Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recently completed a study that appeared in the National Academy of Sciences.

The study involved 120 sedentary people, ages 55 to 80 who were divided into two groups.  Half the group began a walking program (40 minutes a day, three days a week)  to increase their heart rate.  The others only did stretching and toning exercises.

The region of the brain involving memory tends to shrink slightly with age…something that continued to happen in the group that only did stretching. The people who participated in the walking program reportedly experienced brain growth of roughly 2 percent.

Read more about this interesting study through this link.