Brain stays young into old age if you stay physically fit

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 17 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Researchers have discovered that the aging brain benefits from physical fitness. According to a new study, the fitter older people are the better their mental abilities are (aerobic fitness).

Dr. Arthur Kramer (Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, USA) said that fitness can enhance brain and mental function. You do not need to run marathons or do giant workouts. Even moderate physical activity keeps the brain young.

Walking two or three miles a week would be enough to keep your brain in tip-top condition. If you do this your cognitive function will be enhanced.

Scientists have known for a while that aerobic training has a positive effect on the brains of older animals. Apart from improving blood flow to the brain, it also helps the formation of new neurons (it also increases number of connection - synapses - between neurons).

What scientists did not know until now was whether this applied to humans as well.

Kramer's findings can be found in the Journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers carried out two sets of experiments (with older adults).

The first set (41 people) consisted of people who had no dementia. They had an exercise tests and their fitness was assessed. Their brain activity was also measured while they performed tasks (cognitive tasks).

Those who were fitter were able to carry out their tasks better. The part of the brain that is involved in attention (paying attention) worked better in these people.

The other group was divided into two parts. One part had to do stretching and toning activities several days a week while the other part of the group had to do aerobic activities (walking and things like that - not giant work outs).

This went on for six months. At the end of the six months the aerobic group had better cardiovascular health. Their attention activity was also much better than the stretching and toning group. The aerobic group had better blood supply and activity in part of the brain that deals with attention.

The stretching and toning group, on the other hand, saw no improvement in their brain or attention activities.