Does prioritizing your fitness help protect your brain health?

We all want to protect our brains and bodies from disease and decline and stay sharp and vibrant throughout the decades. Regular exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle, and it brings a range of benefits, from lowering blood pressure to perking up your mood and prompting the release of feel-good endorphins. Your training habits can benefit your physical health and your brain health, too. For example, an interesting study showed that people who took part in aerobic fitness training had increased brain volume and white and gray matter. 

Physical activity can sharpen problem-solving, memory, and learning and reduce depression or anxiety. Another study concluded that cognitive decline is nearly twice as common in adults who are inactive compared to active adults. In a recent study, researchers wanted to look at how exercise lowered the risk of dementia. Let’s take a look at the study and the results.

The study

In a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the researchers wanted to investigate how cardiorespiratory fitness affected the risk of dementia, taking genetic predisposition into account. The researchers looked at data from 61,214 adult participants who didn’t have dementia. 

The researchers identified dementia cases through medical records and assessed genetic predisposition. They used a six-minute submaximal cycling test to determine the participants’ cardiovascular fitness and estimate maximal oxygen consumption or VO2 max. The participants also took neuropsychological tests to evaluate their reaction time, processing speed, and memory. The researchers looked closely at the data to analyze the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and genetic predisposition.

The results

In conclusion, the researchers reported a positive association between a high cardiovascular fitness level and cognitive function across all age groups. High cardiovascular fitness levels were associated with a 40% lower overall risk of dementia and a delayed dementia onset by 1.48 years on average. For individuals with a high predisposed risk of dementia, high cardiovascular fitness was associated with a 35% lower risk of dementia.

What is cardiovascular fitness?

Cardiovascular fitness refers to your ability to deliver oxygen to your working muscles and your heart. Another interesting study revealed that higher cardiovascular fitness levels were linked with a lower risk of heart and blood vessel disorders and complications.

What we can learn from this research

This research shows that having good fitness levels could lower your risk of dementia, delay its onset by up to 18 months, and enhance your cognitive performance. This study shows us that even those with a higher genetic risk of developing dementia can lower that risk with regular exercise. Prioritizing your fitness helps protect your brain health, heart health, and more.