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If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you know that brain function is linked to what happens in the rest of the body.

We previously covered how physical activity can slow down or partially reverse brain aging (here and here).

In a new study published a few days ago, the positive association between physical activity and brain function showed up again. The interesting approach of this new study was that the researchers had physical activity and blood pressure data spanning a 14-year window, rather than relying on a single measurement or data from a few weeks or months.

The study included a large sample of 3093 participants aged 18-93 years.

To measure physical activity, the researchers accessed the participants’ Fitbit-recorded step counts over a 14-year period. The advantages: the data covered a longer time span than most studies, and they were objective measurements rather than self-reported physical activity, which is prone to errors.

Researchers also analyzed systolic and diastolic blood pressure data, i.e., the upper and lower numbers in a blood-pressure reading.

Cognitive performance was measured only once at the end of the 14-year period with the following tasks:

Considering the starting levels of physical activity and blood pressure (i.e., the values when people entered the study), higher daily step count was associated with better cognitive performance in all tasks except the emotion recognition task. Regarding blood pressure, there was only one significant association between systolic blood pressure and the delayed discounting task, with higher systolic blood pressure predicting a stronger preference for smaller, immediate rewards rather than larger, delayed rewards.

This is an interesting result, considering that several years had passed between the assessment of physical activity and blood pressure at the start of the study and the cognitive tests, which were performed at the end.

Taking the full dataset, the researchers identified 3 groups of participants based on their mean daily step counts over the 14-year period:

These were averages of the groups the researchers identified, not ideal or recommended step targets. And the two latter groups outperformed the first group in all cognitive measures except the emotion recognition task.

The study links physical activity (and, to a lesser extent, blood pressure) to better cognitive function across a range of tasks associated with attention, distraction inhibition, and reward evaluation.

The interesting part of this study is that researchers had real-world data on everyday movement from a large group of people over a 14-year period, and the movement data were measured by a device rather than self-reported.

The downside of using natural data from everyday movement is that we don’t know whether higher physical activity levels caused better cognitive performance.

There might be other reasons why different people have different daily step counts, e.g. that people with stronger cognitive abilities move more. The researchers also assessed cognitive performance only in a single testing session at the end of the 14-year period, so they couldn’t track cognitive changes over time.

They also used only one indicator (step count) to measure physical activity, which excludes other activities such as cycling, swimming, or strength training.

But the main result still holds: this study, like many others, shows a clear link between physical activity and cognitive function.

This new study complements previous research into the link between physical activity and the brain. It’s a reminder that brain health isn’t just about challenging yourself cognitively, but also about moving every day.

Walking is one of the simplest ways to get physical activity, but it’s just one way of many. The best form of physical activity is the one you can keep up over time!

And if you want to continue reading, here’s a previous edition debunking the 10k steps/day myth!

What else I’ve been up to:

A not-so-funny board game night at my in-laws inspired me for my latest Medium article:

Not a Medium member? Read this story for free with my friend link!

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That’s it for today!

And now?

Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Patricia Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com

P.S.:

Disclaimer:
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