Now, a new study has found that doing one thing in particular every day for 20 minutes could significantly reduce your risk of dementia, even if you start later in life.

The latest brain health research comes from a study published on Jan.

They also collected data on each participant's physical activity and movement levels throughout their later phase of life.

Examination of that brain tissue found that those participants who were more active and moved more later in life had higher levels of a protein that has been shown to strengthen the communication between brain cells through synapses, CNN reports.

"The more physical activity, the higher the synaptic protein levels in brain tissue.

This suggests that every movement counts when it comes to brain health," Kaitlin Casaletto, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology in the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California San Francisco, told CNN in an email, adding that her team recommends aiming for 150 min per week—or 20 minutes per day—of physical activity.

The research team's findings focus on an element of brain health concerning the passage of electrical impulses between neurons.

When it comes to slowing or stopping the onset of dementia, the body must repair and replace proteins on synapses in the brain and keep them in the correct proportions.

"Several prior studies consistently show … higher levels of these same synaptic proteins in brain tissue associate with better cognitive performance, independent of plaques and tangles.".

According to experts connected to the study, the research team's finding of a positive correlation between physical activity and protective proteins could be important for addressing dementia in the future.

"We have described, for the first time in humans, that synaptic functioning may be a pathway through which physical activity promotes brain health," she wrote to CNN.

Other research has also recently shed light on how exercising might impact dementia risk over time.