Never too Late to Prevent Alzheimer's, Says Study

A new study published in the journal Neurology suggests that it is never late to try and avoid Alzheimer's disease and even people over 80 years of age can indulge in physical exercise to reduce the risk of the disease.

Around 716 people with an average age of 81 years, who were part of Memory and Aging Project at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, were involved in the study and wore a device called an actigraph on their wrist 24 hours a day for over a period of nine days. The device recorded the daily physical activity levels of the participants.

The researchers followed up on the participants after 3.5 years and found that 71 of them had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. On correlating with the physical activity data, the researchers found that 10 percent of those who recorded least levels of physical activity were 2.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with the disease compared to those with most levels of exercise.

"In a world that is becoming progressively sedentary, and in the context of very limited success of the currently available medications to treat or delay AD, physical activity provides a promising, low-cost, easily accessible, and side-effect-free means to prevent AD", the researchers wrote in their study.

Source: Medindia