Sports, generally speaking, is good for your brain, right? Well, yes, but the environment in which you exercise might determine just how good it is. According to recent research, those who engage in intensive physical activities such as running or competitive sports in places with higher levels of air pollution may gain less from such exercise in terms of brain health. Among the indicators studied in the research were white matter hyperintensities, which indicates harm to the brain’s white matter, and grey matter volume. Gray matter volumes that are larger and white matter hyperintensity levels that are lower are indicators of overall better brain health.
Shutterstock
“Vigorous activity may increase exposure to air pollution, and previous research has shown that air pollution has negative effects on the brain,” said study author Melissa Furlong, Ph.D. of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Incredibly, in places with the most significant levels of air pollution, some of the favorable benefits of strenuous physical exercise vanished. That is not to argue that individuals should refrain from exercising. Overall, the impact of air pollution on brain health was moderate – nearly half the effect of one year of aging – but the benefits of vigorous exercise on brain health were considerably more significant – almost comparable to being three years younger.
The research looked at 8,600 people from the UK Biobank, a central biological database, with an average age of 56 years old. People’s exposure to pollution, such as nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (liquid or solid particles suspended in the air), was calculated using land-use regression. A land-use regression analysis analyses air pollution levels based on air monitors and land-use features such as transportation, agricultural, and industrial air pollution sources.
Shutterstock
The participants’ exposure to air pollution was divided into four equal groups, ranging from the least to the most. Each person’s physical activity was tracked for one week using an accelerometer, a movement-detecting gadget that they wore. The researchers next classified their physical activity patterns based on how much strenuous physical exercise individuals received each week, which ranged from none to 30 minutes or more.
People who had the most strenuous physical activity each week had 800 cm3 grey matter volume on average, compared to 790 cm3 grey matter volume in people who didn’t get any strenuous exercise. Researchers discovered that exposure to air pollution did not influence the effects of physical exercise on grey matter volume. When looking at white matter hyperintensities, researchers discovered that exposure to air pollution affected the impact of strenuous physical activity. After controlling for age, gender, and other factors, researchers found that intense physical exercise decreased white matter hyperintensities in low-pollution regions but not in high-pollution ones.
Shutterstock
The study’s weakness is that it only examined air pollution levels for one year, which might fluctuate from year to year. The National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Arizona Department of Health Services, and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation provided funding for the research.
