Heart health and lifestyle help seniors maintain brain power

Feb 22 2006

A comprehensive review says heart health risk factors and lifestyle choices, such as exercise, learning new things and staying socially connected, help keep brains healthy as we grow old.

The report from the National Institutes of Health, examined a number of previous studies which had looked at aging and maintaining brain power, and says many of the factors that can put our brain health at risk are things we can modify and control.

The report from a panel of experts looked a number of previous studies on aging and says heart health risk factors and lifestyle choices, such as exercise, learning new things and staying socially connected, help keep brains healthy as we grow old.

From a public health point of view, the repot's main finding is the importance of controlling cardiovascular (CV) risk factors for maintaining brain health as we age, and these say the researchers, are factors that people can change, such as reducing blood pressure, reducing weight, reducing cholesterol, treating (or preferably avoiding) diabetes, and not smoking.

They also found a strong link between physical activity and brain health and that older people who exercise are less likely to experience cognitive decline.

They suggest that a clinical trial to determine if physical activity, possibly in combination with intellectual activity, can prevent cognitive decline, would be useful.

Higher education level, higher socio-economic status, emotional support, better initial performance on cognitive tests, better lung capacity, more physical exercise, moderate alcohol use, and use of vitamin supplements were all factors which appeared to be protective for brain health.

Psychosocial factors, such as social disengagement and depressed mood, are linked it seems with with both poorer cognitive and emotional health in late life, while increased mental activity throughout life, such as learning new things encouraged brain health.

Genetic influences on cognitive and emotional health with aging are poorly understood at present and the panel suggest more research is needed in this area.

The panel proposed that there would be great value now in conducting intensive study of each of the potential risk factors identified in the survey.

Three institutes of the NIH – the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) joined efforts to conduct the initiative.