A new study has found that building muscles in seniors can help improve memory. The study included 100 people aged 55 to 86 with mild memory and thinking problems. The participants completed weight training exercises twice a week for six months and saw significant improvements in mental function.
The benefits of the exercise lasted for about a year after they stopped the supervised weight training sessions.
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Lead author Yorgi Mavros said, “What we found in this follow-up study is that the improvement in cognition [mental] function was related to their muscle strength gains. The stronger people became, the greater the benefit for their brain.”
“The more we can get people doing resistance training like weight lifting, the more likely we are to have a healthier aging population. The key, however, is to make sure you are doing it frequently, at least twice a week, and at a high intensity so that you are maximizing your strength gains. This will give you the maximum benefit for your brain,” Mavros concluded.
Mohan Garikiparithi got his degree in medicine from Osmania University (University of Health Sciences). He practiced clinical medicine for over a decade before he shifted his focus to the field of health communications. During his active practice he served as the head of the Dept. of Microbiology in a diagnostic centre in India. On a three-year communications program in Germany, Mohan developed a keen interest in German Medicine (Homoeopathy), and other alternative systems of medicine. He now advocates treating different medical conditions without the use of traditional drugs. An ardent squash player, Mohan believes in the importance of fitness and wellness.
