It’s bad enough that inactivity can turn your muscles to Jell-O. Can it do the same to your brain?
“The evidence is fairly solid that people who are more physically active are at lower risk for cognitive decline and dementia,” says Constantine Lyketsos, director of the division of geriatric psychiatry and neuropsychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
For example, the brains of physically active mice have more nerves, more connections between nerves, fewer clogged arteries, more oxygen flow, and better ability to utilize glucose. All are probably factors in helping prevent cognitive decline and dementia.
Recent studies used mice that are prone to acquire the amyloid plaques that are found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
At least one study suggest that if you take these mice out of their traditional cages, where there is little to do, and put them into stimulating cages with more colors, objects, brighter areas, and little mouse treadmills, you find fewer amyloid deposits in the brain.