Exercising on treadmill helped stroke survivors improve their mobility and physical conditioning by rewriting parts of the brain, a new study suggest.

The study involved 71 people who had suffered a stroke an average of four years earlier. Researchers at the University of Maryland and Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center compared the brain and physical function of 37 people who had had strokes and worked on a treadmill three times a week, with 34 people who were given traditional stretching exercises.

The average age of study participants was 63, and the average time they began the treadmill program was 50 months after the stroke.

After six months, the treadmill walkers improved their walking speed by 51 percent compared to 11 percent for the stretching group. In the treadmill walkers, the scans detected increased activation in brain areas associated with controlling gait and walking, including the cerebellum and midbrain, the researchers said.

"Some of these people were actually in a wheelchair when they started, and a lot were using canes and walkers," said Dr. Daniel Hanley, a neurology professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore who helped lead the study, whose findings were published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

He also said that some were able to give these up or lessen their dependence on them after the treadmill use. This is important because stroke survivors' immobility can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The study concludes that treadmill work "should be part of standard treatment for every stroke survivor who has a walking habit," researchers said.