Press Release

Will fitness stall dementia?

SEATTLE - Netscape News noted the first sign of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, may not be mental decline. Instead, it's quite likely to be physical decline, especially difficulty walking and maintaining balance.

That's the word from University of Washington researchers, who studied 2,288 elderly people. Declining physical symptoms were tied to an increased risk of developing dementia. What everyone thinks of as a brain ailment may actually be linked to physical fitness.

Here's the good news: Regular exercise may help stall the progression of dementia and even reduce the risk of ever getting it, an idea supported by previous research. Exercise serves as a protector by boosting blood flow to the brain.

Using a variety of standardized tests, researchers assessed physical and cognitive function of 2,288 men and women in the Seattle area 65 or older. They monitored them every two years for six years, looking for signs of physical and mental decline. None of the participants had signs of dementia when the research began. After six years, 319 participants had developed dementia, 221 of whom had Alzheimer's. The men and women who had scores at the beginning of the study indicating good physical performance were three times less likely to develop dementia than those who had poor scores.

The first indicators of developing dementia were difficulty walking and maintaining balance. A weak handgrip may be a later sign of dementia in older people. "Everyone had expected the earliest signs of dementia would be subtle cognitive changes. We were surprised to find that physical changes can precede declines in thinking," study leader Dr. Eric Larson stated. "These results suggest that in aging, there's a close link between the mind and body. Physical and mental performance may go hand in hand, and anything you can do to improve one is likely to improve the other."

If people notice they’re starting to decline physically, engaging in physical activity may help stop or slow this decline and reduce their risk of dementia. The study appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine.