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Lifelong Exercise Significantly Improves Cognitive Functioning In Later Life

"As exercise represents a key component of lifestyle interventions to prevent cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, public health interventions to promote lifelong exercise have the potential to reduce the personal and social burden associated with these conditions in late adult years."

"It's widely acknowledged that a healthy body equals a healthy mind. However, not everyone is willing or able to take part in the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week. For these people any level of physical activity may benefit their cognitive well-being in the long-term and this is something that needs to be explored further.


 
Setting lower exercise targets at the beginning and gradually increasing their frequency and intensity could be a more effective method for improving levels of exercise within the wider population."

Exercise has several benefits which impact on cognitive performance

• We know that exercise is key to good sleep, and that good sleep helps our brain work better.
  
  A survey carried out by the National Sleep Foundation found that light, moderate and vigorous exercisers reported having a good night's sleep almost every night compared to non-exercisers (67% versus 39%).


• We know that excessive long-term mental stress has a detrimental effect on cognitive performance. A team of investigators from Helsinki, Finland, reported that regular exercise is key in helping children cope with stress.
  
  They reported their findings in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The authors added that physical activity in kids is linked to a better stress hormone response.


• Being physically active and fit during middle age protects against dementia later on. Laura F. DeFina, MD, of The Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, USA, and team reported in Annals of Internal Medicine that "Higher midlife fitness levels seem to be associated with lower hazards of developing all-cause dementia later in life. The magnitude and direction of the association were similar with or without previous stroke, suggesting that higher fitness levels earlier in life may lower risk for dementia later in life, independent of cerebrovascular disease."


• A brief surge of condensed exercise enhances the compression of memories in both mentally healthy seniors as well as those with slight cognitive impairment, a team of scientists from UC Irvine's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory found.
  
  Volunteers were asked to look at pleasing pictures of nature and animals. Half of them then rode a stationary bicycle for six minutes at 70% of their maximum capacity. An hour later they took a surprise test which involved having to remember information on the images they had looked at earlier. Those who had been on the bike for six minutes performed better than the participants who had not exercised.


• Researchers from the University of Edinburgh reported in the journal Neurology that exercise is better at protecting the aging brain than mental or leisure activity.
  
  After periodically assessing volunteers, all of them in their 70s, they reported less brain shrinkage and fewer signs of cognitive decline among the exercisers. The assessments included brain scans.

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