Think five minutes isn't enough time to make a difference in terms of health and well-being?
It could actually be enough time to stave off a disease that afflicts many people in their later years.
Just five minutes of light exercise a day could help prevent dementia, even for frail older adults, new research has found.
DEMENTIA RISK MAY BE LOWERED BY ONE IMPORTANT MEDICAL DEVICE
The latest study on the topic was led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.
They found that engaging in as little as 35 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week — as compared to none at all — was associated with a 41% lower risk of developing dementia over an average four-year follow-up period.
The findings were published recently in The Journal of the American Medical Directors Association and shared on several medical sites.
Even for people at an elevated risk of "adverse health outcomes," greater activity was associated with lower dementia risk, the researchers noted.
BRAIN AND MEMORY ARE BOOSTED BY EATING ONE PARTICULAR DIET, STUDY FINDS
The higher amounts of physical activity, the lower the risk of dementia.
Consider this data from the study: Dementia risks were 60% lower in participants who got 35-to-69.9 minutes of physical activity/week; 63% lower in the 70-to-139.9 minutes/week category; and 69% lower in the 140-and-over minutes/week category.
For their analysis, the researchers analyzed a dataset covering nearly 90,000 adults living in the United Kingdom who wore smartwatch-type activity trackers, news agency SWNS reported.
Lead study author Dr. Amal Wanigatunga said, "Our findings suggest that increasing physical activity, even as little as five minutes per day, can reduce dementia risk in older adults."
Dementia, usually in the form of Alzheimer's, affects millions of people all over the globe.
While public health guidelines usually recommend 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, the study aligns with a growing body of evidence supporting a "some-is-better-than-none" approach to physical activity, according to Study Finds.
And while the risk of Alzheimer's increases with age, recent research has suggested it may be somewhat preventable by certain lifestyle changes, including better control of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar — plus being more active, SWNS noted.
Participants in the new study had a median age of 63. Women made up 56% of the sample.
Over an average follow-up period of 4.4 years, 735 people among the group developed dementia.
Researchers found that for every additional 30 minutes of weekly moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), there was a 4% reduction in dementia risk.
But the most "striking" finding came when comparing people who engaged in no physical activity at all to those who managed to get even minimal amounts.
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"This suggests that even frail or nearly frail older adults might be able to reduce their dementia risk through low-dose exercise," said Wanigatunga.
He noted that the study was not a clinical trial that established causation indicating that exercise reduces dementia risk, but that its findings are consistent with that hypothesis.
"To check the possibility that their findings reflected undiagnosed dementia leading to lower physical activity," News Medical reported, "the researchers repeated their analysis but excluded dementia diagnoses in the first two years of follow-up."
"The association between more activity and lower dementia risk remained robust."
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Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News' senior medical analyst, was not involved in the study but shared his reaction to the "important" findings.
"This is not proof, just an association, but is very useful for the group that gets discouraged, thinking, ‘I can’t do a lot of exercise because of illness or disability, so why do any?’ This study suggests that even small amounts are helpful."
There are many mechanisms that could explain this effect, Siegel said – "primarily increased blood flow to the brain, as well as improved disposal of metabolic waste and decreased inflammation."
He added, "It is also likely associated with healthier lifestyle decisions that also decrease the advent of neuroinflammation, dysregulation and plaque formation that characterize dementia, especially Alzheimer’s."
Some of these include sleep, diet and engagement, he said.
The National Institute on Aging provided funding for the new study.
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