risk - Education For Live

October 1, 2022

How much should you walk every day to reduce risk?

black and white photo of feet walking on pavement — How many steps a day help offset dementia risk? Researchers may now have the answer. Image credit: Christopher Fanelli/EyeEm/Getty Images.

Dementia affects more than 55 million people worldwide and is the seventh leading cause of death globally.
With the proportion of older people in the population increasing, the number of dementia cases is also on the rise.
There is mounting evidence that regular physical exercise not only benefits general health, but is also one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of developing dementia.
In good news for those who struggle to fit exercise into their daily routine, a new study has shown that walking around 4,000 steps a day may reduce dementia risk by 25{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.
Upping their daily step count to just under 10,000 could halve a person’s risk of developing dementia.

As the global population ages, cases of dementia are also on the rise worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that some 55 million people currently have dementia, and the number is set to rise to 139 million by 2050.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that Alzheimer’s disease, the commonest form of dementia, affects around 5.8 million people in the United States alone.

The greatest risk factors for dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society, are aging and genetics. Dementia is most common in those aged over 75, and having a close relative with dementia may increase a person’s risk of developing the disorder.

Other risk factors that we cannot control include sex — females are more at risk than males — and ethnicity. However, lifestyle changes, such as increasing physical exercise, controlling blood pressure, and keeping the brain stimulated, can decrease a person’s risk of dementia, even for those who have one or more risk factors.

Dr. Anton Porsteinsson, professor and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Care, Research and Education Program (AD-CARE) at the University of Rochester Medical Center, told Medical News Today:

“A broad, healthy approach factoring in lifestyle, diet, exercise, cognitive stimulation, socialization, and sleep all make a difference. Many of them [can be effective] even if started later in life.”

And physical exercise need not mean sweating it out at the gym or taking up a new sport.

According to a study recently published in JAMA Neurology, simply increasing the number of steps a person takes each day can decrease their dementia risk by as much as 50{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

The study used data from the UK Biobank. The 78,430 participants, of whom 44.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were male and 55.3{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} female, had a mean age of 61.1 years. All participants were free of cardiovascular disease and dementia when they enrolled in the study. Researchers followed up with participants after a median of 6.9 years (6.4–7.5 years).

For the study, participants had to wear an accelerometer on their dominant wrist 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to measure physical activity. The researchers then used an algorithm to work out the step count from the data collected by the accelerometer.

The researchers controlled for variables such as age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, smoking, overall health, and diet when analyzing the data.

At follow-up, 866 participants, or 1.1{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, had developed dementia.

While welcoming the study findings, Dr. Claire Sexton, Alzheimer’s Association senior director of scientific programs and outreach, who was not involved in the study, told MNT:

“There are a few important caveats of this study. The population sampled was majority white, and therefore may not be generalizable to other race/ ethnic groups. This study also does not demonstrate definitive causation between step count and dementia risk; therefore, more research is needed.”

“The Alzheimer’s Association is conducting a clinical trial combining exercise with other lifestyle factors, like diet and social/ cognitive engagement, to determine if these factors in combination reduce risk of cognitive decline,” she added.

Dr. Porsteinsson agreed: “There are definite limitations to observational cohort studies but advantages as well. They are hypothesis-generating, that is they point us toward what we may want to study further in a controlled, randomized study. The good news here is that there is a bulk of evidence that suggests that exercise is beneficial in staving off dementia.”

“This is an important study that may help inform public health guidelines around the amount of physical activity necessary to reap health benefits,” said Dr. Sexton.

“These results are not surprising given the robust data we have linking physical activity and better cognition. A strength of this paper is it used an objective, widely-understood measure of step count rather than self-reported data,” she noted.

The researchers found that both the number of steps and stepping intensity were associated with reduced dementia risk. For the greatest benefit — a 50{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} reduction in dementia risk — participants had to walk around 9,800 steps per day. Above this number, no further benefit was seen.

However, the good news for those who cannot achieve this many steps was that just 3,826 steps a day reduced dementia risk by 25{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

Dr. Porsteinsson agreed that any exercise will help reduce risk. “[It’s] never too late to get started and even a relatively small effort is beneficial and can then be added to as endurance improves,” he told us.

Purposeful steps, defined as more than 40 steps per minute, such as when going for a walk, increased the association with reduced dementia risk.

“Here, we see a ‘dose’ effect, that is, more intense and purposeful walking is more beneficial than leisurely walking. Also, people often walk with others (walk and talk) so you can get a social component and an interactive component in as well.”

– Dr. Anton Porsteinsson

This study adds to building evidence that staying active as you age can maintain physical and mental health and improve longevity.

Another large-scale study of almost 650,000 military veterans found that being physically fit reduced dementia risk by up to 33{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. In this study, even a small amount of exercise was found to help reduce dementia risk.

An analysis from the Alzheimer’s Society of 11 studies found that, out of taking regular exercise, not smoking, moderating alcohol intake, maintaining a healthy body weight, and eating a healthy diet, it was regular exercise that had the greatest impact on dementia risk.

For Alzheimer’s disease, regular exercise reduced risk by up to 45{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

“The bottom line is we know physical activity supports good cardiovascular health — and what’s good for the heart is good for the brain. Find something you enjoy doing and stick to it.”

– Dr. Claire Sexton

July 24, 2022

Impact of Physical Activity on Risk for Disabling Dementia by Gender

Guys who have interaction in leisure-time moderate to vigorous physical exercise (MPVA) may perhaps be at reduce possibility for disabling dementia, according to review results published in JAMA Network Open.

Dementia is a top lead to of disability and dependency between more mature individuals. Some research have shown that physical action may possibly lower dementia incidence, even though other people recommend those people outcomes involve reverse causation bias. Few epidemiological scientific tests have focused on the association in between each day complete bodily action and hazard for dementia. In this review, scientists in Japan examined irrespective of whether day-to-day complete MPVA in full time and leisure-time are connected with possibility for dementia, with lengthy-expression abide by-up and a large cohort.

Researchers analyzed knowledge of 43,896 (aged indicate 61.0±7.5 many years 53.9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} girls) of the 140,420 men and women who participated in the Japan Public Well being Center-centered Future Research (JPHC) based mostly on availability of adhere to-up facts on disabling dementia, irrespective of whether they fulfilled JPHC standards, and completion of a 10-calendar year stick to-up questionnaire. They determined disabling dementia circumstances centered on certification information in the countrywide LTCI process and assessed physical activity based mostly on the 10-calendar year follow-up study.

Go on Looking at

Participants claimed the variety of hours used sitting, standing, walking, and completing intense do the job in nonleisure time on a standard day in the earlier year and the frequency and range of hours used going for walks gradually, finishing light to moderate workout and strenuous workout in leisure time.

For the duration of a dementia ascertainment interval of 9.5±2.8 several years, 5010 contributors have been identified with dementia, 11,077 participants died, 2287 participants moved absent, and 6 ended up misplaced to stick to-up.

Contributors with significant day by day bodily activity tended to be more youthful, have lower body mass index (BMI), be in no way people who smoke, consume extra, have fewer unemployment, and have much less diabetes and hypertension.

Leisure-time MVPA was inversely involved with disabling dementia hazard in adult men even after excluding persons identified in the initially 9 a long time (Q4 vs Q1: aHR, .72 [95{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} CI, 0.56-0.92] P for craze = .004) and soon after excluding participants identified within just 10 many years. Inverse associations in between everyday complete bodily action and chance for dementia, total MVPA and possibility for dementia, and leisure-time MVPA and threat for dementia in gals disappeared when participants identified with dementia within 7 decades of baseline ended up excluded in males and inside 8 several years ended up excluded in females.

The researchers explained a lot more leisure-time MVPA among the adult men could safeguard from dementia since, as reports have earlier claimed, combined cognitive and workout schooling and social activity may well improve cognitive features of neighborhood-dwelling more mature older people.

The association could have been attenuated in gals due to the fact they previously are inclined to engage in “many cognitive things to do via day-to-day housework activities, and are probably to have a more substantial social network than males,” the researchers mentioned.

Examine limitations bundled the lack of ability to evaluate the affiliation in between actual physical activity and precise styles of dementia, eliminate misclassification in prognosis of disabling dementia, or receive details on education and learning of all individuals. Selection bias and misclassification of publicity due to changes in bodily exercise throughout the dementia ascertainment time period could have also been existing.

Reference

Ihira H, Sawada N, Inoue M, et al. Association in between bodily exercise and threat of disabling dementia in Japan. JAMA Community Open up. Released on the internet March 29, 2022. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.4590

June 11, 2022

Study Highlights 3 Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease

Key Takeaways

Risk factors linked to Alzheimer’s have changed in the past 10 years and differ based on sex, race, and ethnicity.
The study found that eight modifiable risk factors, including midlife obesity, low educational attainment, and lack of exercise, were most associated with developing future Alzheimer’s.
Asians and White people were the least likely to have any of the eight modifiable risk factors, while Black and American Native or Alaskan people were the most likely to have them. Men were more likely to report high blood pressure, while women reported more cases of depression.

Ten years ago, researchers found that about one in three cases of Alzheimer’s disease was associated with modifiable risk factors such as smoking and lack of physical activity.

Now, the same researchers from the University of California have published new data in JAMA Neurology that show these risk factors for Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia depend on a person’s sex, race, and ethnicity.

The study’s findings also suggest that people can take steps to reduce their risk of cognitive decline as they age.

Roch A. Nianogo, MD, PhD, MPH, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health told Verywell that “engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors such as maintaining a healthy weight or regularly exercising, which help prevent other chronic diseases such as heart diseases, could also play a critical role in Alzheimer’s disease prevention.”

And you don’t have to undertake them all at once. Nianogo said that “even if you begin with one or two, you’re moving in the right direction.”

Modifiable Alzheimer’s Risk Factors

The new study revisited risk factors that were associated with Alzheimer’s a decade ago to see whether they had changed over time. Researchers also wanted to investigate if modifiable risk factors differed across race, ethnicity, and gender.

The researchers found that about a third of Alzheimer’s cases were related to a combination of eight modifiable lifestyle risk factors, including:

One interesting finding was related to physical activity levels. In 2011, a large number of Alzheimer’s cases involved a lack of physical activity, depression, and smoking. However, in the current study, most Alzheimer’s cases were associated with midlife obesity (17.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}), physical inactivity (11.8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}), and low educational attainment (11.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}).

“There exist modifiable risk factors such as midlife obesity and physical inactivity that could contribute to a non-negligible proportion of Alzheimer’s disease cases today and the relative contribution of several risk factors to Alzheimer’s disease cases has changed over the past decade,” said Nianogo.

Alzheimer’s Risk Factors by Race and Ethnicity

Among all racial and ethnic groups, the Asian participants were the least likely to smoke, have midlife obesity, or have midlife hypertension. Meanwhile, American Indian and Alaska Native participants had the highest rates among all three risk factors.

Percy Griffin, PhD

Older African Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites.

— Percy Griffin, PhD

Black and Hispanic participants had high rates of midlife obesity. Hispanic participants were the most likely to report a low education, followed by American Indian and Alaska Native participants.

Considering all the modifiable risk factors, the researchers found Black participants had the highest Alzheimer’s cases among ethnic and racial groups.

“Older African Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older Whites. Hispanic Americans are about one and one-half times as likely,” Percy Griffin, PhD, the director of scientific engagement at the Alzheimer’s Association, told Verywell. Griffin was not involved with the study.

Midlife obesity contributed the most to Alzheimer’s risk among a racial or ethnic group. Compared to other groups, Black participants were more likely to be impacted by midlife obesity.

Alzheimer’s Risk Factors by Sex

The researchers also noticed Alzheimer’s risk factors for men and women were not the same.

Women were more likely than men to report depression, but men reported more cases of midlife high blood pressure. Midlife obesity was the biggest contributor to Alzheimer’s risk in men, while depression was more prominent in women.

Roch A. Nianogo, MD, PhD, MPH

Engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors such as maintaining a healthy weight or regularly exercising, which help prevent other chronic diseases such as heart diseases, could also play a critical role in Alzheimer’s disease prevention.

— Roch A. Nianogo, MD, PhD, MPH

Nianogo said that a surprising finding was that most of the Alzheimer’s cases in the study population occurred in men.

“This could be seen as being at odds with the fact that almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women,” said Nianogo. “Meaning that out of all Alzheimer’s cases, there is a higher proportion of women compared to men.”

According to Nianogo, one reason for the finding could be that, except for depression and physical inactivity, men had a higher prevalence of the other modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s such as smoking and midlife hypertension.

Alzheimer’s on the Rise

The number of people living with dementia is growing: In 2022, an estimated 65 million Americans age 65 years and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease. About two-thirds of people with Alzheimer’s are women.

By 2050, the projected rate of Alzheimer’s disease globally is expected to triple from 57.4 to 152.8 million cases.

The future of dementia may seem alarming, but researchers are gaining a better understanding of who is at risk for the disease.

Who Was Included?

The team collected 2018 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)—an annual national survey of noninstitutionalized adults living in the U.S.

The survey involved questions regarding Americans’ lifestyle choices, health conditions, and use of medical services. The survey excluded people in psychiatric centers, prisons, or hospitals.

However, Nianogo said that the data used in the study still captured relevant information for estimating groups of older aged people or people with certain mental illnesses such as depression.

Survey data from about 378,615 individuals were included in the study. The researchers looked at whether the people in the study had Alzheimer’s, another form of dementia, or known risk factors for Alzheimer’s.

Of the 378,615 individuals, 48.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were male and 21.1{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were 65 or older. Of those, nearly 65{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were White, 11.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were Black, 16{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were Hispanic, and 0.9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} were American Indian or Alaska Native.

Is Prevention Possible?

People are not necessarily powerless when it comes to prevention. Griffin said there is also evidence that combining multiple healthy habits that target modifiable risk factors could prevent or delay up to 40{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of dementia cases.

Alzheimer’s disease has no cure. While age and genetics are two Alzheimer risk factors you can’t control, there are ways you can reduce your overall risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, such as:

What This Means for You

A new study has highlighted how Alzheimer’s risk factors vary by a person’s race, ethnicity, and sex. Many of these risk factors are modifiable, and there are steps that people can take to reduce their risk of developing dementia.

April 23, 2022

Physical fitness linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease — ScienceDaily

Persons who are much more bodily in good shape are a lot less probably to develop Alzheimer’s condition than people who are fewer physically suit, in accordance to a preliminary study introduced today, February 27, 2022, that will be introduced at the American Academy of Neurology’s 74th Once-a-year Assembly being held in person in Seattle, April 2 to 7, 2022 and pretty much, April 24 to 26, 2022.

“A single remarkable discovering of this review is that as people’s exercise enhanced, their danger of Alzheimer’s illness diminished — it was not an all-or-nothing at all proposition,” said review writer Edward Zamrini, MD, of the Washington VA Health care Center in Washington, D.C., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “So people today can get the job done towards generating incremental adjustments and enhancements in their physical conditioning and hopefully that will be linked with a associated reduce in their threat of Alzheimer’s years later on.”

The research included 649,605 military services veterans in the Veterans Well being Administration databases with an common age of 61 who ended up adopted for an normal of 9 a long time. They did not have Alzheimer’s ailment at the start off of the review.

Scientists identified participants’ cardiorespiratory exercise. Cardiorespiratory conditioning is a evaluate of how properly your physique transports oxygen to your muscle groups, and how effectively your muscle mass are able to take up oxygen throughout work out.

The contributors had been divided into 5 teams, from least match to most suit. Conditioning ranges have been established by how properly members did on a treadmill exam. This examination steps training ability, the greatest amount of money of bodily exertion a man or woman can sustain. For persons who are middle-aged and more mature, the highest degree of conditioning can be attained by going for walks briskly most days of the week, for two and a 50 {e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} several hours or extra for every 7 days.

The group with the lowest amount of health and fitness formulated Alzheimer’s at a amount of 9.5 conditions per 1,000 individual-years, in comparison to 6.4 circumstances per 1,000 human being-several years for the most suit group. Person-years acquire into account the quantity of persons in a examine as effectively as the volume of time put in in the review. The circumstance charge reduced as the stage of conditioning enhanced, with a rate of 8.5 for the 2nd minimum healthy team, 7.4 for the center team and 7.2 for the next most in good shape team.

When researchers adjusted for other factors that could have an effect on risk of Alzheimer’s ailment, they observed that the individuals in the most in shape group had been 33{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} considerably less possible to establish Alzheimer’s illness than individuals in the the very least in good shape team. The 2nd most match team was 26{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} less most likely to develop the illness, although the center group was 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} significantly less likely and those in the 2nd minimum in shape team were 13{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} fewer probable to establish the sickness than individuals in the minimum in good shape group.

“The strategy that you can lessen your hazard for Alzheimer’s condition by basically escalating your activity is really promising, in particular considering the fact that there are no sufficient therapies to prevent or prevent the progression of the condition,” Zamrini said. “We hope to create a simple scale that can be individualized so people can see the rewards that even incremental improvements in health can deliver.”

A limitation of the analyze was individuals have been generally white men so outcomes may well not be generalizable to other populations.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institutes of Well being, the U.S. Office of Veterans Affairs, the Washington D.C. VA Medical Centre and George Washington University.

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Elements provided by American Academy of Neurology. Notice: Content material may well be edited for model and duration.

February 8, 2022