Resistance exercise improves cognitive and brain health in overweight older adults

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Approximately 50% of Canadian older adults over the age of 60 are overweight or obese (based on body mass index; BMI). Individuals with high BMI (≥25) often experience cognitive and brain deficits (e.g., impaired memory, cortical atrophy, reduced neural activation), and are at high risk of dementia. One promising lifestyle intervention that may improve these deficits is exercise. For example, 6 months of aerobic training has been found to improve cognitive and brain function in overweight older adults, however studies examining whether resistance training (RT) can produce comparable results in this population is limited.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>We conducted a 6‐month, thrice‐weekly randomized controlled trial of RT in overweight older adults. Twenty‐four participants aged 60‐80 (sedentary; BMI ≥25) were randomized into one of two groups: 1) progressive resistance (weight) training, or 2) balance and tone (BAT; control; stretching exercises). At pre‐ and post‐intervention (0 and 6 months, respectively), we measured associative memory performance during functional MRI, and obtained high resolution T1 weighted structural images from a 3T scanner.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Result</jats:title><jats:p>Six months of RT showed significant improvements in memory performance (6.38% reduced error rate) compared to BAT. Similarly, structural imaging showed increased hippocampal volume for RT (+0.04%) as well as increased percent signal change (neural activation) in memory‐related brain regions of interest, including the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and medial temporal gyrus, suggesting improved functional brain health overtime.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Overall, our findings offer a feasible, cost‐efficient lifestyle intervention strategy to improve cognitive and brain health in overweight older adults.</jats:p></jats:sec>