Dementia and cognitive decline affect one person every four seconds, according to the data. Before the age of 60, developing these neurodegenerative diseases is very rare. After the age of 60, however, the brain weakens and is more vulnerable. It is precisely at this stage of life, then, that we must do something to prevent the disease. We have already seen on the pages of ProiezionidiBorsa that aerobic exercise can give great benefits against cognitive decline. There are various researches that confirm this. One in particular, however, reported by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, adds 2 other activities to the list of those friends of the brain. In addition to running and walking, these two exercises also slow down dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, according to what the researchers found. The set of purely aerobic activities and does not seem to give visible effects on patients, slowing the shrinkage of the hippocampus.
In addition to running and walking, these 2 exercises would also curb dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly
There is news about the prevention of senile dementia and cognitive decline. To say it is an authoritative study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and published in the “British Journal of Sports Medicine”.
The study took as a reference a sample of 86 women, all between the ages of 70 and 80. The members of the sample all shared a principle of cognitive decline, a prelude to dementia.
In the first phase of the study, the researchers screened the sample to measure the size of the hippocampus. After that, the researchers proposed a six-month training cycle to the sample. The workout consisted of two aerobic exercise sessions alternating with muscle strength sessions and balance exercises. The women who completed the training cycle took the hippocampal measurements again, comparing them with those of six months earlier.
The hippocampus increases in size with physical activity, but keep an eye on your memory
Only 29 women in the sample completed the six months of aerobic and non-aerobic exercise. In these, however, the size of the hippocampus is even increased at the end of the training cycle. The rest of the group did not achieve the same results.
The combination of aerobic activity, such as running and walking, and exercises for muscle strength and balance seems to be winning against dementia and cognitive decline. However, scholars have still noticed a loss of verbal memory, even in conjunction with the increase in the hippocampus. Scholars have not yet explained the reasons for this effect on memory, indicative of the complexity of our brains.
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