Carry on moving

Exercising consistently at all stages in life is best for brain health, but late starters can reap benefits, too.

- Nicky Pellegrino

There is plenty of evidence that physical activity is good for brain resilience and in later life can help stave off cognitive decline. In fact, it is estimated that regular exercise may reduce the risk of developing dementia by 30%.

What has been less clear is whether there is a particular point during adulthood when exercise is more crucial for brain health. Some research has suggested that being active in middle age is most beneficial for later-life cognition, but those studies often have short follow-up periods.

To better answer the question, SarahNaomi James, a neuro-epidemiologist at University College London, turned to the 1946 British Cohort Study. This longitudinal research involves participants born in England, Scotland and Wales during one week in March 1946. Originally, there were more than 5000 of them, but some have since died or dropped out of the project. So James was left with 1500 people who had reported their leisure-time physical activity at five stages of life - ages 36, 43, 53, 60-64 and 69- and, at 69, completed a range of cognitive tests to assess attention, verbal fluency, memory, language, orientation and visual-spatial function.

The researchers found 11% of participants were sedentary at all five time points; 17% were active at one; 20% were active at two; 20% at three; 17% at four; and 15% remained physically active throughout.

"Our question was, is there a specific period of life where exercising is going to be more important? And the simple answer to that is, no, there is not," says James. "Actually, the effects are very similar across every decade."