BRAIN HEALTH: Strength training leads to cognitive improvements
February 19, 2020 • 1 min read
-- The best medicine for mental illness might not be a drug after all
Rat studies suggesting gym bunnies could be lifting their way to bigger brains might be on the money.
New research published in NeuroImage: Clinical found that six months of strength training led to cognitive improvements in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and significantly slowed neurodegeneration linked with Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia affects 47 million people globally and there are estimates this figure will rise to 150 million by 2050.
100 participants with MCI undertook twice-weekly supervised strength training. They were assessed via MRIs, physical, metabolic and cognitive tests at the start of the study, at the end of six months, and then again at 18 months.
At the end of the six-month period researchers noted significantly improved cognition among participants.
One year after the programme ended, further testing recorded the same cognitive benefits, with no shrinkage of the hippocampus (part of the brain that regulates motivation, emotion, learning, and memory).
Exercise stimulates a whole cocktail of biological changes in the bloodstream, but how does lifting weights spike an improvement in the hippocampus?
Rat studies provide solid clues, highlighting a link between exercise and stimulation of arousal and alertness centres in the brain.
Scientists suggest that these brain centres are connected to the same hippocampal areas protected by exercise, indicating a possible pathway.
Lift weights, live longer, keep your marbles.