Doing Physical and Mental Exercise When You ’re Younger May Help Ward Off Dementia

This study shows that it seems that mental activity is as important as physical activity to preserve or increase the chances of healthy aging.” Similar studies that have looked at the link between physical or mental activity and dementia have not usually included as long an observation period as the new analysis does. Most of those studies also start with people who were much older and who were potentially already affected by different types of dementia. In her analysis, Najar adjusted for the fact that some of the women in the study might already be experiencing early signs of dementia. She also found that exercise and mental activities lowered dementia risk independently of each other. The benefit of mental activities occurred regardless of how much physical activity the women did. And the same pattern held for exercise; women who were more active experienced benefit no matter how much mental activity they did. The results support the findings of another recent study: that while attaining more education isn’t necessarily linked to a lower risk of dementia, being cognitively active in mid-life and later — when aging-related dementia processes start — could reduce risk. Najar was not able to look at whether women who were highly engaged in both mental and physical activities had an even lower risk of dementia. (It’s possible that they might, she says.) She adds that her study only asked about the women’s activities at one point in time and ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Brain Source Type: news