Just 6 months of aerobic exercise reverses brain ageing by 9 years
According to study, aerobic exercise for 35 minutes three times a week,
may improve thinking skills in older adults with cognitive impairment.
After 6 months of aerobic exercises like walking or cycling , study
participants scores on thinking tests improved by the equivalent of
reversing nearly nine years of ageing.
The study looked at people who had cognitive impairments without dementia, which is defined as having difficulty concentration, making decisions, or remembering, but not severe enough to be diagnosed with dementia.
The study found that exercise improved thinking skills called executive function. Executive function is a person's ability to regulate their own behaviour, pay attention, organise and achieve goals. The study found no improvement in memory.
The results are encouraging in that in just 6 months, by adding regular exercise to their lives, people who have cognitive impairments without dementia may improve their ability to plan and complete certain cognitive tasks, said study author.
The study involved 160 people with an average age of 65 and risk factors for heart disease, such as hypertension, who did not have dementia, but reported problems with thinking skills. All participants were identified as having cognitive impairments without dementia and were sedentary at the start of the study.
Researchers examined the effects of both exercise and diet, specifically the diet which is low in sodium, high fiber diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, low fat dairy products, whole grains, and lean meat. That diet was designed for individuals with high blood pressure.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of the 4 groups, aerobic exercise alone, low sodium diet, but aerobic and the DASH diet, or health education, which considered of educational phone calls once every one or two weeks. People assigned to the exercise groups exercised 3 times a week for 45 minutes each session which included 10 minutes of warm-up exercise and 35 minutes of aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging or cycling on a stationary bicycle.
At both the beginning and end of the 6 month study, researchers evaluated participants' thinking and memory abilities with standardized cognitive testing, cardio-respiratory fitness with treadmill stress testing and heart disease risk factors with screenings for blood pressure, blood glucose and lipids. They also used questionnaires and food diaries to measure how closely the participants followed the low sodium diet.
Researchers found that participants who exercised showed significant improvements in thinking skills when compared to those who did not exercise. Those who took part in both the exercises and diet had average scores of nearly 47 points on the overall tests of executive thinking skills, compared to an average score of about 42 points for those with exercise and diet alone and about 38 points for those who just received health education. There was no improvement in participants who only consumed the low sodium diet, although those who exercised and consumed the low sodium diet had greater improvements compared to health education controls.
To illustrate, the researcher explained that at the start of the study, the participants had average scores for select sub-test of executive function for people who were 93 years old, who were 28 years older than their actual chronological age. After 6 months, participants who exercised and followed the low sodium diet saw their average executive function scores correspond with people who were 84, a none year improvement. For those who received only health education, their performance on executive function tests worsened by a half year from their cores at the start of the study.
Although this may suggest added benefit of the low sodium diet, when combined with exercise. The researcher says a limitation of the study was that the number of participants was relatively small and these findings should be interpreted with caution.
More research is still needed with larger samples, over longer periods of time to examine whether improvements to thinking abilities continue and of those improvements may be best achieved through multiple lifestyle approaches like exercise and diet, he said.
The study looked at people who had cognitive impairments without dementia, which is defined as having difficulty concentration, making decisions, or remembering, but not severe enough to be diagnosed with dementia.
The study found that exercise improved thinking skills called executive function. Executive function is a person's ability to regulate their own behaviour, pay attention, organise and achieve goals. The study found no improvement in memory.
The results are encouraging in that in just 6 months, by adding regular exercise to their lives, people who have cognitive impairments without dementia may improve their ability to plan and complete certain cognitive tasks, said study author.
The study involved 160 people with an average age of 65 and risk factors for heart disease, such as hypertension, who did not have dementia, but reported problems with thinking skills. All participants were identified as having cognitive impairments without dementia and were sedentary at the start of the study.
Researchers examined the effects of both exercise and diet, specifically the diet which is low in sodium, high fiber diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, low fat dairy products, whole grains, and lean meat. That diet was designed for individuals with high blood pressure.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of the 4 groups, aerobic exercise alone, low sodium diet, but aerobic and the DASH diet, or health education, which considered of educational phone calls once every one or two weeks. People assigned to the exercise groups exercised 3 times a week for 45 minutes each session which included 10 minutes of warm-up exercise and 35 minutes of aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging or cycling on a stationary bicycle.
At both the beginning and end of the 6 month study, researchers evaluated participants' thinking and memory abilities with standardized cognitive testing, cardio-respiratory fitness with treadmill stress testing and heart disease risk factors with screenings for blood pressure, blood glucose and lipids. They also used questionnaires and food diaries to measure how closely the participants followed the low sodium diet.
Researchers found that participants who exercised showed significant improvements in thinking skills when compared to those who did not exercise. Those who took part in both the exercises and diet had average scores of nearly 47 points on the overall tests of executive thinking skills, compared to an average score of about 42 points for those with exercise and diet alone and about 38 points for those who just received health education. There was no improvement in participants who only consumed the low sodium diet, although those who exercised and consumed the low sodium diet had greater improvements compared to health education controls.
To illustrate, the researcher explained that at the start of the study, the participants had average scores for select sub-test of executive function for people who were 93 years old, who were 28 years older than their actual chronological age. After 6 months, participants who exercised and followed the low sodium diet saw their average executive function scores correspond with people who were 84, a none year improvement. For those who received only health education, their performance on executive function tests worsened by a half year from their cores at the start of the study.
Although this may suggest added benefit of the low sodium diet, when combined with exercise. The researcher says a limitation of the study was that the number of participants was relatively small and these findings should be interpreted with caution.
More research is still needed with larger samples, over longer periods of time to examine whether improvements to thinking abilities continue and of those improvements may be best achieved through multiple lifestyle approaches like exercise and diet, he said.
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Labels: 35 minutes, aerobic exercises, cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF), cognitive, cycling, dementia, executive functions, impairment, improve, jogging, Risk factors, stationary cycle, thinking skills, walking
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