Physical fitness linked to brain size in new study

Use your muscles or lose your brain is the takeaway from a new study published in Neurology, which links grey matter loss with a lack of overall fitness in middle age.

The study followed the same participants over 20 years, periodically measuring fitness–including aerobic capacity, blood pressure, and heart rate–and finally brain size using MRIs. Study participants with decreased fitness, most notably higher heart rates, had smaller total cerebral brain volume. The most alarming degeneration occurred in the frontal lobe, which tends to be smaller among people with dementia.

While the study does not claim a cause and effect, or even the consequences of brain degeneration in these participants, connecting the dots may inspire you to increase your endurance activities.

Before you do, keep in mind other studies linking higher levels of exercise and injury. Chronic injuries can keep you out of the game and make obtaining cardiovascular fitness a tricky and sometimes painful endeavor.

The good news? Likely these injuries are preventable if the exerciser develops quality biomechanics, and full ranges of motion.

So let’s revise that axon axiom to: use your muscles properly or lose your brain.