In a new study, researchers found that doing exercise in the morning could help improve the decision-making ability in older people.
In addition, they found that when morning exercise was combined with brief walking that breaks long-time sitting during the day, the people’s memory function was also better.
The research was led by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and The University of Western Australia.
It is known that regular exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Previous research has shown that exercise can help decrease the risks of heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and depression.
In the current study, the team examined more than 65 men and women aged 55—80 years.
The people did morning exercise on a treadmill. Some also took brief 3-minute walking breaks during an 8-hour day of prolonged sitting.
The researchers found that this morning exercise improves cognitive performance like decision-making across the day in older people compared to long-time sitting without exercise.
Moreover, people who did both the morning exercise and brief walkings had better short-term memory performance compared with uninterrupted sitting.
The researchers explain that the benefits of exercise on learning and memory is from the brain-derived neurotropic growth factor.
It is a protein which plays an important role in the survival and growth of information-transmitting neurons in the brain.
The findings showed that this protein was increased for 8 hours during both exercise conditions, relative to prolonged sitting.
The team also suggests that different exercise patterns may help enhance different aspects of cognitive functions.
Overall, the results support the idea that doing moderate-intensity exercise may benefit brain health in older people.
Regular exercises are critical to people enjoying a productive and satisfying quality of life
One author of the study is Physical activity researcher, Michael Wheeler.
The study is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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