Walking improves memory among seniors, report says

Walking staves off memory loss

Walking regrows brain mass and helps stave off memory loss among seniors, a new report says.

The study, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, validates prior studies that show how aerobic exercise prevents the brain of Alzheimer's patients from shrinking and helps the elderly to perform better in mental tests.

For the study about the link between walking and memory loss, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pittsburgh divided 120 seniors aged 55 to 80 years old into two groups.

Sixty of them were asked to walk for 40 minutes a day for three days a week while the remainder had stretching and toning exercises.

Among those who only did stretching exercises, the part of the brain called the hippocampus shrunk just like what happens naturally in elderly people. But among those who walked, this part which controls memory functions increased in size by about 2 percent.

The study authors said that "in the aerobic exercise group, increased hippocampal volume was directly related to improvements in memory performance."

Lead author Kirk Erickson who is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh said, "We think of the atrophy of the hippocampus in later life as almost inevitable."

Senior author Art Kramer said, "The results of our study are particularly interesting in that they suggest that even modest amounts of exercise by sedentary older adults can lead to substantial improvements in memory and brain health." Kramer is the director of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois.

The findings of this large, rigorous and long-term study supports the recommendation that walking regularly can prevent or at least minimize memory loss among seniors.

Posted by George Daniels on Tuesday February 01 2011, 3:35 AM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0