The benefits of exercise have been extensively studied before. We know that staying active helps us avoid multiple diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension … it also helps us prevent some types of cancer or improve the quality of our sleep. Now, new research conducted at Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts has shown a relationship between levels of fitness in midlife, brain volume, and exercise or no exercise. Thus, people with the worst physical condition throughout their lives have the smallest brain 20 years later. The brain shrinks.
The research, conducted by Nicole Spartano, used data from the Framingham Heart Study with a total of 1,583 participants, with a mean age of 40 years and without dementia or heart disease. All of them performed a routine test to assess their physical condition.
20 years later , the experts examined the same individuals, assessing both their physical fitness and MRI scans of the brain. The results were incontestable: the lower the physical fitness, the smaller the brain. For every 8-unit decrease in physical test performance, brain volume decreased in size to the equivalent of 2 additional years of aging.
” We found a direct correlation in our study between lack of exercise and brain volume decades later, indicating accelerated aging of the brain, ” explains Spartano.
Although this study examines the effects of fitness in middle age and the implications for brain size in later life, other research has shown that it is never too late for our brains to reap the benefits of exercise. The next thing will be to investigate how changes in physical activity throughout life impact our brain.
The study has been published in the journal Neurology.
