Get moving: How exercise could slash dementia risk and delay its onset

Exercise has long been praised for its numerous health benefits, from boosting heart health to improving mood. Now, new research suggests that it could also play a key role in reducing the risk of dementia.

While exercise has always been linked to better overall well-being, a recent study highlights the powerful impact that improving cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) can have in protecting against cognitive decline—offering hope for those at risk, including those with a genetic predisposition to the disease.

CRF is the level at which your heart, lungs, and muscles work together when you are exercising for an extended period of time and shows how well your cardiorespiratory system functions, which indicates how physically fit and healthy you are.

Over time, CRF declines increasingly with age as skeletal muscle is lost and lower CRF is a strong predictor of cardiovascular events such as strokes and heart attacks and mortality from all causes.

Researchers looked at how cardiorespiratory fitness interacted with cognitive function and dementia risk by examining data on over 60,000 people aged 39-70 years who enrolled in the UK Biobank study between 2009 and 2010.

The study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine  showed that people with high CRF levels had higher cognitive function and a lower risk of dementia.

“Our study shows that higher CRF is associated with better cognitive function and decreased dementia risk. Moreover, high CRF may buffer the impact of genetic risk of all dementia by 35 per cent,” researchers wrote.

“Enhancing CRF could be a strategy for the prevention of dementia, even among people with a high genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s disease.”

The researchers tested the cognitive scores of participants after each person completed a 6-minute exercise test on a stationary bike that gradually increased in speed and intensity.

They then divided the participants into three equal-sized groups by age and sex according to their CRF scores and analysed their health outcomes after 12 years.

After 12 years, only 553 people or 0.9 per cent of participants had received a dementia diagnosis and, for those for those that did develop dementia, the onset of the disease was delayed by 18 months.

The study is the largest of its kind as research that looks into cognitive function, cardiorespiratory fitness and dementia use much smaller numbers of participants but the researchers do admit the study had limitations, such as that UK Biobank participants are generally healthier than the general population, and that people with certain health conditions were excluded from the exercise test.

Despite these limitations, the results are encouraging and fortunately it is easy to improve your exercise habits with a recent study finding that people who only exercised on the weekends experienced a similar reduction in risk for mild dementia as those who exercised more frequently.

A team of academics from Latin America and Europe looked at the data of 10,033 participants in the Mexico City Prospective Study who were aged 35 years or older and studied their exercise patterns over an average of 16 years.

The team then published their findings in British Journal of Sports Medicine and said their findings suggest that even limited physical activity may offer protective cognitive benefits.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective cohort study to show that the weekend warrior physical activity pattern and the regularly active physical activity pattern are associated with similar reductions in the risk of mild dementia,” they wrote.

“This study has important implications for policy and practice because the weekend warrior physical activity pattern may be a more convenient option for busy people around the world.”

Participants were separated into four groups, firstly those who did not exercise, weekend warriors (one or two sessions per week), those who were regularly active (three or more sessions per week), and a combined group.

Researchers then assessed each individual’s cognitive function with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a set of 11 questions that doctors, and other health professionals use to check for cognitive impairment.

The team found that the risk for mild dementia was between 13 to 25 per cent lower in weekend exercisers, 11 to 12 per cent lower in the regular activity group, and 12 to 16 per cent lower in the two groups combined, compared to participants who did not exercise.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your personal health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalised health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.