{"id":62460,"date":"2025-08-12T20:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/62460\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T20:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:56:07","slug":"this-exercise-type-may-reduce-dementia-risk-by-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/62460\/","title":{"rendered":"This Exercise Type May Reduce Dementia Risk By 88%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exercise is not only a great way to fight back against sarcopenia <\/a>(age-related muscle loss), but it has also been linked to decreased dementia risk<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For instance, a 2022 paper found <\/a>that just 3,800 steps a day may lower your likelihood of developing dementia by 25%, with increasing benefits up to 9,800 steps.<\/p>\n

Strength training has been shown to help protect the parts of the brain<\/a> especially vulnerable to Alzheimer\u2019s, too.<\/p>\n

And in 2018, a 44-year-long study published in the journal Nature<\/a> showed a link between cardiovascular fitness, as measured by a cycling test, and an 88% lower incidence of dementia among women. <\/p>\n

What did the study show about cardio and dementia?<\/p>\n

The researchers followed over 1,400 women, aged 38-60, for 44 years (starting in 1968).<\/p>\n

Of these participants, 191 women completed a cardiovascular fitness test on a stationary bike using intervals (periods of intense workouts with some lighter breaks). <\/p>\n

These 191 were tested for dementia in 1974, 1980, 2000, 2005 and 2009. <\/p>\n

Of the women who were deemed to have high cardiovascular fitness following the cycling test at the start of the study, 5% went on to develop dementia, compared to 32% of those with moderate cardiovascular fitness levels.<\/p>\n

High cardiovascular fitness participants were 88% less likely to go on to have dementia, too. And dementia onset was almost 10 years later among the high cardiovascular fitness women.<\/p>\n

A separate study <\/a>found people who cycled regularly were 19% less likely to develop dementia.<\/p>\n

However you achieve it, it seems cardiovascular fitness is key to lowering your likelihood of experiencing dementia.<\/p>\n

Why might cardio lower your risk of dementia?<\/p>\n

Well, the researchers point out <\/a>that this only showed a link and not a causal relationship \u2013 \u201cit remains unclear whether the association between physical activity and dementia is mediated by social and cognitive stimulation rather than by level of physical fitness,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Women with high cardiovascular fitness levels in their study, for instance, were more likely to have their own income and tended to have less hypertension. <\/p>\n

But the scientists speculated that the link might be affected by \u201cindirect effects [of exercise] such as influence on hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and diabetes mellitus and direct effects on the brain, with, for example, enhancement of neuronal structures, neurotransmitter synthesis, and growth factors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Though we don\u2019t fully understand the link between dementia and exercise yet, this is one of many papers that have found a link between<\/a> movement and a lower risk of developing the condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exercise is not only a great way to fight back against sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss), but it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[854,6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-62460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-dementia","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}