Aerobic Exercise Preserves Brain Health

Anthony Gucciardi
NaturalSociety
September 8, 2011

Aerobic exercise not only has amazing fat loss and cancer prevention benefits, but new research has found that it is also effective in preventing your risk of dementia and preserving your brain health. Any physical fitness that gets your heart pumping faster not only prevents your risk of developing dementia, but also slows its progression if you already have the disease. The findings were reported in a Clinic study published this month in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

ScienceDaily reports:

The researchers broadly defined exercise as enough aerobic physical activity to raise the heart rate and increase the body’s need for oxygen. Examples include walking, gym workouts and activities at home such as shoveling snow or raking leaves.

“We culled through all the scientific literature we could find on the subject of exercise and cognition, including animal studies and observational studies, reviewing over 1,600 papers, with 130 bearing directly on this issue. We attempted to put together a balanced view of the subject,” says J. Eric Ahlskog, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist at Mayo Clinic.

“We concluded that you can make a very compelling argument for exercise as a disease-modifying strategy to prevent dementia and mild cognitive impairment, and for favorably modifying these processes once they have developed.” The researchers note that brain imaging studies have consistently revealed objective evidence of favorable effects of exercise on human brain integrity. Also, they note, animal research has shown that exercise generates trophic factors that improve brain functioning, plus exercise facilitates brain connections (neuroplasticity).

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