Dementia Study Links Your Risk With Your Fitness Level

A study published in Neurology determined women with high cardiovascular fitness were 88 percent less likely to develop dementia than moderately fit women, reports CNN . "I was surprised that it was such a strong association between the group with highest fitness and decreased dementia risk," notes University of Gothenburg Professor Helena Hörder. The study examined 191 women in Sweden between 38 and 60 years old who completed an ergometer cycling test in 1968 to gauge their cardiovascular fitness, while their workload was simultaneously measured based on how much weight or resistance could be added to the bicycle before they grew fatigued. The women were then monitored over 44 years until 2012. The researchers estimated that 23 percent developed dementia from 1968 to 2012, but this rose to 45 percent among those who interrupted their cycling test at submaximal workload. "Many of those who interrupted the test at submax, very low watt level, probably had indications for a poor cardiovascular health status," Hörder says. "This might indicate that processes in the cardiovascular system might be ongoing many decades before onset of dementia diagnosis." In addition, the average age at dementia onset was 11 years older in the "high fitness" group than in the "medium fitness" group, and the most dramatic risk reduction was observed among those with the highest fitness. "The picture that is really emerging from the literature is a picture about the importance of fitness in midlife, not just old age, when it comes to protecting your brain health and preventing or delaying Alzheimer's disease and other dementias," says Keith Fargo with the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago.