According to a new study, people who are physically fit are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than people who are less fit. The preliminary study was carried out by the American Academy of Neurology and will be presented at its 74th Annual Meeting being held in person in Seattle, April 2 to 7, 2022 and virtually, April 24 to 26, 2022.
Study author Edward Zamrini and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said, “One exciting finding of this study is that as people’s fitness improved, their risk of Alzheimer’s disease decreased. 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.”
The study involved 649,605 military veterans in the Veterans Health Administration database with an average age of 61 who were followed for an average of nine years. Researchers determined participants’ cardio respiratory fitness. It is a measure of how well one’s body transports oxygen to the muscles, and how well the muscles are able to absorb oxygen during exercise.
Fitness levels were determined by how well participants did on a treadmill test. It measured exercise capacity, the highest amount of physical exertion a person can sustain. The group with the lowest level of fitness developed Alzheimer’s at a rate of 9.5 cases per 1,000 person-years, compared to 6.4 cases per 1,000 person-years for the fittest group.
"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,” Zamrini said.
