Post #59823

Too Much Sitting May Make Your Brain Smaller Are you sitting comfortably? Well, don't get too comfortable — it could be bad for your brain. A new study suggests that spending too much time sitting could make your brain smaller and affect your mental abilities. And this is true even if you try to make up for time spent sitting with regular exercise. Researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, studied 404 adults over a seven-year period. Participants were all aged 71 or older, and none of them suffered from dementia at the beginning of the study. For 10 days, the study participants wore devices on their wrists to measure how much time they spent sitting and how much time they were active. Participants also had their mental abilities tested and their brains scanned. These measurements, tests and scans were all done at the beginning of the study and repeated at several points during the following seven years. The researchers found that more time spent sitting was associated with a decreased ability to remember things, and less brain thickness in areas of the brain that are usually affected by Alzheimer's disease. Over time, participants who spent more time sitting also got worse at naming things and took longer to process information. They also had less volume in the hippocampus, part of the brain that helps make memories. These effects were also worse for participants who had a gene that is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. However, most of the participants were getting at least 150 minutes of exercise each week, as recommended by health experts. This suggests that exercising won't stop the negative effects of too much sitting. The researchers suggest that health care workers who are looking after older people not only consider how much exercise they get, but also try to reduce the amount of time they spend sitting. #Reading