- Regular aerobic exercise can significantly improve thinking skills like planning and decision making in postmenopausal women, according to recent research.
- The greatest cognitive benefits were observed in those who engaged in 45 minutes of moderate aerobic activity four times per week.
- With two-thirds of Alzheimer’s cases occurring in older women, exercising during and after menopause may influence cognitive resilience.
Regular aerobic exercise may help postmenopausal women strengthen executive function, according to new research.
The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on August 1, suggests that cognitive benefits may appear within 3 to 6 months. This highlights that exercise can be a practical strategy for preserving brain health after menopause.
Brain health strategies are crucial during and after menopause, with two-thirds of cases of Alzheimer’s disease occurring in women. Menopause can influence cognitive decline, as well as resilience.
Dung Trinh, MD, a physician at MemorialCare Medical Group and Chief Medical Officer of Healthy Brain Clinic in Irvine, CA, who wasn’t involved in the study, said the findings are encouraging, but noted some limitations.
“This was a secondary analysis of a relatively small study, so I would view it as important evidence that deserves confirmation rather than as definitive proof,” he told Healthline.
Aerobic exercise improves executive function after menopause
The study included 93 cognitively healthy females ages 20 to 67, 43% of whom were postmenopausal. Each participant had below-average cardiorespiratory fitness and didn’t exercise regularly.
The participants were randomly assigned to groups for either a 6-month aerobic exercise program or a stretching-and-toning program.
The greatest cognitive benefits were seen in individuals who engaged in 45 minutes of aerobic activity four times a week, who saw improvements in executive function. These cognitive gains were first observed at 3 months and strengthened through the remainder of the program.
Executive function involves working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. In daily life, this includes managing tasks, making decisions, staying organized, and maintaining independence.
“Stretching and mobility work have important benefits — namely, flexibility, comfort, range of motion, balance, and stress reduction, to name a few. However, aerobic activity produces a more sustained cardiorespiratory and metabolic stimulus,” said Kecia Gaither, MD, a double board certified OB-GYN and maternal fetal medicine specialist, and associate professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Gaither wasn’t involved in the study.
What counts as moderate aerobic activity?
Aerobic activity is rhythmic and continuous, increasing your breathing and heart rate. Moderate intensity means you can talk but not sing while participating in the activity.
Examples of aerobic activities include:
- brisk walking
- cycling
- water aerobics
- dancing
- active gardening, like mowing, raking, or digging
- doubles tennis or pickleball
How exercise benefits brain health after menopause
Aerobic exercise can affect the brain in various ways.
“Exercise may help by improving cardiovascular fitness, reducing vascular risk factors, and supporting brain plasticity, all of which are relevant because vascular and metabolic health are closely tied to later cognitive decline,” Trinh said.
While aerobic exercise doesn’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease or slow the progression of dementia, it can help improve overall cognitive function as you age.
One of the ways aerobic exercise can affect the brain is in its structure. It can help protect brain regions such as the hippocampus, which is important for memory.
Aerobic exercise can also benefit the brain’s white matter. Regular aerobic activity may support connections in the brain that help with focus and processing information.
Short-term workouts can also have immediate cognitive benefits, like boosting thinking skills right after you work out.
Gaither told Healthline that aerobic exercise can be extremely helpful in multiple areas, such as:
- Cerebrovascular function: Aerobic exercise increases cardiac output and challenges vascular regulation. It may improve endothelial function, cerebral perfusion, and increase the brain’s capacity to deliver oxygen and glucose where neural activity is greatest.
- Metabolic health: Aerobic exercise can improve blood pressure, glucose handling, and lipid profiles — these same cardiometabolic factors are strongly entwined with small vessel brain disease and later cognitive risk.
- Inflammation and oxidative stress: Aerobic exercise reduces mechanisms plausibly relevant to brain aging.
- Brain pathways: Aerobic exercise can help to improve pathways involved in synaptic remodeling, neuronal survival, and learning.
How menopause affects cognitive function
Cognitive decline appears to occur more frequently in women than in men. This suggests that hormonal factors likely contribute to this decline.
Cognitive complaints are more common among postmenopausal women than premenopausal women. This may be due in part to reduced ovarian function and decreased serum estrogen levels.
This leads to menopausal symptoms that have an emphasis on vasomotor symptoms. Vasomotor symptoms include hot flashes, sweating, and dizziness.
It’s possible that estrogen has a neuroprotective role in the body, which may also help explain why cognitive decline is more common in women, especially those who are postmenopausal.
“The researchers tried to account for age statistically and still found a menopause-related effect, suggesting the result may not be explained by age alone,” Trinh said. “Menopause and aging are tightly linked, so the study cannot completely separate those influences.”
Trinh noted that the study highlights a gap in research: Menopause status is often overlooked in exercise and brain-health trials, even though women have a higher lifetime burden of dementia.
“Future studies with larger samples, better characterization of perimenopause and postmenopause, and Alzheimer’s biomarkers such as amyloid and tau would help determine whether these cognitive improvements translate into lower long-term dementia risk,” he said.
Aerobic Exercise May Improve Brain Health in Postmenopausal Women
Source: Pinoy Lang Sakalam
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