Exercise May Stave Off Mental Decline
Exercise May Stave Off Mental Decline
Exercise appears to help prevent and improve mild cognitive impairment, two new studies show. Researchers found that people who did moderate physical activity in midlife or later had a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment and that six months of high-intensity aerobic exercise improved cognitive function in people with mild cognitive impairment…
The first study included 1,324 dementia-free volunteers taking part in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging…
The Mayo team said exercise may guard against mild cognitive impairment through production of nerve-protecting compounds, increased blood flow to the brain, improved development and survival of neurons, and decreased risk of heart and blood vessel diseases.
HealthDay News, 1/11/10
Exercise May Aid Cognitive Function
Almost any amount of moderate physical activity in mid- or late life reduced the odds of mild cognitive impairment by 30% to 40% in an ongoing cohort study, researchers reported. Men and women derived similar benefit, which was limited to moderate exercise -- not light or vigorous physical activity, investigators wrote in the January Archives of Neurology.
"Our findings contribute to the growing body of literature that indicates the potentially beneficial relationship between physical exercise and cognition," Yonas E. Geda, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues concluded.
MedPage Today, by Charles Bankhead, 1/12/10
Additional coverage:
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