[ad_1]
Physical activity is a very effective medicine to promote brain health and cognitive health throughout life (shutterstock.com)
Many studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve cognition in older adults, but a new study has shown that intense exercise also improves the thinking skills of younger adults.
After six months of aerobics training, adults aged 20 to 67 experienced an improvement in executive functions – cognitive processes important for reasoning, planning, and problem solving – and an increase in gray matter. in the region of the brain, an important material for these functions.
The study group of the Journal of Neurology reported that the comparison group, which only practiced stretching exercises during the same period, did not achieve the same benefits.
Men: 5 magic rules to return to the gym after the break
Lead author of the study, Yakov Stern, neuroscientist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, said that mental decline was perceived as a phenomenon that occurs in old age. "But even if you're 30, you need help." "Many studies show a decline in these jobs from the twenties and up, so the message of this study is that aerobics is really important."
Stern and his colleagues who have not conducted such studies, 132 volunteers, aged 20 and over, participated in an experiment to study the effects of exercise on cognition and brain structure. None of the volunteers practiced aerobics before the study.
Men's health: 5 easy ways to lose weight
At the beginning of the experiment, the volunteers were subjected to an evaluation of operational functions, transient memory, mental processing speed, language skills and concentration. The researchers randomly divided them into two groups, one aerobics and the other stretching and stretching.
At the end of the study period, the longitudinal training group had not found any significant increase in cognitive abilities, while all age groups in the group had Aerobic exercises had experienced a significant increase in mental function, although older participants exhibited a greater improvement than younger participants.
Magnetic resonance imaging also showed an increase in frontal cortex thickness of those who did aerobics at the end of the 24-week study. Kirk Eriksson, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said the new study confirmed that exercise was "a very promising way of influencing cognitive function."
Eriksson said the study "suggests that physical activity is a very effective drug to promote brain health and cognitive health throughout life."
[ad_2]
Source link
