Exercise and mindfulness failed to boost older adults’ cognitive function in a recent study.
Researchers studied the cognitive effects of exercise, mindfulness training, or both for up to 18 months in older adults who reported age-related changes in memory but had not been diagnosed with any form of dementia. The findings appear in JAMA.
“We know beyond any doubt that exercise is good for older adults, that it can lower risk for cardiac problems, strengthen bones, improve mood, and have other beneficial effects—and there has been some thought that it also might improve cognitive function,” says first author Eric J. Lenze, professor and head of the psychiatry department at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis….