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Alzheimer’s Risk Lowered by Exercise Variety – Not
Intensity
April 14, 2005 - The variety of leisure and
physical activity one engages in -- and not its intensity in terms of
calories expended - may reduce dementia risk in older people, according
to researchers at Johns Hopkins. An association between variety of
activity and dementia risk, however, did not hold up in those with the
so-called APOE-4 genetic predisposition to the disease found in about
one-quarter to one-third of Alzheimer's patients, according to a report
appearing in the April 1, 2005, issue of the American Journal of
Epidemiology.
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Two Recent Studies
Exercise Proves Valuable in Lowering Risk for
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
March 15, 2005 – Two of the diseases most feared by
senior citizens – Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s – may be prevented or
slowed by exercise, according to two recent studies. The Alzheimer’s
study showed that middle-aged people taking regular exercise at least
twice a week could reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease
by 50 percent. The Parkinson’s study found that men who exercised
regularly and vigorously early in their adult life lowered risk for
Parkinson's by as much as 60 percent.
Read more...
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Alzheimer's
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General physical activity is already known to
enhance cardiovascular health and help maintain independence and quality
of life in older people, but the results of this study - which establish
a statistical association, and not a direct cause and effect, between
variety of exercise and reduced dementia risk -- suggest that
participating in a number of different activities may be as or more
important than frequency, duration, and intensity of physical activity
with respect to dementia risk, according to the report.
"We don't yet know why this association exists or
what causes it. It could well be that maintaining a variety of
activities keeps more parts of the brain active, or that this variety
reflects better engagement in both physical and social activities.
Confirmation of this association in future studies may provide an
additional impetus for people to remain or become engaged in several
physical and other leisure activities later in life," says Constantine
G. Lyketsos, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at
Johns Hopkins and senior author on the report.
The study included 3,375 men and women age 65 years
or older who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study
from 1992 to 2000 and who did not have dementia at the onset of the
study. Each study volunteer was asked to fill out a questionnaire about
the frequency and duration of the 15 most common types of physical
activity in older adults, including walking, household chores, mowing,
raking, gardening, hiking, jogging, biking, exercise cycling, dancing,
aerobics, bowling, golfing, general exercise and swimming. The
researchers then created an activity index, calculated as the number of
different activities each subject participated in over the previous two
weeks. Other measurements, including APOE gentotype, age, gender,
education level, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol use, and other physical and
mental health-related history, were also considered in the study.
[NEWS/_adstuff/AD-Links-Sections/AlzheimersButton.htm]The researchers found 480 new cases of dementia
over an average of 5.4 years of follow-up. Among these, dementia
occurred less frequently in those participating in more activities
relative to those who participated in fewer activities (one or no
activity had 130 cases, two activities had 152 cases, three activities
had 113 cases, four or more activities had 84 cases). The association
held true for all types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease and
vascular dementia. The association did not hold true for those who have
the APOE-4 genotype.
"These findings, taken together with recent
findings from our colleagues at the University of Chicago studying
physical activity and plaque buildup in the brains of mice with
Alzheimer's (published this year in the journal Cell) provide a good
picture from basic and clinical science of how activity and exercise
work to reduce the risk of dementia," says Lyketsos.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, dementia
is a group of diseases that all gradually destroy brain cells and lead
to progressive decline in mental function. An estimated 4.5 million
Americans have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia.
The number of American's with Alzheimer's disease has more than doubled
since 1980 and is projected to reach 11.3 to 16 million by the year
2050.
Other authors of the report are Laura Jean Podewils,
Eliseo Gualler, Linda Fried and Michelle Carson of Johns Hopkins, and
Lewis H. Kuller and Oscar L. Lopez of the University of Pittsburg. The
research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and
the National Institute on Aging.
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