SoylentNews

Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Regular exercise in middle age is the best lifestyle change a person can make to prevent cognitive decline in their later years [futurity.org], a 20-year study finds.

Abnormalities in brain tissue begin several decades before the onset of cognitive decline, but little is known about the lifestyle factors that might slow the onset of decline in middle age.

As the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis doubles every five years after 65, most longitudinal studies examining risk factors and cognitive disease are with adults who are over the age of 60 or 70.

The new study, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, tracked 387 Australian women from the Women’s Healthy Aging Project for two decades. The women were aged 45-55 when the study began in 1992.

The key recommendation of the study is to do some kind of exercise, do it regularly, and to start now.

Original Submission