- Brain capacity – global cognition
- Attention – sustained alertness, including speed of information processing
- Executive function – including goal-oriented behaviors
- Memory – storage and retrieval
- Working memory – the part of short-term memory that deals with immediate conscious perceptual and language processing
The team’s analysis showed that exercise improved the brain power of people aged 50 and older, regardless of their current brain health.
Prescribing Exercise
Not only did the results suggest that aerobic exercise enhanced cognitive abilities, resistance training also had a positive influence on executive function, memory, and working memory.
So how much exercise is recommended?
Scientists say sessions of moderate to vigorous intensity lasting between 45 and 60 minutes on “as many days of the week as possible” was the most beneficial to brain health.
How Exercise Reduces Cognitive Decline
According to the authors of the study, exercise works to reduce cognitive decline by:
- the promotion of neurogenesis (growth of new nervous tissue)
- angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels)
- synaptic plasticity (the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time)
- decreased pro-inflammatory processes
- reduced cellular damage due to oxidative stress.
If physical exercise really can stave off cognitive decline, it could be a simple way of improving the lives of millions of older adults.
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