{"id":65752,"date":"2025-05-01T13:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T13:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/65752\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T13:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T13:17:07","slug":"ramp-up-exercise-at-this-age-to-decrease-dementia-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/65752\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramp Up Exercise At This Age To Decrease Dementia Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s very hard to prove a causal relationship between lifestyle factors like diet and dementia \u2013 but Alzheimer\u2019s Society says<\/a> that when it comes to not exercising, \u201cevidence is strong enough to show that it increases a person\u2019s risk of developing dementia.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those who take regular physical activity are as much as 20% less<\/a> likely to develop the condition, they say, adding that \u201cthe effect of exercise in middle-aged or older adults\u201d on dementia risk is especially well-documented.<\/p>\n

And now, a new study<\/a> has pinpointed what may be the \u201cmost important\u201d age to ramp up your physical activity.<\/p>\n

At what age should I increase my exercise?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A paper published in the journal Alzheimer\u2019s & Dementia<\/a> found that an increase in physical activity between the ages of 45 and 65 may be especially useful when preventing dementia. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe conducted a four-year follow-up of middle-aged residents of Catalonia with a family history of Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d M\u00fcge Ak\u0131nc\u0131, the first author of the paper, shares<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe used physical activity questionnaires to assess changes in activity over a four-year period and neuroimaging tests to analyse the effects of exercise on brain structure and function,\u201d the researcher added. <\/p>\n

The scientists classified their 337 participants from the ALFA+ longitudinal cohort into three groups; adherent (meaning they met WHO physical activity guidelines<\/a>), non-adherent (active, but not quite meeting those guidelines) and sedentary (no physical activity). <\/p>\n

People who upped their physical activity to meet WHO guidelines<\/a> (150-300 minutes of moderate activity a week or 75-150 minutes of vigorous activity) from a \u201cnon-adherent\u201d or \u201csedentary\u201d status had less beta-amyloid accumulation than those who were sedentary or didn\u2019t change their exercise level.<\/p>\n

Their brains were also thicker in the parts of our mind responsible for memory (medial temporal area). <\/p>\n

Beta-amyloid plaque accumulation and a thinner medial temporal area are both associated with the onset of dementia.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t even have to meet every guideline to see benefits <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEven those who did less physical activity than recommended had greater cortical thickness than sedentary people, suggesting that any amount of exercise, no matter how minimal, has health benefits,\u201d M\u00fcge Ak\u0131nc\u0131 says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings reinforce the importance of promoting physical activity in middle age as a public health strategy for Alzheimer\u2019s prevention,\u201d Eider Arenaza-Urquijo, a lead investigator of the study, adds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is not, of course, a sign to neglect exercise until then. Sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss that has been linked to dementia<\/a>, begins as early as 30. <\/p>\n

But this research adds to the ever-growing pile of research<\/a> suggesting the importance of lifestyle changes in midlife in preventing dementia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s very hard to prove a causal relationship between lifestyle factors like diet and dementia \u2013 but Alzheimer\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[425,1630,105,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-65752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-dementia","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114432773044922801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}