By Ven Griva / Copley News Service
Taking daily walks could do more than clear your mind in the short term, they could be responsible for keeping it clear for decades to come. That’s the gist of a pair of studies in the Sept. 22-29 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
Men who walked two or more miles per day were much less likely to suffer from the dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a study of 2,257 physically capable men in Hawaii between 71 and 93 years old. Older men who walked the least in a comparison group had nearly twice the risk for dementia compared to men who walked the most.
Researchers found that after adjusting for age, men who walked the least, less than one-quarter mile, had 1.8 times the risk of developing dementia compared to those who walked more than two miles a day. These associations persisted after accounting for other factors, including the possibility that limited amounts of walking could be the result of a decline in physical function due to preclinical dementia.
Dr. Robert D. Abbot of the University of Virginia School of Medicine Charlottesville and colleagues examined the association between walking and dementia in older men by analyzing data collected from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, which includes 2,257 elderly men.
“Although complex, this study and past evidence suggest that walking and active lifestyles in general are associated with a reduced risk of dementia,” the researchers concluded.
WALKING BENEFITS WOMEN, TOO
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston found that higher levels of physical exercise were linked to better cognitive performance in women, reports the Journal of the American Medical Association in its Sept. 22-29 issue.
The 18,766 women in the study were between 70 and 81 years old. They were divided into five groups depending on their average energy expenditures, group 1 being the lowest and group 5 being the highest. Groups 2-5 scored higher on the cognitive performance tests than those in group 1.
Starting in 1986, Dr. Jennifer Weuve and her Harvard colleagues surveyed the women on their physical activity every two years in questionnaires. Telephone interviews with the women were conducted from 1995-2001, testing general cognition, verbal memory, category fluency and attention. The women were participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, a survey begun in 1976 to assess medical history and health-related behaviors.
Women who walked at an easy pace for at least 90 minutes a week had higher cognitive scores than those who walked less than 40 minutes per week. Women in the two groups with the highest rates of physical activity had significantly less cognitive decline than women with the lowest rate of physical activity.
The authors write: “... the apparent cognitive benefits of greater physical activity were similar in extent to being about three years younger in age and were associated with 20 percent lower risk of cognitive impairment. The association was not restricted to women engaging in vigorous activities ...”Increased Diabetes Self-Testing Encouraged
A Johns Hopkins University study suggests that people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes would be well-advised to monitor their blood sugar levels more than the usual twice daily to ensure that levels are not elevated over 150 milligrams per deciliter for sustained periods.
A research team has added new and detailed evidence of the link between elevated blood sugar levels in diabetes patients and increased risk of developing life-threatening forms of cardiovascular disease - including coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease. Their findings, part of a broad analysis published Sept. 21 in the Annals of Internal Medicine online, suggest monitoring long-term blood sugar control by level of glycated hemoglobin (also called glycosylated hemoglobin) and adding this measurement to regular monitoring of cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
“The relationship between blood sugar levels - or glycemic control - in people with diabetes and whether this increases their risk of developing heart disease has remained unclear until now, despite many different studies about specific types of cardiovascular problems,” said the study’s senior author, endocrinologist Sherita Golden.
