Sweat (Photo : Reuters)
Staying physically active while you're young keeps bodies' healthy and mentally strong aside from improving the quality of our lives later on.
And brain aging apparently doesn't mean a person's motor abilities will deteriorate if that person is physically active, said researchers in a study in the journal Neurology.
In this study, researchers had 167 people with an average age of 80 wear movement monitors on their wrists for an average of 11 days to measure both exercise and non-exercise activities.
Researchers conducted 11 tests on movement activities and MRI scans to determine the amount of "white matter hyper-intensities" in the brain. Those with more white matter hyper-intensities on their MRI scans tended to have poorer motor function. On the other hand, those that were more active everyday tended to have better motor function.
White matter hyper-intensities or leukoaraiosis are small areas of brain damage often found in the brains of older people and are associated with impaired motor functioning such as difficulties in walking. White matter also actively affects how the brain learns and functions.
Research suggests physical activity could alter the impact of this brain damage on motor functioning in old age.
Previous studies in both humans and animals have suggested the benefit of physical activity on brain health in aging could be partly due to enhanced blood flow, the production of new blood vessels and improved maintenance of the circulatory system in the brain.
"The association between physical activity and motor function in older adults is well-established. What is less understood is the biological basis of that association," said lead author Debra A. Fleischman of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
"These results underscore the importance of efforts to encourage a more active lifestyle in older people to prevent movement problems, which is a major public health challenge. Physical activity may create a 'reserve' that protects motor abilities against the effects of age-related brain damage," Fleischman said, as reported by Medical News Today.
