Exercise – the Gift that Keeps Giving
When you are picturing your retirement, sitting back on a beach enjoying your golden years with your life partner, you can rest assured that working out in the gym today is reducing your chances of thinking “where the hell am I and who the hell are you?
We all know that exercising has great benefits both in terms of health and to how you look and feel.
And to make sense of my first statement, exercise has actually been found to cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia later in life, particularly for those more susceptible to the disorders.
Research at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and found that people in mid-life who exercise at least twice a week have about a 60% lower risk of developing dementia than more sedentary people.
“This is the first study to show this long-term relationship between physical activity and dementia later in life,” said Miia Kivipelto, of the Institute’s Ageing Research Centre.
The research found the biggest impact was in people with a family history of dementia.
“Physical activity had an even more pronounced effect among those with the ’susceptibility gene’ apoE4, the most important risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” Dr Kivipelto said.
Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly. There is no cure for the progressive illness, which robs people of their memory and mental ability, although drugs may slow its early progression.
The researchers found no link between the amount of exercise and the degree of reduced risk, and admit they do not know exactly how exercise decreases the risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s. They suspect that it could be due to a direct effect on the brain and its messaging system, and because exercise helps improve blood flow to the brain.- Adam