Walking to Improve the Brain's White Matter

Two months ago, I wrote and spoke about how walking makes a difference…and we don’t need to do much…just about 4400 steps a day or around 30-45 minutes a day of walking.

An article in the New York Times by Gretchen Reynolds pointed me to this paper headed by Andrea Mendez Colmenares and her colleagues [1]. It is a randomized control trial, where people were placed in a random manner into 3 groups; walking, dancing and a control group of no extra physical activity. The walking was for between 20-40 minutes at a moderately brisk pace to reach 50-60% of the maximal heart rate. MRI scans of these patients done before, during and after the study were analyzed.

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Those who danced and walked showed evidence of white matter plasticity and reduction in the rate of white matter deterioration compared to the control group that did not have any structured physical activity. This was more pronounced in those who walked rather than those who danced with evidence of cognition improvement when defined as improvement in episodic memory.

Up to the 1970s, it was generally believed that the adult brain cannot change the number and structure of its neurons and that the only possibility is gradual deterioration. Once the concept of neuroplasticity was proven and accepted, it became clear that the grey and white matter can adapt and grow and shrink, depending on the situation and that the brain, like the other organs in the body is a dynamic organ that is also constantly changing.

What this study shows is that physical activity helps in reducing the deterioration of white matter and may even improve white matter structure and function (Fig).

This is line with many other studies that have been summarized in this recent review by Ricardo Arida and Lavinia Teixeira-Machado [2], showing that physical activity helps with both, resilience to brain diseases and attenuation of disease progression.

And so, we again circle back to the one magic pill of all. Physical activity. To be atmasvasth, and to maintain your brain function and to prevent the deterioration of your mental faculties…you need to move. Period.

Footnotes

1. Mendez Colmenares A, Voss MW, Fanning J, Salerno EA, Gothe NP, Thomas ML, McAuley E, Kramer AF, Burzynska AZ. White matter plasticity in healthy older adults: The effects of aerobic exercise. Neuroimage. 2021 Jun 24;239:118305. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118305. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34174392.

2. Arida RM, Teixeira-Machado L. The Contribution of Physical Exercise to Brain Resilience. Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Jan 20;14:626769. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.626769. PMID: 33584215; PMCID: PMC7874196.