Just Look at These Two Brains
One is running on exercise, the other not so much
We’ve all heard exercise is good for us. But to see it in the brain is another thing. A new study found that people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease but whose brains were still healthy improved their thinking skills by exercising. Their brains also got better at metabolizing glucose, the sugar that powers the mind.
Researchers studied 23 adults who had a family history of Alzheimer’s or a genetic risk for the disease, but whose brains were still functioning normally. All were sedentary. Half of them then participated in an exercise program involving moderate physical activity on a treadmill three days a week. The other half, a control group, were given information about how to be healthy.
Compared to the control group after 26 weeks, those on the exercise program did better on tests of executive functioning— things like planning, focusing attention and juggling multiple tasks — which are known to decline with the progression of Alzheimer’s. They also improved their cardiorespiratory fitness, as you’d expect, and they had an associated increased brain glucose metabolism in the posterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain linked to Alzheimer’s, the researchers explained. Glucose is the brain’s main energy source, and its efficient metabolism is a sign of…
