Moderate Exercise May Help Ward Off Memory Decline In Elderly

A modest stroll down the lane each evening may help ward off severe mental decline in older adults, a new Australian study suggests. Moderate physical activity, such as walking 50 minutes a day, three times a week, improved memory and also reduced the risk of dementia, it confirmed.

To gauge the impact of moderate exercising on cognitive levels of individuals, researchers at the University of Melbourne enrolled 138 volunteers, aged 50 and above, with memory problems.

While half were assigned to a home-based exercise program, walking 50-minute daily, three times a week, for 24 weeks, others were the ‘usual care’ group, not asked to increase their exercise levels.

Six months hence, the participants were ranked on the scores they fared in the memory tests.

Participants in the exercise group achieved better scores in memory tests and lower scores in tests to determine signs of dementia compared to the other group who scored vice-versa.

Moreover, follow-up examinations revealed that the benefits of physical activity were apparent after 6 months and persisted for at least another 12 months after the exercise program was stopped.

"The trial is the first to demonstrate that exercise improves cognitive function in older adults with subjective and objective mild cognitive impairment," the authors wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Unlike medication, physical activity has the advantages of health benefits that are not confined to cognitive function alone, as suggested by findings on depressiondefine, quality of life, falls, cardiovascular function, and disability," they added.

With rising life expectancy rates, an estimated 37 million people worldwide now live with dementia – a progressive decline in cognitive function including memory, attention, language, and problem solving skills. Though typically associated with aging, symptoms of dementia can be classified as either reversible or irreversible, depending upon the etiology of the disease.