The Washington Post reports, “Exercising for less than 25 minutes a week, or 4 minutes a day, may help your brain enlarge and improve your thinking skills as you get older.”
A new study that scanned the brains of more than 10,000 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 97 found that the brains of people who walked, swam, biked, or did other moderate exercise for 25 minutes a week were , turned out to be larger than those who did not. Regardless of age.
A larger brain usually means a healthier brain. The differences were most pronounced in parts of the brain involved in thinking and memory. These areas often atrophy as we age, contributing to cognitive decline and the risk of dementia… The results have practical implications for which types of exercise are best for health. I also have The health of our brains and how little exercise we really need.
The article states that researchers used AI to evaluate the brain scans of 10,125 people, “most of whom were healthy adults of all ages who visited an academic medical center for diagnostic testing…a clear pattern… appeared immediately.”
Men and women of all ages who exercised at least 25 minutes a week were shown to have larger brain volumes than those who did not. Silas A. Raji, an associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University in St. Louis who led the new study, said the differences weren't huge, especially since the researchers looked more deeply inside the organs. He said it was noticeable in the case. They found that people who exercised had more volume in all types of brain tissue, including gray matter, which is made up of neurons, and white matter, the brain's wiring infrastructure that supports and connects thinking cells. did. Looking more closely, people who exercised tended to have larger hippocampi, a part of the brain essential for memory and thinking. It typically shrinks and deflates with age, affecting reasoning and memory abilities. They also exhibit larger frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, which together indicate a healthy, robust brain…
It is impossible to say from this study exactly what changes exercise brings about in the brain. But Raji and his colleagues believe that exercise also promotes the release of various neurochemicals that reduce inflammation in the brain and promote the production of new brain cells and blood vessels. In fact, exercise appears to help build and store “the brain's structural reserve.” This is a buffer of extra cells and materials that may provide some protection against the otherwise inevitable decline in brain size and function that accompanies aging. Our brains can still shrink and become confused over the years. But when you exercise, this slow fall starts from a higher baseline…