Get Moving: Cardio Helps Preserve Brain Function

A recent study examines how cardio can help to preserve cognitive abilities.

 "Many studies show the benefits to the brain of good heart health," said study author David R. Jacobs, Jr., PhD, with the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, via a press release. "This is one more important study that should remind young adults of the brain health benefits of cardio fitness activities such as running, swimming, biking or cardio fitness classes."

For the study, researchers examined the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognitive development during middle age. They worked to measure how the body transported oxygen to different muscles and how those muscles absorbed oxygen during physical activity.  The team recruited 2,742 healthy adults, all an average age of 25. For the first year, study participants preformed treadmill tests. Twenty years following, they performed the same treadmill tests, and 25 years from the initial start of the study, researchers also administered cognitive tests during the patients middle age.

Findings showed that while participants typically lasted an average of 10 minutes on the treadmill at the beginning of the study, two decades later, the average fell by 2.9 minutes.

"These changes were significant, and while they may be modest, they were larger than the effect from one year of aging. Other studies in older individuals have shown that these tests are among the strongest predictors of developing dementia in the future," Jacobs said. "One study showed that every additional word remembered on the memory test was associated with an 18-percent decrease in the risk of developing dementia after 10 years. These findings are likely to help us earlier identify and consequently prevent or treat those at high risk of developing dementia."

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More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Neurology.