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Posted on 12/10/2013 7:23:52 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Regular exercise can play a significant role in reducing the risk of dementia, according to new a major new study by Cardiff University.
The research, which followed the health habits of more than 2,200 men aged 45-59 in Caerphilly over a 35-year-period, looked at the impact of five healthy behaviours that are integral to healthy ageing.
These included taking regular exercise such as walking two or more miles to work each day, cycling ten or more miles to work each day or "vigorous" exercise as a regular habit, not smoking, a low body weight, a healthy diet and a low alcohol intake.
The team found that those who consistently followed four or five of these behaviours experienced a 60% decline in dementia and cognitive decline – with exercise being the strongest mitigating factor – as well as 70% fewer instances of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, compared with people who followed none.
The study, which is the longest of its kind to probe the influence of environmental factors in chronic disease, adds to the growing body of evidence of a strong link between living a healthy lifestyle and an increased likelihood of a disease-free life.
(Excerpt) Read more at walesonline.co.uk ...
Once their physical ailments made it very difficult for them to be physically active they deteriorated mentally.
Social interaction is critical too.
Well, it hasn’t helped my dementia.
^^^^
That you can remember.
Correlation is not causation.
It’s fully possible that rather than exercise reducing dementia, that there is some common mechanism that increases dementia and makes exercise more difficult.
That is, rather than A => B, C => A and C => B.
One likely suspect? Insulin resistance.
The cases I am referring to involve arthritis with overweight as the start leading to strokes or heart attacks and or broken bones,
The dementia clearly lagged in time multiple physical problems that forced reduction in physical activity.
Ambiguity in cause and effect is resolved by order in time.
again I would add isolation as a partial cause.
A good reason to get out and walk.
Aging can be very cruel. It turns many people into very different personalities than the ones most people knew all their lives, most cases for the worst.
Maybe. I know my mother came down with dementia six months before she died at the age of 85. She did little exercising other than cleaning the house after she turned 60. (Of course, taking care of my father who outlived her was a big chore.) I don’t know if regular exercise would have prolonged her life much.
Which only indicates that the process that leads from our hypothetical actual cause to dementia takes longer than than the process that leads to physical problems.
There's a reason Alzheimer's is being called "Type 3 Diabetes".
correlation plus order= cause and effect
well I think it is s good idea to exercise, but if that is what makes us better in old age, why was Ronald Reagan so sick? He was chopping wood during every vacation, riding horses (takes a lot of leg strength) and despite his naps, had a grueling daily agenda as Prez.
It helps me find Welsh scientists too? Far out...
It doesn't guarantee that people dont get cancer or heart attacks either.
Reagan was years younger than my grandmother (born years after her) but his special condition was noticed ~ 1992 when he was only 81. Something different is going on with those cases.
Hell my Grandmotheers physical conditions didnt really limit her movements till she was in late 80s and mental deterioration slowly followed and got worse and worse as her movements became less and less.
If A causes B, after a 10 year delay, and A causes C after a 20 year delay, then you’d see a correlation between B and C with B always happening first. But that does not mean that B causes C.
Historically, medicine draws the incorrect conclusion from epidemiological evidence about 85% of the time.
There’s two other related issues to the specific situation I am talking about
1) Isolation (little social interaction)
2) Depression (”My life will just get worse than this’)
There is no easy fix.
The team found that those who consistently followed four or five of these behaviours experienced a 60% decline in dementia and cognitive decline."
They also found that people who consistently followed the fifth behavior had higher cognitive capacity but fewer friends to share it with.
lol!
That's not as easy as it sounds. Welsh scientists are crafty little buggers and are well-known for being elusive. A person with dementia would be hard pressed to find one.
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