Key Points
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Regular exercise can help keep your brain younger, improving memory, thinking, and overall mental well-being.
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A year-long study found that adults who exercised regularly had brains that appeared nearly a year younger.
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Following exercise guidelines—150 minutes of aerobic activity weekly—may protect your brain from aging and cognitive decline.
We all know that exercise is good for us. But besides being beneficial to our bodies, it might also boost our brains.
According to a study published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, physical activity can help keep our minds younger. Researchers found that adults who exercised regularly for a year showed brains that appeared nearly a year younger than those who didn’t change their habits.
Study Methodology
To find out whether exercise changes the structure of the brain, the team of researchers from the AdventHealth Research Institute and the University of Pittsburgh conducted a year-long clinical trial to examine the effects of standard exercise and whether it could slow or even reverse “brain age”—aka how old your brain looks on an MRI scan as compared to your actual age.
The researchers recruited 130 healthy adults between the ages of 26 and 58 for the clinical trial. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise group or a control group that did not change their activity levels.
Those in the exercise group attended two supervised 60-minute workout sessions each week and did exercises at home to reach roughly 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week, which is the amount recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Study Findings
At the start of the study and again after 12 months, researchers measured their brain’s structure using MRI scans and assessed their cardiorespiratory fitness via peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). They also calculated each person’s “brain-predicted age difference” or brain-PAD, which is how much older (or younger) the brain appears to be compared to the person’s chronological age.
Participants in the exercise group showed brains that looked about 0.6 years younger, while the control group showed a slight increase in brain age (about 0.35 years older). Researchers also found that higher fitness levels at the start of the study were associated with younger-looking brains.
Importance of a Younger Brain
“People often ask, ‘Is there anything I can do now to protect my brain later?’ Our findings support the idea that following current exercise guidelines—150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity—may help keep the brain biologically younger, even in midlife,” senior author of the study and neuroscientist and director at AdventHealth Research Institute and the University of Pittsburgh Kirk I. Erickson, Ph.D., said in a release.
A younger brain could equal clearer thinking, better memory, and overall mental well-being. Plus, the researchers believe that even small shifts in brain age during midlife could add up to meaningful protection against cognitive decline later on.
“Even though the difference is less than a year, prior studies suggest that each additional ‘year’ of brain age is associated with meaningful differences in later-life health,” Dr. Erickson said. “From a lifespan perspective, nudging the brain in a younger direction in midlife could be very important.”
The researchers noted, though, that larger studies and longer follow-up periods would be needed to learn whether these reductions in brain age lead to lower risks of stroke, dementia, or other brain-related diseases.
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