- Scientists find that regular exercise may result in a “younger” brain.
- In a recent study, researchers found that adults who engaged in 12 months of regular exercise showed reduced brain-predicted age difference, a marker of good brain health.
- A neurologist explains the findings and their implications.
It’s no secret that regular exercise benefits the body. But scientists say it may also improve your brain to the point where it appears younger. At least that’s the key takeaway from a recent study published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.
Meet the expert: Jeremy M. Liff, M.D., board-certified neurologist in New York, NY
Researchers examined how consistent exercise may affect key markers of brain health in 130 participants aged 26 to 68. The researchers randomly divided the participants into two groups, one of which acted as a control group who maintained their current exercise routines. The second group engaged in moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise (like walking, biking, etc.) for 150 minutes per week (30 minutes five days a week), for a 12-month trial period. Participants in the control group were not asked to change their behavior, which means they may still have engaged in exercise consistent with their typical routines, though not in the same program as the other participant group. At the end of the year-long study, the researchers found that those who exercised more had a lower brain age.
Ahead, a neurologist explains how to interpret the findings and their potential implications.
What impact did exercise have on brain health?
Unlike your chronological age, which is set in stone based on the day you were born, brain age is less concrete. Brain age actually refers to “brain-predicted age difference,” or brain-PAD, which is a marker of brain health that compares the actual health of your brain to what it is predicted to be based on your physical age.
In the context of this study, participants who were in the consistent exercise group showed a younger brain age, which means that they “showed brains that were closer to their chronological age or less aged compared to those who were less active,” says Jeremy M. Liff, M.D., a board-certified neurologist in NY. “In short, regular physical activity appears to have a measurable positive impact on brain health even in middle-aged adults.”
Each participant in the study completed a baseline MRI scan at the beginning of the 12-month intervention period and a follow-up scan at the end, which the researchers then used to estimate brain age. The results revealed that while the control group experienced no significant change in brain age over the year-long period, the exercise group experienced an average decrease in brain age of 0.60 years.
Did consistent exercise have other benefits?
While this study focused on exercise’s impact on brain age specifically, the researchers also noted other benefits of developing a consistent fitness routine. The study did not reveal a significant relationship between exercise and biological factors like blood pressure and body composition. However, the researchers did find that the group that received the aerobic exercise intervention displayed significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness compared to the control group, which saw a slight decrease at the end of the 12 months.
Cardiorespiratory fitness, or CRF, is the body’s ability to supply oxygen to the muscles during exercise. Previous studies have shown that CRF is significantly improved by aerobic exercise, and in turn, that improved CRF is linked with decreased heart disease risk.
What might this mean for you?
If your brain is aging faster than your body, it may be a potential cause of memory loss or put you at risk for further cognitive decline over time. These results show that exercising regularly may be an additional way to stay sharp on top of other brain exercises like crossword puzzles.
So, you may want to lace up your sneakers. “It’s never too early to start exercising regularly, and waiting may mean missing out on potential brain health benefits,” says Dr. Liff. But that doesn’t mean you have to train for your first marathon tomorrow (unless you want to). “[You] shouldn’t assume [you] need extreme or high-intensity workouts to see benefits since the improvement was observed with a moderate and achievable level of activity,” he explains.
If you don’t already have an established workout routine, the key is not to go too hard too fast, according to Dr. Liff. “Consistency over time appears to matter more than intensity,” he says. “Those who are currently inactive should ease into an exercise routine gradually rather than jumping straight into a full 150-minute per week regimen.”
The bottom line
The results of this study are promising, but more research is needed. Dr. Liff points out that the study’s participant group is relatively young, and the trial period of 12 months is relatively short, meaning we don’t know if these findings apply to older populations or hold up over longer periods of time. The study also “does not establish a clear biological mechanism that explains why exercise improves brain age, only that there is a strong association,” he says, so further research is necessary to fully understand what happens in the body and brain to bring about these results.
Still, while you might already be incorporating brain exercises into your routine to boost your brain health, this research suggests that a combination of mental and physical exercise may be the ultimate combination for longevity.
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