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Exercise: Good for the Brain
(Friday December 25 2009)
 | There exist any number of studies to demonstrate that exercise slows age-related degeneration of the brain. One obvious mechanism is a reduction in the type of damage that leads to vascular disease. Most of these are long-term investigations, but here is a comparatively short-term study demonstrating the benefits of exercise in the old: "To evaluate the effects of endurance exercise training (EET) on the cognitive status of healthy community-dwelling older adults, [a] randomized controlled trial was conducted involving community-dwelling older adults from the town of Pianoro (northern Italy). We randomized 120 healthy subjects aged 65-74 years, both genders, to treatment (N = 60) and control (N = 60) groups. The treatment consisted of 12 months of supervised EET in a community gym, 3 h a week. All participants were assessed both at baseline and after 12 months on an intention-to-treat analysis. Cognitive status was assessed by one single test (Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE). ... The control group showed a significant decrease in MMSE score, which differed significantly from the treatment group scores. The odds ratio for the treated older adults to have a stable cognitive status after 1 year, as compared to the control group, was 2.74 after adjustment for age, gender, educational level and several other possible confounders. Blood pressure, body mass index, waist circumference and serum cholesterol did not differ significantly between the two groups." |
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