There's more evidence that what's good for your heart is good
for your head.
A new study shows that people who run, swim or do other moderate
exercise have brains that look, on average, 10 years younger than the brains of
couch potatoes.
"Our
study showed that for older people, getting regular exercise may be protective,
helping them keep their cognitive abilities longer," said Dr. Clinton
Wright of the University of Miami , who led the study.
But
it's not necessarily easy. Walking, golf, bowling and yoga didn't count, and
people need to start before they begin showing memory loss, Wright's team
reported in the journal Neurology.
The
study of nearly 900 people showed 90 percent fell into the low-intensity group.
The people are part of a larger group taking part in a bigger
study called Northern Manhattan Study. They were asked how long and how often
they exercised during the past two weeks. Seven years later, they were tested
for memory and thinking skills and got a brain MRI.
Five
years after that, they took the memory and thinking tests again.
The
10 percent who said they took part in moderate- to high-intensity exercise
scored better on the tests 12 years later. These included running, racquetball,
aerobics, or calisthenics.
"We
found that those with moderate-heavy activity had higher baseline scores and
slower decline in comparison to inactive patients," the team wrote.
"The
degree of decline was equivalent to the expected decline associated with
approximately 10 years of cognitive aging."
And
if people already had signs of memory loss or mild cognitive impairment on
their first exam,the exercise did not seem to help, the team found.
Many
studies have shown that exercise may not prevent Alzheimer's but may
delay it.
The
findings fit in with a study that found two years of exercising, eating
healthier food and brain training can boost people's memory function.
And
other studies have shown that even moderate exercise, such as
brisk walking, can help.
Source:
.nbcnews
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