MRI results support the long-held belief that mental and physical activity can significantly slow down gray-matter aging in the brain, according to a study in the April issue of Neurobiology of Aging.
Researchers from Concordia University in Montreal and Columbia University in New York City found that individuals who climbed more flights of stairs and had more years of education also had younger-looking brains on MRI scans.
They used MRI to scan the brains of 331 healthy adults who ranged in age from 19 to 79 years, measuring gray-matter volume, which tends to shrink with age. They then compared brain volume with the participants' reported number of flights of stairs climbed and years of schooling completed.
Brain age decreased by 0.95 years for each year of education and by 0.58 years for every daily flight of stairs climbed, the group found (Neurobiol Aging, April 2016, Vol. 40, pp. 138-144).
"This is encouraging because it demonstrates that a simple thing like climbing stairs has great potential as an intervention tool to promote brain health," said lead author Jason Steffener, PhD, a scientist at Concordia's Perform Centre, in a statement.
