Super Movers Are Half as Likely to Experience Cognitive Decline
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Crossword puzzles and brain teasers have long been touted as ways to keep the mind sharp. But a new study points to another strategy that may matter just as much: staying fast on your feet.
Researchers have found that people in their 80s who maintain an exceptionally quick walking pace, dubbed 'super movers', are also far more likely to stay mentally sharp compared to their slower-moving peers of the same age. "A super mover is someone who is older than age 80 and performing much better than their peers," says Dr. Sofiya Milman of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, one of the study's authors, published in the medical journal Neurology.
Milman and her collaborators analyzed data from nearly 4,000 older adults enrolled in a long-term aging study. Participants had taken a timed walking test, and the fastest 9 percent - who had a gait speed at least 1.5 standard deviations above the average of their same-age peers - qualified as super movers. Those individuals were also markedly less likely to experience cognitive decline.
"The biggest takeaway was that super movers are about 50 percent less likely to develop cognitive decline than their peers who are not super movers, which is very impressive," Milman says.
Prior research has linked regular exercise to greater volume in the hippocampus, the brain's hub for memory and navigation. The new study found that super movers tended to preserve hippocampal volume as they aged.
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