Forget Sudoku and word puzzles. New research reveals that taking the stairs and going to school keeps the brain young. Findings from a new study shows that our brains will appear physically younger the more flights of stairs we climb and the longer we stay in school.
After examining the brain of 331 healthy adults between the ages of 19 and 79 under magnetic resonance imaging, researchers found that the age of the human brain decreases by 0.95 years for each year of school a person completes and 0.58 years for every daily flight of stairs climbed.
Lead researcher Jason Steffener, a scientist at Concordia University's Montreal-based PERFORM Centre, and his team used MRI technology to measure grey matter volume in the brains of participants. Researchers explained that grey matter volume is a reliable measurement of the brain's chronological aging process, reliably showing neural shrinkage and neuronal loss.
"This study shows that education and physical activity affect the difference between a physiological prediction of age and chronological age, and that people can actively do something to help their brains stay young," Steffener said in a university release.
"In comparison to many other forms of physical activity, taking the stairs is something most older adults can and already do at least once a day, unlike vigorous forms of physical activity," Steffener added. "There already exist many 'Take the stairs' campaigns in office environments and public transportation centers. This study shows that these campaigns should also be expanded for older adults, so that they can work to keep their brains young."
"Individual expression of this brain pattern served as a physiologic measure of brain age (BA). The difference between CA and BA was predicted by education and self-report measures of physical activity. Education and the daily number of flights of stairs climbed (FOSC) were the only 2 significant predictors of decreased BA. Effect sizes demonstrated that BA decreased by 0.95 years for each year of education and by 0.58 years for 1 additional FOSC daily," the researchers wrote in their study.
"These results demonstrate that higher levels of education and daily FOSC are related to larger brain volume than predicted by CA which supports the utility of regional gray matter volume as a biomarker of healthy brain aging," they concluded.
The latest findings were published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
