America.- Go for a walk, weed the garden, go swimming or dancing: it could prevent your brain from getting croomed as you get older, a recent study suggests. Being physically active could keep your brain four years younger than the rest of your body, which could help prevent or slow the progression of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers note.” We recently published a paper that used information about physical activity, both current and past, and found that the two were associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Yian Gu, assistant professor of neurological sciences at Columbia University in New York City. “The current study takes another step and shows that physical activity also protects against loss of brain volume.”
But Gu warned that the new study does not prove that exercise retains brain size, only that both seem to be linked. In the study, Gu and his collaborators used MRI to collect data on the brain size of more than 1,550 people, with an average age of 75. None had dementia, but nearly 300 had a mild deterioration of thought, and 28 percent carried the APOE gene, which appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.Participants reported varying levels of physical activity. Researchers found that the most active had larger brains than the inactive ones. The most active ones did seven hours of low-intensity physical activity, four hours of moderate activity, or two hours of high-intensity physical activity each week. After taking into account age, sex, educational level, race/ethnicity, and status relative to the APOE gene, the researchers found that the average brain size of the most active was 883 cubic centimeters, compared to 871 among those who were inactive. The difference of 12 cubic centimeters, or 1.4 percent, is equivalent to nearly four years of brain aging, Gu and his collaborators pointed out.
One limitation of the study is that it depended on the ability of participants to remember how much and how often they were active. The researchers noted that their reports might be inaccurate, sending the results. Either way, another expert emphasized that staying active could only result in benefits for older adults.” It is plausible, and not unique to this study, that physical exercise is good for the brain,” said Dr. Marc Gordon, head of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, who reviewed the findings.
The brain stuns for little physical activity. Pixabay
Although it’s unclear how physical activity benefits the brain, Gordon suspects it may be by keeping blood vessels healthy and by lowering blood pressure and the risk of diabetes. “Many factors could play a role,” he noted. I encourage my patients to be physically active,” Gordon added. “Stay socially and physically active.” The findings will be presented at an annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, which will take place from April 25 to May 1, in Toronto. Investigations presented at meetings are generally considered preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.
