A Swedish study of some 4,000 60-year-olds has found that regular “non-exercise” physical activity such as gardening or DIY significantly reduced risk of heart attack or stroke, with those who were most active on a daily basis having a 27% lower risk of a heart attack or stroke and a 30% reduced risk of death from all causes. This was so regardless of how much regular formal exercise was taken. Regular physical activity was also associated with better waist circumference, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides in both sexes and with lower insulin, glucose and fibrinogen levels in men. Metabolic syndrome was also significantly less likely.
Gardening as good as exercise in cutting heart attack risk
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High-intensity exercise improves memory in seniors
A study in which 64 sedentary older adults (aged 60-88) participated in a 12-week exercise program found that those who engaged in high-intensity interval training (HIIT) saw an improvement of up to 30% in memory performance while participants who engaged in moderate-intensity aerobic exercise saw no improvement, on average.
Moreover, improvements in fitness levels directly correlated with improvement in memory performance.
Participants participated in three sessions per week. A control group engaged in stretching only.
Obesity linked to inflammation & impaired brain function
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A mouse study has found that obese mice had high levels of interleukin 1 in both their blood and their brains, and this was associated with:
- high levels of inflammation,
- low levels of a biochemical important to synapse function, and
- impaired cognitive function.
Moreover, when fat was removed from the obese mice, interleukin levels dropped dramatically, and cognitive performance improved.
Putting obese mice on an exercise program had a similar effect, even though they didn’t lose weight — but they gained muscle and lost fat.
Importance of muscle for older adults
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Data from the American National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, involving 3,659 individuals (men aged 55+; women 65+), has found that the more muscle mass older adults have, the less likely they are to die prematurely. The findings add to the growing evidence that overall body composition — and not the widely used body mass index (BMI) — is a better predictor of mortality.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/uoc--oab031314.php
Exercise improves heart function via mitochondria
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A mouse study has found that long-term physical activity increased levels of two proteins in the mitochondria of their heart. It’s thought this might help explain why regular exercise improves cardiovascular health.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/cfgr-etc021114.php
Lower IQ & fitness in teen years increases risk of early-onset dementia
Data from 1.1 million young Swedish men (conscription information taken at age 18) has shown that those with poorer cardiovascular fitness were 2.5 times more likely to develop early-onset dementia later in life and 3.5 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, while those with a lower IQ had a 4 times greater risk of early dementia and a threefold greater risk of MCI. A combination of both poor cardiovascular fitness and low IQ entailed a more than 7 times greater risk of early-onset dementia, and more than 8 times greater risk of MCI.
Physical fitness helps children think, read, learn
Submitted by Fiona McPherson
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Several recent studies add to the evidence that physical fitness boosts cognitive processing in children.
Physically fit kids have better white matter
A brain imaging study involving 24 9- and 10-year-olds has found that physical fitness was associated with significant differences in the integrity of several white-matter tracts in the brain: the corpus callosum, the superior longitudinal fasciculus, and the superior corona radiata. All of these are involved in learning and memory. The differences are associated with faster and more efficient nerve activity.
Aerobic exercise improves cognition in healthy older adults
A six-month pilot study involving 101 healthy older adults (65+), who were randomly put into one of three exercise interventions or a no-change control, has found that the exercise groups all showed significant improvement in visual-spatial processing and attention, with more improvement in visual-spatial processing occurring in those with higher levels of exercise.
Alzheimer's disease consists of 3 distinct subtypes
A two-year study which involved metabolic testing of 50 people, suggests that Alzheimer's disease consists of three distinct subtypes, each one of which may need to be treated differently. The finding may help explain why it has been so hard to find effective treatments for the disease.
The subtypes are:
Exercise might help your vision
A study involving 18 volunteers who performed a simple orientation discrimination while on a stationary bicycle, has found that low-intensity exercise boosted activation in the visual cortex, compared with activation levels when at rest or during high-intensity exercise.
Brain tissue structure could explain link between fitness and memory
A new MRI technique has revealed that it is the structural integrity of the hippocampus more than its size that reflects fitness and correlates with cognitive performance.