Do you want an all-natural way to boost your mood, increase your memory, and protect your brain from the deterioration that comes with aging?
Move.
The exercises that make the heart pumps and the sweat flowsknown as aerobic or “cardio” exercises, have significant, beneficial effects on the brain and body, according to a large body of recent research, including two new studies published this month.
“Aerobic exercise It is key for your head, just as it is for your heart.“, according to a blog post Harvard Medical School.
These are the reasons why you should do aerobic or cardio exercise:
The latest study, published on March 14, suggests a link between regular aerobic exercise and a lower risk of dementia.
A study published this week in the journal Neurology suggests that women who are physically fit in middle age have approximately 88% less likely to develop dementia (defined as a memory decline severe enough to interfere with daily life) than others who are only moderately physically fit.
Neuroscientists at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden studied 191 women whose average age was 50 over a period of 44 years. They first assessed their cardiovascular health using a cycling test and grouped them into three categories: fit, moderately fit or not fit.
For the next four decades, researchers regularly screened women for dementia. At that time, 32% of unfit women were diagnosed with the condition; A quarter of moderately fit women were also diagnosed. But only 5% of fit women developed dementia.
Despite this surprisingly positive finding, the research only reveals that There is a link between physical fitness and reduced risk of dementia; It doesn’t prove that one causes the other. Still, the work joins several other studies that suggest a strong link between exercise and the brain.
Read more: Exercising twice a week helps prevent dementia
Workouts can also protect your immune system from age-related decline.
For a small study published in early March in the journal Aging Cellresearchers looked at 125 cyclists and amateur cyclists aged 55 to 79. They compared those individuals to 75 people of a similar age who rarely or never exercised.
The study reveals that lCyclists have more muscle mass and strength, and lower levels of body fat and cholesterol than sedentary adultsAthletic adults also appear to have healthier, more youthful immune systems, at least when it comes to a key organ called the thymus.
The thymus is responsible for generating key immune cells called T cells. In healthy people, it begins to shrink starting around age 20, and T cell production also begins to decline at that time.
The study states that the Thymus glands of older cyclists appear to belong to younger people: their bodies produce as many T cells as would be expected from the thymus of a young person.
“We now have strong evidence that encouraging people to commit to regular exercise throughout their lives is a viable solution to the problem that we are living longer but not healthier,” said Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, in a statement.
Doing cardio tones your muscles
Popular belief is that when it comes to building muscle, cardio pales in comparison to exercises like resistance training, which are designed to help you gain strength. But a recent review of 14 studies published in the journal Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviewsstates that, on average, Men who did 45 minutes of moderate to intense cardio 4 days a week experienced a 5%-6% increase in muscle size.
“Aerobic exercise, if performed correctly, can generate as much muscle growth as you would expect from resistance exercise,” he explains. Men’s FitnessMatthew Harber, exercise scientist at Ball State University and author of the study.
Read more: Find out how much exercise you need to do to counteract the effects of sitting all day
Increases heart rate, which improves heart and lung health
Aerobic workouts, especially swimming, train the body to use oxygen more efficiently, a practice that gradually reduces oxygen consumption.Resting heart rate and respiratory rate, two important indicators of cardiovascular health.
A 2008 study compared blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other measures of heart health in nearly 46,000 walkers, runners, swimmers and sedentary people. Researchers say regular swimmers and runners had the best metrics, followed closely by walkers.
Cardio exercise can even help reverse heart damage caused by normal aging.
Many of us become less active as we age. Over time, this can cause some heart muscles become rigidOne of those muscles at risk is located in the left chamber of the heart, a section that plays a key role in supplying freshly oxygenated blood to the body.
A recent study divided 53 adults into two groups, one of which did two years of supervised exercise four to five days a week, while the other simply did yoga and balance exercises. At the end of the study, which was published in January in the journal Circulationthe higher intensity athletes showed significant improvements in their heart performance. These results suggest that some heart stiffness can be prevented or even reversed with regular cardio.
“Based on a series of studies conducted by our team over the past 5 years, this ‘dose’ of exercise has become my prescription for life,” said Benjamin Levine, author of the study and professor of internal medicine at Texas Southwestern University, in a statement.
Aerobic exercise also benefits your mind, it can lift your mood, for example
Aerobic exercise “has a unique ability to relax, to provide stimulation and calm, to “counteract depression and dispel stress”according to a blog post Mind and Mood of Harvard Medical School.
The reason why aerobic workouts lift our spirits appears to be related to their ability to reduce levels of natural stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, according to a recent study in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science. Activities such as running and swimming too They increase overall blood flow and provide our minds with fresh energy and oxygen.another factor that could help us feel better.
Read more: You can stay fit with just these two exercises
Cardio workouts appear to have a positive impact on the gut
A small study published in November suggests that cardiovascular exercise changes the composition of microbes in our gut.
These microbes influence inflammation levels, which can be an early warning sign of the disease.
Researchers had study participants exercise three to five times a week for six weeks, and observed increases in their concentrations of butyrate, a type of fatty acid that helps keep the intestine healthy by reducing inflammation and producing energy.
“These are the first studies to show that exercise can have an effect on the gut independent of diet or other factors,” said Jeffrey Woods, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois who led the research.
Cardio can also improve cholesterol levels
A recent large review of research on how cardio affects cholesterol levels has analyzed 13 studies on the topic. The conclusion is that Aerobic exercise is linked to lowering LDL, which is also known as “bad” cholesterol. because it can build up on artery walls and increase the risk of heart disease.
Cardiovascular exercise It is also related to the increase of HDL, also known as “good” cholesterol. because it mobilizes cholesterol in the blood.
“Prolonged moderate-intensity aerobic exercise should be recommended as a starting point for those who have been sedentary or are just beginning to exercise,” the authors write.
Aerobic exercise helps prevent and control diabetes by improving the way the body uses blood sugar.
Several studies have found that cardiovascular exercise helps people prevent type 2 diabetes and manage its symptoms, mainly by improving the way the body uses blood sugar.
A large Chinese study has found that even modest changes in aerobic exercise (20 minutes of mild or moderate activity, 10 minutes of strenuous activity, or just 5 minutes of strenuous activity once or twice a day) cut participants’ risk of diabetes in half.
A single cardio session has been found to increase insulin action and glucose tolerance for more than 24 hours; within a week, it can improve whole-body insulin sensitivity.
Read more: These exercises and 7 minutes are enough to slim down, lose weight and be in shape
Cardio workouts can even improve the appearance of your skin
A study by researchers at McMaster University reveals that people over 40 who regularly engage in cardiovascular activity tend to have healthier skin than their sedentary peers. The overall skin composition of athletes is comparable to that of 20- and 30-year-olds.
It’s still unclear why our workouts seem to play a role in skin health, but researchers have found elevated levels of a substance critical to cellular health called IL-15 in participants’ skin samples after exercise. That finding could shed light on why cardio seems to make our skin look better.
Workouts can reduce symptoms of depression
In addition to improving the mood of healthy people, Aerobic exercise can have an exceptionally powerful positive impact on people with depression.
In a pilot study, people with severe depression spent 30 minutes walking on a treadmill for 10 consecutive days. Researchers found that the activity was “sufficient to produce a clinically significant reduction in…