"Every weekday afternoon, Harvard neurologist Jasmeer Chhatwal gets up from his desk, heads out of the office, and walks about three-quarters of a mile to get a cup of coffee from a neighborhood cafe. There's a perfectly good coffee maker in the office, but the afternoon ritual isn't (just) about caffeine. The 20-minute stroll is helping to stave off symptoms of brain aging like memory loss, according to Chhatwal's research."
"His latest study, published November 3 in Nature Medicine, helps pinpoint how little movement you can get away with and still see benefits for the brain. The goal? 5,000 steps a day - around two miles. "People don't need to run marathons," Chhatwal told Business Insider. "In terms of things that you can do for yourself and your brain, this is a pretty easy one.""
"The latest study, led by Chhatwal and colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Mass General Brigham, looked at nearly 300 cognitively healthy adults between the ages of 50 and 90. To understand how their brains changed over time, the researchers scanned for key markers of Alzheimer's risk, including deposits of amyloid and tau proteins, which can accumulate over time and disrupt nerve cells."
Daily walking of roughly 3,000–5,000 steps (about two miles) correlates with reduced accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins and lower risk of cognitive decline. Older adults who maintain modest, regular physical activity show greater brain resilience and fewer symptoms of memory loss. Nearly 300 cognitively healthy adults aged 50–90 underwent brain scans to measure Alzheimer’s markers and track changes over time. Short, routine walks of about 20 minutes can produce measurable benefits for brain health, suggesting achievable step goals may meaningfully lower Alzheimer's-related risks and support memory retention.
Read at Business Insider
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