A team of doctors from the University of Sydney has shown that doing weights strengthens our brain.
We have always considered that habits such as writing, reading or doing crossword puzzles favor our brain activity, which, in the long run, contributes to having a healthy and young brain.
A research team from the University of Sydney, Australia, has gone further and conducted a study to try to analyze the relationship between muscular physical activity and our cognitive ability.
The analysis carried out by this team, whose conclusions have been published in the journal The Journal of American Geriatricsof the American Geriatrics Society, has shown what was already intuited: that an increase in muscle strength through physical exercise is very beneficial for the correct functioning of the brain, since it increases cognitive development, that is, our ability to read, write, learn, receive stimuli or memorize information.
The results are encouraging, if we take into account the advance of neurodegenerative diseases among older people. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or senile dementia have a significant incidence among the population over 60 years of age. Therefore, the data from this study are encouraging in trying to stop the development of these diseases.
Precisely for this reason, for the study they took into account a sample of 100 people between 55 and 68 years old who showed the first signs of neurodegenerative diseases. The analysis divided the subjects into four groups to proceed with a series of physical exercises, including weight lifting. Likewise, they also had to carry out mental training exercises To perform some exercises, the researchers used a placebo with the aim of demonstrating whether this substance, traditionally used with some therapies, is really effective.
The trial was controlled at all times by computers that revealed the first results. One of the most anticipated was the one concerning the use of placebo during some exercises, which made it possible to confirm that its use does not have any benefit on the cognitive capacity of the patients. But, without a doubt, the most important result reached was putting on the table the relationship between exercise and muscle strengthening and cognitive development as one of the researchers from the Australian university, Dr. Yorgi Mavros, has pointed out.
The conclusions of this study are clear and hopeful: if we get our elders to strengthen their muscles as they age, they will be able to stop or reduce the risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s or any other neurodegenerative disease.
Based on these results, it seems clear that physical and brain muscle strength are so closely related to each other that an improvement in the former leads to an improvement in the latter. Patients who perform regular muscular physical exercise are more likely to delay age-related cognitive and mental decline.
So now we know. In addition to recommending that our elders do crossword puzzles or Sudoku, read and exercise their memory, advice should be included to strengthen their muscles through regular physical exercise. The ultimate goal: to keep the brain healthy and ensure that cognitive activity functions correctly for longer.
