early prevention researchers were surprised that physical fitness made such a big difference in the and exercise make an important differ- ence,” she says looking for answers why is exercise so important to the brain? scientists are still searching for humans evolved to simultaneously think and gene alexander recently wrote in scientific american that as human ances- coordinate a great deal of information ancestors also had to think a great deal to by fossil evidence to be relatively seden- tary beings who foraged for plants to eat rather than hunting prey what kind of exercise is best is another question yet to be answered "the most important thing is to get moving," she says can exercise help those suffering from dementia? in a 2017 study published in plos found that aerobic exercise early in the onset of alzheimer's can improve memory and reduce atrophy in of the brain associated and emotion another study published in 2019 in the journal of alzheimer's disease tested people whose brains had accumu- protein associated with alzheimer's that leads to brain atrophy the study found that people who exercised regularly reduced atrophy in their hippocampus.-hc having better white matter in their brain white matter helps the brain communi- essential brain function at any age germany's university of münster and hal conick is a writer based in chicago getting started starting a new exercise regimen neurocognitive division chief at the university of kansas medical studying the effect of exercise on doesn't take a lot of exercise to see brain benefits think it's more important just to for 10 minutes a day just to start the your heart and lung function." boosting your heart and lung function means getting a bit out walk faster to strengthen your cially important for younger exercisers.-hc
