A new study published in the July 15 edition or Neurology indicates that physical fitness can preserve the brain function of people with early Alhzheimer’s disease. The study, headed by Jeffrey M. Burns MD, tested 57 people with early state Alzheimer’s and 64 people without the disease.

The researchers found that the physically fit people with Alzheimer’s had one quarter the amount of brain shrinkage as the unfit people with the disease. This is significant because research has indicated that decreasing brain size is linked to poorer mental performance in those with early Alzheimer’s disease.

Burns says that this study is one of the first to investigate how levels of fitness impact Alzheimer’s, but previous research in older adults has indicated that exercise has great value in forestalling aging-related changes in the brain.

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