Exercise Boosts Blood Flow to the Brain, Study Finds

A study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease found older adults with mild memory loss who followed an exercise program for a year saw an increase in blood flow to their brains, reports ScienceDaily . The authors followed 70 men and women aged 55 to 80 who had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and underwent cognitive exams, fitness tests, and brain magnetic resonance imaging scans. The subjects were randomly assigned to either a moderate aerobic exercise program or a stretching program for one year. Forty-eight study participants — 29 in the stretching cohort and 19 in the aerobic exercise cohort — completed the full year of training and had follow-up tests, and those who performed aerobic exercise had more flexible blood vessels in their neck and more overall blood flow to the brain. The more their oxygen consumption increased, the greater the changes to blood vessel suppleness and brain blood flow, which was not observed among stretching program participants."We now know . . . that exercise can increase blood flow to the brain, which is a good thing," said Professor Rong Zhang at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.