A daily walk, a good book, a game of checkers. They’re more than mere simple pleasures, finds new research: These everyday activities might be your best defense against age-related mental decline, according to two new studies presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. In one study, a team from Rush University Medical Center and the Illinois Institute of Technology recruited 152 older adults and measured the structural integrity of each participant’s brain. The researchers then examined how much time each senior spent on mentally stimulating activities, including reading, writing, attending the theater, or playing games like chess. People who regularly partook in the stimulating activities showed healthier densities of “white matter"—the parts of the brain that transmit information—than those who didn’t. In other words: If you don’t use it, you lose it, says study author Konstantinos Arfanakis, PhD, with the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center, though he adds that it’s difficult to speculate the precise brain mechanisms responsible for the connection. (Want to use your noggin right now? Try one of these 7 Brain Games To Make You Smarter.) In a separate study, a UCLA team recruited nearly 900 older adults and measured the volume of gray matter—the part of the brain that manages muscle control, memory, speech, and senses—of each participant. The most active men and women were significantly more likely to have healthy volumes of gray matter, according to study author Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD, a radiology resident at UCLA. They were also more likely to have dodged dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other forms of age-related mental decline. In fact, those who burned more than 3,000 calories per week during the 20 year study span retained 5% more gray matter than their sedentary peers, which Raji describes as a “tremendous” difference. Why? Exercise increases blood flow, delivering oxygen and glucose to the brain while simultaneously reducing the build-up of harmful plaques, he explains. So what’s the formula for optimal brain health? Reading a newspaper or book for an hour, writing a letter, attending a play, sitting down for a game of chess or checkers—Arfanakis recommends at least two of these activities every day. And when it comes to exercise, almost any type of physical activity will do the trick, Raji says. Swimming, biking, hiking, dancing—even mowing the lawn—will help ward of dementia. More from Prevention: Foods That Boost Brainpower Questions? Comments? Contact Prevention’s News Team!
