A new study in the journal in the journal found that people age 50 and older who did aerobic exercise improved their fitness—no surprise there. But the small study also concluded that exercise may help keep our minds sharp as we age.
For the study, 37 sedentary adults age 57 to 75 with normal brain health were randomly assigned to an exercise or control group. The exercise group performed 60 minutes of supervised aerobic activity three times a week for 12 weeks. Blood flow to the brain, cognition levels, and markers of fitness were measured at the start, six weeks in, and at the end of the study.
The researchers found that aerobic exercise improved subjects’ brain function and cognition. The benefits were linked to increased blood flow to the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, and increased flow to the anterior cingulate region, an area linked to superior cognitive abilities in later life.
“This research shows the tremendous benefit of aerobic exercise on a person’s memory and demonstrates that aerobic exercise can reduce both the biological and cognitive consequences of aging,” said Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D., director of the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas and the study's lead author.
Chapman added that exercise may be one of the most beneficial and cost-effective therapies widely available to anyone for improving brain health.
The study adds to the already robust data on the benefits of exercise on aging. Earlier this year, we reported on research that found that active older adults had superior brain function and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease than their sedentary peers. And data from The Cooper Center's Longitudinal Study concludes that compared to the least fit individuals, people with high conditioning have a 36 percent lower risk Other Hearst Subscriptions.
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