Exercise Keeps Our Body Moving Even As Our Brain Slows

As we age, there's less fluidity in our joints, making it a bit more difficult to move around with ease.

Yet new findings in the journal Neurology along with previous studies show that staying physically active not only keeps our bodies' healthy, but it keeps us mentally strong and maximizes life to the fullest.

As many individuals age, MRIs show small areas of damage to their brains as white matter hyperintensities. For example, higher levels of damage have been linked to problems with speech and movement, alike. Yet these new findings show that people who keep up their physical fitness routine do not lose the majority of their movement abilities, even if they have high levels of brain damage.

"These results underscore the importance of efforts to encourage a more active lifestyle inolder people to prevent movement problems, which is a major public health challenge," said study author Debra A. Fleischman, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, in a statement. "Physical activity may create a 'reserve' that protects motor abilities against the effects of age-related brain damage."

For the study, researchers had 167 people wear movement monitors on their wrists for an average of 11 days to measure both exercise and non-exercise avtivities. The participant's average age was 80.

Researchers took 11 tests on movement activities and MRI scans that were also used to determine the amount of white matter hyperintensities in the brain.

Compared to those at the 50th percent in activity level measured using the movement monitors, those in the top 10 percent had activity equal to walking at 2.5 mph for an additional 1.5 hours each day. 

Findings showed that for participants in the top 10  percent with greater amounts of brain damage, their movement scores were not affected. In other words, a higher activity level with greater brain damage was not associated with significantly lower scores.

However, the opposite was true for thsoe at the 50th percent activity level. And the results remained the same after taking adjustments for other factors, including body mass index (BMI), depression and vascular disease.

"Virtually everything about Alzheimer's and other dementia appears to be mitigated by physical exercise," he concluded. "I think that this study serves to make that case even more compelling."