Are Physical or Mental Exercises Better for Your Brain?

Various studies in recent years have looked at how physical exercise and mental exercise seem to prevent age-related problems, such as dementia. Medical scans have determined that brains can and do shrink with age and that brain cells lose connections. All of this leads to impairment in cognitive functioning.

The good news is: such shrinkage and impairments are not inevitable. More and more research has discovered that simple physical exercise, such as walking, on a regular basis may prevent such unfortunate happenings. The theory is that physical exercise encourages the heart to pump more blood to the brain, among other places, blood that carries oxygen which is so critical to functioning at the cellular level.

Yet researchers have also been saying that people can maintain healthy brains by engaging in mental/cognitive exercise, the so-called “brain games” that have become so popular. Even having an active social life can contribute to this mental health, supposedly.

Now a study has come out comparing the effects of physical activity with mental/social activity in terms of cerebral shrinkage. Reported by Time Health & Family online, this 3-year Scottish study looked at 638 people initially aged 70. They filled out detailed questionnaires looking at the physical exercise they participated in as well as their stimulating cognitive and social activities. Three years later the same subjects were given MRIs of their brains to check on their comparative sizes and amount of shrinkage, if any.

And the results? The brain scans showed larger brains and less white matter shrinkage in those who engaged in physical exercise than those who engaged more in social/mental activities. In fact, those engaging more in the social/mental dimension showed little if any benefits from them. This study also suggested that cognitive decline can even be slowed down through the process of regular physical exercise. Although this research is correlational – meaning that cause and effect cannot necessarily be determined – yet the fact that the physical exercise findings are in line with other similar studies cannot be ignored.

No matter how you look at it, regularly-performed physical activities such as walking and aerobics will certainly not hurt your brain and may even help it, more so than brain games. So go ahead and slip on your walking shoes. Your brain as well as your body will thank you!

                    Author hiking across Whitetop Mountain in SW Virginia.