People who stay physically active in old age are less likely to experience age-related mental decline. Researchers from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands found that stimulating elderly to be physically active could be important for keeping their brains fit. Physical activity protects the brain by keeping the heart and blood vessels healthy, which boosts blood flow to the brain and reduces the risk of stroke. Previous studies suggest that exercise may help the mind by stimulating the creation of new brain cells. Given that physical activity tends to change with age, the researchers investigated whether these changes influence the mental functioning. They studied 295 men who were between the ages of 70 to 90 years from Italy, Finland and the Netherlands. The participants were asked about the intensity and duration of exercise, including activities such as walking, biking, hobbies, gardening, odd jobs and playing sports. Researchers followed the men for 10 years, noting who increased or decreased their amount of physical activity. The researchers used a standardised test that examined memory, calculation, and language abilities, to check participants' mental functioning. It was found that, Italian men were the most active, typically spending most of their time in gardening. In Finland, the most popular activity was walking; for Dutch men, it was cycling. On average, Dutch and Italian men decreased the amount of time they spent exercising over the 10-year period, and all men exercised with less intensity over time. Men who decreased their amount of physical activity by at least 1 hour each day experienced the largest decline in mental functioning. The decline was nearly three times greater than that seen in men who spent the same amount of time exercising as before. The more amount of time these men reduced in exercising, the larger was their mental decline over 10 years.
Neurology,
December 2004