Exercise In Your Middle Age Helps Protect Memory When You Are Older, Women's Study Says

Memory is precious, something that we would all like to protect, especially as the years go by and cognitive decline is bound to happen. Memory can be kept intact when one is older through the help of regular exercise in middle age, a women's study has found.

The study found that regular exercise from as simple as walking the dog to more strenuous as mountain climbing during one's middle age helps prevent cognitive decline in later years, Financial Express reported. Researchers from the University of Melbourne tracked 387 Australian women aged 45-55 for 20 years from 1992.

Better Memory Observed With Exercise

NDTV reported that the researchers looked into the women's lifestyle, such as their exercise and diet. They also asked the women to undergo an Episodic Verbal Memory test wherein they had to learn 10 unrelated words and recall them after 30 minutes.

The women's memory loss was also measured during the 20-year duration of the study. The researchers found that more weekly exercise corresponded to better memory, while frequent physical activity, normal blood pressure and high good cholesterol were connected with better performance in the Episodic Verbal Memory test.

Effect Of Exercise 'Cumulative'

"We expected it was the healthy habits later in life that would make a difference but we were surprised to find that the effect of exercise was cumulative," study leader Dr. Cassandra Szoeke was quoted by Daily Mail as saying. Szoeke said that the message was to do any kind any kind of physical activity often and as soon as possible.

"'There is no doubt that intervention is better late than never, but the results of our work indicate that an intervention after 65 will have missed at least 20 years of risk," said Szoeke. Szoeke and her colleagues' work was published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

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