To prevent Alzheimer stay reasonably fit

852

Washington, March 17 (TNS): Women who were reasonably fit when they were middle-aged were much less likely to develop dementia than women who struggled to exercise even a little bit, researchers reported Wednesday.

The fittest women were 90 percent less likely to later develop dementia than those who were the least fit, the team at Gothenburg University in Sweden found. In this case, being highly fit meant everyday exercisers, not athletes. The study suggests not only that exercise can prevent dementia, but probably also shows that people destined to develop dementia are already showing some physical symptoms decades earlier. These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people’s cardiovascular fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia,” said Helena Hörder of the University of Gothenburg. “However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia.

The findings fit in with a growing body of evidence that exercise can preserve brain cells and might prevent dementia, or at least delay it. You don’t need to be a marathoner to achieve the ‘highest’ level of fitness described in this study. You don’t need to be a marathoner to achieve the ‘highest’ level of fitness described in this study. And they were not talking about super-fitness, but a very average ability to ride a bike for a few minutes, said Laura Baker of the Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina, who is conducting her own studies into fitness and dementia. You can hear yourself breathing and you are starting to sweat and your heart rate is just getting up,  said Baker, who was not involved in the Swedish research.