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Fighting fit
A modest amount of exercise - as few as three sessions a week - may reduce the risk of dementia in people over 65, new research shows. From a group of 2,581 participants in a health maintenance organisation in Seattle, researchers selected 1,740 people over 65 who showed no mental decline. They interviewed the subjects about their exercise habits, assessed their general health and then traced their progress for an average of about six years, periodically testing their memory and other mental abilities.
People who exercised more than three times a week developed dementia at a rate of 13 per 1,000 patient-years, compared with 19.7 per 1,000 patient-years for those who exercised less. (A thousand patient-years is the equivalent of 100 patients observed over a period of 10 years).
The authors acknowledge that their data depend on self-reports, which are not always reliable, that they did not measure exercise intensity, and that although they controlled for diet supplement use, smoking, alcohol use, education and other diseases, other factors may still influence their results.
Still, Dr. Eric B. Larson, director of the Group Health Cooperative's Centre for Health Studies in Seattle and the lead author on the paper, said: "It's a robust study. Low levels of exercise cause a 30 to 40 percent reduction in risk for dementia. If someone is starting to decline, it looks like exercise may significantly help."
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