Exercise May Help Seniors with Word, Memory Problems

A small study finds that healthy older people who exercise regularly have fewer problems with word retrieval.

Exercise may help seniors with word, memory problems. Image credit: Ahmet Demirel/Wikipedia (PD)

"Tip-of-the-tongue moments are very noticeable. They are irritating and embarrassing," said lead researcher Katrien Segaert, a psychology lecturer at the University of Birmingham in England.

These "senior moments" occur more frequently with age.

However, it's wrong to link these lapses with memory loss. Rather, they tend to occur when you know a word but are temporarily unable to produce the sound for it.

For the study, Segaert and her colleagues gave a computerized language test to 28 healthy British men and women whose average age was 67 to 70. The researchers also had 27 younger adults, average age 23, take the test.

The test asked for the names of famous people (for example, authors, politicians and actors) based on 20 questions about them. Study participants also were given definitions of 20 little-used words and 20 easy words, and asked to produce the corresponding word.

The researchers used a stationary bicycling test to gauge aerobic fitness. This assessed the ability to use oxygen during exercise.

"We found that the higher the older person's aerobic fitness level was, the lower their odds of experiencing a tip-of-the-tongue moment," Segaert said.

The older group had a significantly larger vocabulary than the younger adults. But even fitter seniors had more lapses in language than their juniors, the findings showed.

Language is a vital skill, Segaert said. And finding the sounds for words is essential when you want to produce language fluently.

Physical exercise is probably the best brain drug we have.

Research has shown that physical exercise stimulates production of a brain-derived nerve growth factor capable of staving off brain aging in apes.

The nerve growth factor also protects nerve cells from age-related shrinkage and wasting.

Some or all of these effects may be at play in these current findings.

The researchers pointed out that you can measurably increase your fitness level in 6 weeks. And even walking has been shown to have "cognitive," or mental, benefits.

Generally, moderate exercise is advised for 30 minutes a day most days of the week. (Tasnim News Agency)

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