How exercise increases brain volume — and may slow memory decline

Exercising for 25 minutes a week, or less than four minutes a day, could help to bulk up our brains and improve our ability to think as we grow older. A new study, which involved scanning the brains of more than 10,000 healthy men and women from ages 18 to 97, found that those who walked, swam, cycled or otherwise worked out moderately for 25 minutes a week had bigger brains than those who didn’t, whatever their ages.Bigger brains typically mean healthier brains.The differences were most pronounced in parts of the brain involved with thinking and memory, which often shrink as we age, contributing to risks for cognitive decline and dementia.“This is an exciting finding and gives us more fuel for the idea that being physically active can help maintain brain volume across the life span,” said David Raichlen, a professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the University of Southern California. He studies brain health but was not involved with the new study.The results have practical implications, too, about which types of exercise seem best for our brain health and how little of that exercise we may really need.– – –Little exercise, big brain“We wondered, if we chose a very low threshold of exercise what would we see?” said Cyrus A. Raji, an associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University in St. Louis,...

Read More........→March 14, 2024

Exercise reduces effects of depression on the heart, study shows

An Emory University study published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) finds that while symptoms of mild to minimal depression are associated with early indicators of heart disease, regular exercise seems to reduce the adverse cardiovascular effects of depression. Arshed A. Quyyumi, MD, professor of medicine (cardiology), Emory University School of Medicine and co-director of the Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute and colleagues studied 965 people who were free of heart disease and who had no prior diagnosis of an affective, psychotic or anxiety disorder. Thirty-five percent of the participants were men and 39 percent were African Americans. "This study shows that meeting physical activity guidelines can offset the deterioration in vascular health that accompanies depressive symptoms and provides further evidence that regular physical activity is beneficial to everyone," says Quyyumi, the study’s lead investigator. "The findings highlight the link between worsening depression and cardiovascular risk and support routinely assessing depression in patients to determine heart disease risk." Researchers used questionnaires to evaluate patients for depression and levels of physical activity, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines...

Read More........→May 31, 2016