Do Exercise Regularly and Get Rid of Dementia in Women, Says Neurological Study

New Delhi : When it comes to maintaining a regular exercise routine, most of us feel the task challenging. But, do you know that your everyday work out can help you prevent dementia? Yes it is! 

A study conducted by American Academy of Neurology concluded that women with high physical fitness at middle age (45 to 64) are almost 90 % less expected to develop dementia later, compared to women who were somewhat fit.

In order to carry out the study, researchers have measured the women's cardiovascular fitness as per some exercising experiments. They found that if a well fit women has to suffer from dementia, then they will develop the disease an average of 11 years later than women who were moderately fit, or at age 90 instead of age 79.  The lead author of the study, Helena Horder said, “"The findings are exciting because it's possible that improving people's cardiovascular fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia,"

She also added that, "However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important."

During the exercise test, 191 women with an average age of around 50 took bicycle ride until they were fatigued to calculate their level of cardiovascular power. The standard height of workload was measured at 103 watts. A total of 40 women successfully touched the high fitness level, or 120 watts or higher.

The research team has categorized the women group according to the fitness capability. A total of 92 women were in the medium fitness category; and 59 women were in the low fitness category, defined as a peak workload of 80 watts or less. A few women had to quit the exercise tests because of high blood pressure, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems.

For the next 44 years, the women were tested for dementia six times. During that time, 44 of the women developed dementia. 5% highly fit women suffered from dementia in comparison to 25% moderately fit women and 32% women were considered with low fitness. The result shows that extremely fit women were 88% less likely to develop dementia than the moderately fit women.

Of those female participants who had to stop the exercise test due to problems, 45% developed dementia 20 years later.

After a thorough understanding of the findings, Horder said "this indicates that negative cardiovascular processes may be happening in midlife that could increase the risk of dementia much later in life.

However, only a small number of women participants from Sweden were included in the study, which came out to be a major drawback in the study. The study was limited to demographic factor and geographical areas. Moreover, the fitness level of women changed over time and was not measured repeatedly. Therefore, no perfect conclusion has been mentioned. The findings are published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.