Walking about six miles a week protects against brain shrinkage in old age, which in turn helps stem the onset of memory problems and cognitive decline.
Researchers began tracking the physical activity and cognitive (or thinking) patterns of nearly 300 American adults in 1989. At the start of the study, all participants were in good mental health, they averaged 78 years old and about two-thirds were women. The researchers charted how many blocks each person walked in a week. Nine years later, they were given a high-resolution MRI scan to measure brain size. All were deemed to be cognitively normal. But four years after that, testing showed that a little more than one-third of the participants had developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
By correlating cognitive health, brain scans and walking patterns, it was found that being more physically active appeared to marginally lower the risk for developing cognitive impairment. But more specifically, the researchers concluded that the more someone walks, the more gray matter tissue the person will have a decade or more down the road in regions of the brain that are central to cognition.
And among the more physically active participants who had retained more gray matter a decade out, the chances of developing cognitive impairment were cut in half. However, the researchers stressed that the relationship between walking and gray matter volume appears to apply only to people who regularly walk relatively long distances that equal about six to nine miles a week. Walking more than the six- to nine-mile range, however, did not have more cognitive benefit. That’s because the size of our brain regions can only be so large. So with no exercise, there can be significant deterioration and decay with age.
According to the researchers, it may be assumed that the relationship between the brain and physical activity is a prevention-of-atrophy issue but the above study doesn’t actually prove that. We don’t yet know enough about the use-it-or-lose-it notion with respect to brain and exercise. Therefore further studies are needed to look at that.
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