You’ve probably heard that exercise is good for your heart, your mood and your waistline. But what about your brain? New research suggests that one of the best things you can do to keep your mind sharp as you age may be as simple as lacing up your sneakers and going for a brisk walk.1
Scientists have long known that physical activity is linked to better cognitive function later in life. Studies have connected regular movement with improved memory, sharper thinking and even a reduced risk of dementia. What’s been less clear is whether exercise can actually change the physical structure of the brain—and whether these changes show up on scans.
A team of researchers from the AdventHealth Research Institute and the University of Pittsburgh wanted to find out. They designed a year-long clinical trial to examine whether following standard exercise guidelines could slow or even reverse something called “brain age”—a measure of how old your brain looks on an MRI compared to your actual age. The results were published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science. Let’s break down what they found.
How Was This Study Conducted?
The researchers recruited 130 healthy adults between the ages of 26 and 58 for a single-blind, 12-month randomized clinical trial. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise group or a control group that was asked not to change their activity levels.
Those in the exercise group attended two supervised 60-minute workout sessions each week in a laboratory setting and added home-based exercise to reach roughly 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week. That’s the amount recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine. Participants could walk, jog or run on a treadmill, or use equipment like bikes, elliptical machines or rowers. Heart rate monitors tracked their exercise intensity throughout the study.
At the start and end of the study, researchers measured participants’ brain structure using MRI scans and assessed their cardiorespiratory fitness through a test called peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). Using a machine learning tool called brainageR, they calculated each person’s “brain-predicted age difference,” or brain-PAD—essentially, how much older or younger the brain appeared compared to the person’s chronological age.
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