A new study published in Nature Medicine suggests that just a few thousand steps a day could help defend against cognitive decline.

Researchers say older individuals whose brains have started to show signs of the disease but who have not begun to display cognitive symptoms can substantially slow Alzheimer’s development with just 3,000 to 5,000 steps per day.

According to the new findings, this modest amount of daily walking was associated with a three-year slowdown in cognitive decline, on average. Notably, similar people who extended their daily steps to 5,000 to 7,500 were associated with a slowing of the disease’s development by an average of seven years.

Previous studies have connected physical activity to improved brain health. Earlier this year, The Dallas Express reported on a study that found regular aerobic exercise can help reduce the abnormal accumulation of harmful proteins known as amyloid and tau around brain cells.

The latest research reveals how powerful even a small amount of light movement can be.

To conduct the study, the research team initiated regular checks on nearly 300 participants aged 50 to 90, none of whom displayed signs of cognitive decline at the beginning of the assessment period. Over a nearly decade-and-a-half period, the team would periodically examine the participants’ cognitive health, while also tracking their daily steps.

The researchers found that the benefits of taking 3,000 to 7,5000 daily steps were only evident in individuals with high baseline levels of amyloid-β in their brains. Compared to sedentary participants, these individuals experienced a slowing of mental decline ranging from three to seven years.

Specifically, higher levels of physical activity slowed tau accumulation, although the buildup of amyloid-β continued to increase. Kristine Yaffe, a neuroscientist specializing in Alzheimer’s and cognitive aging prevention at the University of California, San Francisco, says the findings suggest “that part of the mechanism underlying the association between physical activity and less Alzheimer’s disease risk relates to tau accumulation,” per Nature.

Participants with low baseline levels of amyloid-β, and therefore low risk of developing Alzheimer’s, did not experience changes in cognitive trajectory with added exercise.