Overview: Exercise and mindfulness can help older adults maintain physical and mental health, but they may not have as great a beneficial impact on cognition as previously believed.
sauce: WUSTL
A large study focused on whether exercise and mindfulness training can improve cognitive function in older adults found no such improvement after either intervention.
Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, San Diego, studied older adults who reported age-related changes in memory but did not experience these changes for up to 18 months with exercise, mindfulness training, or studied the cognitive effects of both. Diagnosed with any form of dementia.
The survey results are jam.
“We know without a doubt that exercise is good for the elderly, lowers the risk of heart disease, strengthens bones, improves mood, and has other beneficial effects. Function may also be improved.Eric J. Lenze, MD, the first author of the study, Professor Wallace and Lucille Renard, and director of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington.
“Similarly, mindfulness training is beneficial because it reduces stress, but stress can have negative effects on the brain. We hypothesized that doing both or both might have cognitive benefits, but that’s not what we found.
Lenze and his colleagues still want to see if there are any long-term cognitive benefits, so they set out to find out if exercise and mindfulness could help prevent future cognitive decline. We plan to continue our study of this elderly group. However, practice did not improve cognitive function in this study.
“So many older people worry about memory,” says senior author Julie Wetherell, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.
“It’s important for studies like ours to develop and test behavioral interventions that seek to provide neuroprotection and stress reduction, as well as general health benefits.”
Researchers studied 585 adults between the ages of 65 and 84. No one was diagnosed with dementia, but there was concern about mild memory impairment and other age-related cognitive declines.
Lenze, who is also director of the Healthy Minds Lab at the University of Washington, said, “Mild memory impairment is often seen as a normal part of aging, but it’s also why people worry when they notice these problems. It is normal.
“Our lab’s primary objective is to help older people stay healthy, focusing on maintaining their mental and cognitive health as they age.”
All study participants were considered cognitively normal for their age. The researchers tested them when they enrolled in the study, measuring memory and other aspects of thinking.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. A group supervised by a trained professional in mindfulness practice. A group that participated in regular exercise and mindfulness training. and a group that did neither, but attended occasional sessions focused on general health education topics. A scan was performed.
All groups looked similar at 6 and 18 months. All four groups performed slightly better on the test, but the researchers attributed this to a practice effect, as the subjects retake tests similar to those they had previously taken. , brain scans did not reveal differences between the groups suggesting a benefit of training to the brain.
Lenze said the results of the study do not mean that exercise and mindfulness training do not help improve cognitive function in older people, but that they do not appear to improve cognitive performance in healthy, healthy people. indicates that there is no
“We’re not saying ‘Don’t exercise’ or ‘Don’t practice mindfulness,'” Renze explained.
“However, we thought there might be cognitive benefits for these older adults. Is not … that is Disability due to disorders such as dementia or depression. I don’t think you can infer from the data that these practices don’t help improve anyone’s cognitive function. ”
Lenze said researchers will continue to follow the group of adults who participated in the study.
“They are still working on exercise and mindfulness,” he said. “There was no improvement, but there was also no decline in cognitive performance. In the next phase of this study, we continued to follow the same people for another five years to see if exercise and mindfulness training were associated with future cognitive decline. We plan to investigate whether it can help delay or prevent
About this Aging and Cognitive Research News
author: Jim Dryden
sauce: WUSTL
contact: Jim Dryden – WUSTL
image: Images credited to WUSTL
See also
Original research: closed access.
Eric J. Renze et al., “Effects of Mindfulness Training and Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” jam
Overview
Effects of Mindfulness Training and Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Importance Episodic memory and executive function are important aspects of cognitive function that decline with age. This reduction could be ameliorated by lifestyle interventions.
Purpose To determine whether mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), exercise, or a combination of both improve cognitive function in older adults.
design, setting, participants This 2 x 2 factorial randomized clinical trial was conducted at two sites in the United States (Washington University in St. Louis and the University of California, San Diego). A total of 585 elderly people (65–84 years old) with subjective symptoms but without dementia were randomized (from 19 November 2015 to he enrolled on 23 January 2019, 2020). final follow-up on March 16).
intervention Participants were randomly assigned to receive the following interventions. MBSR (n = 150) with a goal of 60 minutes of meditation daily. Aim for at least 300 minutes of exercise per week that combines aerobic, strength-strengthening, and functional components (n = 138). Combined MBSR and exercise (n = 144). or a health education control group (n = 153). The intervention lasted 18 months and consisted of group-based classes and home practice.
Main achievements and countermeasures The two primary outcomes were a composite of episodic memory and executive function (normalized to the mean). [SD] 0 of [1]higher composite scores indicate better cognitive ability) from neuropsychological testing; the primary endpoint was 6 months and the secondary endpoint was 18 months. There were five secondary outcomes reported. Hippocampal volume by structural magnetic resonance imaging, thickness and surface area of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, functional cognitive abilities, and self-reported cognitive concerns.
result 585 randomized participants (mean age 71.5 years, 424) [72.5%] women), 568 (97.1%) completed 6 months on the trial and 475 (81.2%) completed 18 months. There was no significant effect of mindfulness training or exercise on episodic memory at 6 months (MBSR vs no MBSR: 0.44 vs 0.48; mean difference, -0.04 points) [95% CI, –0.15 to 0.07]; P.= .50; exercise vs no exercise: 0.49 vs 0.42; difference, 0.07 [95% CI, –0.04 to 0.17]; P.= .23) or executive function (MBSR vs no MBSR: 0.39 vs 0.31; mean difference, 0.08 points [95% CI, –0.02 to 0.19]; P.= .12; exercise vs no exercise: 0.39 vs 0.32; difference, 0.07 [95% CI, –0.03 to 0.18]; P.= .17) and there was no intervention effect at the 18-month secondary endpoint. There was no significant interaction between mindfulness training and exercise (P.= .93 memory and P.= 0.29 executive function) at 6 months. None of his five prespecified secondary outcomes showed significant improvement in either intervention compared to those who did not receive the intervention.
Conclusion and relevance Among older adults with subjective cognitive problems, mindfulness training, exercise, or both made no significant difference in improving episodic memory or executive function at 6 months. Findings do not support the use of these interventions to improve cognition in older adults with subjective cognitive problems.
Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02665481
