A study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, says that physical and mental exercise helps reduce the risk of dementia, which is not a specific disease but a general term that describes the inability to think, remember and perceive. decisions in everyday activities.

Many older people live their entire lives without developing dementia. Its symptoms vary from person to person and may include: disorientation in familiar places, unusual words for common objects, forgetting the name of a family member or friend, loss of recent memories, inability to perform actions independently. In most cases, people over 65 years old suffer from it.

The study, conducted at Sichuan University in China, involved 501,376 adults registered with the UK Dementia Database. The participants had an average age of 36 years and were followed for an average of 11 years. At the end of the study, 5,185 had dementia.

After controlling for several factors such as age, income and smoking, the researchers found that those who exercised frequently, did housework and visited family or friends daily had a 35%, 21% and 15% increased risk of dementia below , than those who engaged in this activity less.

And the indicators of the incidence of dementia showed a significant connection with habits in life. In those who exercised, it was 0.45 per 1,000 compared with 1.59 in those who were less active. Rates related to housework were 0.86/1000 compared to 1.02. And this indicator related to communication was 0.62 compared to 0.8.

The researchers also found that all participants benefited from the protective effects of physical and mental activity, regardless of whether they had a family history of dementia.

A limitation of the study was that participants self-reported their physical and mental activity, so they may have misremembered or misreported it.

Sources: SciTechDaily, CDC