This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Researchers identify ‘direct correlation’ between poor fitness and brain volume

An analysis of participants in the Framingham Offspring Study found an association between physical fitness in middle age and brain size 20 years later.

The findings, published in Neurology, could have implications for many patients, according to Nicole L. Spartano, PhD, and colleagues.

"We found a direct correlation in our study between poor fitness and brain volume decades later, which indicates accelerated brain aging," Spartano, from The Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University School of Medicine, said in a press release. "While not yet studied on a large scale, these results suggest that fitness in middle age may be particularly important for the many millions of people around the world who already have evidence of heart disease."

The researchers used data from 1,094 participants in the Framingham Offspring study who, at baseline, did not have dementia or other neurological conditions that could affect assessment or cardiovascular disease. In the first stage of the study, participants underwent an exercise treadmill test at a mean age of 40 ± 9 years. In the second stage of the study, participants underwent a second treadmill test and MRI of their brains at a mean age of 58 ± 8 years.

In multivariate adjusted models, results showed that a greater baseline diastolic BP and heart rate exercise response as well as lower cardiovascular fitness were associated with a smaller total cerebral brain volume in the second stage of the study, 2 decades later (P < .05). Spartano and colleagues reported that, in participants without CVD, one standard deviation of lower fitness equaled nearly one extra year of brain aging.

Exercise systolic BP was also associated with smaller total cerebral brain volume in participants with hypertension or prehypertension at baseline (P < .05).

"Our investigation provides new evidence that lower [cardiovascular] fitness and elevated exercise BP and [heart rate] responses in early to midlife are associated with smaller brain volumes nearly 2 decades later, thereby linking fitness over the life course to brain health later in life," Spartano and colleagues concluded. "Promotion of midlife [cardiovascular] fitness may be an important step towards ensuring healthy brain aging in the population, especially in prehypertensive or hypertensive individuals." – by Chelsea Frajerman Pardes

Disclosures: Spartano reports funding by NIH T32-HL07224, 2014-2016.