How Cardio Exercise Can Decrease Your Dementia Risk by 90%!

 

Yes – it’s true - cardio is a very powerful tool for preventing and mitigating dementia!

For example, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden showed that women with the highest cardiovascular fitness had an 88% lower risk of dementia than those with moderate fitness.  Further, women with the lowest fitness had a 41% greater risk of dementia than those of average fitness.

The authors of the study stated:

"These results suggest that cardiovascular fitness is associated with the sparing of brain tissue in aging humans. Furthermore, these results suggest a strong biological basis for the role of aerobic fitness in maintaining and enhancing central nervous system health and cognitive functioning in older adults."

Similar findings have been found by other scientists. For example, one observational study that followed more than 600 seniors starting at age 70 found that those who engaged in the most physical exercise showed the least amount of brain shrinkage over a follow-up period of three years.

Exercise increases the production of BDNF aka brain-derived neurotrophic factor.  BDNF is like Miracle Grow for your brain.  It not only preserves existing brain cells - it also activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons and effectively makes your brain grow.

Research confirming this includes a study in which seniors aged 60 to 80 who walked 30 to 45 minutes, three days per week, for one year increased the volume of their hippocampus by 2%.  The hippocampus is a region of your brain important for memory.  Higher fitness levels were also associated with a larger prefrontal cortex.

In another study, patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, who participated in a four-month-long supervised exercise program had significantly fewer neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with the disease than the control group that did not exercise.

Another study showed that brisk walking program for at least 150 minutes each week was associated with improvements in functional ability in people with early Alzheimer's disease.

Among some of the participants, the walking program also led to improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, and this was in turn associated with improved memory performance and even increases in the size of their brain's hippocampus.

Exercise also triggers a change in the way amyloid precursor protein is metabolized, thus slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. However, while exercise can lower your risk of dementia and chronic disease, it's possible to overdo high intensity exercise.

When doing true HIIT training short workouts done just two or three times a week is all it takes to reap the benefits!