Lifestyle Choices Could Slow Familial Frontotemporal Dementia

A study in Alzheimer's and Dementia found frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can be slowed by a physically and mentally active lifestyle, even among persons with a genetic predisposition to the disorder, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers looked at 105 people with dominant, disease-causing genetic mutations who were mainly asymptomatic or had mild, early-stage symptoms. The subjects' functional decline, as determined by their family members, was 55 percent slower in the most active 25 percent of participants compared to the least active 5 percent. Furthermore, participants' lifestyles did not significantly change the degeneration of brain tissue associated with FTD, yet the most mentally and physically active participants still performed twice as well as the least active participants on cognitive tests. The implication is that active lifestyles may decelerate FTD symptoms by providing some form of cognitive resilience to the effects of brain degeneration.