Pump some iron… into your noggin?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Blood flow is vital for distributing nutrients, vitamins, and oxygen to our organs – especially our brains!
Philip Ainslie at the University of Otago has a fascinating theory about that.
So, sitting around slows blood flow to the brain. Could this reduce the overall oxygen and nutrient flow to our brains as we age?
Researchers compared men eighteen to seventy-nine years old. Some were sedentary and others were endurance trained. Guess who had a whopping seventeen percent difference in brain blood flow?!… The active men.
Just two years of regular exercise can improve blood flow to our brains, even as we age!
Seems like exercise turns brain drain into brain GAIN!
Reference: Ainslie PN, Cotter JD, George KP, Lucas S, Murrell C, Shave R, Thomas KN, Williams MJ, Atkinson G. Elevation in cerebral blood flow velocity with aerobic fitness throughout healthy human ageing. J Physiol. 2008 Aug 15;586(16):4005-10. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2008.158279. Epub 2008 Jul 17. PMID: 18635643; PMCID: PMC2538930.