I once wrote about exercising your brain because I had heard that the brain was like a muscle. New research results from a European study indicates that exercising your muscles can keep your brain from losing its cognitive abilities.

The 290 participants, all men, were between the ages of 70 and 90 when the study began in 1990. They were asked about such physical activities as walking, gardening, bicycling, and sports.

Ten years later, the researchers found that the reduction in mental ability, as measured by a standardized test, was 2.6 times greater in the men who reduced their activity by an hour or more a day compared to those who maintained their activity level.

No decline in mental ability was found in men who stepped up their physical activity.

If you need to maintain your physical activity, does that mean you could maintain the activity level of a sloth for 10 years and not lose any mental ability? I’m guessing there has to be some semblance of activity to begin with.