Aerobics for One Hour, Three Times a Week Can Reverse Cognitive Decline

Accord­ing to a WSJ arti­cle, Novem­ber 16, 2006; Page D1, titled How to Keep Your Aging Brain Fit: Aerobics.

-“Accord­ing to a new study, the brain’s long, slow decline may not be inevitable. For the first time, sci­en­tists have found some­thing that not only halts the brain shrink­age that starts in a per­son­’s 40s, espe­cial­ly in regions respon­si­ble for mem­o­ry and high­er cog­ni­tion, but actu­al­ly revers­es it: aer­o­bic exer­cise. As lit­tle as three hours a week of brisk walk­ing — no Stair­mas­ter required — appar­ent­ly increas­es blood flow to the brain and trig­gers bio­chem­i­cal changes that increase pro­duc­tion of new brain neurons.

-“Now he and col­leagues have dis­cov­ered what may be the basis for these improve­ments. As lit­tle as three hours a week of aer­o­bic exer­cise increased the brain’s vol­ume of gray mat­ter (actu­al neu­rons) and white mat­ter (con­nec­tions between neu­rons), they report in the Novem­ber issue of the Jour­nal of Geron­tol­ogy: Med­ical Sciences.

-“After only three months,” says Prof. Kramer, “the peo­ple who exer­cised had the brain vol­umes of peo­ple three years younger.” “This is the first time any­one has shown that exer­cise increas­es brain vol­ume in the elder­ly,” says Dr. Kramer. “It sug­gests that aer­o­bic exer­cise can stave off neur­al decline, and even roll back some nor­mal age-relat­ed dete­ri­o­ra­tion of brain structure.”