6 ms·

MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

124 points by amichail 9mo ago

NedF 9mo ago
[dead]
RickJWagner 9mo ago
That’s awesome! The benefits of exercise against aging, mental illness, etc are numerous and well documented. Everybody should do it.
- Mars008 9mo ago
  If that was true athletes would be the youngest, mentally healthiest, and in many other ways better than average. But that's not the case if you look at them. My guess exercise is beneficial only to some level, after that it has a big toll on everything. Including IQ, mental and general health, and so on.
  - galleywest200 9mo ago
    Being an athlete and doing maintenance exercises are two different levels of exertion.
  - derektank 9mo ago
    >My guess exercise is beneficial only to some level, after that it has a big toll on everything. Including IQ, mental and general health, and so on. What reason do you have for thinking this? As far as I’ve read, there’s no indication that athletes perform worse than the population average on any of these metrics. Athletes outperformed non-athletes on standardized tests in a 2014 study of Texas high schoolers.[1] Professional soccer players/footballers outperform the population average on a variety of cognitive assessments.[2] Sub-4 minute mile runners have better longevity and lower risk of cardiovascular disease than average.[3] With the exception of contact sports like American Football which involve serious risks of injury, I can’t think of any example of elite athletes that are worse off on quality of life metrics than average people. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4831893/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4831893/ [2] https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2415126122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2415126122 [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38729629/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38729629/
  - fdsf2 9mo ago
    Mike Ohearn.
  - esperent 9mo ago
    It is the case, actually. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025619614005199 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00256... Here's another study, although for some reason it's 95% male, it shows athletic men live an average 3.5 years longer. It also shows athletic women live 0.7 years less, but due to the low number of females in the study I wouldn't read much into that. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11979035/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11979035/
  - sfn42 9mo ago
    They are. Fit people are generally just better than unfit people in almost every way. More physically capable, fewer heath issues, more energy, more attractive, more disciplined, more intelligent and so on. Some of those are probably not entirely causal, for example bad health can prevent exercise. Lower intelligence is correlated with obesity. Getting fit takes discipline but it also builds discipline. So yeah I'm pretty sure that if you compare 1000 fit people and 1000 unfit people you'll see a very clear difference in happiness, health, success in life etc. We're not made to be sedentary.
- throwaway849830 9mo ago
  > Everybody should do it. 34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually. It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I kept going. Big mistake. A few weeks ago I completely crashed with the dizziness and mental exhaustion staying constantly, leaving me unable to do basic things like standing for more than a few minutes at a time. Complete rest helped, after a few weeks I finally start to feel like myself again. Currently seeing doctors and doing a lot of checks, nothing obvious found so far. The only reason I kept pushing is that I was reading everywhere that exercising is this amazing thing that is good for everyone. So at the moment I feel that this messaging should be toned down a bit. PS: Long time HN user, using a throwaway as I don't want health stuff to be tied to me.
  - sfn42 9mo ago
    That's not normal. I'm sure your doctor's told you that too. My first thought is that it may just be a severe case of being out of shape, I think you might be able to push through it. You didn't specify how long you kept it up but I would expect it to take at least a few weeks, maybe a few months before you really get up and running. I would suggest that you keep trying, and taking it slower. Maybe instead of running and cycling just walk/hike. I find it much more comfortable to hike. It's also useful to keep track of your pulse. There's a type of training called zone 2 training where the goal is to keep your pulse in "zone 2". That's quite low intensity training, but it's also very effective and much less taxing. Zone 2 depends on your resting and max pulse but it'll be something like 130-160. I can also recommend rock climbing, particularly bouldering is very approachable. And of course weight lifting if that's more to your liking. You don't have to do cardio, there are many ways to be active. I have had some issues with nausea while weightlifting, towards the end of a session I would get really nauseous. However that's just me being out of shape, after a week or two it subsides and it just feels good. I like the feeling of sore muscles. Also, for me, activity is essential. When I'm not active I fall into a deep depression where everything feels harder. When I'm in shape I feel like myself, I have more energy, motivation and discipline, life feels easier. I don't think it's like this for everyone but I do think everyone benefits from exercise. Even if you have to fight through some bad feelings to get going.
slwvx 9mo ago
Can exercise make the face look younger? Or the body? Is exercise the best makeup? ;-)
- piker 9mo ago
  Running makes you look older, unfortunately.
  - lostlogin 9mo ago
    Cycling too. The standard being 20kgs under weight, skin baked like old leather, and a previously broken collar bone. But, nothing beats it.
    - 7777332215 9mo ago
      Wear sunscreen? It's necessary to not age fast if you go outside often. And moisturizer and retinol if you'd like too.
      - lostlogin 9mo ago
        I wish it were that simple. I’m of Scottish and English genes. I wear spf 50 and still get burnt in the savage New Zealand sun. I try to go early.
  - eaurouge 9mo ago
    So this is why 30/40 yo track athletes look older than their age mates? Right.
  - gherkinnn 9mo ago
    Nonsense. Running at an Olympic level and pushing the boundaries of what we've evolved for might leave its mark. But that is not what is being talked about here.
- MattGaiser 9mo ago
  There seems to be abundant evidence that exercise is often the best solution for any number of things. The problem is that doing it sucks.
jvfjllkttg 9mo ago
Less wise perhaps.
zmmmmm 9mo ago
> brains that looked nearly a year younger Seems like a pretty small effect - if I'm 58 and I have the brain of a 57 year old, and to achieve that I did an entire year of exercise (as was done in this study) ... you'd have to evaluate it against many other things to decide if that was really the easiest way to achieve that result. I'm always suspicious of small effect sizes even when they are statistically significant. It just seems like so many confounders could bring about the effect. Here I'd wonder if just the mental challenge of achieving that sustained exercise over a whole year was responsible, since generally speaking, any mental challenge you undertake on a regular bases improves overall cognition. They try to argue their way around this: > "Even though the difference is less than a year, prior studies suggest that each additional 'year' of brain age is associated with meaningful differences in later-life health," But it just begs the question, if you think that then go measure those things with your study. Of course I'm not in any way arguing against exercise. Adding at least a baseline level of exercise into your lifestyle is the most impactful health intervention anybody can do after age 40 I believe.
- derektank 9mo ago
  >But it just begs the question, if you think that then go measure those things with your study. Because randomized control, multi-year, longitudinal studies into behavioral interventions in human beings are incredibly annoying and expensive to run if you want to account for the risk of drop outs and/or non-compliance. They hosted twice weekly aerobic exercise classes for the experimental group (dozens of people) for a year! That’s not cheap by any means
- N_Lens 9mo ago
  Many such effects compound with time, and every additional year of regular exercise adds compounding benefits in multiple systems across the physiology.
- thefz 9mo ago
  > Seems like a pretty small effect - if I'm 58 and I have the brain of a 57 year old, and to achieve that I did an entire year of exercise (as was done in this study) ... you'd have to evaluate it against many other things to decide if that was really the easiest way to achieve that result. Man, this website sometimes...
strontium_90 9mo ago
Original study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11888500/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11888500/
vonnik 9mo ago
See Dr Wendy Suzuki’s work: https://www.wendysuzuki.com/exercise-research https://www.wendysuzuki.com/exercise-research
dwd 9mo ago
The 150 minute moderate to vigorous exercise a week comes up a lot, and for a lot of different benefits. There's also heart muscle elasticity: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.117.030617 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.117.0... and reduced dementia risk: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/small-amounts-of-moderate-to-vigorous-physical-activity-are-associated-with-big-reductions-in-dementia-risk https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/small-amounts-of-moderate-...
with 9mo ago
Neat study, but I always chuckle at these, because has there ever been verified science that shows exercise is unhealthy? (besides overtraining) The general consensus should just be exercising is good for you, that's it, done.
- cj 9mo ago
  You could look at the inverse: Not exercising causes the brain to look older. Knowing all of the ways not exercising is harmful is probably a good thing. But I agree, it would be better if everyone exercised!
- port11 9mo ago
  Good point, but has anyone shown that gravity doesn’t work in general relativity conditions? We move the needle of proof, such that the burden to disprove becomes harder. That seems fine by me, it’s nicer and nicer to see the benefits of exercise.
- Enginerrrd 9mo ago
  >... has there ever been verified science that shows exercise is unhealthy? Yes, the extremes of endurance have certainly been shown to have a negative effect on heart health, and possibly also colon health, but the amount of exercise required to get into the danger zone here is so high almost no one that isn't a competitive athlete would achieve it. (Although, amateur marathon runners might.)
- NoPicklez 9mo ago
  And I chuckle at these types of comments. We know that exercise is good for us, but studying it is how we better understand the different ways it is beneficial for us in a controlled setting. I see these comments online a lot, just because something might be common knowledge, doesn't mean we fully understand it, nor should be stop studying it.
tgv 9mo ago
This is from the abstract: Engaging in 12 months of moderate-to-vigorous exercise reduced brain-PAD in early-to-midlife adults. The pathways by which these effects occur remain unknown. They do not make the claim from the title. Given that the effect is small, it might just be that brain-PAD is sensitive to other factors than age, e.g. exercise. As a matter of fact, this study is decent aupport for that hypothesis.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

124 points by amichail 9mo ago

NedF 9mo ago

[dead]

That’s awesome! The benefits of exercise against aging, mental illness, etc are numerous and well documented. Everybody should do it.

Mars008 9mo ago
If that was true athletes would be the youngest, mentally healthiest, and in many other ways better than average. But that's not the case if you look at them. My guess exercise is beneficial only to some level, after that it has a big toll on everything. Including IQ, mental and general health, and so on.
- galleywest200 9mo ago
  Being an athlete and doing maintenance exercises are two different levels of exertion.
- derektank 9mo ago
  >My guess exercise is beneficial only to some level, after that it has a big toll on everything. Including IQ, mental and general health, and so on. What reason do you have for thinking this? As far as I’ve read, there’s no indication that athletes perform worse than the population average on any of these metrics. Athletes outperformed non-athletes on standardized tests in a 2014 study of Texas high schoolers.[1] Professional soccer players/footballers outperform the population average on a variety of cognitive assessments.[2] Sub-4 minute mile runners have better longevity and lower risk of cardiovascular disease than average.[3] With the exception of contact sports like American Football which involve serious risks of injury, I can’t think of any example of elite athletes that are worse off on quality of life metrics than average people. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4831893/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4831893/ [2] https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2415126122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2415126122 [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38729629/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38729629/
- fdsf2 9mo ago
  Mike Ohearn.
- esperent 9mo ago
  It is the case, actually. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025619614005199 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00256... Here's another study, although for some reason it's 95% male, it shows athletic men live an average 3.5 years longer. It also shows athletic women live 0.7 years less, but due to the low number of females in the study I wouldn't read much into that. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11979035/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11979035/
- sfn42 9mo ago
  They are. Fit people are generally just better than unfit people in almost every way. More physically capable, fewer heath issues, more energy, more attractive, more disciplined, more intelligent and so on. Some of those are probably not entirely causal, for example bad health can prevent exercise. Lower intelligence is correlated with obesity. Getting fit takes discipline but it also builds discipline. So yeah I'm pretty sure that if you compare 1000 fit people and 1000 unfit people you'll see a very clear difference in happiness, health, success in life etc. We're not made to be sedentary.
throwaway849830 9mo ago
> Everybody should do it. 34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually. It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I kept going. Big mistake. A few weeks ago I completely crashed with the dizziness and mental exhaustion staying constantly, leaving me unable to do basic things like standing for more than a few minutes at a time. Complete rest helped, after a few weeks I finally start to feel like myself again. Currently seeing doctors and doing a lot of checks, nothing obvious found so far. The only reason I kept pushing is that I was reading everywhere that exercising is this amazing thing that is good for everyone. So at the moment I feel that this messaging should be toned down a bit. PS: Long time HN user, using a throwaway as I don't want health stuff to be tied to me.
- sfn42 9mo ago
  That's not normal. I'm sure your doctor's told you that too. My first thought is that it may just be a severe case of being out of shape, I think you might be able to push through it. You didn't specify how long you kept it up but I would expect it to take at least a few weeks, maybe a few months before you really get up and running. I would suggest that you keep trying, and taking it slower. Maybe instead of running and cycling just walk/hike. I find it much more comfortable to hike. It's also useful to keep track of your pulse. There's a type of training called zone 2 training where the goal is to keep your pulse in "zone 2". That's quite low intensity training, but it's also very effective and much less taxing. Zone 2 depends on your resting and max pulse but it'll be something like 130-160. I can also recommend rock climbing, particularly bouldering is very approachable. And of course weight lifting if that's more to your liking. You don't have to do cardio, there are many ways to be active. I have had some issues with nausea while weightlifting, towards the end of a session I would get really nauseous. However that's just me being out of shape, after a week or two it subsides and it just feels good. I like the feeling of sore muscles. Also, for me, activity is essential. When I'm not active I fall into a deep depression where everything feels harder. When I'm in shape I feel like myself, I have more energy, motivation and discipline, life feels easier. I don't think it's like this for everyone but I do think everyone benefits from exercise. Even if you have to fight through some bad feelings to get going.

slwvx 9mo ago

Can exercise make the face look younger? Or the body? Is exercise the best makeup? ;-)

piker 9mo ago
Running makes you look older, unfortunately.
- lostlogin 9mo ago
  Cycling too. The standard being 20kgs under weight, skin baked like old leather, and a previously broken collar bone. But, nothing beats it.
  - 7777332215 9mo ago
    Wear sunscreen? It's necessary to not age fast if you go outside often. And moisturizer and retinol if you'd like too.
    - lostlogin 9mo ago
      I wish it were that simple. I’m of Scottish and English genes. I wear spf 50 and still get burnt in the savage New Zealand sun. I try to go early.
- eaurouge 9mo ago
  So this is why 30/40 yo track athletes look older than their age mates? Right.
- gherkinnn 9mo ago
  Nonsense. Running at an Olympic level and pushing the boundaries of what we've evolved for might leave its mark. But that is not what is being talked about here.
MattGaiser 9mo ago
There seems to be abundant evidence that exercise is often the best solution for any number of things. The problem is that doing it sucks.

jvfjllkttg 9mo ago

Less wise perhaps.

zmmmmm 9mo ago

> brains that looked nearly a year younger Seems like a pretty small effect - if I'm 58 and I have the brain of a 57 year old, and to achieve that I did an entire year of exercise (as was done in this study) ... you'd have to evaluate it against many other things to decide if that was really the easiest way to achieve that result. I'm always suspicious of small effect sizes even when they are statistically significant. It just seems like so many confounders could bring about the effect. Here I'd wonder if just the mental challenge of achieving that sustained exercise over a whole year was responsible, since generally speaking, any mental challenge you undertake on a regular bases improves overall cognition. They try to argue their way around this: > "Even though the difference is less than a year, prior studies suggest that each additional 'year' of brain age is associated with meaningful differences in later-life health," But it just begs the question, if you think that then go measure those things with your study. Of course I'm not in any way arguing against exercise. Adding at least a baseline level of exercise into your lifestyle is the most impactful health intervention anybody can do after age 40 I believe.

derektank 9mo ago
>But it just begs the question, if you think that then go measure those things with your study. Because randomized control, multi-year, longitudinal studies into behavioral interventions in human beings are incredibly annoying and expensive to run if you want to account for the risk of drop outs and/or non-compliance. They hosted twice weekly aerobic exercise classes for the experimental group (dozens of people) for a year! That’s not cheap by any means
N_Lens 9mo ago
Many such effects compound with time, and every additional year of regular exercise adds compounding benefits in multiple systems across the physiology.
thefz 9mo ago
> Seems like a pretty small effect - if I'm 58 and I have the brain of a 57 year old, and to achieve that I did an entire year of exercise (as was done in this study) ... you'd have to evaluate it against many other things to decide if that was really the easiest way to achieve that result. Man, this website sometimes...

strontium_90 9mo ago

Original study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11888500/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11888500/

vonnik 9mo ago

See Dr Wendy Suzuki’s work: https://www.wendysuzuki.com/exercise-research https://www.wendysuzuki.com/exercise-research

dwd 9mo ago

The 150 minute moderate to vigorous exercise a week comes up a lot, and for a lot of different benefits. There's also heart muscle elasticity: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.117.030617 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.117.0... and reduced dementia risk: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/small-amounts-of-moderate-to-vigorous-physical-activity-are-associated-with-big-reductions-in-dementia-risk https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/small-amounts-of-moderate-...

with 9mo ago

Neat study, but I always chuckle at these, because has there ever been verified science that shows exercise is unhealthy? (besides overtraining) The general consensus should just be exercising is good for you, that's it, done.

cj 9mo ago
You could look at the inverse: Not exercising causes the brain to look older. Knowing all of the ways not exercising is harmful is probably a good thing. But I agree, it would be better if everyone exercised!
port11 9mo ago
Good point, but has anyone shown that gravity doesn’t work in general relativity conditions? We move the needle of proof, such that the burden to disprove becomes harder. That seems fine by me, it’s nicer and nicer to see the benefits of exercise.
Enginerrrd 9mo ago
>... has there ever been verified science that shows exercise is unhealthy? Yes, the extremes of endurance have certainly been shown to have a negative effect on heart health, and possibly also colon health, but the amount of exercise required to get into the danger zone here is so high almost no one that isn't a competitive athlete would achieve it. (Although, amateur marathon runners might.)
NoPicklez 9mo ago
And I chuckle at these types of comments. We know that exercise is good for us, but studying it is how we better understand the different ways it is beneficial for us in a controlled setting. I see these comments online a lot, just because something might be common knowledge, doesn't mean we fully understand it, nor should be stop studying it.

tgv 9mo ago

This is from the abstract: Engaging in 12 months of moderate-to-vigorous exercise reduced brain-PAD in early-to-midlife adults. The pathways by which these effects occur remain unknown. They do not make the claim from the title. Given that the effect is small, it might just be that brain-PAD is sensitive to other factors than age, e.g. exercise. As a matter of fact, this study is decent aupport for that hypothesis.

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]