Exercising Can Slow Down Cognitive Decline by 10 years, Study Finds

Do you want to slow down getting older? Then you need to start exercising. New study has discovered that by exercising people can slow down the cognitive decline by up to 10 years.

The was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The people in the study who didn't exercise or who exercised very little experienced a decline in their memory and thinking skills equal to 10 extra years of cognitive aging compared to those who exercised. The people were 71 years old, on average, at the start of the study.

"More and more evidence is suggesting that exercise is good for the brain, and in this observational study, we found that people who were more active declined less on certain tests than people who were less active," said study co-author Dr. Clinton B. Wright, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Miami in Florida.

"The number of people over the age of 65 in the US is on the rise, meaning the public health burden of thinking and memory problems will likely grow," Wright added.

The team analyzed the data of 876 people who were asked how long and how often they exercised during the two weeks prior to that date.

Seven years later, each person was given tests of memory and thinking skills and a brain MRI and five years after that they had the memory and thinking tests again.

From the group, 90 per cent reported light exercise or no exercise, which included activities such as walking and yoga. They were placed in the low activity group.

The rest 10 per cent reported moderate to high intensity exercise, which included activities such as running, aerobics, or calisthenics. They were placed in the high activity group.

The difference also remained after researchers adjusted for other factors that could influence brain health, such as smoking cigarette, drinking alcohol, high blood pressure and body weight changes.

The authors didi address that there are limitations to the study, such as that they did not check lifetime patterns of exercise and it was only based on self-reported information.

However, still it provides useful information regarding the benefits of exercise for older adults.

"Physical activity is an attractive option to reduce the burden of cognitive impairment in public health because it is low cost and doesn't interfere with medications," said Wright. "Our results suggest that moderate to intense exercise may help older people delay aging of the brain, but more research from randomized clinical trials comparing exercise programs to more sedentary activity is needed to confirm these results."