Even if dementia is hereditary, good cardiorespiratory health reduces the risk of dementia by 35%.
Research has shown that even for people at high risk of dementia due to genetics, good cardiorespiratory health improves long-term cognitive ability and reduces the risk of dementia by 35%.
Professor Waley Xu’s team at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, announced on the 20th in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that they obtained these results by tracking the cardiopulmonary health, cognitive function, and dementia risk of 61,000 British people for 12 years.
Photo by Getty Image Bank.
Cardiopulmonary function is the ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygen to muscles, and gradually decreases with age due to loss of skeletal muscle. Cardiorespiratory function decreases by about 3-6% per decade in people in their 20s and 30s, but quickly decreases by more than 20% per decade in their 70s.
In this study, they followed the cardiorespiratory health status, cognitive function, and risk of dementia for 61,214 people aged 39 to 70 without dementia registered in the British Biobank, a British biomedical database, in 2009 and 2010 for up to 12 years.
When registering, participants were divided into high, middle, and low groups by testing their cardiopulmonary function on a stationary bicycle for 6 minutes. Cognitive function was measured with neuropsychological tests, and genetic factors for dementia were also tested with the Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk score. There were 553 people (0.9%) diagnosed with dementia during the follow-up period.
The results of the analysis showed that people with good cardiorespiratory health had higher cognitive function and lower risk of dementia than those without good cardiorespiratory health. It was found that the group with high cardiopulmonary health had a 40% lower incidence of all dementias than the low group, and the onset of dementia was 1.48 years later.
In addition, even for people with dementia risk factors due to an Alzheimer’s polygenic risk score of medium or higher, if their cardiorespiratory health was in the high group, the risk of dementia was reduced by up to 35%.
The research team emphasized, “It shows that cardiorespiratory health is related to improved cognitive ability and reduced risk of dementia,” adding, “This suggests that improving cardiorespiratory health can be a dementia prevention strategy even for people with a high genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease.” did it
However, the research team said, “This study has limitations as it is an observational study and cannot establish a causal relationship, and the number of dementia cases may have been underestimated as UK Biobank participants are often healthier than the general population,” and added that additional research is needed. .
Reporter Lee Jin-woo [email protected]
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1. Dr. Anna Andersson, a neurologist at the University of Oxford, and Dr. Robert Wang, a sports medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic, are here today to discuss the link between cardiorespiratory health and the risk of dementia. Thank you both for joining me today. Could you start by sharing your thoughts on the findings from this study that shows good cardiorespiratory health can reduce the risk of dementia in people with a genetic predisposition?
2. Dr. Andersson, could you explain how your research could impact the way we approach dementia prevention in the future? Do you think this study suggests that improving cardiorespiratory health should be a priority for individuals at risk of developing dementia?
3. Dr. Wang, this study emphasizes the importance of regular exercise in maintaining cognitive function. What kind of physical activities do you recommend for individuals looking to improve their cardiorespiratory health? Are there any specific age groups or abilities that may benefit more from certain activities?
4. The study also mentions that cardiorespiratory health decreases with age. Dr. Andersson, could you elaborate on how this decline may contribute to the development of dementia? Is there anything individuals can do to slow down the decline in their cardiorespiratory health as they age?
5. Dr. Wang, could you share your thoughts on the limitations of the study, such as the potential underestimation of dementia cases due to the UK Biobank participants being healthier than the general population? How might these limitations affect the generalizability of the findings?
6. Looking at the bigger picture, Dr. Andersson, what role do genetic factors play in the development of dementia? Do you think this research will lead to new avenues for targeted prevention strategies based on individual genetic makeup?
7. Both of you, what are some of the challenges faced in convincing individuals to prioritize physical activity for dementia prevention? Are there cultural or societal factors that could impact the adoption of these recommendations?
8. Dr. Wang, how can sports medicine professionals incorporate these findings into their practice? Are there specific interventions or programs that could be developed to help patients improve their cardioresp
