The Center's Blog

Fitness: Dementia’s Worst Enemy

By: Loyola Staff

February 18, 2020, 8:00 am - Categories: Fitness

Dementia leads to a progressive decline in cognitive function, disrupting and eventually eliminating the ability for patients to complete their activities of daily living (ADLs) independently. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, and there isn’t a cure.

It has been suggested that high-intensity fitness, over time, is an effective preventive measure against dementia.

After being diagnosed with dementia, men live on average for five years; women live on average for seven years. With each increase of metabolic level (MET), there is a 16 percent reduced risk of getting dementia.

Poor physical activity aside, people diagnosed with dementia might possess other contributing factors (e.g., hypertension, family history of brain diseases). With that being said, maintaining a regular fitness regime is still advantageous to your brain — possibly delaying dementia by two years and extending dementia patients’ lives two or three years longer.

For more information on how physical activity can combat dementia, please consult a fitness specialist.

Reference: https://psychcentral.com/news/2019/11/15/fitness-may-be-best-medicine-to-prevent-dementia/151847.html