Taking a long walk is beneficial to keep our memory healthy. This has been revealed by a study by several American universities published in the PNAS magazine.
According to the researchers, regular moderate cardiovascular exercise, such as walking and marching, promotes memory health in people over 55 years of age.
Walk for memory
- The study has focused on assessing the development of normal atrophy due to age and the activity of the hippocampus, the area of the brain on which memory is based.
- To do this, 120 volunteers between the ages of 55 and 80, with a sedentary life and mentally healthy, underwent cardiovascular exercise programs of different magnitudes. Half did stretching activities and the other 60 walked for 40 minutes three days a week.
Step by step memory
- The results of the investigation were enlightening. Thanks to an MRI, the experts found that the volunteers who underwent the 40-minute walks presented an increase of 2.12% in the left hippocampus and 1.19% in the right.
- In the case of the 60 people who only performed muscle-stretching exercises, their hippocampi had shrunk by 1.40 and 1.43% respectively, values that corresponded with normal memory degeneration due to aging.
