Day Traders, Walking Correlates With Brain Volume

Walking Correlates With Brain Volume

Seniors committed to walking had larger gray-matter volume and less cognitive impairment years later than those with more sedentary habits, researchers said.

Among 299 cognitively normal participants in the large Cardiovascular Health Study, those in the top quartile of distance walked each week at baseline had markedly higher gray-matter volumes when measured by MRI nine years later compared with participants in the lower three quartiles, according to Kirk Erickson, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues.Action Points
Note that a large amount of physical activity was necessary to detect a difference in brain structure over a nine-year follow-up period.


Point out that as an observational study, causality cannot be determined and there remains the possiblity of confounding factors.
Direct correlations between weekly walking distance and the likelihood of later diagnosis with mild cognitive impairment or dementia fell just short of statistical significance (P=0.07), they reported online in the Oct. 19 issue of Neurology.

But they did find significant associations between reduced risk of cognitive impairment and increased volume of three gray-matter regions -- the inferior frontal gyrus (OR 1.99, P<0.01), the hippocampal formation (OR 2.01, P<0.009), and the supplementary motor area (OR 2.24, P<0.01).