Fitter legs linked to a 'fitter' brain - study finds

Researchers at King’s College London have found that muscle fitness as measured by power in the legs is strongly associated with an improved rate of ageing in the brain.

The findings, published in Gerontology, suggest that simple interventions, such as increased levels of walking, targeted to improve leg power in the long term may have an impact on healthy cognitive ageing. The research was funded jointly by the NIHR and the Wellcome Trust.

Scientists studied a sample of 324 healthy female twins from the TwinsUK volunteer registry over a ten-year period from 1999, measuring various health and lifestyle predictors. Researchers were, therefore, able to control for genetic factors affecting changes in cognitive function.

Thinking, learning and memory were measured at both the beginning and end of the study and it was found that leg power was a better predictor of cognitive change than any other lifestyle factors tested. Generally, the twin who had more leg power at the start of the study sustained their cognition better and had fewer brain changes associated with ageing measured after ten years.

The study is thought to be the first that shows a specific link between power (i.e. force and speed) in the lower limbs and cognitive change in a normal, healthy population. As the legs contain the largest muscles they are of particular relevance for muscular fitness and can be exercised easily through various habitual activities such as simply standing or walking.

Dr Claire Steves, lead author and Senior Lecturer in Twin Research at King’s College London and King’s College Hospital said: ‘Everyone wants to know how best to keep their brain fit as they age. Identical twins are a useful comparison, as they share many factors, such as genetics and early life, which we can’t change in adulthood.

View Study: Kicking back Cognitive Ageing: Leg power predicts cognitive ageing after ten years in older females.

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NUI Galway Hold Public Information Event for Brain Awareness Week

As part of the international Brain Awareness Week, staff and students of NUI Galway’s Neuroscience Centre are organising a public information exhibit in the Aula Maxima, Quadrangle on Tuesday, 11 and Wednesday, 12 March from 9am to 3.30pm.

Members of the public and children from local schools will have the opportunity to visit the exhibit to learn more about how the brain and nervous system work. 

The exhibit consists of interactive displays where visitors can learn more about the nervous system in a hands-on way.  For example, there will be various puzzles and tests of hand-eye coordination, visual perception, left/right handedness, creativity and many others.

Approximately 180 million Europeans are thought to suffer from a brain disorder, at a total cost of almost €800 billion per annum. 

At the event in NUI Galway general information about the brain will be available to visitors with the opportunity to learn more about brain disorders, via a series of large information posters prepared by the staff and postgraduate students of NUI Galway Neuroscience Centre. The posters cover a variety of illnesses including: Epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Pain, Anxiety, Depression, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Stroke, Brain injury and Spinal cord injury.

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Preserving brain health

People with higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil may also have larger brain volumes in old age equivalent to preserving one-to-two years of brain health, according to a study published in the January 22, 2014, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Shrinking brain volume is a sign of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as normal aging.

For the study, the levels of omega-3 fatty acids EPA+DHA in red blood cells were tested in 1,111 women who were part of the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study. Eight years later, when the women were an average age of 78, MRI scans were taken to measure their brain volume.

Those with higher levels of omega-3s had larger total brain volumes eight years later. Those with twice as high levels of fatty acids (7.5 vs 3.4 per cent) had a 0.7 per cent larger brain volume.

“These higher levels of fatty acids can be achieved through diet and the use of supplements, and the results suggest that the effect on brain volume is the equivalent of delaying the normal loss of brain cells that comes with ageing by one-to-two years,” said study author James Pottala, PhD, of the University of South Dakota in Sioux Falls and Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc in Richmond, VA, in the US.

Those with higher levels of omega-3s also had a 2.7 per cent larger volume in the hippocampus area of the brain, which plays an important role in memory.

In Alzheimer’s disease, the hippocampus begins to atrophy even before symptoms appear.

View abstract here: ‘Higher RBC EPA + DHA corresponds with larger total brain and hippocampal volumes.’