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Exercise
Could Halt Mental Decline
Exercise can
improve mental abilities in the elderly, and go some way to preventing
mental decline, say researchers. Scientists found mental abilities,
or cognitive functioning, improved with exercise.
The reason
for the link is unclear, but the researchers believe it could
be linked to the fact exercise improves the body's ability to
pump blood and blood's oxygen-carrying capacity.
The implications
are that exercise might be able to offset some of the mental declines
that we often associate with the ageing process
The findings
were a side benefit of research comparing the effects of exercise
and drugs in fighting depression.
Improvements
were seen "above and beyond" what was expected after the depression
had lifted, say researchers.
James Blumenthal,
a psychologist at the Duke University Medical Center, in Durham,
North Carolina, said one of the key findings was that exercise
had beneficial effects on functions controlled by specific areas
of the brain.
Memory, planning,
organization and juggling different tasks all improved under the
study.
But attention,
concentration and psychomotor skills, controlled by different
parts of the brain, were not affected.
The research,
named Smile (Standard Medical Intervention and Long Term Exercise)
involved 156 patients aged between 50 and 77, who had a major
depressive disorder. They were randomly assigned to three groups.
One did 30 minutes of aerobic exercise - using an exercise bike,
walking or jogging - three times a week, the second group took
an anti-depressant, and the third a combination of the two.
After 16
weeks, all three groups showed the same degree of improvement
in standard measures of depression, leading the researchers to
conclude exercise was as effective as medication.
In addition
to testing levels of depression, the scientists also measured
mental processes, comparing the 42 people in the exercise group
with the 42 in the medication group
They found
exercise appeared to benefit some areas of cognitive function.
Patients with milder depression showed the most improvement.
Dr Blumenthal,
who led the research, published in the Journal of Ageing and Physical
Activity, said: "The implications are that exercise might be able
to offset some of the mental declines that we often associate
with the ageing process.
"Further
studies are warranted not only to clarify specific mental processes
that are improved by exercise, but to better understand the underlying
mechanisms of these improvements."
He added:
"It is thought that one of the reasons why the elderly - especially
those with coronary artery disease or hypertension - tend to suffer
some degree of cognitive decline is in part due to a reduction
in blood flow to the brain."
"So it may
be that just as exercise improves muscle tone and function, it
may have similar effects on the brain."
Reference
Source 89
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