The Heart–Brain Health Connection: Exercise in Middle Age May Prevent Dementia

We already knew exercise has many benefits, such as reducing serious disease risks including cancer. A new study showed that high cardiovascular fitness in middle-aged women may reduce later dementia risk by up to 90 percent.

These strong findings are both surprising and encouraging. Appropriate exercise can improve middle-aged people’s cardiovascular healthand may delay or even prevent dementia.

Dementia involves declining mental functions and abilities, but is not a specific disease. It is a general term describing a broad range of symptoms involving memory or thinking decline severe enough to reduce the ability to perform daily activities. More than half of dementia (%60-80) is Alzheimer’s disease. Vascular dementia following stroke is the second most common type. Many other conditions, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies, can also cause dementia symptoms.

Dementia is often incorrectly called“aging” or “senility,” reflecting the common but false belief that serious mental decline is a normal part of aging. Dementia is not inevitable with aging.

An earlier Swedish study found men with low cardiovascular scores on bicycle ergometer testing in youth more likely to develop dementia before 60. Researchers found this intriguing because early-onset dementia is generally assumed to be genetic.

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To investigate whether vigorous exercise in middle age reduces dementia risk, peak cardiovascular fitness was measured in the Women’s Study begun in 1968, with an average age of 50 and 191 participants.

A total of 92 women met moderate fitness criteria and 59 were categorized as low fitness. They were followed until 2012 for 44 years, undergoing regular neuropsychiatric examinations.

Ultimately, among 191 women, 44 (%23) developed dementia. Average time from initial examination to onset was 29 years, and mean onset age 81. Among highly fit women who developed dementia, onset was 9 years later than in the other group.

The most important finding was %88 lower dementia risk in those with high exercise capacity than those with moderate or low capacity.

Because the design was observational, researchers cannot conclude a definite causal relationship between cardiovascular exercise and future dementia risk. Nevertheless, results suggest vigorous midlife exercise may help prevent or delay dementia.

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