Heart-healthy habits like exercising lead to healthier brain

Want to maintain your smarts? Look after your heart! A recent study shows that heart-healthy habits like exercising and eating well are not only good for the heart, they'redoing the brain a huge favour too.

According to a Reuters Health report, optimal heart-healthy practices like dieting, exercising, not smoking, maintaining weight and blood pressure also promote cognitive health.

Researchers from United States studied over 1,000 participants with a mean age of 72. The researchers assessed the participants’ memory, thinking, and brain processing speed, and found that people engaged in heart-healthy habits performed better on tests administered.

To reach their findings, the researchers looked at seven factors that can contribute to heart health: not smoking, ideal body weight, 150 minutes of moderate exercise, healthy diet with little salt or sugar, and control of cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose. These were the goals the participants needed to complete based on the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Simple Sevens.”

All the participants completed the brain function assessment test at the start of the study. Six years later, around 700 participants were tested again.

However, it’s important to note that no participant completed all seven goals, only 1 percent of them achieved six of the goals, a third achieved two, and 30 percent completed three out of the seven.

Even so, participants who engaged in heart-healthy habits were found to have better scores on brain processing speed, or the ability to perform tasks that require focused attention. And the association was strongly seen from those who do not smoke, have normal blood glucose, and maintain ideal weight.

Though there was a limitation in the study - the high drop-out rate of participants, the average age of which was 72 - the researchers note that younger participants are more likely to complete the initial and follow-up cognitive assessments.

Achieving heart-healthy goals is associated with better cognitive functions like processing speed, memory, and executive function, researchers said.

Lead study author Hannah Gardener said, “Our findings reinforce current recommendations for cardiovascular health but suggest that they may also promote cognitive health.” MIMS