http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/brain+drain+when+older+adults+train/42
00358/story.html

The brain is not a drain when older adults train Moderate exercise can
improve memory: study AFPFebruary 1, 2011 One year of moderate physical
exercise can increase the size of the brain's hippocampus in adults aged 55
and more, leading to an improvement in spatial memory, a new study showed. 
The hippocampus is a brain structure involved in all forms of memory
formation. 
The study -conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh,
University of Illinois, Rice University and Ohio State University -is in the
Jan. 31 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 
"The results of our study are particularly interesting in that they suggest
that even modest amounts of exercise by sedentary older adults can lead to
substantial improvements in memory and brain health," said senior author Art
Kramer, director of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois. 
"Such improvements have important implications for the health of our
citizens and the expanding population of older adults worldwide." 
Scientists recruited 120 sedentary older people without dementia and
randomly placed them in one of two groups -those who began an exercise
regimen of walking around a track for 40 minutes a day, three days a week,
or those limited to stretching and toning exercises. 
The results showed that the aerobic-exercise group demonstrated an increase
in volume of the left and right hippocampus of 2.12 per cent and 1.97 per
cent, respectively. 
The same regions of the brain in those who did stretching exercises
decreased in volume by 1.40 and 1.43 per cent, respectively. 
"We think of the atrophy of the hippocampus in later life as almost
inevitable," said Kirk Erickson, professor of psychology at the University
of Pittsburgh and the paper's lead author. 
"But we've shown that even moderate exercise for one year can increase the
size of that structure. The brain at that stage remains modifiable."
C Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

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