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HEALTH NEWS
Can exercise turn back the clock on your brain? New study says yes
Why leaving things unfinished messes with your mind
Short-term, calorie-restrictive diet improves Crohn’s disease symptoms
Higher daylight exposure improves cognitive performance, study finds
Breastfeeding may lower mums’ later life depression/anxiety risks for up to 10 years after pregnancy
Can exercise turn back the clock on your brain? New study says yes
AdventHealth Research Institute, January 13 2026 (Eurekalert)
A simple, steady exercise routine may help your brain stay biologically younger, supporting clearer thinking, stronger memory, and a greater sense of whole-person well-being.
The study found that adults who followed a year-long aerobic exercise program had brains that appeared nearly a year “younger” than those who didn’t change their activity levels.
Published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, the study explored whether regular aerobic exercise could slow, or even reverse “brain age,” a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based biomarker of how old your brain looks compared to your actual age. A higher brain-predicted age difference (brain-PAD), indicates an older-appearing brain and has been linked to poorer physical and cognitive function and increased risk of mortality in previous research.
In this clinical trial, 130 healthy adults aged 26–58 were randomly assigned to either a moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise group or a usual-care control group. The exercise group completed two supervised 60-minute sessions per week in a laboratory plus home-based exercise to reach about 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week, aligning with the American College of Sports Medicine’s physical activity guidelines. Brain MRI and cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), were assessed at the beginning and end of the 12-month period.
Over 12 months, participants in the exercise group showed a measurable reduction in brain age, while the control group showed a slight increase. On average, the exercise group’s brain-PAD decreased by about 0.6 years, indicating a younger-appearing brain at follow-up. In contrast, the control group’s brains appeared about 0.35 years older, a change that was not statistically significant. Overall, the between-group difference in brain age was nearly one year, favoring the exercise group.
Why leaving things unfinished messes with your mind
Yale University, January 12 2026 (Medical Xpress)
In a new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Yale professor of psychology Brian Scholl and lab members explored why humans so badly want to finish what we've started—in matters great and small.
It turns out the brain just doesn't like dangling threads.
The researchers had a hunch that visual clues could help explain the lure of
