Want to boost your brain power? Try boosting your heart
and lung power with aerobic fitness and you may also
end up with a more “fit” mind as a bonus. That’s the
conclusion of a recent review of studies by researchers
from the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht,
the Netherlands. The report, published in a recent issue
of The Cochrane Library (a publication of The
Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization
that evaluates medical research), concludes that just
as aerobic
physical exercise improves cardiovascular fitness
and contributes to healthy aging of the body, it also
helps boost cognitive fitness in older people.
In fact, getting your body moving can boost cognitive
processing speed, motor function and even visual and
auditory attention in healthy older people, according
to lead review author Maaike Angevaren. That’s especially
good news for Baby Boomers because around age 50, occasional
memory lapses or “senior moments” can become noticeable,
along with a reduced ability to pay close attention
to a task.
Angevaren and her colleagues studied 11 randomized controlled
trials that took place in the U.S., France and Sweden
involving 670 adults ages 55 and older. The studies
examined how aerobic exercise impacts areas of cognition
including cognitive processing speed, memory and attention.
In these studies, research subjects exercised aerobically
between two and seven days a week. The exercises all
involved the continuous, rhythmic type of work-outs
that improve respiratory endurance and stamina as they
strengthen the heart and lungs.
After about three months, the study participants underwent
both fitness and cognitive function testing. Eight of
the 11 studies concluded participation in aerobic exercise
programs increased participants’ VO2 maximum by 14 percent.
VO2 maximum is a term used to document the amount of
oxygen a person can utilize per minute of work. It is
often used as an evaluation of a person’s cardiovascular
efficiency.
The research subjects were compared to groups of non-exercisers
or non-aerobic exercisers. No one was surprised that
most groups comprised of those who worked out aerobically
had more improvement of their physical fitness than
those who did not exercise vigorously. But what was
surprising was that levels of cognitive function also
soared, especially motor function, cognitive speed and
auditory and visual attention.
“Improvements in cognition as a result of improvements
in cardiovascular fitness are being explained by improvements
in cerebral blood flow, leading to increased brain metabolism
which, in turn, stimulates the production of neurotransmitters
and formation of new synapses,” Angevaren said. She
also explained that improved cardiovascular fitness
could lead to a decline in cardiovascular disease which
is well known to have a negative affect on cognition.
Another reason a fit lifestyle might help the brain:
it can help lower blood pressure. Other research recently
released by doctors at Howard University Hospital in
Washington, DC, concludes “optimal control of blood
pressure may be beneficial in attenuating the risk of
cognitive decline as the population ages.”
Studying data from the Third National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES III), Dr. Thomas Olabode
Obisesan and research team investigated whether abnormal
blood pressure is independently associated with lower
cognitive function in men and women who were between
60 and 74 years old when they entered the study. They
found that normal blood pressure (less than 120/80 mm
Hg) was clearly linked with the best cognitive performance
in people aged 60 to 69.
