This WSJ article by Sharon Begley offers one the best rationales for exercising—improved mental functioning as one ages.  In a University of Illinois-Urbana study, reported in the November issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, researchers compared the mental capacity of people who exercised against those that did not.  The study found that 3 hours a week of aerobic exercise provided significant cognitive benefits.  Exercise “increased the brain's volume of gray matter (actual neurons) and white matter (connections between neurons).”

 

According to the article, “he Illinois study is therefore the first to discover that older brains can indeed rev up their production of new neurons (no one has studied whether younger brains can), and it is apparently enough to make a real-world difference.”

 

Study author, Dr. Kramer: "It suggests that aerobic exercise can stave off neural decline, and even roll back some normal age-related deterioration of brain structure."

The article addresses the “why” of the exercise-improved cognitive function as follows: “studies in lab animals show that exercise raises blood levels of a molecule called IGF-1 (for insulin-like growth factor). Normally, IGF-1 does not cross the blood-brain barrier…, but "with exercise it does.  IGF-1 increases blood flow, which is good for brain neurons. Even more important, it induces neural stem cells to morph into actual neurons and other functional brain cells. The hippocampus, a structure that is crucial to forming new memories, is especially amenable to the benefits of IGF-1."

Sure, continue to improve your mind by reading, studying new fields, playing cross word puzzles and brain games.  But, this study clearly shows that the real key to maintaining your cognitive functions as you age is exercise.

 

Please read this impressive article in its entirety here.