Aerobics May Be a Smart Workout for Your Brain at Any Age

A study in Neurology suggests that aerobic exercise can improve older adults' performance on certain cognitive and memory tests after six months, reports ScienceDaily . "Aerobic exercise . . . may also get blood moving to your brain, particularly in areas responsible for verbal fluency and executive functions," said the University of Calgary's Marc J. Poulin. The researchers focused on 206 adults, average age 66, who before commencing the six-month exercise regimen worked out no more than four days a week at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes or less, or no more than two days a week at a high intensity for 20 minutes or less. Participants were administered thinking and memory tests at the start of the study, and also an ultrasound to measure blood flow in the brain. Physical testing was repeated at three months, and thinking and physical testing repeated at six months. After six months of exercise, participants exhibited 5.7 percent improvement on tests of executive function and 2.4 percent improvement in verbal fluency. Meanwhile, blood flow increased 2.8 percent from an average of 51.3 centimeters per second (cm/sec) to an average of 52.7 cm/sec. This corresponded with modest but significant improvements in aspects of thinking that usually decline with age.