The saying, “A sound mind in a sound body,” has been around for centuries. In a recent Swedish study devised to answer this age-old theory, 1,221,727 men who were born between the ages of 1950 and 1976 were examined. All of the men in the study had entered into the military at the age of 18 due to Swedish law.
The study found that cardiovascular exercise was associated with overall intelligence, but that didn’t hold true for muscle strength and brainpower. In an article written by Charles Q. Choi in LiveScience, the study further showed that cardiovascular fitness was also linked with scores on tests of logical, verbal, technical and visuospatial capabilities and even socioeconomic status and educational attainment later in life.
Choi quoted Georg Kuhn, a neuroscientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden: “The findings can be used to argue for a more balanced school curriculum. It is a better argument for school kids to grasp that they can be more successful in life if they study and exercise, than telling them that, with regular exercise, their chance for Alzheimer’s disease after they are 60 years old will decrease by X percent.”
