Exercise can keep the brain 10 years younger, according to a new study. Scientists have found that people who exercise experience slower rates of cognitive decline compared to their less active counterparts.
After analyzing participants' cognitive skills, researchers from the University of Miami found that people who reported moderate to intense exercise had brains that were 10 years younger than those who reported light to no exercise.
"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," study author Clinton Wright said. "Our study showed that for older people, getting regular exercise may be protective, helping them keep their cognitive abilities longer."
The latest research involved 876 participants who were asked how long and how often they exercised during the two weeks leading up to the study. Participants were then asked to take memory and thinking tests and undergo brain scans via magnetic resonance imaging seven years later, on average, and then five years after that.
The researchers noted that 90 percent of participants reported light exercise or no exercise, and 10 percent reported moderate to high intensity exercise. They added that examples of light exercise included activities like yoga and walking, and examples of moderate to intense exercise included activities like running, aerobics or calisthenics.
The analysis revealed that participants in the low level exercise group showed significantly greater cognitive decline than participants in the high level exercise group.
"No/low levels of leisure-time physical activity were associated with worse executive function, semantic memory, and processing speed scores on the first neuropsychological examination. The associations were slightly attenuated and no longer significant after adjusting for vascular risk factors. Cognitively unimpaired participants reporting no/low leisure-time physical activity vs moderate/high levels declined more over time in processing speed and episodic memory adjusting for sociodemographic and vascular risk factors," researchers wrote.
"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," Wright explained.
"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," he concluded.
The findings were published in the March 23 issue of the journal Neurology.
