By Rick Banas of BMA Management, Ltd.
A study released earlier this week in the online issue of Neurology lends further credence to the benefits of walking.
Neurology is the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study suggests that walking between six and nine miles a week may help preserve memory in old age.
“Brain size shrinks in late adulthood, which can cause memory problems,” says study author Kirk I. Erickson, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh. The study suggests that walking at least six miles a week, or about a mile a day, may protect brain size.
For the study, nearly 300 dementia-free people recorded the number of blocks they walked in one week. Nine years later, scientists took brain scans of the participants to measure their brain size. After four more years, the participants were tested to see if they had developed cognitive impairment or dementia.
The study found that people who had walked the equivalent of six to nine miles a week had greater gray matter than people who didn’t walk as much. Walking longer distances, however, did not appear to increase gray matter volume any further.
The researchers also found that those who walked the most cut their risk of developing brain problems in half.
“If regular exercise in midlife could improve your brain health and improve thinking and memory in later life, it would be one more reason to make regular exercise in people of all ages a public health imperative,” says Erickson.
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