A new study published Sunday has found that people who are more physically fit are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who are less physically fit, according to Science Daily.
The study’s author Dr. Edward Zamrini said, “One exciting finding of this study is that as people’s fitness improved, their risk of Alzheimer’s disease decreased – it was not an all-or-nothing proposition.”
“So people can work toward making incremental changes and improvements in their physical fitness and hopefully that will be associated with a related decrease in their risk of Alzheimer’s years later,” added Dr. Zamrini, who is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study looked at more than 649,600 military veterans in the Veterans Health Administration with an average age of 61 who were followed for an average of nine years. Nobody had Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the study.
Investigators determined participants’ cardiorespiratory fitness, measuring how well the body transports oxygen to the muscles and how well the muscles can absorb oxygen during exercise.
The researchers found that participants with the lowest level of fitness developed Alzheimer’s disease at a rate of 9.5 cases per 1,000 person-years than 6.4 cases per 1,000 person-years for the fittest group.
After adjusting other factors that could affect the risk of Alzheimer’s, the researchers found that the people in the fittest group were 33% less likely to develop the condition than those in the least fit group.
Dr. Zamrini explained, “The idea that you can reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s disease by simply increasing your activity is very promising, especially since there are no adequate treatments to prevent or stop the progression of the disease.”
“We hope to develop a simple scale that can be individualized so people can see the benefits that even incremental improvements in fitness can deliver,” he added.
One of the study’s limitations was participants were mostly white men, so the findings may not be generalizable to other populations. The researchers will present the findings at the American Academy of Neurology’s 74th Annual Meeting in Seattle.
