This Fitness Indicator May Help Preserve Cognitive Function as You Age

Someone cardiorespiratory fitness is important at any age, whether it be 25 or 85. And according to the Cleveland Clinic, strong cardiovascular endurance can not only improve your cholesterol and blood pressure levels and reduce your risk of diseases like heart disease, but also has an array of other benefits, particularly for older folks. It's also associated with more promising outcomes related to cognitive ability, such as memory and executive functioning, recent research shows

According to a Dec. 10 study in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, the associations hold true regardless of key risk factors such as age and possession of the APOE4 gene—a gene said to increase the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's and other kinds of dementia.

According to Healthline, cardiorespiratory fitness "is the level at which your heart, lungs, and muscles work together when you’re exercising for an extended period of time," and is a direct indicator of how fit you are. 

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For the study, researchers enlisted 648 older adults between 65 and 80 years of age (predominantly female), for a physical and cognitive assessment. First, the participants walked on a treadmill to test their cardiorespiratory fitness and VO2 max. After their stint on the treadmill, study participants took five cognitive tests to determine their working memory, episodic memory, executive function, processing control, and visuospatial functioning. 

Researchers found that the better the individual's cardiorespiratory fitness, the better the individual's performance across all five of these domains, regardless of their age or the presence of the APOE4 gene.

"These findings demonstrate the breadth of cognitive benefits associated with higher [cardiorespiratory fitness], and highlight several key factors that might influence the relationship between fitness and neurocognitive health in older adulthood," researchers wrote. 

It's important to note that while these findings are undoubtedly promising, this is an observational study. Because of this and other factors, no unyielding evidence on cause and effect can be drawn.