Walking Improves Mental Health

By Nancy Hudson, Extension Agent, Family & Consumer Sciences

“And what about exercise?” my doctor asked. I admitted it was lacking as an integral part of my current schedule.
If exercise is not a current priority in your routine, research reported in Tufts University Health and Nutrition Newsletter may change your mind, too. Here’s the good news: inactive people who start walking can improve mental functioning.

As people age, certain mental processes decline. Memory, reaction time, coordinating several tasks at once -- the normal juggling involved in activities like these loses some of its edge. The degree of decline differs from person to person, of course, but the changes are a fact of life due to age-related alterations in the brain’s frontal lobe, right behind the forehead. That lobe controls what researchers call “executive control processes,” which are among the highest levels of brain activity. But new research suggests that sedentary older people who take up aerobic exercises such as walking can slow the loss in mental agility even if they never exercised before in their lives.

Researchers at the University of Illinois made the connection when they recruited more than 100 sedentary adults between the ages of 60 and 75. They asked the men and women to either start walking three times a week or to engage in stretching and toning exercises. Over the course of six months, the scientists administered three kinds of tests to the two groups. One test looked at task-switching ability. While looking at a screen, the participants had to go back and forth between distinguishing vowels from consonants and even numbers from odd ones. Lead researcher Arthur Kramer, Ph.D., says that how smoothly you’re able to switch back and forth on such tasks simulates real-world skills such as working on a project, having to answer the phone, and then being able to return to the project without taking too much mental energy to reorient yourself.

Another test, also using computer screen simulation, looked at something called response compatibility. Essentially, that’s the ability to “focus on one thing while ignoring extraneous information from another,” Dr. Kramer explains. An example might be driving safely in traffic while horns are honking on the other side of the road.

The third test checked “stopping,” that is, the ability to quickly reconsider an activity and discontinue it if necessary – like taking your foot off the gas pedal if another car suddenly swerves in front of you. Once more, the researchers used letters on a screen.

By the end of the six-month period, the walkers had gone from walking 15 minutes three times a week, averaging a brisk 3.4 miles an hour, to at least 45 minutes each session — at an even more intense 3.8 miles an hour. Their mental reaction times were quicker, too — up to 25 percent quicker than those of the toners and stretchers in all three tests.

The researchers speculate that the aerobic activity of walking improved peoples’ mental functioning by increasing the supply of oxygen to their brains. The more fit someone is aerobically, the more oxygen his or her blood can carry to fuel activities throughout the body. It’s known that “oxygenation of brain tissue” is important for high-level brain activity, Dr. Kramer says. On an extreme level, think of how climbers of very high mountains lose their ability to operate as efficiently as the air becomes “thinner”with less oxygen.

There you have it. An investment of 15 minutes three times a week can grow to 45 minute excursions and ultimately pay big mental dividends.

Should you check with your doctor first? According to a release from the Ohio State University Medical Center, most people do not need to see a doctor before they start exercise since a gradual, sensible exercise program will have minimal health risks. However, there are some people who should seek medical advice. If any of the statements below apply to you, talk to your doctor before you start.