Moderate and regular cardiovascular exercise , such as taking a walk, improves memory in people over 55 and prevents the decline in mental abilities linked to aging. The authors of the first study conducted on healthy adults over 55 years of age have reached this conclusion, showing the normal symptoms of atrophy in the hippocampus, the region of the brain that plays a fundamental role in memory. The work has been published in the journal PNAS .
For this new research, American scientists from the universities of Pittsburgh, Illinois and Rice recruited 120 people aged 55 to 80 years, sedentary and without signs of dementia. Half were subjected to a 40-minute moderate walking program three days a week, while the other group did only stretching exercises.
In the MRI examinations, the scientists found that, after one year, the participants who had exercised by walking showed an increase in their left and right hippocampi of 2.12 and 1.19% respectively . In contrast, members of the other group experienced a decrease of 1.40 and 1.43% in the same brain regions, that is, the normal deterioration due to aging , which affects memory and increases the risks of dementia.
