In a recent randomized clinical trial, exercise and mindfulness failed to improve cognitive function in older adults. For up to 18 months, researchers studied the cognitive effects of exercise, mindfulness training, or both in older adults who reported age-related memory changes but had not been diagnosed with dementia.
“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,”
said first author Eric J. Lenze, head of the department of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Similarly, mindfulness training is beneficial because it reduces stress, which is bad for your brain. So the hypothesis was that older adults would benefit cognitively if they exercised regularly, practiced mindfulness, or did both. But that is not what the researchers saw.
Neuroprotection and Stress Reduction
Lenze and his colleagues want to see if there are any long-term cognitive effects, so they plan to continue studying this group of older adults to see if exercise and mindfulness can help prevent future cognitive declines. However, in this study, the practices had no effect on cognitive function.
“So many older adults are concerned about memory. It’s important for studies like ours to develop and test behavioral interventions to try to provide them with neuroprotection and stress reduction as well as general health benefits,”
senior author Julie Wetherell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, said.
The study included 585 adults ranging in age from 65 to 84. None of them had dementia, but they were concerned about minor memory issues and other age-related cognitive declines.
Exercise and Mindfulness
Minor memory problems are frequently accepted as a normal part of aging, but it is also natural for people to be concerned when they notice these issues. All participants in the study were thought to be cognitively normal for their ages.
When they enrolled in the study, the researchers tested them, measuring memory and other aspects of their thinking. They also carried out brain imaging scans.
“Our lab’s principal aim is to help older people remain healthy by focusing on maintaining their mental and cognitive health as they age, and we were eager to see whether exercise and mindfulness might offer a cognitive boost in the same way that they boost other aspects of health,”
said Lenze.
No Brain Scan Differences
The subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups: one with trained exercise instructors, one with trained experts in the practice of mindfulness, one with regular exercise and mindfulness training, and one with neither but met for occasional sessions focused on general health education topics.
Memory tests and brain scans were performed after six months and again after 18 months.
All of the groups looked the same after six months and again after 18 months. All four groups performed slightly better in testing, but the researchers believe this was due to practice effects, as study subjects retook previous tests.
Similarly, no differences in brain scans were found between the groups, indicating that the training had no effect on the brain.
Next Steps
The study’s findings, according to Lenze, do not imply that exercise or mindfulness training will not help improve cognitive function in any older adults, only that those practices do not appear to improve cognitive performance in healthy people without impairments.
“We aren’t saying, ‘Don’t exercise’ or, ‘Don’t practice mindfulness,'” Lenze explains. “But we had thought we might find a cognitive benefit in these older adults. We didn’t. On the other hand, we didn’t study whether exercise or mindfulness might benefit older adults who are impaired due to dementia or to disorders such as depression. I don’t think we can extrapolate from the data that these practices don’t help improve cognitive function in anyone.”
Prior research has demonstrated that mindfulness meditation aids individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder in reducing mental and physical difficulties, and is associated with reduced activity in regions involved with pain and negative emotions.
The researchers recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue following the adults who participated in this study.
“They are still engaging in exercise and mindfulness,”
Lenze said.
The participants’ cognitive performance did not improve but did not decline. The researchers will continue to follow the same people for five years in the next phase of the study to see if exercise and mindfulness training can help slow or prevent future cognitive declines.
Reference:
- Lenze EJ, Voegtle M, Miller JP, et al. Effects of Mindfulness Training and Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2022;328(22):2218–2229. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.21680