Practicing aerobics twice a week could decrease the risk of dementia in order women.
Regular exercise is believed to increase the size of the hippocampus, which is a region of the brain responsible for "verbal memory and learning," a BMJ-British Medical Journal news release reported.
The research ream looked at how exercise affected hippocampal volume in 86 women who reported having memory problems. This condition, dubbed "mild cognitive impairment" is a precursor for dementia.
All of the women included in the study were between the ages of 70 and 80 years old and were independently living on their own.
The participants were assigned "twice weekly hour long sessions of aerobic training (brisk walking); or resistance training, such as lunges, squats, and weights; or balance and muscle toning exercises, for a period of six months," the news release reported.
The size of the hippocampus was measured both at the beginning of the six -month study period and end using an MRI. Verbal memory and learning capacity was also assessed during this time.
Twenty-nine of the women had before-and-after MRI scans; the results showed that the women who had been assigned aerobic training had a significantly larger hippocampus than the women who participated in only balance or toning exercises.
"However, despite an earlier finding in the same sample of women that aerobic exercise improved verbal memory, there was some evidence to suggest that an increase in hippocampal volume was associated with poorer verbal memory," the news release reported.
The finding suggests that the relationship between brain volume and cognitive performance is more complicated than researchers previously believed. The team believes their study shows that regular aerobic exercise can slow the shrinkage of the hippocampus and maintain its volume in women of this age group.
The team recommends using aerobic exercise to fight mental decline.
