If this doesn’t encourage you to squeeze in a workout today, nothing will: a new study from Sweden shows that women who were highly fit in mid-life are nearly 90% less likely to get dementia decades later. After initial exercise tests in middle age, researchers followed the women for 44 years. Both groups lived just as long, but those who could ride an exercise bike at a fast rate for 6 minutes in the initial test had a much lower risk of dementia later on than those who couldn’t complete the workout.
It’s long been known there’s a correlation between exercise and decreased dementia risk — but the results were particularly dramatic. About 5% of the women with the highest peak workload — those who were able to bike the hardest over those 6 minutes — developed dementia, compared to 25% of those with medium fitness and 45% who weren’t fit enough to finish the test, the study found. Overall, women who were highly fit compared to those who were moderately fit decreased their risk of dementia by 88%. The few highly fit women who did develop dementia became symptomatic at age 90 on average, 11 years later than the moderately fit.
“I’m very surprised that the finding was so strong,” said Ingmar Skoog, the paper’s senior author and a psychiatry professor at The University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “It really shows the importance of exercise.”
Alzheimer’s and other dementias are believed to begin 15-20 years before symptoms even appear, so it makes sense that exercising in mid-life would affect the risk, Skoog said. Exercise alone is not likely to prevent Alzheimer’s, but the study shows people are not helpless in the face of one of the most feared, costliest and common diseases of old age, he added.
And the same activities that help prevent Alzheimer’s — including avoiding smoking, adequate exercise and sleep and eating a healthy diet — also prevent cardiovascular disease, he said, making them even more worthwhile. “You can do something yourself to decrease your odds,” Skoog said.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in mid-life, decades before disease sets in, makes sense, said David Knopman, a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, who was not involved in the study. “I suspect it’s a dose,” he said. “Starting in late life is better than not starting at all, but starting in mid-life seems to confer a larger benefit.”
“(When) the brain is healthier from a vascular point of view, it can absorb more Alzheimer’s pathology before people become symptomatic,” Knopman said. The message isn’t that everyone needs to run marathons in middle age, he added, but a healthy lifestyle pays off.
“The literature has not yet settled on an amount or type of exercise that is going to be key, although the bulk of literature has suggested that aerobic exercise is what you need to be doing,” he said. That doesn’t mean you have to compete in triathlons but “more than a 10-min dog walk” would be a good idea, said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach at the non-profit Alzheimer’s Association.
But it’s already quite clear that exercising at any point in life is better for your brain than not exercising at all, said Fargo. “If you don’t want to have dementia when you’re 80, the time to start getting fit is now,” he said. “It may not necessarily give you longer life, but there’s a compelling body of work that it will give you more good years.”
While the study was tracking women, exercise, no doubt, benefits men in similar ways.
“The proper exercise of mind and body will develop and strengthen all the powers. Both mind and body will be preserved, and will be capable of doing a variety of work. Healthful Living, page 136.
Nature Knows Best!