Fit Body = Fit Brain

Non-drug approaches that aim to reduce age-related cognitive decline are an important public health preventive strategy.  Jeffrey Burns, from the University of Kansas (Kansas, USA), and colleagues completed a six-month trial that enrolled healthy adults, ages 65 years and older, who showed no signs of cognitive decline. Participants were placed in a control group that did not have monitored exercise, or they were put into one of three other groups. One group moderately exercised for the recommended amount of 150 minutes per week, a second exercised for 75 minutes per week, and a third group exercised for 225 minutes per week. All groups who exercised saw some benefit, and those who exercised more saw more benefits, particularly in improved visual-spatial processing – the ability to perceive where objects are in space and how far apart they are from each other. Participants who exercised also showed an increase in their overall attention levels and ability to focus.  The study authors write that: “An individual’s cardiorespiratory fitness response was a better predictor of cognitive gains than exercise dose (i.e., duration) and thus maximizing an individual’s cardiorespiratory fitness may be an important therapeutic target for achieving cognitive benefits.”