Do you find yourself starting to forget things more easily? Are you blaming your memory blanks on age? If so, then you just might have to get off your bum and get moving.

A new research conducted in Australia has found out that age related memory loss could be treated by exercise, at least to a certain degree. What the researchers did was to study 138 people who were 50 years old and above. The people were experiencing memory problems but were not classified as being at risk for dementia. The group was divided into two – the exercise group and the control group. The people in the exercise group were asked to engage in physical activity for 150 minutes per week. This meant three 50-minute sessions within the week.

Their findings? Dr. Nicola T. Lautenschlager relates:

The benefits of physical activity were apparent after six months and persisted for at least another 12 months after the intervention had been discontinued. The average improvement of 0.69 points on the ADAS-Cog score compared with the usual care group at 18 months is small but potentially important when one considers the relatively modest amount of physical activity undertaken by participants in the study. Unlike medication, which was found to have no significant effect on mild cognitive impairment at 36 months, physical activity has the advantage of health benefits that are not confined to cognitive function alone, as suggested by findings on depression, quality of life, falls, cardiovascular function, and disability.

So, if you are getting on in your years and you want to help resolve those memory problems, move!

Originally posted on May 11, 2011 @ 11:22 am