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Activity

What you do and when you do it affects how well you think and remember

Exercise counteracts sitting time

Research using data from 2131 participants in the 2008 U.K. Health Survey suggests that regular exercise can partly counteract the negative health effects of being sedentary. The analysis grouped people into the following categories:

  • physically active and low sedentary 'busy bees' (18.6% of the sample)
  • physically active and high sedentary 'sedentary exercisers' (36.7%)
  • physically inactive and low sedentary 'light movers' (6.8%)
  • physically inactive and high sedentary 'couch potatoes' (37.9%).

Overall, physical activity was significantly associated with lower BMI, lower waist circumference, lower HbA1c levels (HbA1c is a modified form of haemoglobin, commonly used to measure glucose concentration; higher levels indicate poorer control of blood glucose levels), and higher HDL-cholesterol (the 'good' cholesterol). Sedentary time was associated with lower HDL-cholesterol levels.

None of that is a surprise, of course. The interesting aspect of this study is its attempt to disentangle physical activity and sedentary time.

In comparison to the couch potatoes, both busy bees and sedentary exercisers had significantly lower BMI and HbA1c levels, and higher HDL-cholesterol levels.

Busy bees (but not sedentary exercisers) also had lower waist circumferences. Compared to couch potatoes, light movers had only one improvement: higher HDL-cholesterol levels.

What all this shows is not simply the importance of physical activity for health, but that physical activity offsets some of the evils of a high sedentary time. It also suggests that not being sedentary doesn't take you all that far — you still need to exercise.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uol-ecs040516.php

Bakrania, K., Edwardson, C. L., Bodicoat, D. H., Esliger, D. W., Gill, J. M. R., Kazi, A., … Yates, T. (2016). Associations of mutually exclusive categories of physical activity and sedentary time with markers of cardiometabolic health in English adults: a cross-sectional analysis of the Health Survey for England. BMC Public Health, 16, 25. http://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2694-9

Being active reduces Alzheimer's risk

A four-year study involving 716 elderly (average age 82) has revealed that those who were most physically active were significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those least active. The study is unique in that, in addition to self-reports of physical and social activity, activity was objectively measured (for up to 10 days) through a device worn on the wrist. This device (an actigraph) enabled everyday activity, such as cooking, washing the dishes, playing cards and even moving a wheelchair with a person's arms, to be included in the analysis.

Mental activity may slow cognitive decline initially, but speed up dementia later

A long-running study involving 1,157 healthy older adults (65+) who were scored on a 5-point scale according to how often they participated in mental activities such as listening to the radio, watching television, reading, playing games and going to a museum, has found that this score is correlated to the rate of cognitive decline in later years.

The age you feel is more important for cognition than the age you are

More data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States has revealed that cognitive abilities reflect to a greater extent how old you feel, not how old you actually are. Of course that may be because cognitive ability contributes to a person’s wellness and energy. But it also may reflect benefits of trying to maintain a sense of youthfulness by keeping up with new trends and activities that feel invigorating.

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