Study Says That Memory Can Be Developed By Exercise

Exercising to maintain healthy blood sugar levels could be a way of staving off lapses in memory that get more common as people age.

Scientists blame rising blood glucose levels -- in part -- for many age-related memory problems.

This is even true for people without diabetes, researchers of a new study say.

"This is news even for people without diabetes since blood glucose levels tend to rise as we grow older. Whether through physical exercise, diet or drugs, our research suggests that improving glucose metabolism could help some of us avert the cognitive slide that occurs in many of us as we age," lead investigator Dr. Scott A. Small, associate professor of neurology in the Sergievsky Center and in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center, said in a statement.

Small said exercise is effective in lowering blood sugar, and it is beneficial to the part of the brain responsible for memory, the hippocampus