How exercise can help older adults reduce memory glitches
Memory lapses become more common as we age, but a study out of UK and US universities has found that adults over 50 have fewer "memory glitches" when they have better wellbeing - including a decent exercise regime.
Dr Mandy Hagstrom is an exercise scientist at the University of NSW, whose work focuses on resistance training.
The paper’s findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, that 300 minutes a week exercise is when benefits kick in needn’t be daunting, she told RNZ’s Sunday Morning.
“If you kind of get into the nuts and bolts in this paper, the type of exercise that they were looking at, that was associated with the benefit, was at a moderate level, which they sort of define by this physiological term called metabolic equivalence.
Dr Mandy Hagstrom, Senior Lecturer, Exercise Physiology, University of New South Wales
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“And the level of activity they're talking about are things that encompass playing golf, washing a car, mopping the floor. All of those sort of activities fell under their umbrella of exercise, which makes that 300 minutes a lot less daunting.”
The benefits of exercise have positive impacts more broadly, and older people, even those with existing medical conditions will gain too, she says.
“The researchers here, they showed that there's about a 30 to 40 percent reduction in risk in all-cause mortality with being consistently active.
“And then when you increase your physical activity, so you go from being pretty sedentary and you start increasing activity, you still get a 20 to 25 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality.”
A pause in activity doesn’t mean you’re going backwards, she says.
“And we also know that it's completely unrealistic to expect that everyone exercises consistently for their entire life.”
There are lingering benefits to exercise in the past, she says.
“What they call banking of the benefit, where prior exercise conferred long-lasting benefits.
“If you go further or step away from this individual study, there is a whole host of research that shows that the benefits of physical activity can be quickly regained after periods of inactivity, whether that's cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength or flexibility.”
Resistance training is an important part of the mix, she says.
“I do think strength training really is underappreciated for aging adults because our muscle mass is linked with the development of things like type 2 diabetes, all of our cardiometabolic conditions.
“Muscle strength is linked with the ability to do activities of daily living. And muscle power actually helps a whole lot with things like getting out of the chair and preventing falls in aging populations.”
Strength training, she says, is the only modality with solid evidence for improving and maintaining bone mineral density.
“Obviously, things like running have this evidence as well, but it's not quite so common to see an individual in their 70s, 80s or 90s out running.
“Whereas it is much more accessible for these individuals to go and strength train while looking after their joints.”
