Why cycling to work is better for your brain than walking
Kieran Burns was looking for ways to improve his fitness a few years ago when he noticed the tower block he worked in at Barangaroo provided shower facilities and bike storage in the basement. A keen cyclist, he started riding to work – and he has been using pedal power to get to the office ever since.
“I don’t really have the willpower to maintain going to the gym,” the 47-year-old father of two says. “This is better for me because it’s building exercise into the day.”
A few years, and a new job later, Burns now makes the 15-minute ride from his home in Hurlstone Park to the offices of Carter Williamson, the Summer Hill architectural practice where works. It’s a shorter run than his old route into the city, but taking the bike is now his preferred mode of transport.
Kieran Burns cycles to work from Hurlstone Park to Summer Hill on his folding bike, which packs up for storage at his destination.Credit: Nick Moir
“It’s a good way to start the day as opposed to sitting on public transport, and even better than walking to work because you are not in your own head so much,” he says. “You need an awareness [on the roads], but you don’t have the issues that come with driving, like the frustrations of parking or the cost of fuel – or dealing with parking fines.”
While the cardiovascular benefits of bike riding have been understood for some time, a new study released today reveals that riding a bike to work may have long term cognitive benefits, specifically for the onset of dementia.
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The Active Travel Mode and Incident Dementia and Brain Structure study, conducted by an international team at The University of Sydney and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, reviewed data from 479,723 people over a 13-year period, including data from the UK Biobank. It concluded that cycling to work or “mixed cycling” (a combination of cycling with another form of transport) was associated with a lower incidence of “all-cause” dementia, including young onset and late onset dementia.
Published in the JAMA Network Open journal, the peer-reviewed study showed cycling was associated with lower levels of dementia onset than other forms of transport, including taking public transport, driving a car – and walking.
“Compared to those who had a non-active commute such as driving, walking was not found to help reduce dementia risk, but mixed walking did see a slight reduction,” the study said. “The team says previous research generally supports exercise in improving dementia, but the current results suggest that the exercise, combined with the additional mental stimulation that comes with the ‘mixed’ activities, could be contributing to the reduced risk in this case.”
