Exercise Does the Brain Good

With aging, white matter hyperintensities often develop in the brain, with these small areas of damage potentially affecting movement abilities – such as walking independently.  Debra A. Fleischman, from Rush University Medical Center (Illinois, USA), and colleagues enrolled 167 men and women, average age 80 years, to wear movement monitors on their wrists for up to 11 days to measure exercise and non-exercise activity.  Movement abilities were assessed via standardized tests, and volume of white matter hyperintensities in the brain was determined via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).  The team found that the subjects in the top 10% in activity level (as measured via movement monitors) experienced activity equal to walking at 2.5 mph for an additional 1.5 hours each day (as compared to those at 50th percent activity level); having greater amounts of brain damage did not change their scores on the movement tests. However, among those at the 50th percent activity level, having greater amounts of brain damage did associate with significantly lower scores on the movement tests.  Observing that: “higher [white matter hyperintensity] burden remained associated with lower motor function in persons with average (50th percentile) activity, the study authors write that: “Higher levels of physical activity may reduce the effect of [white matter hyperintensity] burden on motor function in healthy older adults.”