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(Ames, IA) -- An Iowa State University study finds exercise can benefit your body and your mind, eventually. Wes Lefferts of Iowa State's Department of Kinesiology says they signed up participants in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, who had risk factors for heart disease. Lefferts says they showed improvement in overall body blood flow after just a few months of starting an exercise program. He says, however, it took much longer before there were changes in brain blood flow.
He says later during the study, the participants were able to complete cognitive tasks much more quickly than when they first started, suggesting an improvement in blood flow over time.
"The big take-away is that exercise is good for the arteries and brain, but its effects are complex and takes time to accumulate benefits," says Wes Lefferts, lead author and an assistant professor of kinesiology.
Lefferts studies large artery stiffness and brain blood flow in middle-aged adults and how these affect heart and brain health.
“The brain’s vasculature may take longer to adapt to exercise training than the heart and central vasculature, like the aorta,” says Lefferts, adding that other studies with year-long exercise training have found improvements in continuous blood flow to the brain.
Lefferts says their findings are in line with other recent studies.
Lefferts says exercise is sort of like a silver bullet, because it can have so many positive effects such as lowering blood pressure, weight, body fat and inflammation.