Cardiorespiratory fitness and cognitive function in middle age

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether greater cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with better cognitive function 25 years later. Methods:We studied 2,747 participants in the community-based Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study of black and white men and women aged 18 to 30 years at recruitment in [1985][1986] Results: Per minute of baseline CRF, the RAVLT was 0.12 words recalled higher (standard error[SE] 5 0.03, p , 0.0001), the DSST was 0.92 digits higher (SE 5 0.13, p , 0.0001), and the Stroop Test score was 0.52 lower (better performance, SE 5 0.11, p , 0.0001), after accounting for race, sex, age, education, and clinical center. Compared with the lowest quartile of CRF, each cognitive test was 21% to 34% of an SD better in the highest CRF quartile. Further adjustment for lifestyle and clinical measures attenuated coefficients for RAVLT and DSST slightly, while the coefficient predicting the Stroop Test lost more than half its value (p 5 0.07). Analysis in the subset of 1,957 participants who also completed the year-20 treadmill test showed that 20-year change in CRF was positively associated only with DSST (p , 0.001). Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), which may be modified by physical activity and weight changes, 1,2 is a potential target for intervention to prevent cognitive function decline with aging. Recent studies showed a positive association between CRF and cognitive function. In participants older than 55 years, higher baseline CRF was associated with smaller decline over 6 years on a modified Mini-Mental State Examination and better performance on cognitive tests 6 years later. Conclusions3 In a meta-analysis of 18 studies, CRF improvement through exercise training was associated with better executive, spatial, and speed function among healthy adults aged 55 and older or those with mild mental disorders and cardiopulmonary obstructive. 4 In addition, lower CRF correlated with progression of dementia severity in Alzheimer disease. 5By age 55 years, pathophysiologic changes underlying both loss of CRF and loss of cognitive function may already have occurred. 2,[6][7][8] No longitudinal studies have investigated the relation between CRF and cognitive function in healthy young and middle-aged adults. Therefore,

Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Vascular Risk on Cognitive Function in Young Adults

“…Consistent with previous research, this study found that the potential beneficial effects of regular physical activity participation and a healthy body weight on the vascular and cognitive health of young adults have been previously highlighted (Zhu et al, 2014;Zhu et al, 2013). Evidence suggests that physical inactivity, pooper cardiorespiratory fitness, or obesity increases CRP levels and impairs cognitive dysfunction.…”

“…Although the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognitive function have been observed in childhood (Hillman, Author, & Buck, 2005), middle adulthood (Zhu et al, 2014), and late adulthood (Hayes, Forman, & Verfaellie, 2014), the association of cardiorespiratory fitness and CRP with cognitive function in young adults is less clear. Young adult CRP-cognitive function research has been inhibited by small samples, as risk is not as prevalent in this age group (Author et al, 2013).…”

Systems biology approaches to study the molecular effects of caloric restriction and polyphenols on aging processes

“…In fact, polyphenols and resveratrol mediate multiple of the previously described pathways such as SIRTs, AMPK and mTOR (Lam et al 2013). In longitudinal clinical interventions conducted in humans, increased consumption of polyphenol-rich and Mediterranean-type food items such as extra-virgin olive oil and nuts has been associated with markers of healthy aging such as improvement of cardiovascular risk factors and cognition (Valls-Pedret et al 2012;Martinez-Lapiscina et al 2013;Zhu et al 2014;Houston et al 2015). Moreover, a resveratrol supplementation study in healthy aged individuals improved brain functional connectivity, which correlated with improved glucose metabolism and memory (Witte et al 2014).…”

Cardiorespiratory fitness and brain volume and white matter integrity

“…[20][21][22][23][24][25][26] In addition, we previously found that higher CRF was related to better cognitive function in participants of the CARDIA Study. 34 Better cognitive function has been observed to relate to white matter integrity in several other large population studies of middle-aged and elderly individuals. [11][12][13][14] Although these associations of CRF with cognitive function and of cognitive function with white matter characteristics do not necessarily mean that brain MRI parameters would be better in those with higher or improved treadmill duration, the evidence presented here is consistent with the hypothesis that brain volume and white matter integrity might respond to improved CRF.…”