Beginning Exercise in Late Life Can Regain a Portion of Lost Cognitive Function

In this modern age of transport machinery, desk jobs, and idle leisure, few people exercise as much as they should. A perhaps surprisingly large fraction of the physical and mental decline characteristic of later life is the result of an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. One doesn't have to look much further than a comparison with physically active hunter-gatherer populations to see as much. As a result, exercise looks like a therapy in the context of an older, sedentary population, an intervention that can reverse aspects of aging to some degree. Yet consider that a cessation of neglect always looks good in comparison to continued neglect. Better not to become sedentary in the first place, given the serious risks to long-term health that arise as a result. The study involved 160 people with an average age of 65 and risk factors for heart disease, such as hypertension, who did not have dementia but reported problems with thinking skills. All participants were identified as having cognitive impairments without dementia and were sedentary at the start of the study. Researchers examined the effects of both exercise and diet, specifically the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which is a low sodium, high fiber diet rich in fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, low fat dairy products, whole grains, and lean meats. The DASH diet was designed specifically for individuals with high blood pressure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four grou...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs