Obviously, physical activity also has a positive effect on our control center. Above all, those who exercise regularly seem to be particularly well protected from mental deterioration. The effect is greatest in endurance sports such as running.
Being and staying active in sports as you get older appears to reduce the risk of developing dementia. In order to have the positive effect, it does not even require a particularly high level of physical activity. Even faster walking and walking are enough.
A study from Chicago showed that particularly active immune cells are present in the brains of older people who exercise regularly. In addition, exercise appears to positively affect their ability to think and whether they experience memory loss from Alzheimer’s.
Why sport works so well has yet to be clarified
How sport affects the brain has not been studied intensively for a long time. Nevertheless, there are already many studies that have proven the connection between brain health and exercise. For example, older people who had previously had a rather passive lifestyle and now went for a walk for an hour a day showed significant growth of the hippocampus. So the area in the brain that is responsible for memories and normally shrinks over the course of life. Middle-aged and older people who exercise regularly also do better on average on tests of memory and thinking ability. They are also about half as likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who do not get enough exercise. The effect seems to be particularly large in endurance sports such as running.
Exactly which processes lead to these improvements has not yet been fully clarified. But there are first indications. Animal experiments on mice have shown that the rodents doing their rounds in the running wheel produce hormones and messenger substances that stimulate the formation of neurons, synapses, veins and other tissue. The increased formation of so-called microglial cells was striking. These are immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). If these cells in the brain no longer fully functional cells, they are able to release substances. These create a small inflammation, which in turn ensures that the weakened cells are broken down. You can think of it as a kind of garbage disposal. After disposal is complete, the microglial cells release another substance that stops the inflammation again.
However, this last mechanism does not seem to work as well with age. The result: Inflammation can then continue to swell and damage the brain and its performance. Healthy cells die, memory problems develop, and the ability to learn decreases. However, if the mice exercised regularly, the microglial cells also remained healthy and did their job much more effectively even in old age.
Source: Stern
