Exercise is good medicine for boosting memory and thinking skills, new guidelines say

Exercising twice a week may help people with mild cognitive impairment, according to new advice from the American Academy of Neurology. The experts on brain health are out with new guidelines that say exercising twice a week may help preserve memory and thinking skills in people with mild cognitive impairment. What’s more, “exercise also has general health benefits and generally limited risk.” If the evidence to back exercise sounds thin, consider what the experts said they know for sure: You can’t medicate your way to better brain health, and you can’t count on food to boost your cognitive skills either. The new guidelines don’t include recommendations for specific kinds of exercise that would help people with MCI.