Vigorous intellectual inquiry and physical activity
Helps maintain cognitive abilities after age 69
Dementia is a terrifying disease that takes away a dignified life in old age. Many people recognize that dementia erases the patient’s memories and memories like an eraser in the head. However, novelist Kim Young-ha, who dealt with memory in various works such as ‘Memoir of a Murderer’ and ‘Eraser in My Head’, said in a recent broadcast that dementia is “a disease that erases the future, not the past.” What dementia patients fear is not being able to respond to what is right in front of them because they do not know what to do in the future, as much as the memory of the past is erased.
Many scientists are working to create a vaccine to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s. We hear from time to time that an Alzheimer’s treatment has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but none have been commercialized.
In the midst of this, a joint research team from the Institute of Lifelong Health and Aging, University of London, Queen Square Neurology Institute, Department of Public Health, Oxford University, and the Department of Psychiatry, Changgeng University Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, found that steady intellectual activity through regular exercise and reading is the best way to prevent dementia when you are young. method, and presented the results of the study. This was published in the February 22 issue of ‘Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry’, an international journal in the field of neuroscience and brain science.
The research team used the 1946 British birth cohort, a long-term health follow-up study. 1417 men and women who participated in the cohort were randomly selected and analyzed leisure use method, physical activity frequency, and cognitive function in old age at the ages of 36, 43, 53, 60-64, and 69 years. The level of physical activity was less than once a month (inactivity), 1-4 times a month (moderate activity), 5 times or more of physical activity for more than 75 minutes at a time according to the ‘Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Survey Criteria’ (very active). Cognitive ability measures in the elderly included attention, language function, memory, and visual processing ability. In addition, cardiovascular disease and obesity, which can reduce cognitive function, as well as mental and psychological stability were investigated.
As a result, it was investigated that people who regularly engage in physical activities such as running, biking, walking with pets, and mountain climbing in their spare time maintain their cognitive abilities better after the age of 69 than those who do not. If you add steady intellectual activity through reading here, the probability of getting dementia is very low. He explains that doing regular physical and intellectual activities from a young age is the best way to maintain mental and physical health rather than exercising when you are old.
Dr. Sarah Naomi James, University of London, who led the study, said, “This shows that active participation in intellectual and physical activities from adolescence to young adulthood can alleviate the aging process that occurs later in life.” It is meaningful in that it appears in common regardless of the level of education.”
Korean society is on the verge of super-aging beyond aging. Therefore, social preparation for dementia is also urgent. At the same time as supporting research to conquer dementia, I think it is time to change our perspective on dementia patients and think about how to protect them nationally and socially and go together.
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