Walks help brain function

Walking six miles a week may help prevent the brain shrinking in old age and preserve memory.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburg studied 299 healthy older people who recorded the distances they walked in a week.

Nine years later, the volunteers were given scans to measure their brain size. After another four years they were tested to see if they were suffering from mental decline or dementia.

The first test showed people who walked six to nine miles per week had more grey matter in their brains than those who did not. Grey matter is the cell bodies of neurons, rather than the fibres that transmit signals.