Exercise to Protect the Brain

Small brain lesions that often are the first sign of cerebrovascular disease, “silent strokes” are associated with an increased risk of falls and impaired mobility, memory problems, dementia, as well as stroke.  Joshua Z. Willey, from Columbia University (New York, USA), and colleagues report that older people who regularly exercise at a moderate to intense level may be less likely to develop these small brain lesions.  The team’s study involved 1,238 people who had never had a stroke. Participants completed a questionnaire about how often and how intensely they exercised at the beginning of the study and then had MRI scans of their brains an average of six years later, when they were an average of 70 years old. A total of 43% of the participants reported that they had no regular exercise; 36% engaged in regular light exercise, such as golf, walking, bowling or dancing; and 21% engaged in regular moderate to intense exercise, such as hiking, tennis, swimming, biking, jogging or racquetball.  The brain scans showed that 197 of the participants, or 16%, had small brain lesions (“silent strokes”). People who engaged in moderate to intense exercise were 40% less likely to have the silent strokes than people who did no regular exercise. The results remained the same after the researchers took into account other vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking. There was no difference between those who engaged in light exercise and those who did not exercise. Writing that: “Increased levels of physical activity were associated with a lower risk of [silent brain infarcts]…,” the researchers urge that:  “Engaging in moderate to heavy physical activities may be an important component of prevention strategies aimed at reducing subclinical brain infarcts.”