To Your Health
September, 2024 (Vol. 18, Issue 09) |
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Intense Exercise Matters
By Editorial Staff
Particularly for seniors – in the form of long-term positive effects on brain health. High-intensity interval exercise appears to improve brain function in older adults – and the results are maintained for up to five years, according to research findings.
Aging is a natural risk factor for cognitive decline, which can manifest with symptoms such as memory issues, problems with decision-making, difficulty navigating once-familiar environments, and more. Per this study, six months of intense exercise – 72 total exercise sessions, with each session consisting of four cycles of running on a treadmill at near-maximum exertion – improved cognition in 65-85-year-olds. Even more encouraging, the results persisted for up to five years later, even in participants who stopped doing the exercises once the six-month intervention ended.
If you're wondering whether lower-intensity exercise accomplished the same, in this study, it did not: seniors who participated in low-intensity and medium-intensity exercise did not show cognitive improvements; only the high-intensity exercise group did.
However, this isn't the first study to show that exercise is beneficial for seniors, and keep in mind that exercise doesn't have to be physical. Numerous studies support brain exercise (playing board games, doing crossword puzzles, etc.) as a way to reduce cognitive decline. Talk to your doctor about these and other ways to keep your mind sharp as you age.
