Exercise’s role in brain aging There is growing evidence to show the benefits of regular workouts on how our minds function as we get older. Studies indicate that those who engage in active physical activities for an hour daily, for instance, add volume to their hippocampus – the memory center – helping halt its shrinkage that occurs late adulthood and could eventually lead to dementia. Furthermore, such people score better on tests of thinking and memory than sedentary people of their age and are nearly half as likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
Scientists weren’t certain what caused this rewiring to take place or its potential impacts on our minds and memories, until now. Mark Gluck of Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. and his colleagues conducted tests with 34 healthy middle-aged sedentary adults for fitness and cognitive tests as well as brain scans in his laboratory, then separated into two groups – one began exercising while the other stayed sedentary; researchers monitored both groups over about six months – with those that engaged more exercise demonstrating greater cognitive improvements on cognitive tests than their sedentary counterparts did on cognitive tests than their counterparts did on cognitive tests administered at that time.
No matter the variables – such as childhood cognitive ability, household income or education levels- that could impede results- the study published January in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory found that any regular leisure-time exercise helped preserve mental acuity and memory as people aged, with consistent workout schedules across life proving most beneficial in enhancing performance. Exercise may boost cognition through various pathways: improving cerebral blood flow or inflammation reduction or encouraging neurogenesis by strengthening proteins which help brain cells communicate.