Sport also keeps older people mentally fit

Sporting activity improves memory

05/12/2012

Over-60s who exercise regularly are superior to their inactive peers in solving problems, calculating tasks and memory. This is the result of a longitudinal study investigating the relationship between cognitive abilities and endurance sports in the elderly.

Anyone who does sports will stay mentally fit longer
„Regular comprehensive endurance training should be useful for maintaining cognitive abilities, "reports study leader Robert Winker from the Health and Care Center of the Vienna Institute of Public Health (KFA) during the presentation of the results in Kaprun. year-old marathon runners and cyclists and peers in a control group who did not exercise.

As it turned out, the cognitive abilities of the athletic seniors were clearly superior to those of the control group. Both in the solution of problems, as well as in computational tasks and memory performance, the athletes overtook the inactive seniors, reports Winker. The athletic study participants performed better, especially when planning and executing tasks, than the inactive subjects. „We are interested in how the memory performance has changed over time. "After five years have started with the investigations, another test is currently underway to investigate the cognitive abilities over a longer period Winker suspects that These abilities are less pronounced among older athletes than those of inactive seniors, and endurance sports may also have a positive effect on Alzheimer's disease.

Regular exercise increases brain volume
Last year, researchers led by Krik Erickson from the University of Pittsburgh presented their findings in the Science Magazine „PNAS“ in front. According to this, simple but regular movements should increase the size of the brain and increase its performance. The researchers see it as a possibility, especially for older people, to prevent old-age diseases such as dementia or diabetes.

The active movement in particular stimulates the hippocampus, which has a great influence on the memory. The hippocampus belongs to the middle arch of the so-called limbic system. This area shrinks with the progression of age. The volume decreases by about one to two percent per year. The result is a relative reduction of thought and memory processes. The risk of dementia increases with age. According to Erickson, light but regular exercise should slow down or even halt the hippocampal removal process and increase brain function again. (Sb)

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Picture credits: Rainer Sturm