Pharmacy assistants supporting older customers may want to safely encourage more movement, with new research confirming the cognitive benefits of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
A joint study by the University of South Australia (UniSA) and US-based AdventHealth Research Institute reveals that even small increases in exercise intensity significantly improves brain function in older adults.
Data from 585 older adults (aged 65-80 years), drawn from the US-based IGNITE trial, showed better processing speed, executive function, and working memory among those engaging in higher-intensity activity — even as little as 5 minutes.
UniSA researcher, Dr Maddison Mellow says the study highlights how small changes to your daily activities can have big impacts on your brain health.
“There are 3 mutually exclusive lifestyle behaviours in the 24-hour day – sleep, sedentary behaviour and physical activity – and how these interact to influence our health outcomes,” says Dr Mellow.
“In this study we explored how different uses of time impact your brain. We found that higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity – that is, activity performed at higher intensities that increases your heart rate and breathing – was related to better cognitive performance.
“Specifically, ‘huff-and-puff’ physical activity (like aerobic exercise) improves processing speed (how fast your brain thinks), executive function (how well you plan, focus, and multitask) and working memory (your ability to store information for short periods of time).
“Importantly, the opposite was also true: lower levels of this higher intensity physical activity were related to poorer performance on these tests.”
Co-researcher, Dr Audrey Collins, says understanding the interplay between different activities could empower older people to make positive health changes.
“Our results show that how we choose to spend our time across the 24-hour day may be differentially related to our brain health,” says Dr Collins.
“Understanding that we need to prioritise physical activity – such as physical activity that gets our heart rates up, according to our findings – is the key.”
