Something given you the urge to get up and dance? New research shows walking instead will keep you thinking and remembering for longer…
Tell your dancer friends it’s time for them to swap their plimsolls for walking shoes… if they want to preserve the white matter in their brains, that is.
White matter connects the cells in our brain so they all function as one unit. In the past it was thought that it deteriorates inevitably and irreversibly as we get older, and with it our ability to think and remember at peak levels.
But a recent study by Colorado State University has confirmed not only can it renew, but walking helps it to do so. The US researchers split 250 older people who don’t exercise much into three groups – one group danced three times a week, one walked three times a week, and the other did balance and stretching exercises.
Six months later, they found that white matter in the dancers and walkers had altered for the better, while that of the stretchers had deteriorated. But crucially (to the surprise of the researchers), the white matter in the brains of walkers had improved most of all, and this group outperformed both the stretchers and the dancers in memory tests.
