Better Memory in Older Adults Linked to Regular Physical Activity, Reveals Study

Article by behaviordisorders.net.

While there’s a long list of benefits associated with being physically active for seniors, there’s a new one: better memory.   In fact, and published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, they tend to clearly benefit from this compared to their sedentary peers regardless of whether they choose to walk or job. Hayes, associate director of the Neuroimaging Research for Veterans Center, and who led the study, revealed, “Our findings that physical activity is positively associated with memory is appealing for a variety of reasons. Everyone knows that physical activity is a critical component to ward off obesity and cardiovascular-related disease. Knowing that a lack of physical activity may negatively impact one’s memory abilities will be an additional piece of information to motivate folks to stay more active.”   For this study, the group of researchers had two groups of 29 young adults (18 to 31 years) and 31 older adults (55 to 82 years) wear an Actigraph – a device that records how many steps are taken by its user, how vigorous they are and how much time is taken.   These participants also underwent neuropsychological testing that involved assessing memory, problem-solving and planning skills. They also took part in lab testing that involved learning face-name associations.   What was found was that the older adults who took more steps were able to perform better on memory tests than others who did not take part in any physical activity. In fact, being able to recall a person’s name by their face came easiest to those who took the most steps too.   Alternatively, this association between the number of steps and improved memory was not seen in young adults at all.