Much research continues to be done on the effects of exercise, at various levels of intensity and frequency.
The overwhelming message that emerges from the findings is that exercise is an easy-to-achieve path to better, longer, happier health as you age.
New research from the University of Queensland adds to the body of evidence, with researchers finding that high-intensity interval exercise improves brain function in older adults up to five years old.
The research involved volunteers performing physical exercises followed by brain scans.
Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett of the university’s Queensland Brain Institute led the study, which he said was the first controlled study of its kind to demonstrate that exercise can boost cognitive ability in healthy older adults and not just delay decline cognitive.
“Six months of high-intensity interval training is enough to flip the switch,” he said.
Exercise is important for activating stem cells and increasing the production of neurons in the hippocampus, improving cognition.
A large group of healthy volunteers aged 65 to 85 adhered to a six-month exercise program, took cognitive and biomarker tests, and had high-resolution brain scans.
They were then followed up five years into the program. The surprising result was that they still had improved cognitive abilities, even though they hadn’t kept up with the exercises.
