Six months of aerobic exercise can improve executive functioning in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), new research suggests.
In the Exercise and Nutritional Interventions for Cognitive and Cardiovascular Health Enhancement (ENLIGHTEN) study, researchers assessed 160 older adults who reported some cognitive impairment but no dementia.
Results showed significant improvements in executive functioning after six months of regular aerobic exercise. In contrast, participants randomly assigned to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet did not demonstrate comparable improvements.
The patients who received a combination of both interventions showed the largest improvement compared with those who only received health education.
“The ‘take home’ message is that it is not too late for older adults with subtle cognitive impairments to adopt healthy lifestyle habits and to benefit from exercise and diet,” principal investigator James A. Blumenthal, PhD, JP Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, told Medscape Medical News.
“Our data show that exercise improves executive functioning and also provide suggestive evidence that combining regular exercise with a heart-healthy diet reduces risk for heart disease and produces greater improvement in executive cognitive functioning compared to controls,” he said.
The findings were published online December 19 in Neurology.
Good for the Heart, Good for the Brain?
“We were surprised to find that participants who engaged in regular aerobic exercise and who consumed the DASH diet…obtained greater improvements in executive functioning compared to participants who just received health education and did not exercise or modify their diets,” Blumenthal said.
An overlap in risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and dementia means that strategies designed to reduce risk for CVD “also may be effective in improving neurocognition and reducing the risk of developing dementia,” the investigators write.
“We believe that the benefits of diet and exercise have the potential for improving both heart and brain health,” Blumenthal said.
“Our working hypothesis is that a healthier vascular system maximizes the brain’s overall functioning and cognitive reserve,” he added.
As reported by Medscape Medical News, American Academy of Neurology guidelines updated in 2017 support the cognitive benefits of exercise among people with MCI.
Individual studies in the literature also suggest aerobic exercise could improve neurocognitive function among healthy adults. However, relatively few studies include individuals with cognitive impairment, a meta-analysis revealed.
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