A recent study found that older people who regularly exercised had greater levels of proteins crucial to their brain’s health, compared to those who didn’t exercise. These differences were apparent even in people whose brains otherwise showed possible signs of dementia, suggesting that exercise could slow down the progression of cognitive decline.
“The more physical activity, the higher the synaptic protein levels in brain tissue. This suggests that every movement counts when it comes to brain health,” study author Kaitlin Casaletto, an assistant professor of neurology in the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California San Francisco, said in a statement.
Furthermore, physical activity helps you think better by promoting cardiovascular health, improving blood flow to the brain, reducing inflammation, lowering stress hormones, and improving the thickness of the cerebral cortical and improving the integrity of white matter. It also improves neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form and strengthen new neural connections and adapt to changing situations.
Light intensity physical activity helps prevent dementia. Even if you don’t meet the recommended amount of physical activity, each hour of light intensity physical activity and reaching 7,500 steps per day is linked to higher total brain volume.
