Exercise enhances brain health improving memory and cognitive functioning

Engaging in regular exercise is well known for enhancing heart health, weight loss, reducing blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes.  Here’s another reason to lace up your sneakers and get physical as according to new research, physical activity prevents loss of volume of gray matter in the brains of older adults.

Study finds physical activity sustains gray matter volume

The study, published in The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, showed that a physically active lifestyle may prevent a reduction in gray matter during late adulthood.  This could result in helping sustain muscle movement, memory retention and speech, along with other physical and cognitive functions.

Gray matter is a major component of the central nervous system consisting of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil, glial cells, synapses, and capillaries.  Gray matter is distinguished from white matter in that it contains numerous cell bodies and relatively few myelinated axons, while white matter contains relatively few cell bodies and is composed chiefly of long-range myelinated axon tracts.  Gray matter is named as such because of its distinctive brownish-gray color, in contrast with white matter which appears white because it is coated in myelin sheathes

As we age, if our brain loses gray matter which is associated with healthy cognitive functioning, then it places us at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.  But if we participate in a healthy lifestyle of regularly getting in physical activity, this may help lessen gray matter atrophy.

Researchers with the study used accelerometers and MRI to measure the physical activity of 262 older adults with an average age of 81 from Rush University Memory and Aging Project. None of the study participants had a diagnosis or symptoms of any cognitive impairment, or any history of brain surgery or brain abnormalities such as tumors.

Each participant wore an accelerometer for seven to 10 consecutive days to measure the frequency, time, and intensity of their activity.  Afterwards, each participant had an MRI of their brain to assess the amount of gray matter. 

The results showed an association between participants who were physically active having more gray matter than those who were less physically active. 

Other study finds exercise increases size of hippocampus in brain

Another study done at the University of British Columbia, found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.  Resistance training, balance and muscle toning did not have the same results.

Your brain on exercise

Our brain simply benefits from exercise. The benefits exercise provides come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance and inflammation and to stimulate the release of growth factors. Growth factors are chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessel in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells.

It is also known that regular exercise improve our mood and sleep while reducing stress and anxiety.  If a person is having problems in these areas, it can frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment.

Other studies have suggested that parts of our brains which control memory and thinking have greater volume in people who exercise versus people who don’t.  In fact, just engaging in a regular routine of exercise of moderate intensity over six months or a year is associated with an increase in the volume of selected brain regions.

Start exercising

If you currently are not physically active, there is no better time to start then now.  As to which type of exercise to choose is up to you but one of the best forms of aerobic exercise is walking.  Walking can be done by the majority of people and it gets your heart pumping to help yield brain benefits.

To improve brain functioning, it is recommended to walk briskly most days of the week for at least 150 minutes per week.  It that seem daunting at first, start off with a few minutes a day and increase the amount by five or 10 minutes every week until you reach your goal.

Other aerobic activities to consider include swimming, stair climbing, tennis, dancing, or bicycling.