Increase the Size of Your Brain!

Until recently, it’s been thought that people’s brains shrink as they get old, along with a decline in their mental functioning (or cognitive function, as the experts prefer). The brain tissue hasn’t been considered able to grow new brain cells (neurons). However, animal studies have shown that exercise, diet, and environmental stimulation can sometimes restore the neurons’ ability to regenerate. So it seemed worth while to see if this effect could be demonstrated in humans.

A study done at the University of Illinois , which was published in the Journal of Gerontology, involved 59 sedentary volunteers aged 60 to 79. Half of them did aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, three times a week for 6 months. The other half did non-aerobic stretching and toning exercises just as often. All of them had MRI bran scans before and after the 6-month regime. Twenty young adults also had MRIs at the same time, to serve as ‘young control’; they didn’t exercise at all.

After 6 months, the brain volume of the aerobic exercisers showed an increase in brain volume – both of the gray matter (neurons) and the white matter (the connections between neurons). The greatest gains were seen in the pre-frontal and temporal cortex areas – those that are responsible for memory and information-processing, and which are especially prone to shrinkage in old age. These changes weren’t seen in the older subjects who didn’t take aerobic exercise, or in the young controls.

These results allowed the researchers to conclude that “cardiovascular fitness is associated with the sparing of brain tissue in aging humans”. We’d agree; so get moving, if you can.