A new study has found body fat and muscle mass are strongly linked to apparent brain age.
The benefits of exercise on brain health is already widely researched. The Alzheimer’s Association says exercise may lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
More than seven million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, a brain condition that affects your memory and thinking, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. This number is expected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050.
The new study — which was presented this month at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America and shared in a new Washington Post article — focused on muscle mass, which can be obtained through weight training, and visceral fat, the deep belly fat that surrounds our internal organs.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri and other institutions studied the whole-body scans of more than 1,000 healthy men and women in their 40s to early 60s.
Artificial intelligence was used to analyze the scans and determine participants total muscle mass and body fat. To figure out the apparent age of participants’ brains, researchers compared their scans to the scans of tens of thousands of other brains. The participants’ brains either matched the benchmarks for their chronological age or those of younger or older people.
“The larger the muscle bulk, the younger-looking the brain,” the study’s senior author Cyrus Raji, an associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, said in the Washington Post article. “And the more visceral fat that was present, the older-looking the brain.”
The study is yet to be published or peer-reviewed.
Of course, exercise isn’t the only way we can improve our brain health.
A two-year clinical trial published in July, known as the U.S. POINTER trial, found that simultaneously targeting risk factors for cognitive decline by partaking in physical and cognitive exercise, proper nutrition and health monitoring, can improve brain function in older adults.
The exercise plan in the trial included 30 to 35 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic activity four times a week as well as strength and flexibility work outs twice a week.
