DOES EXERCISE PROTECT THE MEMORY?

Many doctors recommend regular exercise as an all-purpose weapon against a wide variety of physical ailments, but what about the brain? Researchers from a group of universities, including Pittsburgh, Illinois, and Ohio State, studied a cohort of older adults who were suffering from brain atrophy but not from dementia. Their specific problem was in the hippocampus, a structure involved in memory formation. The 120 study participants were divided into two groups, one of which walked 40 minutes per day three times a week and the other who only did muscle-toning and stretching exercises. They were all scanned with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before the study began and then at six months and again when the study ended after a year. Those who did aerobic exercise saw their hippocampus grow in volume by 2% after a year, while those who did only toning and stretching saw a decrease of almost 1.5%. Those with growth also had improved memory function a year later. “We think of hippocampus atrophy in later life as almost inevitable,” says lead author Kirk Erickson, “but even moderate exercise for one year can increase the size of that structure.” Senior author Art Kramer concurs: “Even modest amounts of exercise by sedentary older adults can lead to substantial improvements in memory and brain health.”