In a study from the University of Copenhagen, scientists found that people doing hard physical work have a 55% higher risk of developing dementia than those doing sedentary work.
The muscles and joints are not the only parts of the body to be worn down by physical work. The brain and heart suffer too.
The current study suggests that it must be a ‘good’ form of physical activity to benefit brain health, which hard physical work is not.
The study is based on data from the Copenhagen Male Study (CMS), which included 4,721 Danish men, who back in the 1970s reported data on the type of work they did on a daily basis.
The study included 14 large Copenhagen-based companies, the largest being DSB, the Danish Defence, KTAS, the Postal Services and the City of Copenhagen.
Through the years, the researchers have compiled health data on these men, including data on the development of dementia conditions.
Previous studies have suggested that hard physical work may have a negative effect on the heart’s blood circulation and thus also on the blood supply to the brain.
This may for example lead to the development of cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, blood clots in the heart, heart cramps and heart failure.
The National Research Centre for the Working Environment continues to work on the results with a view to identifying healthier ways of doing hard physical work.
They have therefore begun to collect data from social and healthcare assistants, childcare workers and packing operatives, among others, in order to produce interventions meant to organize hard physical work in such a way that it has an ‘exercise effect.’
The researchers thus hope to see companies successfully change work procedures, ensuring for example that heavy lifts will have a positive effect rather than wear down the workers. The results will be published on an ongoing basis.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about drug that may help treat Lewy body dementia, and mid-life heart disease prevention may prevent later dementia.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about this common nutrient may protect your brain, preventing dementia, and results showing this supplement could keep dementia at bay.
The study was conducted by Kirsten Nabe-Nielsen et al.
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