Exercise Benefits Physical and Brain Health for People with Down Syndrome – Recent Research

It is known that physical exercise has many benefits when it comes to cognitive functions, such as: memory improvement AND ability to concentrateResearch shows that this is true for People in many different age groupsand even in people with diseases that affect their cognitive abilities (such as Alzheimer’s disease).

Until recently, however, it was not known whether exercise also has a beneficial effect on the cognitive functions of people with Down syndrome, a genetic condition that affects development and learning.

Our study aimed to discover whether a prescribed walking program could improve both the physical and cognitive health of people with Down syndrome. We found that exercising several times a week not only improved the physical health of people with Down syndrome, but also improved their cognitive functions.

Evaluated changes

This MinDSets study was a collaboration between our research team at Anglia Ruskin University and the Canadian Down Syndrome Society. We recruited 83 participants (43 men and 40 women) from North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Participants were aged 19 to 42. Participants were given activity monitors to measure their physical and cognitive health throughout the eight-week study period.

Physical fitness was assessed at the beginning and end of the study using six minute walk testThe further distance a participant was able to cover in six minutes, the better his or her physical fitness was.

Cognitive health was assessed using series of tests in which short-term memory, concentration, decision-making ability and decision-making speed were examined.

The participants were then divided into four different groups. The first group took a 30-minute walk three times a week. The second group did 20 minutes of brain-training games six days a week. The third group did both the walk and the brain-training games. The last group was the control group – meaning they did nothing and stuck to their usual routine.

The group that walked three times a week increased their walking distance by almost 10%. The combined group that received both the walking intervention and the brain training improved their walking distance by 12%. There was no change in walking distance in either the brain training or control group.

In terms of cognitive function, the brain-training group, the exercise group, and the combination group all showed improvements in cognitive test scores. But we were surprised to find that the exercise group and the combination group actually showed greater improvements in cognitive test scores than the brain-training group—particularly in tests measuring decision-making speed and response accuracy.

These results suggest that exercise alone can support improve both physical health and cognitive function in people with Down syndrome. However, combining regular exercise with brain training may provide the greatest gains in physical fitness and brain health.

This was a novel study in its design, as all participants and their caregivers were data collectors. This approach means that there is a greater potential for bias compared to if the data were collected in a laboratory. However, looking at a group as huge as ours ensured that the results were more reflective of the Down syndrome population as a whole.

Walking and Brain Health

Walking is complex taskActivates multiple areas of the brain to direct and regulate movement stability and coordination.

Every step you take generates a stream of information in your brain – and this information is constantly monitored to ensure the body can easily adapt to conditions (e.g. uneven road).

Walking, then, requires a lot of cognitive power. For the participants in our study, walking required them to focus on the task at hand, forcing them to develop attention and concentration skills during the exercise. These are transferable skills to everyday life, so when cognitive tests were administered, the participants were able to utilize these skills—especially in tasks that required sustained attention.

The next step for research in this area will be to focus on what impact more intricate exercises (e.g. dancing) may have on cognitive functions.

Our research shows that for people with Down syndrome, something as elementary and accessible as walking can have a significant impact on both their physical and cognitive health.

This is significant because people with Down syndrome are at greater risk some diseasesMany people with Down syndrome often not enough recommended minimum activity levels, which may further enhance the risk of health deterioration.