss in elderly people.