Want to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease? Turns out just exercising for one hour a week could reduce your risk by up to 50 percent.
The new research, published in the health journal Lancet Neurology, reveals which lifestyle factors can either decrease or increase a person’s dementia risk–and exercise is at the top of this list.
“We were surprised that [we] were able to see a clear difference already after two years,” says Dr. Miia Kivipelto, a researcher from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. “We thought that two years may not be enough, but the multi-domain approach seems to be an effective way to doing something to protect memory.”
Examining older Finnish adults with risk factors for dementia, Kivipelto specifically recruited adults who participated in the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability, or FINGER. After evaluating their risk factors for dementia, such as their age, health of their heart, and a family history of the disease, Kivipelto then randomly assigned half of the group to undergo a lifestyle makeover, which included individualized and group nutrition advice, medications, and regular exercise with a certified trainer. The other group, however, only received a minimum amount of health support.
This continued for two years until Kivipelto ended the program–but the results were already clear. In just two years, those who had exercised regularly were significantly healthier and faced a reduced risk of dementia. Furthermore, exercise helped decrease other risk factors correlated with Alzheimer’s disease, such as obesity, and high blood pressure. In fact, both health problems increased the risk of this disease by up to 61 percent.
But exercising for just one hour a week cut their risk in half–not a small number by any means.
And while researchers note that exercising for an hour per week may be enough to lower your Alzheimer’s disease risk, their research also showed that those who did not exercise for 30 minutes five times a week were also 82 percent more likely to develop dementia.
Obviously, exercise is essential if you want to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s.
“These findings show that prevention is possible, and that it may be good to start early,” says Kivipelto. “With so many negative trials for Alzheimer’s drugs reported lately, it’s good that we may have something that everyone can do now to lower their risk.”
What You Should Do
If you face a higher risk of dementia, then luckily you don’t need to swallow a cocktail of drugs to lower your risk now, according to Kivipelto’s research. Instead, increase your exercise level. Just exercising for one hour a week may be enough to reduce your Alzheimer’s disease risk–but to really minimize this risk, aim to exercise for 30 minutes a day 5 days a week, the amount recommend by most health organizations.
Readers: How often do you exercise? Do you think you need to exercise more?
Sources:
Alzheimer’s Risk Cut n Half by Exercising For an Hour a Week – NationalPost.com
To Prevent Dementia Diet and Exercise and Effective, Large Study Shows – TIME.com
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