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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 A third study found moderate long-term exercise helped cognitive skills later, but that strenuous long-term exercise might hamper them.
Mary Tierney, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto, evaluated 90 women, aged 50 to 63, taking into account their long-term activity, both moderate and strenuous. Each woman got a score for strenuous and moderate activity.
Strenuous activities included swimming laps, aerobics, calisthenics, jogging, running, basketball, biking on hills and racquetball. Moderate included brisk walking, golf, volleyball, cycling on level streets, tennis and softball.
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"The average long-term strenuous activity was for 2.5 hours a week, and the average long-term moderate activity was 3.2 hours a week," Tierney said.
"The worst groups [on cognitive function tests] were the ones highest in strenuous and lowest in moderate," she said.
Exactly why the link showed up isn't known, she said. But it may be that the strenuous exercise is lowering estrogen levels and lowered estrogen lowers cognitive skills. "Estrogen is bad for breast cancer, but good for the brain," Tierney explained.
It's impossible to say how much exercise is too much, Tierney added.
Yet another study in which researchers followed nearly 1,800 men and women aged 60 and older found that physical activity boosts cognitive function, except in those who carried the so-called Alzheimer's gene, known as APOE-e4.
Thies said the study on the DASH diet may be especially valuable because the diet gives detailed information about what to eat and the plan is widely available.
The link found between strenuous exercise and lowered cognitive skills may be explained by something else in future research, he said. "You could propose that people who exercise perhaps are a little more tired when they take the test," Thies noted.
"I think the general recommendation that exercise is good [for cognitive skills] is still valid," he said.
More information
Here are the details of the DASH Diet.
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