Research Hit: Exercise Impacts the Brain Over Years
New research shows that a period of exercise can leave lasting impacts - still measurable five years later
Exercise is good for the brain - you have written about that previously - but you say this lasts. How precisely?
Yes, regular followers of my writings will know I have written multiple times on the positive impacts of exercise on the brain:
But this study was an interesting one, by Daniel Blackmore and colleagues of the University of Queensland in Australia, because it analysed different types of exercise interventions in older adults, used brain scanning and re-measured participants, 6 months, 12 months, and five years later.
Fascinating - now I’m intrigued - what exercise interventions were most effective?
This was in a group of 151 participants over 65 who volunteered for this study and were split into three different exercise groups, had various biomarkers measured, but also cognitive performance, and underwent high resolution brain scanning.
What were the exercise groups?
The underwent 6 months of exercise in three groups:
Low - predominantly motor function, balance and stretching
Medium - brisk walking on a treadmill
High - four cycles running on a treadmill at near maximum exertion
You’ll be intrigued to know what happened between these?
Yes, tell me more!
Well the mid and high intensity showed improved biomarker and brain function - they measured hippocampal function, the hippocampus I have reported on is a key area for memory and learning and we already know that exercise can activate stem cells and growth of new neurons in the hippocampus (one of the only regions where this can happen in the brain).
But when measured only 6 months after the exercise intervention (even if participants had stopped exercising) most of the benefits remained - but only for the high intensity group. This improvement was measurable 12 months and 5 years later!
Wow, so just six months of intensive exercise can benefit you for five years even if you’re over 65
Especially if you’re over 65 - younger participants weren’t measured (but the impacts of childhood exercise are impressive also) - as with many studies like this, one of the targets is to look for effective interventions against dementia. Exercise is therefore, based on these results, an effective intervention.
And it only needs to be for six months to have lasting effects!
Indeed - but I presume continuing exercise would have even more beneficial effects.
Reference
Daniel G. Blackmore, Mia A. Schaumberg, Maryam Ziaei, et al.
Long-Term Improvement in Hippocampal-Dependent Learning Ability in Healthy, Aged Individuals Following High Intensity Interval Training.
Aging and disease, 2024
DOI: 10.14336/AD.2024.0642