Research from the University of Edinburgh and the University of California has found that exercise by the over 70s can prevent dementia. They found that older people that stayed active avoided the kind of memory loss problems that can affect people as they enter old age.
It appears that the brains of people who continue to move their bodies as they get older do not shrink. This means that they improve their chances of avoiding conditions such as dementia.
The exercise you do does not have to be too strenuous. You might suffer from a bit of knee pain but you only have to go for a short walk every day to keep that old brain together. It seems that if you keep your body in good shape the old grey matter stays fit as well.
The Study
The researchers explain in the journal Neurology how they performed the study and reached their conclusion.
For instance, the team in Scotland took a group of nearly 700 volunteers in the Lothian district who were born in 1936. In 2006 when they hit the magic milestone of 70 they asked the volunteers questions about the level of physical activity they did on a regular basis.
Three years later they gave them all an MRI scan to see how their brains, and particularly the memory, had been affected by the amount of activity they did. They took into account how fit the people would have been when they were younger and how this would affect the study.
It was noted the fitter people returned healthier brain scans. We all want to protect our brains from deterioration. It is not as if we can just get out the first aid kit when our minds start to go. If we hurt our ankle we can wear an ankle support if dementia sets in there is not a lot we can do.
Those over 90
The Americans studied people who were really old. They concentrated on the over 90s and above age group to see how keeping fit affected their brains.
They arranged for around 600 of these venerable nonagenarians and 31 centenarians to perform a number of exercises. They asked them to walk 4 metres, to stand and balance for 10 seconds as well as to perform timed chair stands.
It seems that the less physically able were also more likely to suffer from dementia. They reckoned that they were thirty times more likely to suffer from this debilitating illness than their fitter counterparts.
So keeping yourself fit will not only keep your heart and body healthy but you will mean your brain is tickety-boo as well. By moving about you can avoid problems such as diabetes and heart disease. It is worth keeping your body fit but if it is good for your brain as well then you should make sure that you keep yourself active.
Over half a million people in the UK currently suffer from dementia. That figure is going to rise over the next few decades unless people start to get off the sofa and get in to the gym.