90% reduction risk for dementia from physical activity alone!

It was pretty much accepted knowledge up to now that exercise helps with reducing the risk for dementia, in all populations, but 90% reduction and specially in women is amazing.

A large study that followed women for 44 years found that women with a higher fitness level than women with lower fitness levels showed an 88% reduction in dementia!  In addition, if a women went on to develop dementia, they tended to develop it on average 11 years later, such as at age 90 vs 79!

This result is really exciting because we already know that risks of stroke and a cardiovascular event increase with inactivity and drop dramatically with more activity.  Now we see results of a long term study that controlled for numerous factors contributing to the onset of dementia in general such as social activity and cognitive exercises, showing that risk of dementia is reduced significantly due to an active life.   In another study, done in Finland, 18 year old males with low cardiac fitness tended to have higher onset of dementia and at an earlier age such as 60.  Its specially important that moderate to high activity is started by mid life at latest as mid life seems to be a time where some cardiovascular events occur, such as possibly the speeding up of atherosclerosis or such.

What exactly is responsible for the increased longevity, health, and cadio-vascular and brain health effects of exercise?  To someone like me, its great to know that exercise keeps us healthier but I also like to know how.  Is it the extra oxygenation?  Is it the increased nutrient delivery to the cells due to increased heart output and oxygenation?  Is it due to better removal of waste from each cells due to increased circulation and blood flow?  Is it all of the above?

Life is defined as movement and the ability to reproduce.  Where there is movement, there is life, except of course in the case of brownian movement.

If blood, lymph, and qi are flowing good, there is not many problems with health.  Its when one of them comes into a stagnant state that problems arise.

If blood stagnates in a vessel, you get a clot that can be very dangerous and even fatal.  In Oriental medicine, there is a different kind of blood stagnation and it can only be remedied by techniques invented in far east such as gua-sha and acupuncture needles.  Blood stagnation in a region of a muscle, or an organ can cause pain and disharmony.  When qi becomes stagnant or stuck, there is pain associated with the rest of the meridian.

For optimal health, we need to keep the qi, blood, and lymph moving.  We need to keep moving physically throughout life, evidently specially after mid life as big changes start then.

** this week a study from Oxford suggests that maybe exercise is not so good for people with dementia!

Many studies have shown that exercise helps with cognitive improvement and this one particular study I would venture to guess it was not done correctly and I will be following this story for further updates.