A Swedish study of some 4,000 60-year-olds has found that regular “non-exercise” physical activity such as gardening or DIY significantly reduced risk of heart attack or stroke, with those who were most active on a daily basis having a 27% lower risk of a heart attack or stroke and a 30% reduced risk of death from all causes. This was so regardless of how much regular formal exercise was taken. Regular physical activity was also associated with better waist circumference, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides in both sexes and with lower insulin, glucose and fibrinogen levels in men. Metabolic syndrome was also significantly less likely.
Gardening as good as exercise in cutting heart attack risk
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Exercise may be #1 way to prevent dementia
A long-running study following 387 Australian women found that regular exercise in middle age was the best lifestyle change they could make to prevent cognitive decline in their later years.
The women were aged 45-55 when the study began in 1992. Health and lifestyle factors were assessed at intervals over the next 20 years.
Memory was assessed using a Verbal Episodic Memory test in which they were asked to learn a list of 10 unrelated words and attempt to recall them 30 minutes later.
Physical fitness improves brains in younger adults too
Data from a publicly available database of 1206 MRI brain scans from the Human Connectome Project has revealed that physical fitness is associated with better brain structure and brain functioning in young adults.
The volunteers (average age 29) had their physical fitness assessed using a "two-minute walking test", where each person is asked to walk as fast as possible for 2 minutes and the distance is then measured. Cognition was assessed using a series of cognitive tests to create a global cognition score.
Green tea plus exercise may speed up weight loss
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Mice given decaffeinated green tea and regular exercise lost weight and improved their health after 16 weeks. Specifically, they reduced body mass by 27% (on average), reduced abdominal fat by 37%; reduced blood glucose level by 17%, plasma insulin level by 65%, and insulin resistance by 65%..
Neither green tea alone, nor exercise alone, produced such significant changes. The amount of green tea was a lot: the equivalent of 8-10 cups a day. Decaffeination may not be important; it was done to keep the effects of caffeine out of the study.
Benefits of exercise for older adults depends on genes
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A year-long study involving 424 sedentary, mobility-limited seniors aged 70-89, has found that variants in a specific gene (the ACE I/D gene) affect seniors’ ability to benefit from exercise. Physical activity intervention led to greater improvements in walking speed among ID and DD genotype carriers (29.9% and 13.7% respectively), but among II genotype carriers, health education alone led to more improvements in walking speed than physical activity intervention (20% vs. 18.5%).
Vitamin C and E supplements hampers endurance training
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An 11-week trial involving 54 young, healthy men and women engaging in an endurance training program, has found that markers for the production of new muscle mitochondria only increased in the group not taking vitamin C and E supplements. It’s possible that high doses of vitamins C and E act as antioxidants and take away some of the oxidative stress needed to develop muscular endurance.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/w-vca013014.php
Exercise helps MCI
A pilot study involving 17 older adults with mild cognitive impairment and 18 controls (aged 60-88; average age 78) has found that a 12-week exercise program significantly improved performance on a semantic memory task, and also significantly improved brain efficiency, for both groups.
Physical fitness crucial for fighting age-related cognitive decline
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Three recent studies point to the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness for older adults wanting to prevent cognitive decline.
Limited benefit of physical activity for preventing cognitive decline
A large, two-year study challenges the evidence that regular exercise helps prevent age-related cognitive decline.
The study involved 1,635 older adults (70-89) who were enrolled in the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) study. They were sedentary adults who were at risk for mobility disability but able to walk about a quarter mile. Participants had no significant cognitive impairment (as measured by the MMSE) at the beginning of the study. Around 90% (1476) made it to the end of the study, and were included in the analysis.
Physical activity linked to better memory for names and faces among older adults
A small study that fitted 29 young adults (18-31) and 31 older adults (55-82) with a device that recorded steps taken and the vigor and speed with which they were made, has found that those older adults with a higher step rate performed better on memory tasks than those who were more sedentary. There was no such effect seen among the younger adults.
Aerobic exercise preserves brain volume and improves cognition in those with MCI
A study involving 35 adults with MCI found that those who exercised four times a week over a six-month period increased their volume of gray matter. But those who participated in aerobic exercise experienced significantly greater gains than those who just stretched, who also showed signs of white matter loss.
Aerobic activity included treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical training.
The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in November, 2016.